CHAPTER NINE
"you're hunting for what now?"

( episode five ━━ midsummers )

"HEY CAMERON!" SCARLETT YELLS AS she runs up to her best friend.

The Hall girl was quite surprised to see Sarah here, considering the last time they talked she informed Scarlett that she would not be making an appearance at midsummers at all. Nonetheless, Scarlett was extremely happy she decided to change her mind for whatever reason, not knowing if she could get through tonight without her.

"Topper go away." She shoos the boy away once she reaches them.

"Actually no I won't." Topper argues back, tired of Scarlett's attitude once and for all. Most times, he wishes there was another girl that his girlfriend could have chosen to be lifelong friends with. Instead, he's stuck dealing with Scarlett. "We were in the middle of a conversation—"

Scarlett raises her eyebrow, anyone from a mile away could see how uncomfortable the interaction between the couple was. "Really? Cause to me it looks like Sarah was desperately trying to get away from you and is only standing here because she's too nice. Luckily I'm not, so go."

Topper scoffs and looks at Sarah, for some reason expecting her to back him up. The Kook was baffled after seeing her glance around, looking anywhere but him in the eye. So he finally takes the hint and leaves, not wanting to embarrass himself any more.

Sarah watches as he leaves, waiting until he's out of earshot before speaking. "Thank you. I needed that, he was driving me crazy."

"Of course." Sarah says, not really needing to be thanked. She would be happy to get rid of Topper at any time. "I thought you weren't coming?"

"My dad practically begged."

"I have so much to tell you." Scarlett decides to move on from that topic, knowing that she and Sarah had more urgent things to discuss that didn't include their attendance at this lame party. "First, I need to apologize for ditching you at the moving screening thing. Something came up and I couldn't get out of it."

Sarah goes to speak, ready to tell Scarlett that it was okay and she completely forgot about their plans as well and was quite busy with a certain Pogue, but Scarlett was talking so fast she didn't even get a chance to cut in.

"Second of all, I'm a lesbian. Lastly, I'm moving away at the end of summer."

Sarah had to stop her mouth from dropping open due to shock. Never could she imagine that her best friend, Scarlett Hall, would finally admit to her that she didn't like men.

Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but she didn't think Scarlett would tell her so soon. It made her wonder what suddenly brought this on, but her curiosity could wait. Right now she needed to hug her best friend.

"Oh my god, whoa. I know you just unloaded so much on me, but only one thing you said really stuck right now!" She pulls the small girl closer to her. "I was wondering when you were going to tell me."

"Which information is that in response towards?"

Scarlett was still playing dumb, not exactly comfortable with talking about her sexuality just yet. After years and years of denying it, she was just happy she had the courage to say the words out loud.

Sarah pulls back slightly so that she could get a better look at the girl, wanting to look her in the eyes. "Scar, I love you. I'm not going to be that person that says 'Oh my god I knew it all along' blah blah blah. I'm just so unbelievably proud of you for telling me."

"I'm unbelievably proud of myself for saying it." Scarlett shrugs, trying to contain how happy she was at the moment, but failed. Nothing could ruin this moment right here.

Sarah playfully hits the girl's shoulder with her own. "Good, you should be."

"I came out to my mom earlier, and it went better than I could have ever imagined. I swear I had practiced that speech in my head over a million times, except you were usually on the other end of it, not my mother."

"Wait, me?"

"Of course you. Who else?"

Before the two girls could have another sentimental moment, the other words Scarlett had said hit her. "Wait, you're moving?"

"Yeah." Scarlett sighed and looked down sadly. "My mom just sprung it on me today. I'm gone at the end of the summer."

"You can't go! No I—" Sarah pauses, thinking of what to say next. "There has to be something I can do. We'll—"

"Sar. It's okay. Right now, I don't want to think that. I don't want to think about anything." Scarlett grabs her hand and leads her to the dance floor. "Right now, I just want to dance with my best friend in the whole wide world."

Sarah smiles at her while she playfully rolls her eyes, letting Scarlett drag her to the dance floor without protesting.

She spins Scarlett around, causing her to knock into a couple slow dancing together a few feet away from them. Both girls giggle as the older couple glares at them and proceeds to leave the dance floor in order to get away from the two of them. They continue dancing, ignoring all the issues and things they would both have to deal with tomorrow after the party. Right now, they were just enjoying spending time with each other while they could.

"JJ?"

Sarah pauses her dancing for a moment after feeling the blonde boy tap her shoulder. Unsure as to why he was talking with her, since the only real interaction they'd had was when he was holding a gun to Topper's head.

