"THE outer banks, paradise on earth, it's the sorta place where you either have two jobs or two houses; two tribes, one island"

the teens continue to laugh at pope trying to explain something so scientific for jj to understand,,

"so, if the earth was round, why isn't america closer to australia",,the blonde questioned, clearly being way too far from sober,
"the earth is round!",, pope huff with his hands in the air, to him, this was common knowledge but it obviously wasn't to the boy infront of him,
"so why are maps square then",, jj raises an eyebrow as he blows more smoke out of his mouth.the two girls were in hysterics, sharing a joint.

the three bobble heads danced as john b drove the stoned friends, and pope, back to the cut, the brunette glared out of the window, looking at all the fancy, way too overly priced boats all neatly put in lines, ready for a stuck up kook to take out and publicly brag about their wealth m
the bright green grass blinded all the teens as they mocked the two rich people playing golf.
"yo, what's the actual point of golf, i mean, why does it exist, it's boring as shit",, jj exclaimed, not being able to wrap his head around the so called 'sport',
"what's the point in anything, we are literally on a floating rock, and we're all going to die, all for what?",,marie quietly spoke out, looking at the floor, nothing yet everything going through her head all at once,
"oh my god, you're high as shit, jj what've you done to her?",,kie laughs out while taking the joint from marie's hand.

they all laugh while marie silently stares out of the window. she loves the pogues, she really doesn't know what she would do without them. but they never take her seriously. she didn't know what to do with her life, she didn't have any parents to impress, her uncle barely talks to her and she can't hang out with her friend all day for the rest of her life, everyone is going to move on eventually.
"yo princess, you good?",, jj said as he turned to face her
"better than ever maybank, just a bit too high",, marie lied
the blonde patted his shoulder to invite the girl for a cuddle and, of course, she didn't decline. she rested her head on the boys shoulder and shut her eyes. marie sighed, thankfull for being able to shut off for a while.

the twinkie eventually arrived at the cut, driving through paths of run down houses. if someone from a whole different place was to walk through those houses, they would think they haven't been touched in decades.

john b pulled up the the chateau and marie was woken up by the loud sound of the van door sliding open
"let's catch some fish captain",, jj said in a weird accent to john b while he was climbing out of the van
"yes sir",, john b returned the accent and the salute
both the girls looked at each other and rolled their eyes, the two knowing that this childish behaviour was never going to stop
"it's now 1pm which means the fish will be out in about an hour so we can chill on the bout until then",, pope informed everyone
"damn, einstein even knows the fishes sleep schedule",, marie scoffed earning a high-five from her favourite blonde and a middle finger from pope.
"m'lady",,jj bows infront of marie, pulling out his accents yet again, holding his hand out to the girl so she could hop onto the boat safely, john b doing the same for kie minus the badly attempted accent.

the five all peacefully sat on the boat, jj laying on the edge, marie sitting up but with her head leaning on jj - the two were sharing a joint, john b laying at marie's feet, staring up at the clear sky, poor doing the same and kie furthest away from them all, listening to music
"do you know what's sad",,john b speaks up, breaking the silence,
"not this sappy shit again booker, but go on",,marie let her close friend let out whatever he was feeling, she knows he needs to get things off his chest after his dad,
"one day, we won't have each other, we will have our own lives, our own family-"
"bro, we are a family",,jj interrupts, not meaning to be rude, he doesn't like his best friend thinking he's alone in the world,
"yeah man, pogues for life",,marie said, fistbumping jj
"yeahhhh",,john b smiled
marie shared a mischievous look with jj, they knew what was about to go down. without a second thought, marie leaped onto john b, jj throwing himself on marie. marie's face heated up at the touch, the material of jj's shirt was in contact with the skin on marie's back due to the fact she had a bikini top on.

pope was quick to realise that the "pogue pile on" was happening, a sort of tradition that the three - john b, jj and marie, came up with whenever someone was saying something sad to distract them from the feeling. pope learned from this tradition the hard way, one minute he was stressing about getting a B in a science quiz, the next minute he's stuck under the weight of his three friends. not that pleasant but it did help.
kie then giggles and jumped on last, not wanting to be crushed by the weight of a teenage boy.

marie sits back and soaks up the sun, grateful for her friends, never wanting this moment to end.
she glances over at jj, his shark tooth necklace and his musty green cap complimenting his naturally tan body, marie admires how the blunt sits perfectly in his mouth and how smoothly the boy takes it out with his hand and blows the smoke out.
"you're staring",, pope leans forward, his hand clutching a book that he was reading and whispers to the girl, making her jump out of her skin
"no i wasn't, i was thinking",, marie lied, scrunching up her face while looking back up at the sky
"whatever you say princess",, jj shouted over at the two, making it clear that he could hear what the two were talking about.

