ミ★ season 1, episode 1
𝗇𝗈𝗐 𝗉𝗅𝖺𝗒𝗂𝗇𝗀 { 𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 by lana del rey and the weeknd }
   0:26 ———♡——— 3:50
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☆ ELIANA RAN UP to meet the girl who had just climbed down from the red support beam that was anchored into the sand. Once she reached her, she threw herself towards the blonde who caught her with a loud laugh.

"Oh my gosh Sarah I missed you!" Ellie squealed as she let go, her blonde friend grinning from ear to ear.

Sarah Cameron was the Kook princess, along with Natalia who was like the younger princess who didn't really care what people thought of her. Eliana acted as the trusty sidekick to the two, comedic relief if you will. She wasn't fully kook because of her Pogue friends, but she was more Kook than not.

Kiara and Sarah had been best friends two years ago in Freshman year, then the next year they had turned into sworn enemies for reasons that nobody really knew. John B works on Ward Cameron's boat, so he usually sees Sarah a couple days a week. But they were nowhere near friends.

"Oh hi Topper." Ellie lightly smiled at the with sun bleached hair who waved at her awkwardly. Topper was Sarah's boyfriend who was kind of just there. He wasn't anything special and as much as Natalia and Ellie think Sarah could find someone better, they were just happy that their best friend was happy.

Topper was full Kook though and thought Pogue's were bred to mow lawns, I guess he's as dumb as he looks. There was never a thought behind his eyes, not because he was high all the time but because he was just plain stupid. Good thing he has a trust fund for when he undoubtedly fails college. Regardless of the fact that his personality sucked, he was nice to Sarah and that was all that mattered.

Hours passed with the group of four fooling around and drinking cheap beer. Ellie bounced between the two friend groups of hers a couple times before deciding to stick with Sarah, Natalia, and Ethan.

Kiara was acting a little hostile towards her just because she was hanging out with the blonde Kook, so she decided to hang out with people who weren't mad at her choice of friends. No, Sarah didn't like Kie. She didn't mind that Ellie was friends with her though and that was way better than hanging out with someone who didn't like her friends.

"Hey I'm gonna go hang out with Topper, you guys good over here?" Sarah turned to the group looking a little uncertain about leaving them. She felt more like herself than ever with them and when she was with Topper and his friends... well they made her feel a little uncomfortable with their topics of conversation.

"Yeah of course Sar go for it. Besides I think I saw Noah over by the keg so I might have to go sneak up on him and try to kill him with my charm." Ellie smirked at Natalia's words. Natalia hasn't had a boyfriend before, nor was she ever really interested with guys. But then a sweet boy named Noah moved to the Outer Banks and started to go to their school and Natalia had a liking towards him immediately. Only she never acted on it because of inexperience with guys and a fear of rejection.

"Okay Nat I see you. You two go have fun, me and Ethan will go blow something up." Ellie looked to the boy she referenced who just shook his head with a laugh.

The two girls walked away together before branching off to go mingle with their respective people, leaving Ellie and Ethan alone and away from the rest of the crowd.

"Wanna go swimming?" Ellie raised a brow towards Ethan who gave her an unsure look.

"Won't it be like, I don't know, cold?" Ethan and Ellie had gone night swimming a lot last summer and even a week ago they did it. They usually went when they wanted to get their minds off things and debrief with each other.

"Ethan it's summer. Besides are you scared of the cold or something?" Ellie laughed at the brunette before continuing her words, "Just come on! It'll be fun." She took his hands and pulled him up. Ellie started dragging him towards the water and away from the crowd because swimming in front of other people would be awkward as hell and she didn't want to deal with embarrassment right now.

They shed themselves of their clothes and luckily, both of them had swimwear on and could go in without any problem. Ellie felt the water hit her feet and was surprised to find that it wasn't even bad. The hurricane should've messed up the temperature and made it colder due to it pushing the warm water away, but it seemed to do the opposite and now the water was a good temperature to be in.

