THE Pogues find an island. 

Eden isn't sure how long they were sitting in the lifeboat, making aimless conversation as they floated through the open ocean. For miles, all she could see and smell was the sea—it seemed to spread on for forever. 

No one wanted to state the obvious—they had nothing, they didn't know where they were, no one knew they were gone from the OBX—so they didn't.  They all just acted like everything was okay, because with the Pogues, it always ended up being that way. 

At some point though, the Pogues did find land and no one argued against going towards it. The sun was starting to set and it was only so long before they got truly stranded—if Eden's honest, she'd rather be stranded on an island with some supplies and coverage than a lonesome lifeboat that was bound to deflate ultimately. 

Using the shitty engine of the lifeboat, the group traveled to the island. 

For the bad luck the Pogues always held, Eden thinks the land they managed to stumble across was good—she could spot plenty of coconuts for food, and they were all trained well enough to catch the nearby fish. There were rocky structures and rain forest like areas to provide protection.

Between the minds of JJ Maybank, Pope Heyward, John Booker Routledge, Kiara Carrera, and Eden herself—along with Cleo, who seemed to be a survivalist—the Bexley thinks they can make it work for the moment.

Still in just her bikini top, Eden watches as the three boys haul the lifeboat upon the shore. Exhausted not only from all the events that had happened upon boat but the lack of water and heat they'd been put under, it takes the trio longer to pull against the shore.

Kiara, Cleo, and Sarah sit beside Eden, all three having stripped away their t-shirts to reveal tank tops and sports bras alike against the blazing heat—wherever they ended up was hot.  The four sit under the shade of some palm trees, basking in the cool breeze that was growing as the sweltering sun set. 

"Come on," JJ grunted, hauling the boat. He hadn't listened to Eden when she told him to go easy after his interaction with the blunt machete end and was still straining himself against the heat and exhaust.

"Come on, boys." John B. beckoned his two other friends as they finally pull the boat onto the shore, tide rolling in against their ankles as they haul in higher up on the sand. "That's good."

Tiredly, Sarah hums, "Good job, guys."

"Good job." Kie chimes.

 The boys travel back towards the girls, JJ slightly staggering over the sand, "Whoa."

"JJ, you alright there, buddy?" John B. asked softly, walking behind him in case he stumbled again. 

"Yeah." JJ held up Eden's shirt against his head again, though she isn't sure whether he's wiping sweat off or using it to check for blood again. "Still a little dizzy."

Eden gives him an 'I told you so' expression and shifts her position, "I told you to take it easy, idiot." 

"Didn't look like you were gonna help haul that thing ashore, did it?" the Maybank retorts, outstretching the hand holding the bloody t-shirt towards it's owner, "Here's this back, by the way."

"Hell no." Eden's lips curled down in disgust—maybe he was still woozy, because there wasn't any way in hell he logically thought she'd take her shirt back after it was used as his personal blood and sweat rag. "I'd rather sit in my bikini for the rest of our island experience than touch that again."

"Modest, Eden." JJ hums with an unimpressed smile, discarding the shirt into the grassy patches below. "Modest." 

"Little you dreamed of this." Eden retaliated, circling a finger around herself. She glanced at Kiara, Pope, and John B. as she added, "All of little you guys did."

The Maybank opens his mouth to say something else but John B. cuts them off, looking between Eden and JJ. "Can we focus on the actual situation instead of Eden's bikini?" 

"Yeah, okay...." JJ trails off before returning to the group with, "Anybody know we're at?"

"Deserted beach, unknown island." Pope huffs, nearing Cleo to take a seat while John B. collapsed in between Eden and Sarah. 

"Alright, I'll take that as a no." JJ runs a hand through his hair, looking out into the distance. For miles, all that could be seen was the ocean, the only sound being the tide crashing against the sand—they were truly in the middle of nowhere. "Plan A, huh, Pope? That went well."

Pope leans forward, admitting, "This is the lowest we can go. We literally have nothing else to lose—the cross, gone."  

