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It didn't take long to get to the Chateau from where Kiara lived. After begging her parents to lend her the car, not exactly waiting for an answer, the two of them launched themselves into the vehicle, Kie being in th le drivers seat and drove over to the place they thought of as their other home. The two of them went over the plan again to check for any flaws but found none so they started giggling again.

As they got onto the road leading to the small wooden house Kiara quickly stopped the car and Robin jumped out, giving one last thumbs up to her cousin before disappearing into the bushes.

Kiara then drove over to the place she usually parks at and got out of the car only to see that the three other pouges were already there by the hammocks.

"'Sup Kie!" JJ yelled raising an arm in which he held an already halfway smoked joint.

Kie tried to contain her smirk and not blow their cover. "Hey guys."

John B, who was lying in one of the hammocks turned his head to face her with a smile. "Why'd you summon us all here so suddenly?"

"Why not?" The girl replied but quickly remembered the plan so she motioned to the Chateau. "Do you want some beer or something?"

Three hums came as an answer so Kiara started walking over to the porch. She really hoped that this would work so she motioned to the other figure hiding by the side of the house to sneak in through the back window she was about to open.

Robin stayed crouched by the wall just looking at her long time friends. She hasn't seen them in a long time since she wasn't in the OBX this spring break due to her going to the state championship, so the last time she saw them was around Christmas time. The girl just watched them laugh amongst themselves from the distance and hoped that they would be happy to see her.

However she could only focus on one certain person.

His blonde hair was in that usual mess she remembered oh so well. His iconic red baseball cap rested beside him and he held an already lit joint in his hands. Not to mention that she could recognise the small bracelet on his arm that made her smile. Robin used to have a small crush on the boy a long time ago, but she left does feelings in the past because she didn't want it to ruin their friendship.

Robin realised that she was lagging behind on the plan due to her stupid thoughts so she quickly made her way to the back of the Chateau.

"Come on!" Kie whispered as she stuck her head out from the window of the spare bedroom.

Robin grabbed ahold of Kie's hands and climbed up into the room. The two of them, not expecting the force with which the taller girl entered, fell straight down onto the wooden floor.

"Ow." Robin groaned as she rubbed her head.

Kie sat up in pain, due to her cousin being the one to fall on top of her. "Why the hell did you need to fall on me?"

"You were a great cushion, thank you for your service!" The taller teen replied with a smile which only made Kiara glare at her.

The two of them suddenly froze in their spots as they heard the porch door opening. "Kie, are you okay? What's taking you so long?"

It was Pope. The cousins looked at each other panicking before Kie managed to push Robin inside the room as she slammed the door shut, leaving her inside. Before that she let out an award winning scream.

Kiara turned around, faking absolute horror on her face, and pointed to the room. "I think there's a rat in there!"

"A rat?" The boy asked back as if not believing her.

Pope walked closer to the door while Kie tried to make him stay outside by describing the beast, so Robin took matters into her own hands. She crouched down onto the ground and as she heard Pope begin to look under the door she made scattering noises with her hands. The shadow scared Pope so he jumped back into the arms of Kiara and let out a yell.

Robin tried her best not to burst out laughing as the two outside in the hallway began to shout about the rat. Kie continued to mention how huge it was and terrifying and that she doesn't want to get rabies.

"What the fuck is going on?" JJ asked as he and John B also entered the house.

Pope, still clinging to Kie, motioned to the door of the spare bedroom. "There's a rat in there... and it's huge!"

John B and JJ looked at each other as if they were stupid and asking if they were serious. The blonde teen quickly grabbed the nearest object, which was a broom, and walked up to the two terrified friends, well more like one since the other was internally laughing.

"Move out of the way, JJ is here to save the day!" He announced as he readied the broom as if he were holding a weapon.

Pope still scared, shook his head in worry. "I once saw a video of a rat breaking a broom..."

"It can't be that bad." John B said trying to keep himself from laughing at the pure fear on his friends face.

"Oh, but it is!" Kie joined in trying to make the story plausible.

Robin was almost crying of silent laughter as she heard the conversation outside so she once again made a few scattering noises with her hands. She heard the four others go silent so she quickly stood up to ready herself.

JJ adjusted his grip on the broom before turning to John B. "Open the door on three!"

John B nodded and grabbed the doorknob, getting ready to slam the door open. Pope and Kiara shuffle back a little, mostly Pope since he was the one dragging the poor girl with him as emotional support.

"1..."

Robin moved away from the door a little bit but still kept her back to the wall.

"2..."

She took a deep breath in.

"3!"

And the door slammed open only to reveal John B stumbling in and JJ swinging the broom around in a frenzy. What the two boys didn't expect was for someone to jump infront of them with a yell as soon as they opened the door. The two boys, and for some reason Pope too, let out the biggest scream they ever have while Robin and Kiara doubled over laughing hysterically.

"What the fuck!" John B shouted in a panic.

Pope was the first to realise who it was that scared them so bad and a huge smile made its way to his face. "Robin!"

