Sandy Shoals || AU

Chapter 1 - Hurricane Agatha

    I wake up drunk as fuck on John B's bed. I throw a shirt on from my backpack and stumble outside. I walk out and wave bye to John B, who's the only one awake. On my way home I stop at the pier and notice everyone seems to be frantically locking stuff down.
    "Howie! What the hell is going on?"  I yell.
"You haven't heard? Hurricane Agatha is about to hit us bad. Everyone is battening down the hatches."
    Fuck. I text our group chat and ask if anyone wants to go surfing tonight since there's gonna be some big ass waves. John B and Pope reply saying they want to. I head home and my mom is sleeping in her bed after work. I close all our windows for her and then grab my board and head to the beach to meet Pope and John B. When we head out and pass the closed beach sign Pope turns to us.
"Those aren't surfable waves bro." he says.
"Says who?" John B replies.
    John B and I run out to the ocean, leaving Pope behind, and go in board first. The waves are huge and we can barely stay on our boards, but we're laughing the whole time. While we paddle we look out and notice a small fishing boat going out to sea.
"The fuck?" I say under my breath.
    John B and I look at each other, and his expression show's he's just as confused as I am.
"Let's go home." He suggests.
    I nod and we start paddling back to the shore, catching one more wave on our way in. I wave goodbye to John B and start walking away. As I'm walking home it gets darker than before. I look up and see all the lights on the island go out, ending with the lighthouse. Well... shit.
    I wake up and my mom is already gone. I pick up my phone. No Service? You've got to be kidding me. I walk outside and there's debris all over the place and there's a car flipped in the road outside. I walk down to the only place I know I'll eventually see John B. I walk to the pier and dangle my legs over the wet dock. Then I see John B and JJ in the S.S Pogue on the horizon. They bring the boat over and I hop on and we set out to go pick up Pogue and Kie. As we pick Pope up his dad is pissed as fuck. Pope hops on anyways because we can't miss out on the fish. Finally we pick Kie up and head out to the marsh. As we head  out to try and catch some fish in the aftermath of the hurricane. JJ is being his dumbass self and is trying to waterfall a beer while standing on the front of the boat. There's beer flying everywhere and then everything goes into slow motion. We hit something and everyone flies forward,  JJ flies off the front of the ship.
  "Everyone ok?" I ask.
Scattered yeahs and I'm fines come from John B, Pope, and Kie. I stand up and see JJ floating in the water.
"I think my feet hit the back of my head" he groans..
    I pull him on board while Pope explains that it's a sand bar that the hurricane must have made. But then as he looks closer he yells
"Guys... I think there's a boat down there"
    We all look down and realize he's right. We all jump in and start swimming down to the boat. As we swim down the murky water we don't find a body. Me and John B look at each other and realize that it was the same boat we saw the night before. Then John B pulls out the anchor and decides to swim down. What an idiot.
"Well I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front." JJ states.
John B laughs and JJ pushes him into the water. We sit at the edge of the boat and wait for John B for what feels like hours. When he comes up he holds up a motel key.
"A motel key?" Pope asks.
"Yes a key Pope." John B replies.
    We head back to the mainland laughing the entire time. When we get back to the shore we try to turn the key in to the police station but they just ignore us the whole time. It leaves us no choice by to investigate ourselves. When we get to the motel JJ and John B  go inside while Kie, Pope, and I wait outside in the boat.
"So what do you think they're gonna find?" I ask my friends.
"No clue, but it better get us in trouble." Pope responds.
Kie laughs, "There's no way we'll get in trouble. It's probably a bunch of junk."
I sit back and wonder what could happen. I mean it's probably nothing, just some rando fisherman who went out in the storm like an idiot. As Kie is going on a rant about the environment like always (what a queen) I see the sheriff pull up to the motel. Someone points up to the room and Kie, Pope and I run to the window and try to throw rocks to get their attention. They finally look at us and we signal to them. We run back to the boat hoping for them to get the message and get here. When we look back we see JJ and John B hanging on the side of the wall. My heart starts beating as I wait nervously for them to get out. Then JJ drops a black object and the sheriff looks out the window. We try to act as natural as possible so he doesn't think we're suspicious and as the sheriff walks away the two dingbats climb down and get in the boat. We start heading back to drop everyone off.