"The gold, gone." Sarah chimes in grimly.

"Seriously, if we had a nickel for every time we go beat up, I'd say we're at a dollar fifty." JJ is the only Pogue left standing, agreeing with the Heyward's words. They always said they had nothing left to lose, but it wasn't until now where it sat fully true. 

Kiara's lips thin, "That's more than I got on me."

"That somehow doesn't make me feel better." Sarah admits, glancing at Kie. 

"I've had two panic attacks in the span of, like, a day. So yeah, no, I don't think I can feel any shittier." Eden adds casually, looking off into the horizon where different shades of orange painted the sky in a sunset. "I can't even relax in a hot shower—not like the Chateau would have that, anyway."

"Stop shitting on my house." John B. spares her a pointed expression before lowly admitting, "Yeah, you're right but, I mean.....we've had some good stuff happen, right?"

Eden tilts her head unsurely, "I'm loving the optimism but actually what has been good? Me and Sarah getting kidnapped? JJ almost drowning? The Twinkie almost sinking? Me getting my graze wound?"

Pope nods his head in agreement with Eden, "Name something."

 "Um..." the Routledge trails off, all of his friends awaiting his answer of what had happened that day that was good. "Uh, the boiler room?" He turns to Cleo, "What? If the boiler didn't explode, I wouldn't have gotten away from Rafe. I couldn't have gotten the Zodiac—" he points at the docked lifeboat, "—and gotten us out of here."

"That wasn't luck," Cleo shook her head with an amused smile, downing his hopes with a snip of her voice, "That thing was gonna blow the second I stopped feeding it."

"Stealing my thunder, Cleo...." John B. mutters.

Cleo shrugs unapologetically , "Sorry." 

Eden lightly smiles at Cleo. While she didn't know the girl well yet, she likes her sarcastic attitude—she can see them getting along well, however long they stayed on this island. 

"Okay, Pope, you're related to Denmark Tanny." John B. tries again, looking at the Heyward, "That's crazy—"

Pope turns to him glumly, "And I lost all his inheritance."

"You know what?" John B. stands up, walking to stand in front of all of his friends. He's over his friends and their Debby Downer attitudes. Sure, they were stuck on an island and sure, they'd lost all they'd worked so hard to get but....they were stuck on an island together—this was the Pogue Life. "Guys, this is it. This is the Pogue life." 

Eden takes in his simple words for a moment. Here she was, deserted on some random island in the middle of nowhere; left without a house, bed, shower, any contact to the real world, her Redbulls, deodorant.  But she was deserted with her friends, her people; her family. 

That meant something. 

"We are in the Caribbean. It's our own little slice of Paradise." John B. continues, arms outstretched to gesture to the land and ocean surrounding them, "With my best friends, with my family." The Pogues continue to blankly stare at him and he shrugs, "I don't know. I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else."

Eden manages a warm smile, getting up upon her feet again to agree with the boy, "I hate to admit it but you have a point." 

She doesn't know how John B. had managed to turn being stranded on a random island into the best possible outcome, but she supposes that was just the natural charm of him—he always had the underlying optimism in the worst of situations.

"Eden agrees, so now, you all have to." the Routledge smiles, continuing on with his speech, "Look, and while you guys were complaining about every little thing...." He walks over to JJ, who was busy carving the tree beside him, "JJ?"

JJ sticks his knife into the tree and looks towards the open sea, "Hm?"

"I was looking at those burly lefts." John B. temptingly says, pointing towards the waves. He makes eye contact with the blonde, both boys breaking into their usual mischievous grins. 

Eden walks towards her two boys, "I know those smiles." 

JJ looks between his two best friends, "There's some slabs out there."

"Just a few." John B. muses before turning to Kiara, who still sat with Sarah, "Kie, see that? I know you wanna get out there."

The Carrera states the obvious, "No boards."

"Well, we can body surf till we make some boards?" John B. suggested, shooting finger-guns as he tried to make the best out of the situation.

Eden hums amusedly, "We should call you Mr. Optimism."