"What?" Scarlett looks at JJ in confusion, not understanding how he made it past all the security, considering he wasn't a member of this club. "Blondie, how the hell did you get in here?"

"I have my ways." He winks as he holds up a piece of paper, handing it to Sarah. "And for you Miss Cameron, I got a, uh, note from Vlad."

"Who?" Scarlett asks, quite loudly.

JJ quickly shushed her while continuing to dance around the two girls, not wanting to draw any attention to himself considering he was still on the run from Rafe and the other Kooks.

"From... From Vlad?" Sarah questions, her smile growing wider and wider as she thinks of John B.

"Yeah." The blonde boy starts to make his way off the dance floor, desperately wanting to leave the party before someone spots him here. "Read the note."

"Okay."

She rushes away from the crowded area, wanting to open the note in private just in case.

"Who the fuck is Vlad?"

Sarah jumps back, startled. She hadn't noticed Scarlett following her and thought she was alone. She crumples up the paper and shoves it behind her back, not wanting Scarlett to read what was written.

"Too late. I already saw it." Scarlett says, like she was reading Sarah's mind. "Who are you meeting and for the like fifth time, who is Vlad?"

"He's uh—" Sarah pauses, struggling on what to say and unsure of what exactly she could tell Scarlett. This was John B's secret, and he had trusted her. What exactly would he think if she immediately told another person after less than a day?

"What? Are you secretly seeing some Russian guy now?" Scarlett jokes, waiting for Sarah to laugh with her before explaining what was going on.

Except, that never happened. Instead, Sarah looked like she was desperately trying to find an excuse to tell her just so that she'd drop the subject and that made Scarlett's smile fall.

"Are you hiding stuff from me?" She asks carefully, not sure if she was ready for the answer Sarah was about to give her.

"No Scar, it— it's not like that. I promise."

"Well what's it like?"

Silence. The two girls just stood there in complete silence, just staring at each other and waiting for the other to speak.

"C'mon Cameron, I thought we didn't have secrets from each other."

"Oh, you wanna talk to me about secrets? Fine. Let's talk about how you helped sink my boyfriend's boat."

The Hall girl was dreading when she'd finally have to have this conversation. It wasn't like she thought Sarah wouldn't ever find out, Topper was her boyfriend for christ sake, but she wished she could delay her finding out that she was involved.

"I—" Scarlett stammers, struggling on what to say next. She knew that she had to be very careful with her word choice. "How did you—"

"You're a terrible liar, and you also have the worst poker face I've ever seen. So don't get mad at me for hiding things or else you're clearly a hypocrite."

Sarah turns around and walks away, off to meet Vlad and leaving without giving Scarlett a chance to explain herself.

The small girl stands there, shocked. In all their years of friendship, this was definitely the worst fight they'd ever had. Scarlett was unsure if it was even possible to classify this as a fight, but it definitely felt like one to her.

"Wow. I didn't think you and the princess ever disagreed on anything."

Without needing to turn and face them, Scarlett knew who the voice belonged to.

"Kiara. Hi. You look—"

"Save it. I'm really not in the mood for your insults tonight."

Wow, this girl really thought so low of her, but Scarlett couldn't blame her. It was all her fault.

"I wasn't going to." She admits. "I just wanted to say that I think you look really nice."

Kiara looks up from the drink in her hand to look the blonde in the eyes. Surprised was an understatement to how she felt. I mean, ever since their falling out, all the two did was fight and bicker, occasionally throwing insults at each other, but never compliments.

"You do?" Kie was unsure of how to respond, not wanting Scarlett to see her all flustered.

But why did she feel like this? Why did Scarlett, doing something simple as complimenting her on the choice of clothing she went with tonight, give her butterflies in her stomach?

"Yeah, I do."

It was times like this that Kiara was grateful she was significantly taller than Scarlett. Happy she wouldn't see how much was was blushing. "Well. That was unexpected."

"Look Kie—"

Scarlett stops herself from talking after she recalled what Kiara had told her the night they stopped Rafe and the others from practically killing JJ and Pope.

"Don't call me that."

Well, she was right. Scarlett lost the privilege and the opportunity to call her by a nickname the second she cut her from her life. When she helped spread the rumours that Kiara was a snake and did nothing about it.

"Look Kiara, I'm honestly tired of fighting with you. It's exhausting and honestly not that fun anymore."

The Carrera girl scoffs, realizing she should have known better than to trust she was actually having a nice conversation with Scarlett Hall.  "Glad to know there was a time before when it was fun."

