" Then, there's John B. I mentioned him, JJ's grade school best friend. He's, basically, our keeper. His house is this wicked little fishing shack on the marsh his father — Pogue Life legend Big John — called The Château that JJ and I, for the most part, live in. We only go home when it is absolutely necessary. But, anyway, back to John B., his life has 'recently' struck tragedy. Nine months ago, Big John went missing at sea searching for the Royal Merchant shipwreck. (Only the most famous shipwreck ever around here. Basically, the lore is that in the early-to-mid nineteenth century, the ship went down off the coast of the island carrying four hundred million dollars of British gold on board. Crazy, I know. But, it was Big John's life work.) So, it's been nine months, he's been presumed dead, but John B. refused to sign the papers. No body, no crime type-a style, but no body, no signature. His mom split when he was young, like mine, and his uncle is his legal guardian, but he's in Mississippi 'working on houses', so JB is in a world of hurt with DCS. But Pogues don't let silly, little government hindrances press pause on summer. I'm seventeen this year which means it's my last summer before I graduate high school and I'm officially another upper-class exploitee. Yippee!
" Next, we have Pope Heyward who I've also touched on. Willa Abernathy is so far beneath Pope it's kind of funny. He's the brains. Finalist for the Lucas T. Vanderhorst Merit Scholarship and certifiably the smartest person alive. Pope and Kie are the only ones who have a chance to get off the island. He's kind of a wild card for the Cut. He wants to be a forensic scientist or something sketch. His father is another island-wide legend. Pope's father is Heyward, just Heyward. Anything you wanted on the island, Heyward could get for you. He does grocery deliveries for Kooks and the capitalist hegemony and hustles in about every other department, too. I wanna be like him when I grow up. (I'm his favorite of Pope's friends, Heyward just doesn't like showing it, but I know... )
" Kie — Kiara Carrera to the government — is a total granola girl. Eco-conscious, socialist, Peter Tosh fangirl... When she's not singing Marley, doing stick-n-pokes with me in her bathroom, or saving turtles, she slums it with the guys. I don't really know why, though, I'm much better company than my brother's group of dicks for brains. I love 'em, but they all think with their dicks. She's a rich kid, actually. A Kook. Foot in both worlds kinda thing, though, she's on board with the Abernathys and the Pogues in terms of hating on the Camerons. Her family owns The Wreck, this nautical ocean-front restaurant. Total cash cow with the tourists, but the boys and I have spent way too much on food there a time or two... I'm not sure how her parents feel about the boys, but they love me. Parents love me if you couldn't tell. My theory is that her parents hate the boys because they all so obviously have a thing for her. I guess I might've had one too at some point. Life is wild.
" Lastly, there's me. Piper Maybank. The Official Archnemesis of Edith Abernathy. I don't know what I ever did to her except clean after her messes and teach her sister that if she wants to attend UNC-Chapel Hill she cannot fucking bomb her SATs. Anyway. Well, once I did tell her that if she wanted a mental image for a sapphic sex dream she was planning to have about me, she should probably be more discreet about it, but I swear, I didn't think it would piss her off so bad. But, I, obviously, don't like her the way I (always) imply she likes me. That'd be treasonous, fraternizing with the enemy, Benedict fucking Arnold, man. But, who fucking cares about Edith, right? I'm talking about me. I'm seventeen, top of my class, gonna graduate valedictorian — which, as my father keeps reminding me, isn't that hard to do when I'm the only one who actually does schoolwork. I hate my father, he's a shitbag marina rat who's addicted to just about every substance known to man. I had to work him down from an acid high once where he thought I was my mother. Not a fun time, by the way. The most capitulatory sentence I can think of is that I like drive-in movies and hot girls. So, that's what you need to know."
treason
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