Ethan and Ellie got into the water slowly, letting their bodies get used to it. Eventually, Ellie just dove in to get over putting her head under. That part was always the worst, but getting it over with quick did wonders for lowering your body temperature to make it more adapted to the temperature of the water. Ethan followed her lead and went under as well, both of them came up for air around the same time.

The moonlight casted a glow off of the water making it look almost as gorgeous as it was during the day. The stars were visible, constellations twinkling in the sky. The water wasn't too cold, almost perfect and it helped the two teens sober up slightly from the alcohol they had consumed earlier.

"Wait no cause this actually feels so good." Ethan shook the water out of his hair, flinging water everywhere around him.

"Yeah I told you. Aren't you happy you went in now?" Ellie asked, looking at the boy with an 'I told you so' look.

"I guess?" Ethan with a questioning tone, making it known that he wasn't so sure.

"What's on your mind? You seem troubled." Ellie observed.

"Well I just. Um, well. Y'know what. Fuck it." With no warning he had walked through the water to her and grabbed her face before crashing his lips to her.

She reciprocated it for only a moment before pulling away abruptly once she realized who it was that was actually kissing her.

"What the fuck Ethan?" She bolted away from him right away, leaving a good three feet between them.

"Shit, shit, shit." Ethan's head was in his hands once he realized what he had done. "I'm so sorry El, it must be the alcohol or something I don't know why I did that." He obviously felt bad over it, he looked like he wanted to be swallowed by the soft waves of the Atlantic.

"Look Ethan I don't care. Just never do that again." Ellie went back below the surface, almost as if cleansing herself from his touch.

"Yeah I promise. God I'm so sorry." Ethan begged for her forgiveness.

"Whatever Ethan. Let's just never talk about this again. We cool?" Ellie looked at him, a little scared over what those actions could've actually meant.

"Of course, we're cool." Ethan agreed. The silence in the air was deafening and it sounded like a ringing siren in the girls' ears.

Suddenly, shouts started to sound from the crowd far away, they all stood in a circle around the shore of their patch of ocean.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Ellie started to leave the water wearily, not sure whether they needed to go over there or not.

With no warning, two gunshots sounded from the running crowd. Instant chills ran down Ellie's arms and legs as she realized who it must have been that fired the gun.

"Shit. Shit, shit shit. Oh shit. Fuck. Oh my God what a fucking idiot." Ellie whispered to herself. She couldn't let it be known that JJ had a gun, so she couldn't explain that she knew who it was, she had to act oblivious.

"What the fuck? El come on! We gotta go. I don't who that was but they're a fucking psycho." Ethan rushed the girl into putting her clothes back on which she did with no complaints. He dragged her through the boneyard and back the way he originally came.

He opened the passenger door of his blacked out Silverado and waited until she was fully in before closing the door behind her. The two friends drive in silence to the girls' house, awkwardness lingering in the air.

They pulled into the driveway of the Delacroix' house and Ellie unbuckled herself right away. "I'll see you later?"

"Yeah. See ya." She got out of the car faster than lightning. She walked up the driveway with the headlights of his truck shining on her like a spotlight the whole way up to the door. Ellie turned and gave a slight wave before pulling down on the door handle and stepping into the warmth of her home.

Instantly she was engulfed with the warm smell of pork and a candle that was more familiar than the house itself. She heard the chatter of her family in the dining room and scratching of paper from her sister doing who knows what.

"Hey everyone!" Ellie grinned at her dad who looked at her with a happy smile, glad she was home.

Salut chérie, comment vas-tu ?" Michael went over to his daughter and engulfed her into a tight hug much to her protest. (Hey honey, how have you been?)

"I've been good Papa. What's for dinner? It smells so good." Ellie let her nose guide her over to their stove, sat on one of the burners was a pan full of meat slathered in sauce.

"Sloppy joes. Obviously." Nic rolled past her without even sparring her a glance and grabbed a plate from their cupboard. He started to load his plate up with the bun and pork for his meal.

"Good to see you too Nic." Ellie rolled her eyes at her brother who's only concern was fueling his stomach with food.