"pope, i fucking told you that you are a loud whisperer",,marie pointed at pope while she stood up and placed herself next to jj, stealing his cap and taking a drag of his blunt. what's different about this teenage girl is that she never gets embarrassed in front of people, jj admired that, he admired her confidence and the way she never cared what people thought.

john b pulls a net of fish out of the water and dumps it infront of his friends, distracting them from whatever they were doing.

"nice haul dude",,jj says from behind marie, trying to braid her hair but failing miserably
"smells worse than maybanks feet",,marie laughs and leans her head back to look at said boy, "nah, my feet smell worse",,jj responds as pope gags and marie snorts

"ew, john b",,kie flinches as the fish were dumped right infront of her, she stares at the brunette with a disgusted look on her face.

the five pogues, although you would think it from the first sight of them, haven't known each other since birth.

jj maybank, he and john b met in the 3rd grade, he's about as local as they come, a stereotypical teenage pogue boy. latest in a long line of fishing, drinking smuggling, vendetta-holding salt-lifers who made their living off the water. he taught the other pogues how to surf and fish. he's a mild kleptomaniac and, probably, a future tax cheat.

then there's kiara, or kie, as the pogues call her, she hangs out with them whenever she isn't saving turtles, listening to marley or getting a dolphin tattoo. no one really knows why she's friends with the pogues because she's a born kook, with her foot in both worlds. her family own the wreck, where she met marie a few years ago, it's a total cash cow with the tourists. the pogues all have a thing for her, who wouldn't.

and then pope, the brains of every operation, a finalist of the lucas t vanderhorst merit scholarship, the smartest person you'll ever meet. he's a little bit of a weirdo. his father is this legendary character, heyward, anything you wanted on the island, he could get it for you. pope was introduced to the pogues when he was given the task of delivering groceries to the chateau, jj and marie then convinced the boy to hang with them on the boat, just a ploy to get free beer, but the more they got to know him, the more they found out that he was actually really cool, and doesn't mind doing the pogues maths homework for them. he soon became one of them, a pogue for life.

the fourth pogue, john b, john booker routelege, he lives in an old fish shack on the marsh, he called it the chateau, the place that's like a b and b for the rest of the pogues. his father went looking for a shipwreck nine months ago, he hasn't been seen since. big john was like a father to the rest of the pogues, he treated marie and jj like his own whenever they stayed, which was more often than not. since his dad vanished, john b's uncle is supposedly his legal guardian, at the moment, he's building houses in mississippi. none of the pogues are complaining though, it means they have a place to crash whenever they want to.

lastly, there's marie thomas, the star of the show. marie was born and raised in charleston to kevin and julia thomas along with her younger brother xavier. one day, little eight year old marie was over at her friend francesca, until her mother wasn't answering calls or picking marie up. frans mother eventually decided to drive marie down to her house, that's when marie was scarred for life.

*flashback*

marie was in the back seat of a rage rover with francesca on her way home. she looks out of the window and smiles, marie has always loved charleston, all the beautiful houses lined with fresh white and pink lilies and the pretty gates that line the garden. both the girls suddenly hear commotion as frans mum turns the corner. that's when they see it. that's when marie sees it. the fire. her house. the car was seeping with silence as none of them knew what their next move was going to be until they heard more shouting. men and women in uniform frantically running up and down the front steps, yelling information at each other. "male, approximately five years old, pronounced dead at eleven forty two" was all that could be heard. marie's head went silent, her ears ringing, any words that people were saying was muffled. marie was drowning. at this point there were more coroners than ambulances, everyone knew that there was no surviving that engulfed house. marie gulped, unable to even cry, she knew they were all gone, everyone. she had no one.

*end of flashback*

social services then did a lot of detective work to figure out who marie could live with. then they found him. ONE living relative. ONE chance to be with family. uncle barry, dads brother that got into a bit of trouble and wasn't apart of the family for years, last time marie saw him before moving in was when she was five and that was when he was struggling to find somewhere to stay. it's not like she usually sees him now anyway, he's usually out doing drug deals and marie is usually out with the pogues trying to avoid the low life's that barry deals with. she doesn't hate it though, it gives her a break from pouge life, everyone who comes to barry has a darkness inside of them that they need to silence, marie gets that. marie understands more than the pogues know.