Carson Keller used to think her biggest problem was their rivalry against the Kooks, but that was until buried secrets rose to the surface. Now her biggest problems included a dangerous treasure hunt and a hot-headed teenage boy.
✰ season 1-3 ✰
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BEFORE CARSON COULD MAKE IT TO THE KEGGER, the one that they were throwing as a distraction, she knew she would have to at least check in with her mom at home first. Even though her mom didn't technically enforce her grounding, she still figured it would be best to make sure she knew she stopped by first. It was this acknowledgment of respect that allowed their relationship, as weird as it may seem to others, to work.
"Hey, Mom?" Carson called out as she entered her house. She walked into the kitchen to see if she was in there but she wasn't. Just as she was about to leave though, she saw an open envelope on the counter. She picked it up and peeked it open out of curiosity. When she saw that it was a check, her curiosity just heightened. Her mom always yelled at her when she went snooping around in things that didn't belong to her, but she couldn't help herself. She always said that if her mom didn't want her to see something, she shouldn't just leave it out in the open for her to find. Clearly, that applied to this situation.
She pulled the check out, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at what she saw in front of her. "What the hell?"
It was a check for $1,000 from Ward Cameron. Carson's grip tightened around the check as she searched the house until she found her mom sleeping. "Mom." When she didn't wake up, she shook her. "Mom." She slowly opened her eyes but as soon as she saw what Carson was holding, they shot open. "Do you want to explain why you have a check for 1K from Ward Cameron?" Her mom sat up in bed, running a nervous hand through her hair. "I asked you a question!"
"Carson, sweetie, sit down," her mom said. Those words never meant anything good so it just put her on edge more so than she already was.
"I don't want to sit," she said. "Just tell me why the hell Ward is giving you money." Her mom looked like a million thoughts were running through her head before she sighed.
"It's child support," she finally said. Carson stared at her in shock, like she hadn't just said "child support".
"What?"
"He's your father, Carson," her mom revealed. Carson took a step back, feeling like she had just been punched in the gut. She stared at the check so intensely, like it was going to give her all the answers that she had questions to, but the three 0's just stared up at her like they were mocking her. Maybe they were.
"I- I don't understand," Carson choked out. She suddenly felt like every tear that she had cried about not knowing who her father had built up and threatened to drown her. It was a feeling that she hated. She hated it even more now knowing who it had been that she cried over.
"We had an affair," her mom told her. Though, that wasn't what Carson really meant. She had figured that out obviously. It was more the general shock from it being Ward. They lived on the other side of the island. She was half-sisters with Kooks. It was this realization that suddenly pissed her off.
"You're telling me that all this time, he's been living in a huge ass mansion with his three other kids and we've been stuck here in this place, a place that is probably smaller than Sarah Cameron's bedroom?" Carson yelled. "What is this? Some pitiful charity?" She threw the check onto the bed, feeling disgusted by the sight of it. "What have you been doing with his money anyway?" As far as Carson knew, she always thought they struggled with money. She had no idea that her mom had been receiving money from Ward Cameron.