At that name JJ and John B also quickly looked around to the source of their terror and found their friend standing there. Pope quickly enveloped the teenage girl into a tight hug which she gladly returned.

"Robin! Holy shit!" JJ laughed grabbing his head, not believing she was actually standing there. "You scared the shit out of me!"

Robin meerly shrugged with a smirk on her face. "Oops."

"Come 'ere!" The blonde boy said but he was the one who swooped the brown haired girl into a hug.

The two of them embraced each other for a longer time than the previous hug Pope gave her. They were always close, since they met they considered each other best friends. Kie however knew of the old crush that her cousin had on the blonde boy while nobody else did. John B knew of the old crush that his best friend since third grade had on the girl while nobody else did.

No pouge on pouge macking the rule said.

JJ and Robin quickly noticed that their hug lasted very long, a bit too long, and she cleared her throat before pulling away with a smile.

"Long time no see." She said while ruffling his hair to which he glared at her trying to fix it immediately.

John B was the next one to give her a hug, she was surprised for a second since she hasn't spoken to him in quite some time. "I missed you."

Robin quickly hugged him back just as tight he was. The two of them now shared the common ground of vanished parents. "I missed you too."

"You guys should've seem your faces!" Kie laughed as she hit her knee. "Oh my god, I'll never forget it!"

The three boys turned back to her and started playfully scolding her for not telling them about Robin being back in the Outer Banks. Kie just shrugged and told them it would've ruined the surprise.

The newly reunited friend group finally managed to grab some beer, which was originally the plan but it was interrupted by Robin's welcomed arrival. Now they were all sprawled out in the hammocks, chairs and on the grass just trying to catch up, even if it had only been five months.

Pope started telling Robin about all the projects he had done at school and how much he needed to get the best grades so he could get some kind of scholarship to a college he really wanted to go to. Then he started going the rabbit hole of explaining why he wants to become a forensic pathologist, making the others quickly shut him down.

Then JJ started raving about this new trick he learned to do on his dirtbike and went on and on about the parties Robin missed. He managed to cheer her up by saying that he was obviously dragging her with him to the next one because he needed his "wild buddy" with him, since the other three were boring.

After that John B slightly talked about a few things he made in the past few months as a coping mechanism.

"No, but seriously John B. How are you holding up?" Robin asked the boy in the chair next to her as she swayed in the hammock she shared with Kie.

The boy crushed the empty beer can and threw it on the floor before turning to stare up at the stars. "As fine as someone who's dad dissappeared at sea can be."

"If you ever need something then feel free to come to me." Robin glanced at him with a small smile but once he opened his mouth to reply she quickly interrupted him. "And don't say that I don't understand, like you always did, because now I do."

John B quickly shut his mouth realising his mistake. He was always so caught up in the fact that his dad was gone that he just shut the world out. Now Robin was also in the same boat as him with her parents vanishing into thin air.

The boy didn't want to give up hope of his father still being alive. He believed that he was still out there, on a little adventure. Maybe he was with Robin's dad, they were old friends and spent a lot of time together.

Robin also didn't want to give up hope of her parents being alive. She believed that they were still out there, just on another buisness trip. Maybe they are actually with John B's father.

The two teenagers didn't want to believe the fact that they could be dead. However every sign pointed to that.

JJ, noticing the sour mood put his hand out in a fist bump towards the two sulking friends. "No parents trio?"

Kiara and Pope immediately gave him a smack on the back of his head, scolding him for the bad timing. The teenagers however gave him a smile and their hands met as they gave each other a fist bump.

"No parents trio." John B and Robin answered simultaneously.

As the atmosphere calmed down the whole group just stared at the stars in a comfortable silence. JJ was still smoking a joint that he and Robin passed between each other, Pope was almost sleeping, John B was staring at the stars while Kie had started braiding her cousins hair.

Robin already felt her eyes closing, even though it wasn't that late on a Friday night she was ready to just go to sleep. That was until she remembered something.

"Oh, shit!" She yelled our suddenly, sitting up in the hammock making Kie groan as she made the piece of hair she was braiding fall out of her hands.

Pope jolted awake and turned to the girl who dared to disturb his slumber. "What's wrong?"

"Is he still alive?" The brown haired girl shrieked and turned to the boy next to her in the chair. "John B, is he still alive? Tell me you haven't killed him!"

"Killed who?" He asked back, obviously confused.

"The rooster!" Robin replied in a hurry, now standing.

That made JJ sit up straight aswell. "Man, you killed the rooster?"

"I didn't kill the rooster!" The brown haired boy exclaimed trying to shut down their sudden worry and motioned to the chicken coop. "He's still there."

That was all Robin needed to hear. She immediately started running to the small wooden contraption in the middle of the grass. As she crouched down to look inside she was met with the familiar face she missed dearly. Those two black eyes with no thoughts in them stared back at her.

"My dearest Benedict Bartholomew the third! How I've missed you!" Robin sighed as she continued staring at the poor rooster who had no idea what was happening.

The animal simply looked at her and let out a loud cock-a-doodle-doo.