𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝟏

𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐛𝐱

The Outer Banks, Paradise on Earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses. Two tribes, one island. All right. So this is Figure Eight, the rich side of the island.

Home of the Kooks. So, guess where we don't live. And then, this is the south side of the cut. Home of the working class who make a living busing tables, washing yachts, running charters.

The natural habitat of...drumroll, please...the Pogues. That's us. Pogues, pogies, the throwaway fish. Lowest member of the food chain.

Okay. So, the downside of Pogue life is we're ignored and neglected. But the upside of Pogue life? We're ignored and neglected, which means we do whatever we want, whenever we want. 

𝐣𝐣 𝐦𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤

That's JJ, my best friend since the third grade. He's about as local as they come latest in a long line of fishing, drinking, smuggling, vendetta-holding salt-lifers who made their living of the water. Best surfer I know, just don't tell him I said that. Mind kleptomaniac and a future tax cheat. Big flirt, but his heart is owned by one girl, even if he'll never admit it.

𝐤𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐚

That's Kiara, or Kie as we call her. When she's not saving turtles, listening to Marley or getting a dolphin tattoo, she hangs out with us. I'm not really sure why, though. So she's a rich kid actually, foot in both worlds. Her family owns The Wreck, the outer banks institution. Total cash cow with the tourists, you know I'm not really sure how her parents feel about us. Because we all have a things for her, well, not JJ.

𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝

That's Pope, the brains of the operation, finalist for the Lucas T. Vanderhorsrt Merit scholarship and the smarties person I know. Little bit of a weirdo but his father is a legendary character, Heyward. Anything you wanted on the island, Heyward could get it for you. I'm not sure Heyward knew what to make of his oddball son, but it didn't matter. He was a Pogue, just like the rest of us.

𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐧

And then there's Tatum. JJ was completely in love with her. You couldn't keep her from the water too long, it was everything to her. I don't know how she does it, but she's the type to make you come back for more. Probably explains why the Kooks and Pogues fight over her. The thing about Tatum is, her beauty blows you away. Imagine being caught in a storm –a hurricane- which literally lifts you up and blows you into the sky. You see her, and you've been knocked off your feet.

𝐣𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐛 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞

Then we have me, John Booker Routledge. And this is where I live, an old fish shack on the marsh, The Chateau, as my dad used to call it. He disappeared at sea nine months ago and with my uncle in Mississippi, that means I'm on my own, hanging out with my friends.