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chapter five: the (ship)wreck
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If Monica was honest, not many exciting things occurred in the Outer Banks. The most recent thing that just barely impacted her life was the gas prices rising by five or six cents.
So when Pope informed the group that a boat was buried deep into the marsh floor, Monica immediately discarded her flannel, leaving her in only her bathing suit. "Shut up," she denied, a small smirk of disbelief making its way onto her face. "What?"
"No way."
"No, no, guys. I'm serious. There's — there's, like, a boat down there. For real," Pope urged Monica and Kiara forward, indicating to peek over the side of the boat. Surprisingly, Pope was right: there was a sunken boat, the top of the vessel just barely visible under the murky water. "It's a boat!" confirmed Pope, voice raising from excitement.
"Holy shit," Kie breathed out, beginning to peel off her shorts. "He's right. Let's go!"
JJ, who had been silently listening to the conversation while ducking underwater to get a better view, began to paddle above the shipwreck.
"You think there's a dead body down there?" Pope asked. Monica disregarded his question as she dived into the water, Kie following shortly after with a small whoo! "Guys, wait up!"
"Get your ass in here!"
"Come on!"
Pope cannonballed into the marsh, the Pogues submerging themselves in the water to examine the sunken boat. Monica and JJ latched onto the hardtop and pushed themselves under, eyes ( a light pink color from them being open in the water ) widening when they determined that the boat was a Grady-White. Monica squinted her eyes, partially since the water was seeping into them and partly because she recognized this boat from somewhere. She just couldn't put her finger on it. Coming up for air, the group shared laughs of happiness.
"You guys saw that, right?" JJ gasped, looking frantically around the other teenagers.
"Yeah."
"Yeah, I did."
"Yeah. What the . . ." Monica trailed off, falling into a fit of laughter.
"That's a Grady-White," said JJ, aghast as they swam back to the HMS Pogue. "A new one of those is, like, 500 Gs, easy! That's a primo rig!"
As JJ went on with his little rant, Monica had lifted herself onto the boat, the small waves from the water reminding her that she saw a ship that was exactly like the one they just discovered while she and Pope were surfing the other night. Informing her friends of her memory, Kiara was boggled. "You surfed the surge?" she incredulously questioned.