Kiara rolls her eyes fondly at John B.'s words, "Lame." 

"Pope? Come on, man?" John B. taunts the Heyward.

Reluctantly, Pope turns to look at his friend as he admits, "They do look pretty tasty."

"Oh, yes, they do." 

"There's nobody around." Pope stands up and comes over towards John B., surveying the shore—they had to be the only ones out here. "We could squat here for a bit. Kind of belongs to us now, huh?"

John B. outstretches his hand to do the Pogue handshake, "You got a point."

"Seven-way split?"

"I think this split will work pretty well compared to the eight hundred grand." Eden states, glancing around the island just as Pope had. They could be stuck worse, but they happened to be stuck in a place full of waves and sun—where the Pogues thrived best. "You still owe me that, by the way."

John B. finishes the handshake with Pope and turns to Eden, gesturing to the island, "This is your eight hundred grand, Ed'." 

"Still owe me the white Ford Explorer you crashed on my birthday, too." the Bexley adds with a knowing smirk.

Cleo's brows furrow, "What?"

"Poguelandia." JJ cuts through the conversation in a fake posh accent, causing all of the teens to turn to him.

John B. arches a brow, "Oh boy."

"I claim thee Poguelandia!" JJ drops the accent, blonde hair blowing in the wind as he explains what he was picturing in his mind the entirety of John B.'s speech, "I'm gonna make a flag. It's gonna have a chicken on it. With a coconut bra, smoking a J.....in Crocs."

Kiara admits, "I could use a J."

"Can we vote of this?" Sarah says through a laugh.

"Yeah, I want the chicken to have a Pogue bracelet please and thank you." Eden joins, sending the Maybank a look, though a playful smile toys on the edges of her lips. 

"Okay, bracelet it is." JJ gives in, "This chickens gonna be decked out." 

Pope looks at John B., "Shall we get to work?"

"Let's get to work. Let's start working on provisions. Set up shop." the Routledge fists bumps the Heyward before coming over to his girlfriend, who was still sitting. Bending down to meet her level, he fondly smiles, "Sarah? Till death do us part?"

Sarah repeats the phrase with a warm expression, "Till death do us part."

"Welcome back to the Pogue life."

"Full Pogue."

"Full Pogue." 

Eden glances over at Cleo and treads through the sand over to the new girl. She offers her hand out without a word, and—once Cleo takes it—pulls her upwards, meeting her brown eyed gaze with a warm smile.

"Welcome to the Pogues. My name's Eden Bexley, and I'll be your representative." the Bexley smiles up at Cleo. She supposes the new girl will fit right into their chaotic family, offering more sarcasm, as well as realism—though it wasn't like she had a choice. She was stuck on this island with the Pogues whether or not she wanted to be one. 

"Thanks." Cleo says, arching a brow, "What's a Pogue, anyway?"

"It's just......us." Eden doesn't know how to reply. The Pogues were just a group, but the Pogues were a family. A group of chaotic, sometimes stupid, never realistic, always caring, adventurous teenagers who found a home within one another. There weren't words to describe what they were, other than they simply were. "I think you'll find your answer by the end of our little island trip." 

"What is that handshake you do?" Cleo ponders, walking towards the water with Eden, "And why do you all have the same bracelet on?"

"Oh, these are our friendship bracelets, made by me in like....third grade. I'll make one for you when we get home." The prospect of going home to the OBX felt so far to Eden as she walked towards the ocean, but she let that fall behind her as she halted to look at Cleo. "And I can teach you the handshake."

Cleo extends her hand out and waits for instruction.

"Okay, slap, slap—" Eden says, doing the actions as she said them aloud. Cleo copied, more unsurely. "And then snap." The two girls snap in unison, and the Bexley smiles brightly. "Sometimes we add a little woogity-woogity in there, so—" She repeats the handshake, and Cleo does the same, expect when the finish, the Bexley adds, "Woogity-woogity."

Cleo's brows furrow, but she repeats, "Woogity-woogity?"