"The cops took everything like it was a crime scene" John B states.
"Did you guys find anything?" Pope asks.
Then JJ pulls out a stack of cash and a pistol from his pockets.
"What the fuck JJ" I whisper yell, "Why would you take that?"
Pope starts overthinking and freaking out over his merit scholarship. What the hell are  we gonna do if the cops find out about this. As we pull into the pier we see a giant crowd. We see the police pull out a body. John B asks this quiet girl from our school Eireni who it is.
"It's Scooter Grubbs. He was out during the storm." She responded, "Check out this pic I got. Dead body."
"What kinda boat did he have" JJ asked.
"Somehow, that dirtbag copped a brand new Grady White, everyone's out looking for it" She answers.
    All of us look at each other with wide eyes. We all head to John B's house and Pope is freaking the fuck out.
    "We didn't see anything, we don't know anything. We need to have total and complete amnesia."
"Actually Pope's right for once, we have to Deny Deny Deny." JJ chips in.
    We all talk about what to do next and finally John B speaks up.
"How would Scooter get all of that money? He's a no life with no more than 40 bucks in his pocket at a time, and then he has a new Grady White? It doesn't make sense."
    "Smuggling" I sharply reply "That's the only explanation."
"Smuggling" John B looks at me and winks.
"There's gotta be something valuable left in that boat, and we gotta get it" JJ says.
"That's incredibly stupid JJ, someone probably owns that and will be looking for it." Pope quickly snaps back.
"Stupid things have good outcomes" JJ replies with a smirk "We just gotta lay low until we can get into that ship."
"and how do you suppose we do that?" I ask.
"Kegger?" Kiara suggests.
    We all look at each other and smile, except for Pope of course. Everyone heads back to their houses to get stuff for the party. I stay at John B's and grab a dirty polo and khaki shorts form my clothes stash in John B's room. His house is basically my second home. When everyone gets back to John B we grab the keg and cups and head out to the beach. Finally there's a smile on Pope's face as I squirt Kie with the hose. People slowly start arriving and we all let loose.
    You can't understand the Outer Banks without understanding the Boneyard.  It's like a three layer burrito, there's us and our friends the working class derelicts from the cuff. Then there's the kooks I told you about, the rich second-homers. They're mostly from poncey-ass boarding schools, just rich trustafarian posers. Our natural enemies. Then there's the Tourons. Totally clueless. Here for a week on vacation with their families. Chum for the sharks.
    Kiara and I are are having an astrology talk with some random Touron when we notice someone out of the corner of our eyes.
"What is she doing here" Kie asks.
    I look up and there's Sarah Cameron, the Kook Princess. Kiara and My best friend in the ninth grade, worst enemy in the tenth. John B works on her dad's boat. Then her not so pleasant Topper comes running behind her. Topper actually thinks Pogues were bred to mow lawns. We watch them with a side eye as they prance around like they're better than everyone else.
    As the night goes on we party and it gets dark.. Then JJ makes the not so smart decision to offer Sarah a drink.
"Sarah, can I interest you in a tasty Milwaukee beverage?"
"No, thanks" she snobbishly responds.
"Is it not fancy enough for you?" JJ asks.
"No we're just leaving." She says.
    Then Topper's big ego has to insert himself into it.
"You know what? I'll take it. Thank you man I appreciate it"
"That's nice but I didn't ask you." JJ responds "if you said pretty please, maybe."
    "Oh, pretty please" He sarcastically responds.
    Then Topper takes the drink and throws it in JJ's face. JJ starts pushing back and Kie and I watch as John B tries to push JJ off.
"Dirty Pogues" Topper yells.
    Something about him saying that sent John B over the edge. He charges at Topper and pushes him back.
