'We're the Pogues, and our mission this summer is to have a good time, all the time.'

Elora Easton stood, beer can in hand, perched against a fence, blue converse scuffing the wooden deck beneath her. Her eyes were trained upwards, where her best friend, John B, was stood up on the edge of a roof.

"That's what, a three story fall to the deck?" Another one of her friends, Pope, said. "I give you about a one to three chance of survival."

Elora chuckled, tucking a stray hair behind her ear and watched as Pope picked up a drill, assembling whatever he was trying to do.

"Hm," John B shrugged, licking his finger and holding it up, checking which way the wind was coming from.

"I'll shoot you on the way down," Pope teased, holding up the drill as if it was a gun.

"You're gonna shoot me?" John B smirked.

"Yep."

"He won't need to, you'll be dead before you hit the deck," Elora voiced, as the other girl, Kiara, came round the side.

"They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers!" She said disgustedly.

"Of course they are, why wouldn't they?" Pope rolled his eyes.

"This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles, I guess?" Kiara shrugged.

"I can't have cold towels," Pope joked.

"Can you please not kill yourself?" Kiara looked up at John B, still on the edge of the roof, now stood on one foot whilst the other dangled off.

"Don't spill that beer!" The final addition to their gang, JJ, commented. He was up on the scaffolding of the house, drinking his own. "I'm not giving you another one."

But the gust of wind that swept through thought otherwise, as the beer can was knocked from John B's hand. "Whoa! Oh, shit..."

"Of course you did," chuckled Elora, sipping her own beer. "Dumbass."

"Hey!"

"Er- guys, security's here!" Pope called, suddenly worried. "Let's wrap it up!"

"Oh, boys are early today," shrugged JJ, rolling out from his place on the scaffolding.

"Hey Gary, is that you?" Elora yelled out in a laughing tone.

"Gary, it's been a while, man!" JJ joined in, grinning widely.

"Oh my god, you two!" Kiara yelled, as they all jumped down and started to run through the half built house, hearing Gary's yells and curses as they laughed along with them.

Once they were out, having jumped the fence, they all jumped headlong into their van, the 'Twinkie', Elora shoving the sliding door behind them as they rolled out of the drive.

"COME BACK, YOU LITTLE PRICKS!" Gary yelled behind them, sprinting after them, but none of them cared.

"Ooh, check out Gary, gunning for a raise!" JJ grinned, still holding his beer can as he opened the window and hung out of it.

"Come back here!" Gary screamed as he tried to keep up.

"You're so close, come on, you can do it!" JJ grinned, chucking his beer can at him. "There ya go!"

"JJ, stop! Stop!" Kie rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on, that sort of initiative is just begging to be punished!" JJ chuckled.

Elora, meanwhile, was grinning as she watched him do this, staring out the window herself as she looked at the sign they'd just passed.

𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝑻𝒐 𝑻𝒉𝒆
𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒
ᴘᴀʀᴀᴅɪsᴇ ᴏɴ ᴇᴀʀᴛʜ

'The Outer Banks. Paradise on Earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses. Two tribes, one island.'

They rode across the bridge towards their home, over the bright blue water that refelcted the bright sun, the wind from the still open window blowing Elora's fiery red hair behind her.

They had to drive through the rich part first. The part of the island with huge houses, and a hundred huge boats down at the dock. All five of them rolled their eyes as they drove through it, used to it by now but still not exactly happy.

'Alright, so this is Figure Eight, the rich side of the island. Home of the Kooks. So, guess where we don't live.'

All of them because noticeably more happy after they passed Figure Eight, and headed to the other side. To their side.

The side with run down wooden shacks and houses, with rusty boats and hard working men fixing them up.

'And this is the south side, or the Cut. Home of the working class who make a living busing tables, washing yatchs, running charters. The natural habitat of, drum roll please, the Pogues.'

Elora smirked, proud of who she was and where she belonged. She wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

'That's us. Pogues, Pogies, the throwaway fish, lowest member of the food chain. Okay, so the downside of Pogue life is we're ignored and neglected. But the upside of Pogue life? We're ignored and neglected, which means we can do whatever we want, whenever we want.'

When they got back to the Cut, they left the Twinkie at the dock and hopped aboard the HMS Pogue, their small boat, cruising through the water.

Elora looked amongst all of them. Kiara, with her brown eyes and puffy curls, John B, with his fluffy brunette hair and tanned face, JJ and his blonde mullet that Kook girls somehow couldn't get enough of, and Pope with his dark skin and hair, and his serious expression.

She loved all of them more than they'd ever know. She loved them more than anyone. Except maybe her father.

Her mother, however, was a different story. She was a drunk, and she brought a different man home basically every night, so much so that she'd slept with the whole island. Elora hated her.

Which explained why she hadn't been home in a few days, camping out at the Chateau, John B's place.

'So, that's my crew.'

But she had to go home at some point, even she knew that.

So that night, she prepared herself, said bye to the Pogues, and trekked back to her house. It was just at the edge of the Cut, a small cottage that her dad had orchestrated the building of.

(Elora's heart still hurt when she thought about that. About him).

