The following morning, Slater woke up with the sun. Her heart raced in excitement as she remembered the package they'd found at the cemetery -- finally, the pogues had a lead, and one directly from the hands of Big John Routledge.

John B had opened the package to find a tape recorder with a message from his father, and a map with a beautiful X marking a spot in the ocean. The group had decided to meet up early, so Slater showered and got ready as soon as she was awake.

She dressed in a pair of olive green shorts and a cropped white tank, then slipped on her sandals and headed downstairs, where her parents were having breakfast.

"Good morning, sweetie," her mother greeted, surprised to see her daughter awake after a late night out.

"Morning," Slater said, a grin on her face as she settled in at the table beside her father, reaching for a banana.

Vic watched his daughter with a curious smile, surprised to see her in such a good mood so early in the morning. "Do you work today?" he asked.
"Later," she said.

"You're up early," Leanore noted, handing her daughter a mug of coffee.

Slater nodded, her knee bouncing restlessly as she downed the coffee and the banana. "I have plans," she said, just as her phone buzzed with a message from John B, asking if they wanted to meet up at his house before heading out for the day.

"You have plans ...." Vic echoed. "Listen, Slater, have you been hanging around Kiara Carrera a lot lately?"

Slater nodded. "Yeah, we're friends. I mean, I work for her parents."

"I know," Vic said. "The Carreras are good people, but ... Kiara hangs out with some characters from the Cut. I just want to make sure you're being safe."

By "being safe," her father meant: "I hope you're not hanging out with those same characters from the Cut."

"We're probably just going surfing, Dad," Slater lied, rolling her eyes.

Before Vic could respond, his phone rang, and he answered it at the table.

"This is Shoupe," he answered.

Slater exchanged a glance with her mother. It was still early in the morning, and he wouldn't be headed out for at least thirty minutes. What could be so important that it couldn't wait?

She could faintly hear the person on the other end of the phone.

"Fishermen found two bodies in the marsh. It's the two guys Peterkin stopped from chasing down the Routledge boy the other day."

"Excuse me," Vic said to his family before leaving the kitchen for some privacy.

It was too late, however, as Slater had already heard what she needed to hear -- the bad guys, the ones that had almost killed them at the chateau, were dead.

She swallowed down a lump that was forming in her throat and finished off the last of her coffee. "I should go. Bye, Mom," she said, giving her mother a quick hug before bolting for the Subaru. As she headed outside, she typed out a quick message to the pogues.

Meet at JB's ASAP. I've got some news.

She booked it to John B's, pulling in the driveway just as Pope and Kiara did in the latter's car.

"What's so important, Slate?" Kiara asked as they headed inside.

"I'll tell you in a sec," Slater replied.

They headed inside to find JJ already there, having crashed on John B's couch. John B was pacing back and forth, the map in his hands.

"Okay, so I overheard a phone call of my dad's this morning," Slater began as everyone took a seat around John B's table. "Our friends from yesterday, the ones that almost killed us? Yeah, some fishermen pulled their bodies out of the marsh this morning."

"They're dead?" John B said, his eyes wide.

"They're dead," Slater repeated.

"Shit," JJ muttered, taking a hit from his pen. "Guess they had more enemies than just us."

"Does that mean we have more enemies?" Pope asked. "I can't afford anymore enemies. I have my scholarship interview in--"

"We know, Pope," JJ said, cutting him off.

"Anyways, we need access to a computer," John B said. "Electricity has been out over here since Aggie came through." He looked to Slater. "I don't suppose you have power?"

Slater's cheeks flushed. After days of defending herself against JJ calling her a kook, there she was -- the only one with power.

"I have power," she said. Just as JJ was about to open his mouth with some smart ass comment, she shot him a glare and said, "Shove it up your ass, JJ."

JJ's eyes went wide and a smirk filled his face as he put his hands up. "Jesus, what did I do?"

"It's not what you did, it's what you were about to do, and I, frankly, don't want to hear it," Slater snapped.

"So we can use your computer, then?" John B asked.

Slater nodded. "Yeah. Let me just check with my sister to make sure our parents are out of the house," she said, pulling out her phone.

"I bet nothing would set your dad off worse than finding a bunch of no-good pogues in his house," JJ said with a laugh.

"Don't talk about my dad," Slater said. Her phone buzzed with a text from Maeve, saying that the coast was clear and neither of their parents were home. "Okay, we're good."

"Sweet," John B said.

"To Kook-landia we go," JJ said, scrambling to his feet. The pogues made a beeline for John B's van, but Slater simply shook her head and pointed to her Subaru.

"One way to capture a lot of attention in Figure Eight would be to drive that hunk of junk," she said with a laugh. "Besides, if friends of my parents see your van parked outside of my house, I'll be grounded for months."

"That would be a shame," JJ quipped, moving to get in the front seat of Slater's car. "Shotgun."

"Why do you get shotgun?" Kiara asked, climbing in the back. "You don't even like Slater."

"That's not true," JJ said, glancing at Slater. "Oh wait, yes it is."

"What is this, Slater?" Pope asked, picking up the box of CDs.

"My music collection," Slater said. "Pick something out."

JJ grabbed the box from Pope and started rifling through it. "This is what you listen to?"

"Just pick something, J," Kiara said, rolling her eyes.

