"That's what, a three-story fall to the deck, I give you about a one in three chance of survival."

A group of teens is hanging around a construction site, drinking and exploring. One boy is on the roof, hanging his foot off the edge while drinking his beer. "Should I do it?" the boy on the roof asks the boy on the deck, replying, "Yeah, jump. I'll shoot you on the way down." He points a power drill at the boy on the roof while the other boy shoots finger guns at him.  

Two girls walk out of the house from exploring. "They're going to have Japanese toilets," one of the girls complains. She looks like the younger version of the boy on the roof. The second girl, who has a darker complexion than the first, also complains, "Don't forget the towel warmers." Both girls then go into a discussion about how no one cares about the environment. A boy on the scaffolding tells them he can't have cold towels.

The girls look up to the boy on the roof. "Could you please not kill yourself," the taller one states. The shorter girl decides to make a joke, "Well, if he did die, I would get the house to myself, so I guess that's a win for me." The boy on the scaffolding laughs while the boy on the roof rolls his eyes.

The short girl climbs up the scaffolding sitting next to the boy who hands her a beer. "Don't spill that beer; I'm not giving you another one." the boy on the scaffolding exclaims to the boy on the roof. "You'll give me another one, right, JJ?" the girl asks, giving him puppy dog eyes. "Anything for you, princess," he replies, wrapping an arm around her pulling her into his chest.

The wind changed slightly, and the boy on the roof dropped his beer. "Smooth," "Dumbass," "A-plus" were the reactions of the teens. The girl next to JJ rolled her eyes and exclaimed, "And the dumbass award for this year goes to...John Booker Routledge." She started sarcastically clapping. At the same time, JJ and the other girl laughed.

"Guys, security's here," the boy on the deck reminds the group. "Let's pack it up, boys and girls," the girl on the scaffolding says, making her climb down. The girls are starting to go through the house, with the boys following behind. "Gary is that you," JJ starts to taunt the security guard. "Oh my gosh, Gary, it's so good to see you," the girl goes along with JJ's antics. The group starts to run through the house to avoid the guards. "JJ, Janeen!" Gary yells after the teenagers.

As the guards chase the kids through the house, they laugh, loving the adrenaline of the chase. A guard almost grabs JJ, "not much of a hugger man," he yells, holding onto Janeen's hand, who was right behind him. They get to the fence, and one of the boys goes over and falls while Janeen and JJ jump over, landing on their feet. "Get up, Pope; fatso's coming," JJ exclaims to him, helping him up. JJ, Janeen, and Pope all run away from the property, hearing Gary  shout behind them, "Get back here, you little pricks." They laugh as John B pulls up with the Twinkie, "bus is leaving," he shouts at them. They laugh and jump into the bus, Janeen landing on JJ, who is getting situated.

"Check out Gary gunnin for a raise," Pope explains, pointing to the security guard trying to catch up to them. "Come on, Gary, you got this," Janeen shouts, edging him on. JJ looks at her, and they make eye contact. They nod at each other, then turn to John B, "slow down a little," they tell him and open the van door. "You're so close, you can make it, almost there," were the taunts Janeen and JJ shouted at Gary. They took empty beer cans and threw them at him while he tried to dodge them. "Come on, guys," Kiara said, pulling them back into the Twinkie, "you're gonna give him a heart attack." They start to complain. "Oh, come on. That sort of initiative is just begging to be punished," JJ complains. Janeen hoots before agreeing, "Damn right it is." she does the Pouge handshake with him before taking a blunt out of her pocket and lighting it, blowing the smoke in JJ's face. 

"The Outer Banks, paradise on Earth."

The teens are passing by a wealthy-looking neighborhood. 

"All right. This is Figure Eight, the rich side of the island. Home of the Kooks. So, guess where we don't live. And then this is the south side, the cut. Home of the working class who make a living busing tables, washing yachts, running charters. The natural habitat of...drumroll, please...The Pouges. That's us, pouges, pougies, the throwaway fish.  The 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 do whatever we want, whenever we want.

~Time Skip~

The teens appear on their boat, the HMS Pouge, while they hang out. Kiara on her phone, JJ and Janeen passing a blunt back and forth, and Pope reading a book. John B was fishing and just brought a load onto the 'deck' of the boat. JJ congratulated him," Nice haul, dude, look at that." 

"Ugh, John B," Kiara complains while Janeen sits there with a terrified look on her eyes, "John B, what about the poor fishies? You killed them, now their families are going to be worried!" she exclaimed while JJ rubbed her back and took the blunt from her hands. "And I think you are too high to know the difference," John B states, taking the blunt from JJ and tossing it in the water.

John B's POV

 "That's JJ, my best friend since the third grade.  He's about as local as they come. Latest in a long line of fishing, drinking,  smuggling, vendetta-holding salt-lifers who made their living off the water. Best surfer I know besides my sister. Just don't tell him I said that. Mild kleptomaniac and a future tax cheat. He had a crush on my sister at one point but we immediately agreed that no pouge on pouge macking was allowed. That way, our friendships wouldn't be ruined"

" And that's Kiara, or Kie, as we call her.  When not saving turtles or listening to Marley, or getting a dolphin tattoo, she hangs out with us. I'm not sure why, though. So, she's a rich kid, actually. Foot in both worlds. Her family owns The Wreck, this Outer Banks institution. Total cash cow with the tourists.  You know, I'm not sure how her parents feel about us.  We all have a thing for her."

"Then we have my younger sister by 5 minutes, Janeen Routledge or Jeanie as we like to call her. She's just like Kiara, always saving the turtles. She used to be a gymnast too, she's crazy flexible. She used to get into fights a lot; kooks like Rafe Cameron would know. JJ's been a bad influence on her because now she's a pothead and a klepto. She and JJ met in the second grade, she was actually the one who introduced me to him. She's a sensitive stoner. When she came home high for the first time, her and dad got into a screaming match for an hour. She hid in her room and cried. Then she wouldn't talk to him for a week. Besides that, she and dad were pretty close. When he was lost, she was pretty quiet. She's gotten better and she's still awesome."

"And that's Pope, the brains of the operation...finalist for the Lucas T. VanderhorstMerit Scholarship. And the smartest person I know.  A little bit of a weirdo.  His father's a legendary character, Heyward. Anything you wanted on the island, Heyward could get for you. Now, I'm not sure Heyward knew what to make of his oddball son, but it didn't matter. He's a Pogue, just like the rest of us."

"So, that's my crew. And that's me, John Booker Routledge. And this is where I live— an old fish shack on the marsh. The Château, as our dad used to call it. He disappeared at sea nine months ago, looking for a shipwreck. Who disappears at sea these days? We miss him. And then there's Mom. She split when Jeanie and I were three. Last I heard, she was in Colorado. I think it was Colorado. That's Uncle T.  Since Dad's vanished, he's supposedly our legal guardian. At the moment, he's in Mississippi, building houses... which means it's just us right now, on our own, hangin' out with our friends. Three months after our dad was missing, he was officially presumed dead. Jeanie and I refused to sign the papers. Until we see a body, we're not giving up.

Word Count: 1570 words

A/N: Welcome to OCEAN WAVES. I'm so excited to start this book. Please tell me what you think!

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❤️FANOFADIFISHMAN❤️