"Kiara I'm serious. I'm not going to be here much longer anyways, so what if we maybe put aside our differences and just be civil and co-exist together?"

Not going to be here much longer? What exactly did Scarlett mean by that? More importantly, why did Kiara care so much?

"What do you mean by that? Where are you going?"

"My family and I are moving at the end of the summer, so in about month or so, you'll never have to see me again."

Kiara should be celebrating right now, hell rejoicing actually, but instead she felt a pit in her stomach like she was about to be sick. Scarlett was leaving, she was actually leaving. The thought of never seeing her again felt criminal.

"Is that Scarlett Hall? Oh my goodness, hello!"

Anna Carrera rushes to the teenagers with her husband by her side. Both happy at the fact that her daughter was mingling at the Kook party and talking to someone other than those Pogue boys she seemed to hang around so much.

Scarlett was surprised when the woman came up and hugged her, half expecting to get cursed out for unintentionally ruining her daughter's sophomore year.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Carrera, you both look lovely."

"Oh please, look at yourself. This dress is gorgeous."

"And we told you to call us Mike and Anna." Mike adds, throwing his arm around his wife's shoulder. "Mr. and Mrs. Carrera sounds way too formal."

"Alright, I'm sorry. I'll remember that this time."

Scarlett was enjoying this conversation with Kiara's parents. Since she had barely seen her own the past year, it felt nice to have a conversation with adults she knew cared.

Sure there was Ward, she had known the man her whole life and he was practically a second father to her, but he has always felt off to Scarlett. She had known Mike and Anna for a couple years, and was already on a first name basis with them, yet she still regularly called Ward 'Mr. Cameron' and never felt as comfortable with him as she did with the Carreras.

"How are you?" Anna asks, curious as to why she hasn't heard from any member of the Hall family in months. "We haven't seen you around the house at all, I would have thought you moved away if I wasn't for Kiara talking about you all the time—"

"Mom!"

Kiara had talked about Scarlett?

"What?" Anna looks between the two girls, lost on why the vibe between them all of a sudden got awkward. "Did I say something?"

"No. Just—" Kiara stammers while attempting to think of an explanation for the secret her mom revealed. "Nothing. Nevermind."

Mike decides to interject, unsure of why his wife admitting she regularly talked about Scarlett made his daughter uncomfortable, but it did, so he changed the topic of conversation."Where are your parents? Are they here tonight?"

"Uh yeah." Scarlett swivels around slightly so she could point out where William and Margaret were. "They have been talking with Rose and Ward practically all night."

So much for family time. Scarlett thought, thinking back to her mother's wishes earlier in the day.

"Well we have to get together with them while they are here. Are you all busy on—"

Anna's offer was cut off by the commotion of JJ being dragged out of the club by someone who actually worked there. So much had happened in the past few moments, Scarlett had completely forgotten that he snuck in.

"It's okay, everybody! Do not panic. Leave it to the men and women in uniform! Let's hear it for them!"

JJ sarcastically claps his hands together while the security guard continues to aggressively drag him out. Wanting to cause further disturbance among the rich folks, he looks over to Rose, giving his comments on her choice of attire. 

"Rose! You look like Lady Liberty. It's good to see you again."

"Let go of him! You can't boot him!" Kiara shouts, tired of always seeing her friends get treated poorly.

The security guard tilts his head in confusion, not understanding why someone at this party would be sticking up for this boy.  "Excuse me, ma'am?"

"I invited him here."

"Kiara—" Anna attempts to stop her daughter from further embarrassing them.

"I'm a member of this club." The girl continues, ignoring her mother's protests.

JJ uses this distraction to escape the grip of the security, pushing him away and knocking him into a table where guests were dining. "Sorry about that. Hey, mandatory power hour at Rixon's, Kie."

JJ marches backwards, stumbling into the Heyward's. "Pope, you as well, all right? Rixon's Cove. Let's roll."

"All right, Kie, come on. Workers of the world unite. Throw off your chains!"

Mike grimaces at JJ's words, appalled at the fact that Kiara would even associate herself with him and the rest of the Pogues. "You can't hang around these kids."

"I'm sorry..." Kiara apologizes to her parents as she quickly runs off to join her friends.

"No. Kiara!"

Mike and Anna's disapproval was no use, their daughter was already sprinting full speed away from them.

"Where the hell do you think you're goin'?" Heyward calls out to the Pogues, angry at them for kidnapping his son once again.

"Later, losers!"

Scarlett smiles to herself while watching the interaction between the Pogues, happy that Kiara had found such a great and loyal friend group after their brutal falling out.

