Fools Gold | JJ Maybank [1]

Prologue

" do you guys have a pencil I could borrow?"

11-year-old John Booker Routledge and JJ Maybank blinked up, frozen in a spot where they had been sword fighting with said pencils.

The boys quickly lowered their pencils with dopey smiles, JJ had a tooth missing in the front.

"You're Aspen, right? You sit beside Lilyana over there!" JJ asked, pointing to where the blonde girl sat near the door.

Aspen Lee nodded, her growing-out bangs getting in her eyes.

"yeah. You can call me Penny." Aspen smiled kindly. The boys grinned.

"Aspen, do you think carrots can give you super eyesight?" John B asked, the two boys pulling the girl into a seat at their table. Aspen blinked unsurely.

"uhm... I just need a pencil-"

"I keep telling John B they do but he thinks carrots make you orange!" JJ glared. John B nodded stubbornly.

"super eyesight is a lame superpower anyway JJ." John B said JJ's jaw dropped.

"NO IT'S NOT!"

"YES IT IS!"

"I just needed a pencil..." Aspen mumbled as she sat between the boys, glumly watching them wave their pencils around.

It started from there.

John B, JJ, and Aspen grew up together as the odd trio everyone in school either loved or hated.

On one hand, Aspen was a sweetheart. The mature, smart, kind, and pretty girl captured everyone's heart with her soft words and kind smile.

And always with her were the two scrappy boys that reigned havoc everywhere they went.

How they ended up being best friends baffled everyone. Kiara Carrera and Pope Heyward joined their group towards the end of middle school, and their small friend group was known as the Pouges. You knew trouble was coming if you saw them on the streets or halls.

As they got older their bond just grew stronger, and so did their emotions.

When JJ was 12, a year after first meeting Aspen, he turned to John B while they were walking back from school.

"Im gonna marry Pen someday." JJ puffed out his chest. John B made a face. 

"Penny would never marry someone like you." John B snorted. JJ frowned.

"yes, she would!"

"JJ,  everyone loves Penny. Like everyone, your chances are slim to none."

That became obvious as the years went on. JJ made it his life's purpose to pursue Aspen, but the girl never reciprocated his attempts.

JJ became a natural flirt in high school, a heartthrob. Girls swooned for the blue-eyed blonde bad boy, and JJ ate it all up.  Boys were naturally drawn to Aspen just as much, not that Aspen ever gave them the light of day.

The Pogues became everything to Aspen. The family she found among the chaos that was the Outerbanks.  The girl found solidarity in her four friends, she found peace.

And in JJ Maybank?

Let's just say she always thought of him as home.

Warning: This book will contain sensitive topics such as violence, alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, drug abuse, death, sexual intimacy and others. I will place trigger warnings above each chapter.

I do not own Outerbanks. All rights go to the writers and directors of the show, i only own Aspen Lee and Daniel Lee. PLEASE DONT COPY MY WORK.