"We're supposed to be incognito remember" Pope tries to remind John B but Topper throws a punch.
    He pushes John B into the water and starts yelling at him.
"Hey John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, all right."
    I start running towards Topper.
"Don't touch him you fucking asshole!"  I scream at him.
"Yeah? What are you gonna do about it faggot?" Toppper says.
    Pope and Kie try to hold me back while yelling at Topper.
"Topper dont't call him that." Sarah says. For once she's actually a decent person.
Topper continues to push John B in the water.  The crowd keeps chanting fight at them as I scream at them. John B get's up and pushes him down and I finally agree this needs to stop.
"Stop you guys!" Kie yells as they wrestle in the water.
    We watch in shock as Topper throws him down and holds his head under the water.
"Stop! You're drowning him!" Pope yells at Topper.
     JJ looks back to go get something. And comes out with the pistol. He goes up to Topper and holds it up to his head.  Everyone scatters as Sarah, Pope, Kie and I all scream at JJ to stop. Topper lets John B go and he stumbles over to Sarah. Kie and I run over to make sure John B is ok. Then JJ starts screaming.
    "Listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!" He shoots the gun into the air twice.
    Pope pushes JJ and starts screaming.
"Are you crazy?! You're jeapordizing everything!"
    Kie and I carry John B back to his house and lay him in his bed. We look at each other and sigh. We walk home together in the dark and when I reach my house and hug her goodbye. I go inside and my mom is already sound asleep. I wash the first off my face and get ready for bed.
The next morning we all head to John B's house and sit outside waiting for him.
"Look guys I'm calling it off. Peterson said, if I stay out of the marsh, she'll help me with DCS." He tells us.
"And you believe her?" JJ asks.
They go back and forth arguing over the cop. Pogue tells us he knows theres gotta be something valuable down there if they don't want us in the marsh.
"Pope I understand why you wouldn't wanna go, you're the golden boy, and you" he points to Kiara "you're already rich as fuck anyways why bother?" He says. "But the three of us man" he looks at John B and me "we got nothing to lose."
JJ tells us his plan to have John B go onto the Cameron's boat and get scuba gear so we can dive down.
    We wait for John B to return from the ship and sit in the SS Pogue. Finally he gets back but Kiara realizes he took a bunch of empty tanks.
"There's enough for one of us, does anyone know how to dive?" She asks.
    We all say no until finally John B agrees to go down. We help him get set up and ready. Pope starts doing calculations on how John B can safely go down. Kiara swims down and ties her t-shirt on the line for John B to do his safety stop. Then Kiara kisses John B on the cheek and he jumps in and starts swimming down under. While we're waiting the police boat pulls up to us while he's underwater. We start getting freaking out but have to act natural.
    The deputy comes up and starts interrogating us.
"The marsh is closed didn't you kids hear"
    "Oh no we didn't" Kiara quickly responds.
"We're doing a search for a boat that went down, have you seen anything" He asks.
"No sir, no boats" I say.
"Where's your friend you always hang out with?" He asks.
"Oh, he's at work." You can hear the nerves in JJ's voice as he answers the question.
    Then the deputy comes onto our boat and starts searching the boat down. I look nervously at the water for John B as he does unnecessary inspections. The deputy looks over as we nervously look at eachother, knowing the time is almost up. Finally the deputy gets on his boat and drives away. John B pops out of the water with a black dufflebag.
   "Hey guys, bogey, two o'clock" Kie says.
    We look up and see two men on a boat coming towards us. It's a boat we didn't recognize and we didn't want to stick around to get familiar. We start driving into the marsh and they speed up following us. We drive as fast as we can. Then a shot rings out. We all duck as the men shoot at us from behind. Kie stands up and grabs a net and throws it off the back of the boat. The net tangles their engine and we're able to speed up and get away. We dock at John B's house and John B opens up the back. He finds a small metal canister and all that's inside is a old compass. Great, we just risked our lives for a compass. Then John B looks up and mutters something.
"It was my father's"