"Why does she always feel the need to hang around those boys?"

"I don't know—"

"If I may." Scarlett interrupts Mike and Anna's ranting, feeling the need to add her own thoughts. "These boys aren't as bad of an influence as you guys think. They are actually really good people, some of the best I know."

Mike scoffs, surprised at the fact that Scarlett was actually defending them instead of agreeing with him and his wife.

"Oh really? Could have fooled me, cause good people don't cause a scene like that."

☆

Scarlett was beyond glad when the midsummer's party was coming to an end. She was silently cursing herself for agreeing to come tonight. While it was fun at the start, if she had stayed home, maybe her and Sarah wouldn't be fighting.

And if she did stay home, she would have never gotten the chance to speak with Kiara, possibly the last time before leaving the Outerbanks for good. She wouldn't have been told that Kiara still talked about her with her parents.

So just maybe, leaving the house tonight was worth it.

"Hey."

Speaking of said best friend who was angry with her, Scarlett was surprised to look up and see Sarah standing over her, assuming they weren't speaking at the moment.

"Hey."

Attempting to ignore how awkward the tension is between the two, Sarah sits down next to Scarlett, racking her brain on how to make up for how she acted before.

"I'm really sorry for what I said to you earlier."

Scarlett shakes her head in disapproval, not understanding why Sarah was the one apologizing. "Sarah, it's okay."

"I'm just really stressed out because of all this bullshit with Topper, and now this mess with John B, not that any of that is an excuse for me flipping out on you—"

"Cameron, listen to me." Scarlett interrupts. She knew if she let Sarah continue speaking the girl would go on and on about how sorry she was, and Scarlett didn't want that when she felt the Cameron girl did nothing wrong.

"It's okay. I deserved it, considering I did help sink your boyfriend's boat, but that was only because he and your crazy ass brother jumped Pope and I."

Sarah cringes listening to Scarlett explain the full story. Of course there was more than what Topper told her, she should have known he'd leave out information in order to make himself look like an innocent victim.

"Well, that part he didn't tell me. He's also not really my boyfriend anymore so that's not my issue anymore either."

"Oh, thank God." Scarlett lets out a sigh of relief. "Topper was awful. I was sick of pretending to like him."

"I mean, you didn't really do that great of a job, but it's whatever."

They both laugh while thinking of all the past times Scarlett had made it very, very clear she did not like Topper one bit.

"So." Scarlett starts, still curious about getting more information on who Sarah ran off to meet earlier. "John B mess? I'm guessing he's Vlad."

Sarah looks down and smiles as she thinks about John B, never imagining herself to fall for a Pogue like this.

"Yeah. He is."

"I knew it! I knew you had a thing for him! Wait, why the lame code names?"

While Sarah was completely prepared to fill her best friend in on everything, there was one thing she wanted to keep to herself, and that was the nickname origin of Vlad and Val.

"That is kind of an inside joke."

Scarlett playfully rolls her eyes. "Alright fine, have your cute little couple inside jokes. I like you two together."

"You do?"

"Hell yes! I haven't seen you get this excited about a guy since—" She pauses, trying to think of a time where she had seen Sarah this gitty and squirrely over someone she was dating. "Actually, I haven't ever seen you get this excited about a guy."

"Yeah, he's just... different."

"I can tell."

Sarah places her hand on Scarlett's shoulder as she prepares to ask her an important question. "Are we okay enough that I can ask you the hugest favour? Then I promise I'll tell you everything that's going on."

"Of course, what do you need?"

"Can you be lookout tonight? I have to meet John B somewhere at midnight."

"You want me to be a third wheel with you and your new boyfriend? Haven't I done that enough?" Scarlett cringes at the thought, not understanding why Sarah needed her there while she went to see the Pogue.

"No, no! It's not like that. I have to give him something, it's more like a businessy hand off deal."

"Yeah I'm sorry, you completely lost me."

"Screw it." Sarah whispers to herself before turning back to face Scarlett. "I'll just tell you everything now. We are treasure hunting, for gold."

Scarlett bursts out laughing, having to cover her hand with her mouth to quiet down. She waits for Sarah to join her and tell her this was all a joke, but she never does. In fact, the girl seemed quite serious. Scarlett slowly stopped laughing after seeing the expression on her face.

"I'm sorry, you're hunting for what now?"

author's note.
extra long chapter to make up for the inconstantly slow updates butttttttt SCAR IS IN ON THE LOOP ABOUT THE GOLD NOW!! WOOP WOOP

also her convo w kie and kie's parents... yeah i was grinning from ear to ear while writing this