"Girls, come set the table!" Mrs. Heyward calls up the stairs.
Cora quietly groans, but drops her crayons and gets up.
"It's not even hard." Rosie says, remembering a couple times John B made her help him with it -- even though she was too young to handle anything but the spoons.
"Still annoying." Cora grumbles making Rosie quietly laugh. The two bound down the stairs, running into the kitchen.
"No running in my kitchen." Mrs. Heyward orders.
"Sorry, Mrs. H." They both apologize.
It's been two and a half months since the pogues had gone missing and the Heywards took in the two girls.
The first month had been filled with crying and screaming and yelling. While the Heywards made the home as comfortable as they could, the two girls were still grieving the loss of their brothers and friends. They got into plenty of arguments with each other, especially when they reminded each other of the older boys they so dearly missed.
While the anger eventually subsided, their pain was still prominent. Cora always wears JJ's shirt to bed and if she didn't have to leave the house. She refused to let Mrs. Heyward watch it for the first month, not wanting to wash away the smell of her brother. But after spilling a glass of juice on it, she had no other option but to let the woman wash it so it didn't attract bugs. It doesn't smell like JJ anymore, but it still brings her comfort. Plus, she'll always have his hat that's too big on her.
Rosie completely shut down and wouldn't talk for three whole weeks. She had cried all she could, yelled at the top of her lungs, but none of it had brought John B back. While she was used to fights, having grown up with her brother and father fighting constantly -- including right before Big John went missing -- she absolutely hated them. She hates that John B broke his promise. She hates that this is the second time he's left her. Though, the Heywards are a much better living environment than the Camerons. She didn't take anything of John B's from the chateau, but the few things the Heywards grabbed for her reminded her of home.
They get homecooked meals three times a day, Mrs. Heyward always packs them sandwiches for lunch -- on fresh, non-moldy bread. Mr. Heyward lets them have one ice cream each whenever they get done helping him around with little tasks in the shop. They attend school regularly, play Uno multiple nights a week, and sometimes the Heywards will take them to the beach so they can swim and build sandcastles.
Cora's slowly been learning how to read, Mrs. Heyward helping her the most with it, Cora often trying to read whatever her teacher assigned while Mrs. Heyward cooks dinner. Mrs. Heyward lets them both help out with cooking and if they request baking, she has them help out with that too.
Rosie would love for her brother to return, but if he ever were to, she knows she'd probably yell at him before she grows close to him again. Cora, even though it hurt more than anything when JJ didn't come back, just wants him around so she can glue herself to him so he can never leave again. While she knows she should probably be angry, the girl hates to feel anger since that's all she knew since birth and so she lets it all go and turn into sadness. She just wants at least one more warm, tight, comforting, safe hug from the boy that spent the past almost six years raising her.
It's the most stable living situation either girl has ever had in their short lives, and while they still both miss the teenagers more than anything, they love living with the Heywards.
But that stability is about to get uprooted entirely when five certain teenagers, along with a newcomer and long lost father, return home.
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i was gonna put the whole reunion in this chapter but there's so much non-dialogue so i decided to keep it a recap
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birds of a feather, obx
Fanfiction[ outer banks -- seasons 1-3 ] Rosie Routledge & Cora Maybank Stand Alone: Birds of a Feather I DO NOT own Outer Banks, any of the show's characters or storylines. I ONLY own my OCs and their storylines.