"Welcome home El. You've been gone for like a week." Kinsley looked up at her twin sister with a teasing grin which was met with a smile in return.

"It was like two days Kins. You're fine." Ellie giggled at her sister who let out a short laugh.

Ellie went over to the cupboard that housed their plates, grabbing four for the rest of them. Nic was already eating at the table while her mother had just entered the room with their miniature doodle following at her feet.

"Hey Maman. Hello there Star." Ellie squatted down and scratch the dog behind the ears, her response was sticking her tongue out happily at the contact from her owner.

"Buster's in your room, hopefully he didn't pee on your bed or something." It was hard to tell what Nic was saying from the food stuffed in his mouth, but luckily Ellie got the gist.

"Oh great," she sighed at the information but shook it off once realizing it really wasn't even that big of a deal.

Once everyone got their plates and got their food, the family sat down at their dining room table and started to eat.

The flavors from the sloppy joe made Ellie never want to stop eating, although that was not a good habit to get into. There was small talk throughout the entire meal and lots of small barks from Star so she would be fed scraps from Adelyn.

"So what's this I've been hearing about a gun at the boneyard?" Adelyn asked, her daughter looking at her in surprise.

"How do you even know about that already?" Ellie finished chewing before she spoke, also swallowing down her food with a glass of sparkling apple cider.

"Oh someone sent it out on the Facebook group." Her mother replied, making the kids at the dinner table snicker. "What's so funny? What did I say?" Adelyn look at them all with pure confusion, Michael was also grinning at her previous words.

"You're just always on the Facebook group mom. It's kind of hilarious." Kinsley spoke up, making the three kids start laughing again.

"Well it was a serious question guys. El? Care to explain?" Adelyn turned to her daughter in question, who looked like a deer in headlights.

"Uh I wasn't actually over there when it happened so I have no clue. I can probably find out later though." Ellie spoke the pure truth, not that her parents really believed her.

"Are your friends okay? They didn't get hurt from it did they?" Her mother asked with concern, warming Ellie's heart that she cared that much to ask on their behalf.

"Yeah they're all good. I probably would've heard something from Kiara now if something was off."

By the time they had finished eating it was seven pm and most of them were ready to change and settle on the couch for the rest of the night. It was an unspoken rule that when they were all home that they would hang out on the couch and watch movies together.

When dinner was all done with all the dishes washed, everyone branched off to do their respective prepping for family time. Ellie headed up to her room with Kinsley right by her side. They split up at the top of the stairs and went to opposite sides of the hallway to their rooms.

When Ellie opened her door, she was met with her cat who was curled up on her bed having the time of his life sleeping.

"Aw Buster I missed you." She cooed, making the cat's head perk up at the sound of his favorite person. He leapt up and stood on the bed patiently waiting for her to come over and cuddle him, which she did without question.

Once she gave him the cuddles he needs, she headed to her bathroom to take a quick shower to wash the ocean off of her body. After she got out and dried off, she put on a white off-the-shoulder sweater and paired it with a Brandy boxer shorts that had teddy pairs printed onto it. She grabbed her favorite blanket off of her bed and picked Buster up and held him to her chest before exiting her room and heading downstairs.

After they were all dressed for bed and showers were taken, everyone met in the living room at staggered times, Kinsley being the last one there like always.

"So what's it gonna be tonight?" Adelyn asked once they were all settled on their respective spots on the overly large sofa that sat in their living room.

"I say The Notebook." Kinsley grabbed her iced coffee from the coffee table and took a long sip from it to quench her thirst.

"You don't get to pick chérie, you were the last down here. You know the rule." Michael told his laughter with a laugh at her disappointed face from his words.

"Well I vote for the Sound of Music. Just like we always watched with Grand-mère and grand-Père." Ellie shrugged once she put her suggestion out there. Lucky for her, the other four agreed immediately and loved the idea.

The Sound of Music was one of those movies that if you haven't watched it and you didn't love it, you might be mentally deficient.

