Her heart was so golden, it rivaled even the sun.
In which a girl is tired of living by everyone else's rules, so she decides to make her own.
[Outer Banks season 1]
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TO BE FAIR, the Pogues showing up at the airstrip with basically no idea on how to stop Ward Cameron's plane — except, in JJ's words, "go in gun's a blazing and make him beg for mercy" — was probably a recipe for disaster. There were any number of things that could go wrong; some of which could end up with them in jail, or maybe even dead. But Emerson wasn't using her logical side when she agreed to go with the rest of the group on their quest. That side of her had become depleted and foreign to her over the weeks she spent with the Pogues. While that was probably the very reason her parents forbade her from befriending them, it felt oddly freeing to the girl. With them, she didn't think. She just acted. And sure, it had gotten them in a good amount of trouble, but she had never felt more alive. She finally learned to embrace her flaws and her current situation and just have fun. She'd have the rest of her life to pick up the pieces. If only she knew just how many there would be after today.
Emerson listened intently as the Pogues made their plan to send the gold down the intracoastal and live out a luxurious life far away from the OBX. At the beginning of the summer, she'd have shuddered at the idea and probably tried to talk them out of it. But now, especially after everything that happened in her own personal life, taking the gold down to some tropical island and living out the rest of her days there sounded like one of her better options. Going back home made her sick to her stomach, and at this rate she'd be lucky if she got into even the lowest of the low colleges. She was surprisingly okay with disappearing. At least she'd have her friends with her.
"Okay, now what?" Kie asked. She trailed after the boys as they jogged across the lawn over to the fence that bordered the little airstrip, watching Pope pull out a pair of binoculars to examine the scene.
"I dunno," John B shrugged. "Didn't really get that far."
Emerson snorted at that as she came to stand beside the boy, squinting to try and make out what was going on. A plane was already on the runway and several crew members were walking around, but she couldn't see what exactly they were doing. A car arrived on the scene and Pope inhaled sharply, his grip tightening around the binoculars.
"I see Ward," he stated.
John B reached past Emerson to grab the binoculars and pressed them to his eyes, sticking them through the chain-link fence to try and get a better look. He immediately tensed, recoiling into himself as he watched something unfold on the runway.
"John B?" Emerson questioned. A pang of worry bubbled in her stomach as she glanced between the boy and the plane. She couldn't make out anything going on, but John B looked genuinely scared.
"What?" Kie pressed, her eyes widening in nervousness as well. "John B, what?"
"It's Sarah," he whispered.
"She's with him?" Kie cried incredulously.
Emerson's mouth fell open in surprise as she snapped her head back towards the runway. She knew that Sarah was torn and couldn't bring herself to believe that Ward killed Big John, but for her to go with him after she helped the Pogues find the gold just felt like a slap in the face.