"It took JJ like three months to get that down, you're already a pro."

JJ—who was  helping Kiara up—whips his head towards the Bexley, "Already shit-talking me to Cleo, your majesty?"

"You know it, J." Eden's lips upturn as she calls back to the boy. 

As her friends start to tread towards the water, Eden looks out into the setting sunset, wrapping her arms around her figure. The sky was painted in hues of orange and pink, reflecting off the calm waves that surrounded her every direction—she could get used to that.

Eden Bexley never thought she'd be stranded on an island, yet here she was. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, far from the OBX with no plan on how to get back home. Yet, looking at the Pogues, she couldn't help but feel that it wasn't their worst outcome; it was actually a needed break.

For now, they were left with just each other. No parents; no gold chase; no giant cross; no manipulating mothers or fathers. Just seven teenagers—just the Pogues.

And to Eden? That's more than okay.

As long as she has the Pogues, she'll be fine.

"The missing teens were last seen on the night of September 27th on the road leading out to the point. No foul play is expected at this time." Shoupe stands at a podium, cameras clicking as he runs his mouth. "We've set up a hotline. If you have any information leading to their whereabouts, please give us a call."

Tom Bexley listens to his words without an ounce of registration, sentence going in one ear and out the other.

He had heard the same words for the past month, yet every morning, he still wakes up without a single clue on where his daughter is.

At first, everything had been normal. Tom had woken up alone in the Bexley estate, no new messages from Eden or Isla. He went into work, had a normal day—Eden was obviously with her friends and his wife was obviously off with Rose.

But Isla didn't come home that night, or the next, or the next. And Eden didn't answer any incoming texts or calls for the next week.

That's what stared to get Tom worried.

His wife and his daughter were both MIA—his wife, who was working with Ward Cameron till his death, and his daughter who'd wanted nothing to do with her mother ever since finding out were both MIA. 

Something about the situation didn't sit right with him.

Despite his gut feeling, Tom tried to think of the best. Eden's phone was probably dead and she couldn't find a charger, or her and her friends had run away to Charleston for the day. Isla was probably ignoring him with all the tension their marriage had been under after he found out about Ward.

But, after a week passed, Tom couldn't let the feeling that something bad had happened gnaw at him anymore and went straight to Shoupe to file a missing persons report for his daughter.

If Isla wanted to run away from him without warning, he'll let that happen. But he couldn't let his daughter just stay MIA like this. 

Running into the police department is where he found Bobby Heyward and his wife, along with Mike and Anna Carrera trying to explain to Shoupe the very same thing—Kiara and Pope hadn't been home in a week and hadn't answered any phone calls or texts; they were MIA too. 

Eden Bexley, Kiara Carrera,  Pope Heyward, along with fellow members of the friend group, John Booker Routledge, Sarah Cameron, and JJ Maybank were all declared missing teens by the end of that night.

And a month and a half later, that's what they were still labeled as. 

Which is why Tom stood beside Shoupe, listening to his drowning bullshit of 'if you have any information, call'. If people knew where his daughter was, she would be back to him by now—she was Eden Bexley for fucks sake. People cared for her. 

Why was a case of missing teenagers taking so long to solve?

Tom knew that Shoupe was doing all he could, but sometimes, he felt like not enough was being done. Six kids from all sides of the island were currently missing yet no one at all could find them? How far could they have gotten?

"Mr. Bexley?"

Tom looks up at Shoupe at his name, the sheriff ushering him to the podium to speak a few words off of his mind—if they wouldn't listen to their sheriff, surely they'd listen to Tom Bexley.

He steps onto the podium, unsure on what he even wants to say—nothing he says will bring Eden home; bring any of them home. 

"My daughter and her friends have all been missing for about a month now." Tom speaks into the podium, looking out into the small group of people who were reporting and filming. He sees Anna and Mike Carrera, stacks of missing posters for Kiara in their hands. "I know everyone here has been on the case, but...."

They could look harder. 