But she had to mentally prepare herself as she got to her house, ready to either see her mother passed out drunk on the couch, with a random older man on the sofa, or up in her bedroom, sleeping.

She saw none of those.

What she did see was two police officers, arms crossed, expressions serious, just outside her door.

"Hey?" Elora asked with a frown, walking towards them. "What's going on?"

Neither of them spoke for a moment, just looking at her, before one of them said. "Elora, your mother has been missing for twenty four hours."

To that, Elora had no reply.

Missing? Her mother was missing?

"What the f- I mean, what?" She recovered herself, remembering where she was. "Missing? S-she can't be missing, I saw her just-"

She halted, eyes going wide as she realised that her mother going missing for twenty four hours was very possible. Elora hadn't seen nor made contact with her in at least forty eight.

"We'd like you to come with us, please," one of the officers continued. "So we can get a formal statement."

Elora had always, always wished to be free of her mother. Ever since her father had died, she'd dreamed of getting away from that house, from her drunk of a mother.

But now that her wish had been granted, she wasn't so sure what to think.

𔓘𔓘𔓘

"When was the last time you spoke to your mother, Elora?"

"Er- two days ago."

"And what was the conversation about?"

"Just- just about normal things, you know. The weather, the surf, what I had planned."

"

And this was in your house?"

"Yes."

Elora sat opposite the officer, clenching her hands together, her leg bouncing up and down as she tried to look him in the eye.

"Elora, I am sorry to say that although we are trying to find out where your mother may have gone, we haven't been able to make any advances yet," the officer informed her. "So if you can think of anything that would help us right now, please can you say."

Elora couldn't.

Because telling the officer all about her mother's hook ups wouldn't help. Telling him how they constantly fought and shouted at each other about it wouldn't help. Telling him what was said in that last conversation wouldn't help.

"You're an ungrateful, spoiled brat! You don't deserve me, you don't deserve any of th-"

"No YOU don't deserve this! And I deserve fucking better than YOU!"

The details of the fight, the harsh words that were said, they ran through her then, sending a shiver down her spine. She avoided the eyes of the officer for a second, pressing her fingernails into her palms, making half moon shapes on them.

"I'm sorry, I can't think of anything," she said, keeping her voice even and her tone grave, maintaining eye contact.

"Okay," the officer across from her said. "Then in that case, I'm going to refer you to our foster care consultant, Miss Anderson."

"What? No, I- I don't want-"

But nevertheless, Elora found herself sat in the stuffy, crowded office of Miss Anderson five minutes later, the woman looking at her file and saying. "Elora, I understand that with your mother's sudden disappearance and your father's passing quite a few years ago, you no longer have a guardian to take care of you."

Like my mother did shit to take care of me anyway.

"No, I... I'm fine," Elora shrugged.

"Elora, I need honesty to help you," Miss Anderson replied. "That's what we want, right?"

"Yeah, I'm being honest," Elora nodded.

"Okay, but you still need someone to take care of you," the woman opposite her told her. "Listen, Elora, I see from your file that you have grandparents living on the mainland, is that right?"

"Um, yeah, my dad's parents," Elora nodded. The last time she'd seen her grandparents was about a year before her dad died, but even then, they weren't in a fit state to take care of someone.

"Okay Elora, tomorrow we're going to go out there to talk to your grandparents, and if they're not there, we're gonna move forward with foster care. I can assure you we're gonna find you a safe and loving home."

Well, shit.

Elora laughed about the encounter later with the Pogues, of course, happy that her mother was gone, that she was finally free, and that she was gonna run away from foster care, along with John B, who had also been threatened with it due to his MIA father, if they tried to come for her.

Yet there was a small niggling in her stomach every time, as though something wasn't right. As though there was more of a reason for her mother going missing.

(As if).

'So that's how this story starts. My father passed away, my mother fucked off to god knows where, and the Bride of Frankenstein threatening foster care.

But that was just when shit became fucked up, and surprisingly, I finally caught a break.

Well, don't say I didn't warn you.'

𔓘𔓘𔓘

"Hurricane Agatha continues its steady March towards Kildare Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina-"

"Fucking hell," Elora watched the TV in wonder, mesmerised.

The hurricane was supposed to hit the same day DCS assessed her.

She hadn't really been back to the house since she was stopped outside it, opting for the Chateau instead. She wasn't sure she should go inside, given the fact that her mother wasn't there and would maybe never be again.

(She hated the small glimmer of hope inside her when she thought that).

But holy shit, the hurricane was bad. Later, Elora heard that Pope and John B went surfing, but she decided that she needed to be inside when it hit, and knew that the best decision was to go back to her house.

It was a miracle she got to sleep that night, with the rain hitting the windows and the wind threatening to blow the whole island down.

However, when she woke up everything was silent. Okay, so a rooster was crowing somewhere in the distance, but apart from that her house was silent.

An unusual occurrence, for her.

However, nothing was usual when she looked at her phone, and started to wander around her house. There was no service, and no power. Clearly, Hurricane Agatha had changed things around OBX.

And when she looked outside, well... she saw it for herself.

