The Pogue Life || JJ Maybank

Prologue

I sit in the back of the limousine, staring out the window as I watch my new town roll by. The Outer Banks. Supposedly paradise on earth. God only knows why on earth my parents felt like dragging us halfway across the world to live on a tiny island that is practically always facing some sort of storm or hurricane.
I do have to admit though, this place is kind of beautiful, in it's own weird way. The houses out here are all extremely fancy and definitely belong to rich people. There wasn't a single one that was affordable to anyone without a huge ass inheritance.

"Yo Mum, why are all these houses so insanely fancy?"

"This is Figure 8," she replies simply

"Is that meant to mean something?" My brother Zac whispers to me

"Not a clue man," I reply

"This is the rich side of the island," Mum laughs

"There's a rich side?" I ask, incredulous

"Please tell me we are on the rich people side," Zac begs

Our mother rolls her eyes and gestures out the window right as the driver turns down an elegant driveway, which ends in a huge three story house. My jaw drops open and I stare at our new house. I thought our old house was nice, but this place is stunning. The gardens are immaculate, despite not having had anyone living there in months. The driveway is lined with huge trees, providing shade cover and only adding to the elegant appearance.

I certainly won't be forgetting how much money we have while I live here.

Zac lets out a string of excited curses and earns himself a raised eyebrow from our mother. In response he gestures to the house in a can you blame me? kind of look. Mum shrugs and laughs, turning to the house herself. The three of us stare out the windscreen as we get closer to the house. The trip up the driveway feels like it takes forever and by the time we finally reach the front door Zac and I are already halfway out of the car door and Mum is fumbling for the keys. Zac snatches them from her hands the second she gets them and sprints to the door. He unlocks it and it swings open to reveal our new house filled with our old furniture. I glance at my twin before we break into large grins and wordlessly decide to race to find the best bedroom to claim as our own.

As we start down the hallway our Mum calls "bedrooms are on the second story. Please don't kill each other!"

With a loud laugh I skid to a halt and spin around, starting up the stairs I'd just ran past before Zac can even process what Mum has said. I poke my head in every room briefly as I make my way down the hallway, barely processing what's in them in my excitement. The third room I reach has a large bay window facing out onto the water. Surrounding the window, the entire wall is made of shelves. I stop and glance around the room. There are two doors on the right side and I make my way in, opening the one nearest the door. My face lights up at the walk-in wardrobe which could hold all my clothes twice. I go to the other door and open it to find a large bathroom. I hear footsteps behind me as I look around the white room in awe.

"Your Dad and I had a feeling you would pick this room. We thought you could use the shelves around the window as bookshelves. We were going to just make one of the rooms a library but this was just too perfect," Mum says, looking out the window, "and the window seat doubles as storage."

"It's perfect," I whisper, "thankyou. It might make the move a little more bearable."

"Yeah, the only problem is that the room Zac is probably going to choose is the one on the other side of the bathroom. Which means you will have to share it," she informs me

As if on cue, Zac yells, "This ones mine," from down the hall.

Walking through the bathroom into his room I roll my eyes. The room is massive and there's a little nook in the corner which he already appears to be trying to design as a gaming corner.

After emptying my suitcase into the wardrobe and doing a short plan of where I wanted to put all my things with some assistance from my Mum, I decided to throw on one of my surfing bikini's and go test out the waves. I threw a green t-shirt dress over the top and made my way out to find Zac, who turned out to be in the kitchen eating what little food we'd picked up once we got to the island.

"Hey loser, surf time?"

"Hell yes," he says, dropping the sandwhich was halfway to his mouth and racing upstairs to get dressed.

"I'll have that," I say, stealing his sandwhich as I make a fresh one for him to eat on the way.

"How's planning going?" Mum asks

"It's not. Zac and I are gonna go find some good waves. Probably suss out the island in the process," I say

"I figured you would do that soon," she says, "You can take Dad's convertible, just make sure you lock it when you aren't in it."

I catch the keys she throws with a large grin. I figured we would just walk but there's no way I would ever say no to driving the convertible. Most of our cars were practical, excluding the convertible. Which is why it was the first one to get shipped over here and therefore the only one we had, aside from the limo Mum had temporarily rented while we waited for the cars.

Zac came rushing down the stairs, "MUM! Where are the towels?"

"There should be some in one of the bags in the entryway," she responds.

Zac snatches the sandwhich I made from the plate, side-eying me because I ate his first one and took a bite out of this one. We search for some towels and make our way out to the garage. We put the roof back and sit our boards on the back seat, trying to protect Dad's precious seat covers with our towels. Zac grumpily gets in the passenger seat of the bright red convertible and I fire it up.

"Don't forget, they drive on the right side of the road out here," Zac informs me as we pull out of the drive.

His mood lifts as we drive through our new home. We try to gather an idea of the lay of the land, only earning a few stares once we pass into the slightly less rich side of the island. We ignore them, pulling into a small parking lot when we spot some good waves. We race down to the beach, locking the car and shedding our top clothes and dumping our things in a pile on the beach.

I'm the first to stand on my board, and decide I'll definitely be teasing Zac about that. After an hour or so of surfing, I'm on a wave and glance up to the beach. My eyes lock on a tall blonde boy, standing shirtless on the beach with a board under his arm. Even from out here, I can tell he's also looking at me and for some reason I can't get my eyes off him. Which, naturally, leads me to hit the wave at a bad angle and go flying off my board.

As I pop my head back out of the water and grab my board, I can hear roars of laughter from my brother. I roll my eyes and climb back on my board. I can't stop myself from glancing back to shore. The blonde boy who distracted me isn't there anymore. And it takes me a moment to spot him paddling towards me with a goofy grin.

A/N
Ok sorry it took me so long to get to JJ but we needed a little intro into Bianca and her family dynamic. Also sorry for the cliffhanger lol. Promise next chapter you'll be getting way more JJ.
I know I didn't explicitly state it but some of you might have already worked out they're from Australia. Just felt like the Outer Banks needed a little bit of Aussie charm. If I use too much Aussie slang let me know coz that's my vocabulary lol.