"Look. I know that all seven of these kids come from different places. Some are from the Cut, some from Figure Eight." Tom changes his wording, trying his best to get through to every person upon the OBX. "But that shouldn't matter. This should be a moment where the  whole island comes together, because at the end of the day...." He pauses for a moment, ".....they're simply kids. Kids who deserve to be found, to live a life."

Kids who he's scared are all dead at the bottom of the ocean right now. 

"So, please, if you haven't already, help the search." Tom states, eyes scanning through the crowd once more. "Help bring our kids home."

mara's misc!

uh....yeah!

that's a wrap on s2 of summertime sadness!!

i don't even have the words to put how i'm feeling right now. it is so bittersweet finishing yet another season of this book and it has been such an amazing 5 months writing for season 2 of obx but i'm also sad to be moving on to s3??? like.....what?

season two has been such a roller coaster to write. as you know, s1 is forever my favorite season to write but it was so fun to get to add eden to all the chaos and emotion that this season has. i really got to dive deep into bonds like jj and eden, as well as add depth to eden's mommy issues with isla....

i have never created a plot twist like making isla apart of the whole mystery. originally, she was just going to be a shitty mom and that was that but at like 12am one night i created this whole plot and kensie didn't stop me so....her fault!!!

also it took me 5 months to write this season, which is literally half the time it took me to write s1. i just wanted to state that because wow was i a productive person. 

i'm gonna miss  s2 eden (she was just a little depressed girl) it's time to move on to her s3 era!!

now if anyone read my s3 opinions book it is very known that i am not a big fan of season 3 of obx. to me, it was just such an eh season and everything felt so rushed. (oh no the pogues are stuck on an island, what are they gonna do???? oh nvm they were rescued in like first 15 minutes —you get my point?). 

but you know i do love eden bexley so uh i kinda have to write it. 

anywho, enough yapping from me and more thank you's to others!!!

first and for most the person who get's the biggest thank you ever is (low and behold) kensie. 

if you are somehow not familiar with kensie somehow she is this book's biggest support and has become one of my best friends. she is the first person to hear 99.9% of what happens in the fic and who not only agrees with mine but gives me ideas. we share mutual custody over eden.

for the past year (which is still crazy to me bro) we have grown a friendship out of a mutual liking that started over this book and her own obx stories. while i like to say midsummers got me out of my  ss writers block, kensie is truly the reason why this book has made it this far—she's always first to read, first to make me smile with her VERY out of pocket statements and comments.

somehow we even have a fanbase on here which blows my mind.

kensie, i love you so much. you mean so much to me not only for being here for ss but for being one of my best friends and genuinely one of my favorite people, even across a screen. i love our very chaotic comment rants where we make cannon real and state the most out of pocket things (the pates should hire us fr), as well as everything that goes down in our messages that i won't disclose until the 2024 book. i am very ready to see what we both have in store for s3 of ss (we have to feed the people with the comments they want from us)

and no kensie there will not be jjeden in s3 stop pulling on my dick

so, everybody say thank you to kensie and go read her obx fics or else i'll kill eden off 😃

another person who deserves a huge thank you is ghost!!! 

honestly her and kenise have to fight to find out who's my biggest fan bc she truly has stuck around with me. 

if you aren't familiar with how me and ghost met, she commented a TON on my steve harrington stories and ever since we've became mutuals and overall friends. despite not having watched obx whatsoever, ghost checked out this book and stuck with it, always finding time to read and spam with comments when she can.

so, ghost, thank you so much for sticking with this book! i appreciate how you don't know anything about the show but still continue to read anyway. it's so fun getting to see your genuine reactions and comments to scenes. i am VERY excited for you to read what i have in store for s3. i love you so much <3

finally, i would like to thank all of ya'll who have simply clicked on this book and read it.

i'm so appreciative of everyone who's commented, voted, added this story to their reading list or simply viewed it. ya'll r the reason i keep writing, so thank you so so so much and i hope to see all of you back for s3!!!

anyways, enough yapping. 

hope you enjoyed <3 see you back with s3!!!