EMERY MELVILLE WAS A KOOK.

MARA STEVENS WAS A KOOK.

LEVI MELVILLE WAS A KOOK.

however, the only one who was actually viewed as such was levi.

his younger sister and her best friend were always with the pogues, going as far as never even enrolling at the kook academy. levi had no issue with the pogues, but he was friends with rafe cameron, so the pogues had an issue with him.

the morning after the hurricane, when emery woke up, she was expecting mara to be next to her in john b's guest bedroom, but she was instead met with jj, her longtime best friend- he went back further than mara- sprawled out across the bed.

emery started to climb out of bed, but the arm jj had wrapped around her waist pulled her back down.

"you're a clingy little shit, i'll give you that." emery told him with a small laugh, prying the boy's arm off her, grabbing a random hoodie that had been thrown onto the floor- most likely john b or jj's- and pulled it on over her t-shirt.

"why'd you leave me, jj almost didn't let me out of bed this morning." the blonde said, walking into john b's living room where mara was laying on the pullout couch.

"because this couch is more comfortable than any bed in this house." mara slurred in reply, clearly still half-asleep.

"you been outside yet?"

"john b walked out literally five seconds ago, i haven't moved since five am." mara replied burying her face in her pillow. "now please go away so i can sleep."

emery just walked onto the porch, taking in everything outside. the air was heavier, more humid than normal, and the tree that was standing over the house, providing shade to the porch was blown over, thankfully in the opposite direction of the house.

"that's delightful." emery spoke to john b, who was cleaning his boat out.

jj and emery went way back, john b and emery went back further. their parents were friends, john b's dad and emery's dad working together on a treasure hunt, both trying to find the royal merchant shipwreck together. emery's dad, jackson, provided money, while john b's dad, who everyone called big john, provided his research. their hunt began before they were even married. emery's mother, amelia, and john b's mother, who neither of them could remember were best friends, and their kids (the ones who were the same age, at least) were just as close.

"isn't it the best?" the boy in the boat replied, emery climbing into the boat to help him finish cleaning.

"on the bright side, nothings flooded." emery said, choosing to focus on the positive end of the situation. "and your house is still standing."

"does momma milly know you stayed here last night?" the brunette asked, emery nodding.

"i told levi." she assured, john b rolling his eyes. "literally what has my brother ever done to you? you do realize he's how i get kegs for you, right?"

"he's sitting in rafe's back pocket as we speak." john b said as though it was self explanatory, emery rolling her eyes.

"rafe and lee are not the same person, i can assure you that." emery told the boy, jumping out of the boat as they had finished cleaning it. "if you actually hung out with my brother and had an open mind about it, shoving the fact he's friends with rafe and topper out of your head, you'd like him."

"fine, invite him to the next kegger then!" john b said, arms raised in surrender, emery laughing as mara and jj walked out of the chateau.

"agatha did some work, huh?" jj asked, taking a long drink from the can in his hand.

"no, i did this last night while you were asleep." mara replied sarcastically, leaning against the doorframe of the screened in porch.

"the surge pushed all the crab out of the marsh maze, the drum are gonna chase the crab." john b said, mainly to jj and emery, the three went fishing together all the time.

"isn't dcs supposed to be assessing your- at this point nonexistent- uncle?" mara asked, john b shaking his head.

since the boy's father had disappeared nine months ago, john b's uncle was his legal guardian. amelia had been trying to get custody of him since she found out dcs was up his ass about his uncle never being home- he was in mississippi building houses- but since no one could get in contact with his uncle to discuss a custody transfer, they were stuck waiting around for his uncle ted to show up, which at this point was looking les and less likely.

"dcs won't get on a ferry." he assured his best friend. "come on, em. this is god telling us to fish!"

"y'know who really likes fishing?" mara asked from the porch.

"definitely not you." jj replied, mara smacking the boys shoulder before looking between emery and john b.

"levi." she said, emery nodding.

"this is your chance to not be an asshole to my brother and find out that just because he's friends with kook doesn't mean he's an asshole."

"i'd rather shove my nose into john b's nasty ass converse than hang out with your brother." jj deadpanned from the porch.

"my converse are... relatively clean, thank you." john b defended himself, emery wrinkling her nose.

"no, they're not. not even close." she retaliated before turning to jj. "you can't hate my brother because he's friends with the kooks, that makes them look better because they still like me and mara despite being friends with you guys."

"you hate the kooks, why do you care what they think?" john b asked.

"because it's helping me win an argument." emery replied quickly, mara shrugging.

"levi really isn't that bad. he's more like you than you think." the stevens girl assured jj. "besides, if you don't get along with him, emery can drown him or something."

"true that." emery replied, looking between jj and john b who looked torn before john b sighed heavily.

"fine." he groaned. "but if he's annoying i'm shoving him into the propeller."

"that's a fair point." emery replied. "now come help me get the boat back in the water."

"HAVE YOU TEXTED LEE?" mara asked emery, who nodded.

"he's meeting us at heyward's when we pick up pope." she replied. sure enough, when the boat got closer to heyward's, pope and levi were both standing on the end of the dock, boat wearing board shorts and a button down.

"well look who we have here." john b said mockingly while looking at pope, levi climbing into the boat and sitting by emery.

"how much did you pay them to let me come?" he whispered, emery shoving his shoulder.