The Delacroix' family spent the rest of the night happy in each others company, singing along to the oh-so familiar movie that they all loved to pieces. Nothing would ever beat the feeling of spending time with each other, that much they agreed on. After all, family was always the most important thing in all of their lives. Time spent with each other was the most cherished thing they had.

꧁☀️꧂

☆ THE NEXT DAY Ellie drove to John B's house fuming. Kiara had texted her last night to inform her of what actually went down at the beach. She knew JJ was dumb, but she didn't think he was that dumb.

Her car was hot when she originally got in it due to the humidity of the North Carolina sun. The AC was on max until she got too cold and turned it off, just settling for the windows to roll down. The drive to John B's was filled with her favorite summer playlist, the familiar music and lyrics filling the air. The wind blew her hair in every direction, blinding her line of site every couple of seconds, but luckily she was on the cut already so there wasn't a lot of cars she passed.

She parked behind the Twinkie and got out, grabbing her water bottle on the way. She walked around back and saw the familiar faces of her friends sitting around the outside workshop.

"Hey guys!" Ellie waved happily to her friends who gave her beaming smiles back.

"Hey El, okay guys look. I'm calling it off. Peterkin said if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS." John B informed them all.

"And you believed her?" JJ asked, looking at John B as if he were the dumbest person alive.

"Yes, I believe her, JJ." John B sighed in annoyance at his best friend.

"An actual cop, John B. You believed a cop." JJ scoffed.

"JJ shut up you know Peterkin is actually a good person. She isn't doing this out of hatred for him, she's not trying to screw him over. Why can't you just accept that she's doing this for his well being?" Ellie hated when JJ made John B's thoughts or actions seem unimportant or dumb when they were usually far from it.

"Yeah exactly El." John B smiled at her slightly before turning back to JJ to try to reason with him. "Plus all I gotta do is stay out of the marsh for a couple days and she'll help me out. And it didn't help that it was your ass that was shooting the gun." John B raised his voice at the blonde.

"You know what I should've done man? I should've just let Topper drown your ass." JJ's words made Kiara and Ellie stare at each other in shock.

"What the hell?" Ellie mouthed in confusion to Kiara.

"Oh yeah? Topper was gonna drown me?" John B was getting close to blowing up at his best friend.

"Sure looked like it man." JJ kept digging his hole deeper and deeper.

"Okay JJ just stop man I would've been fine. Just let it go."

"No! You know why? Because they always win, don't they? Kooks versus Pogues. They always, always, win." JJ seethed, making chills shoot down Ellie's arm from his tone.

"Look it's okay!" Kiara's voice was stressed to say the least. When JJ got like this it never really ended out well.

"No. It's not okay!" JJ scoffed Kie. "They don't want us to go down to the marsh. That means there's something valuable down there and you know it. I know you do." He pointed to John B who almost flinched from the finger pointed at him. "And I understand why you don't wan to go. You're the golden boy, you've got too much to risk." He looked at Pope when he spoke, then he turned to the two girls who were sitting next to each other. "And you two, well I mean y'all are already rich as fuck anyways." Ellie couldn't help but be a little offended by the way he said it. It made her feel like she didn't really matter. But by then JJ had already turned back to John B. "You and me man? We got nothing to lose." John B looked at JJ with pure disgust and annoyance.

"JJ," John B spoke softly, wanting his best friend to just stop talking.

"All I'm saying is we need to find out what's so valuable? You have the key to the Cameron's boat right? Borrow their scuba gear, we dive and go down to that wreck, and we'll return the gear before they ever notice." From the look on John B's face after JJ finished with his 'plan', she knew they were in for it.

authors note
here's a little bit more of a glance at ellie's family!! hope you guys liked it!

also at first i was going to try to fit all 5 seasons into one book but now i've decided to split it into two so this book will be seasons 1 and 2 and then the second volume will be seasons 3, 4, and 5. i decided this because now i won't have to worry about fitting the episode into a chapter and making said chapter be like 10,000 words. now i can pace myself and make chapters shorter so that they'll be quicker to come out.

you guys obvs don't care but idk just needed to let that out.

things will be picking up soon i promise

love you guys,

jordyn <3