Trees were uprooted, ditches were flooded, and some uninhabited buildings had even been knocked down.

"Oh my god," she muttered, praying that all her friends were still safe.

Then she thought about DCS, and she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of hope. They wouldn't be able to get a ferry over to the mainland to check her grandparents, let alone a ferry back, meaning she was free for now.

Okay, so her life was still shitty, but right now she was just trying to enjoy it as much as possible.

This small win was an example of that.

𔓘𔓘𔓘

John B, JJ and Pope were already on the Pogue by the time Elora came running out to the dock near her house, not even waiting before they got close enough to hop on.

"Hey guys!" She grinned as she landed, facing all three of them.

"You gotta stop doing that, Elle," Pope sighed, as John B continued cruising, going to pick up Kie as well.

"What's the harm in it? Worst comes to worst I fall in," shrugged Elora.

"Amen to that!" JJ laughed, as Kie came running down her dock to get on the boat, carrying a cool box with her.

"What you got there?" John B asked.

"Wait and see!" Kie joked, opening it up once she was on board to reveal about ten bottles of ice cold beer.

This is my life now, thought Elora, as she sat back in the boat, the wind pummeling her hair, sipping her beer. And to be honest, I can live with that.

"Look at my party trick!" JJ said, standing up right at the front edge of the boat and holding his beer up. "Pope, can you go a little faster?"

"Seriously? We've tried this one hundred times, J!" Elora rolled her eyes.

Pope rolled his eyes, speeding up as JJ held the beer up, the fast pace they were going at causing the beer to splash out the bottle and (partially) into his open mouth.

"Ew! You're getting beer in my hair!" Kiara rolled her eyes.

"Alright, you're done, stop!" Pope called. "Stop!"

What he hadn't meant to do was come to such an abrupt stop, causing JJ to go hurtling off the boat into the water, and the Pogue to become still, all four passengers recovering.

"Fucking hell, Pope!" Elora complained, as JJ groaned and came to the surface.

"You okay, JJ?" John B called.

"Urgh..." he gurgled. "I think my heels touched the back of my head."

John B nodded. "Kie, Elle, you okay?"

"Fine."

"I'm alright."

"Pope, what did you do?" JJ demanded.

"Sandbar," sighed Pope. "The channel changed."

"No shit," said the blonde, starting to swim back to them. "Hey, I saved the beer, though."

"Congrats, JJ," John B rolled his eyes.

Elora, meanwhile, had gone to the front of the boat to help the boy up, looking into the water. However, seeing a weird silhouette in the water below JJ, a silhouette that looked like a...

"Guys, I think there's a boat down there," she said.

"Shut up," John B sighed.

"No way," Kie told her.

"I'm not taking the piss, there's a boat down there!" Elora raised her voice, pointing down into the water as the others came to join her.

"Holy shit, she's right," Kie said, instantly stripping down to her bikini. "Let's go."

Elora did the same, glad to get her cover up off in the heat of the day before jumping off into the cold water, all five of them diving down.

The water was murky, and deep, but just below the surface there was a boat, just like Elora had seen. It was just a normal boat, like one of the ones up at the dock, but what was confusing was that it was under the water.

When the five of them came up, JJ was the first to speak.

"You guys saw that, right?"

"Of fucking course we did!" Elora yelled back in glee.

"That's a Grady-White, a new one of those is five hundred Gs, easy!"

They let that sink in as they swam back to the boat, all climbing aboard, JJ commenting. "That's a primo rig."

"Yeah, that's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge, maybe it hit the jetty or something," shrugged John B.

"Wait, you surfed the surge?" Kie demanded.

"Yeah," laughed John B.

"Wait, so do we know whose boat that is?" Pope asked.

"No, but we're about to find out," said John B.

"Yeah," Elora nodded, going up to stand on the edge of the boat. "We are."

Ignoring their shouts and laughs, she jumped into the water, swimming back down towards the boat, seeing its driver's seat, steering wheel, stern, and then finally, seeing it.

A motel key, just hanging there on a hook. Elora felt herself smirk as she extended her hand out for it, before getting out of there and kicking her legs, swimming back up to the surface.

When she got out, combing her wet hair back and opening her eyes, she saw the other four leaning over the edge of the boat watching her. Then Kie said. "Oh my god that took forever!"

"Any dead bodies?" Pope asked, only half joking.

"No, but I found this motel key," said Elle, holding it up.

"Oh great, a key," Pope rolled his eyes.

"Yes, a fucking key, Pope!" Elora rolled her eyes.

"Well that's amazing, we salvaged a motel key," JJ joined in as John B and Kiara helped Elora out the water.

When she was back in and they were all ready to go, Pope started up the engine again, sending them speeding back to shore.

As they went on their way Kiara said. "You guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard, maybe we'll get a finders fee."

"Yeah, and not work all summer," JJ shrugged with a smile. "Thanks Agatha, ya batch!"

Elora sighed, rolling her eyes but unable to stop laughing as they went back to shore.

None of them noticed the dead body lying in the reeds as they passed by.

But oh, looking back on it, they'd have wished they did.