"they agreed on the condition you don't be an asshole." she replied, teeth gritted.

"that's a lovely hose you have." mara commented. "very pretty shade of green."

pope responded by putting his middle finger in the air, dropping the hose onto the dock he was cleaning off.

"you should like, get in the boat." emery suggested, pope sighing heavily.

"i cant, my pops has me on lockdown." he complained, jj groaning.

"come on, man!" he whined before turning to mimic speaking into a cb radio on his shoulder. "your dads a pussy, over."

as if he was magic, heyward, pope's father, appeared behind his son on the dock, looking at jj in displeasure.

"oh, i heard that, you little bastard." the man spat.

"if you let me borrow your son, i'll have him home before ten." emery told the man, batting her eyes at him in a hopeful manner.

"besides, island rules, day after a hurricane's a free day." jj told the man.

"who the hell made that up?" heyward snapped at the boy.

"pentagon, i think? we have security clearance, i have a card." he said, heyward remaining unamused with the boy's antics.

"pentagon- y'all think i'm stupid?" he spat, levi looking over at emery.

"is he always this mad?" the boy muttered, his little sister nodding.

"yeah, pretty much." she replied, looking up at heyward. "if you let him go, i'll help him do it tomorrow." she tried to reason, but heyward shook his head.

"as much as i appreciate the offer, emery, it's pope's job to help." he explained.

"i promise i'll do it tomorrow!" pope tried to reason, heyward looking at his son like he had lost his mind.

"no! hell no, you're doing it right now!"

"get in the boat." john b whispered.

"come on, man, run for it." levi joined, and eventually pope did, jumping onto the boat as heyward shouted in protest behind him.

"when you get back, you're gonna clean shrimp, you're gonna clean fish, you're gonna clean your dirty-ass room!" heyward yelled.

"love you, pops!" john b called.

"i promise i'll bring him back fully intact!" mara yelled.

"and i don't like your friends!" heyward finished yelling as the boat continued to cruise away.

"we'll pick up ainsley and then kie." john b told emery, who nodded as the boat cruised closer to one of the only houses on the outlet, an old crab shack isaac tucker's father had renovated into a small house right before his death.

"there's my favorite girlfriend!" emery called as the blonde girl on the dock got closer to the boat, a wide smile on her face as she passed a plastic sack to mara, who began to looking through the assorted cans of different brands of beer, no doubt ones that ainsley had grabbed in a rush.

"how are we?" she asked sitting across from levi on the chair in front of the driver's console of the boat, glancing back at john b.

"still here." mara replied, opening one of the cans and taking a drink.

small talk and conversation was held between the group until the boat got to figure eight, and the pogues were enjoying levi's company far more than any of them expected to. it wasn't that they particularly disliked the boy, the company he kept was just a little concerning to the boys.

no one knew how kiara would react levi being with them- all of them suspected something between the two had happened during her kook year- but they were all hoping for the best. so, when kiara came strolling down the dock with a cooler in her hand, jj helped her onto the boat.

"whatcha got?" emery asked, kiara shrugging, ignoring levi completely. in fact, no one ever saw her look in his direction.

"just some carrot sticks, yogurt, juice boxes." kiara named off sarcastically.

"what about my kind of juice box?" jj asked, and the girl smirked and hesitated before eventually nodding.

"yeah." she muttered, pulling a beer bottle out and hanging it to him, everyone on the boat grabbing one of ainsley's cans or kiara's bottles and clinking them all together as john b revved the boat, steering it toward the marsh maze.

"lemme show you guys a party trick." jj claimed, starting to climb onto the bow, emery, mara, and john b immediately moving to the back of the boat.

"you guys have fun with that!" emery called, standing by mara next to pope, who was driving.

"pope, can you speed it up a little?" jj asked, pope sighing before throttling the boat higher, jj standing on the front of the bow, tilting his head back and attempting to pour the beer into his mouth while pope mumbled something about how the boy had tried to trick like six thousand times and it had yet to work.

"you're getting beer in my hair!" kiara complained, levi holding his hands up to shield his face.

"alright, that's good!" the kook boy called.

"jj, get down!" mara yelled. suddenly, the boat lurched to a stop, the front end raising out of the water a couple of feet, jj being thrown off the front as everyone was lurched forward and then back abruptly.

"you're never driving again." emery groaned, slowly sitting up.

"you okay, jj?" pope called as the blonde surfaced, groaning.

"i think my heels touched the back of my head." he whined.

"kie, you good?" john b asked the brunette, who confirmed that she was, in fact, okay.

"what the hell happened? levi asked, wincing as he stood up.

"it's a sandbar, the channel changed." pope explained.

"no shit." jj retaliated.

"you told him to go faster." emery defended pope, jj climbing back into the boat as pope stood on the bow to look into the water.

"it's probably messed this whole place up." john b complained.

"hey, i saved the beer, though." jj said proudly, mara rolling her eyes.

"congratulations." she replied flatly.

"guys." pope spoke, everyone turning to look at him, but he was staring into the water. "i think there's a boat down there."

kens speaks 🪐

what happened to john b's uncle? like bro got mentioned in the first episode and we never hear of him again. like, there was no transfer of custody to ward, not to mention when john b got the death penalty mans did not bat an eye

anywho

very excited for this book