JJ muttered something undistinguishable and popped open a CD case, which Slater was pleasantly surprised to see was John Denver. She drove them back to Figure Eight and her home, which was sandwiched between two much larger properties that made the Shoupe-Cambry residence look like a hole in the wall.

Slater led them inside and found her mother's laptop resting on the kitchen table. She passed it along to Pope and John B as they used it to track down the exact location of the coordinates they'd found on the map from Big John.

"Where's Maeve?" Kiara asked, glancing around the kitchen.

"Upstairs, probably," Slater said, watching over John B's shoulder as he typed in the coordinates.

"Who's Maeve?" JJ asked, scanning the family photos that lined the kitchen wall.

"My sister," Slater replied, pointing to Maeve's picture on the wall.

"Hey, who knew Shoupe could smile?" JJ joked, pointing to a family portrait.

Slater smacked his hand away. "Leave my family alone, please."

"Any luck on the coordinates, JB?" Kiara asked.

"There it is," John B said, letting out a long sigh.

"In the middle of the open ocean," Pope said. "You do see how that's a problem, right?"

"I know just what we need," JJ said, slamming his fist on the table. "There's a drone out at the salvage yard. That puppy will show us everything we want to see."

"And how, exactly, do you plan on getting the drone, JJ?" Kiara asked.

"We'll just borrow it," he said. "Without permission."

A glance at her watch told Slater that she had to start getting ready for work. "Well, I hope you enjoyed the internet, but I have to get going," she said. "I've got the afternoon shift at the Wreck."

"You're not going to help us get the drone?" Pope asked. "If we're going with JJ's plan, we'll need all the help we can get."

Slater wanted to help the pogues, but she knew she couldn't dip out on work. She needed the job -- she needed the money.

"I'm sorry, guys. I can't cut shifts -- it's not like my dad owns the place," she said. Upon realizing how rude that sounded, she apologized. "Sorry, Kie. I didn't --"

"It's okay, Slater," Kiara said with a laugh. "We all know I'm more than lucky to not get fired for all of the shifts I miss."

Coordinate location secured, Slater dropped the pogues off at John B's before heading to work.

When she arrived, Mr. Carrera was having an intense discussion with his wife. After hearing just a few words, Slater knew they were talking about Kiara.

"All she does is run off with those pogues," Mrs. Carerra said. "I'm worried about her, Mike."

Something told Slater she shouldn't be listening, so she quickly punched in before heading out to the restaurant.

It was slow in the restaurant, so after getting some chores done, Slater sat at the counter with a pen and a tiny notebook, jotting down whatever came to mind.

Beyond surfing, writing was Slater's pleasure in life. Both offered her an escape from reality in different ways.

Most of what she scribbled in her writer's notebook was nonsense — incoherent ramblings that came to her. Bits of sentences, words she liked, and descriptions of places and people around her.

Lately, she'd been writing lots about the pogues.

"Anything worth hearing in there?" A voice called out, drawing Slater's attention from the book. Her cheeks reddened as she saw who it was.

"Rafe. Hi," she said, quickly shoving the notebook back into her pocket.

A smile filled the Cameron boy's face and he took a seat in front of her, playing with the signet ring that adorned his finger.

"Hi, Slater. How are you?"

Through her father's position in the sheriff's department, the Shoupe-Cambry family had been given a membership to the country club — the same one the Cameron family frequented.

Last summer was their first with the membership, Slater and Maeve had spent a lot of time there, challenging each other to one-on-one tennis matches.

Rafe, a fresh graduate of Kildare County's kook-filled private school, captured Slater's attention immediately, and vice versa. Things ended awkwardly between the two when the summer ended. Rafe considered Slater to be inferior, not good enough to be a kook and too superior to be a pogue. That, and he was a bit of an asshole, and his developing cocaine addiction wasn't something Slater wanted to be a part of.

It was never meant to be anything more than a harmless fling, and it was, but anytime she saw him he brought a blush to her face.

"I'm good," she said, standing to find some work to do. "I'm working."

"Well, that explains why I haven't seen you around the club much," he said, tapping his ring on the counter.

"Can I get you anything, Rafe?" Slater asked, maintaining her waitress persona.

The blond shook his head, a smirk playing on his face. "No, just wanted to stop by and say hi. Your father told my dad that you worked here now."

"Well, not all of us were born with trust funds," Slater said. "Some of us have to work."

Rafe chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Well, I guess I'll see you around. You'll be at Midsummer, I assume?"

Midsummer was an annual event held at the club. Slater assumed her family would be attending, just as they had the previous year.

"Most likely," she said.

Rafe smiled and nodded a goodbye to Slater, sending chills down her spine, though not in a good way.

Rafe could be charming, and he was very handsome, but there was something extremely unsettling about the boy.

The restaurant picked up as dinner rolled around, helping the rest of Slater's shift pass by rather quickly.

When she finally left, there were a bunch of messages from the pogues, indicating that they had gotten the underwater drone from the salvage yard. All they had to do next was wait for good weather, something incredibly fickle in the OBX.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ author's note ✫・゜・。.

did you like slater's little surprise? haha i love drew starkey too much to leave him out of this story. note: STOP THIRSTING FOR RAFE, HE'S TERRIBLE! love the actor, not the character.

question time: what's the last meal you had? i just had an apple and a large iced coffee (meal of champions).

thanks for reading, and please vote and leave comments if you'd like!

xx,
madi