EFF IT! ➸ jj maybank

002.

   Never the Pogues.

The one exception to that was Kiara Carrera; should-be-Kook, but not. Sonny could identify her, even with distance between their boats. Her long, curly hair floated in the light breeze, framing her head like a halo.

    "Gross!" She yelled. "There's beer in my hair!"

   Sonny raised a brow. It was weird. Her family was rich and owned The Wreck but Kiara rejected Kook life and headed off with the Pogues. She was kinda like Sonny, in some ways, but more of a hippie, with some mystery middle school feud with Sarah Cameron and parents who dragged her to Kook events like Midsummers. Sonny often found her there, looking ready to throw herself into the ocean. She couldn't blame her really. Midsummers was easily one of the most insufferable events in their little society.

    "It's going everywhere!"

   Pope Heyward, genius. That was all Sonny knew about him. He seemed antsy, and awkward, but easily swayed into trouble by the others. Nice enough. Quiet, yet impressionable when it came to it. Especially when it was orchestrated by JJ Maybank in all his dirty, crude, goddamn glory.

    "JJ! Cut it out!"

JJ Maybank. South side celebrity.

Everyone knew him.

   Not for good reasons, either. That kid was infamous for causing trouble wherever the hell he went, like it followed his each and every move.

    "Shut up, Pope! I'm doin' it!" He yelled.

   She squinted her eyes, watching him balance precariously on the front of the little boat. He teetered on his tiptoes, what she assumed was beer in hand, seemingly attempting to pour it into his mouth. What an idiot.

Idiot. Loose-canon. Liability. Whatever you wanted to call him, he spent more time stuck in a holding cell at the sheriff's department than he probably did at home. JJ was a pure street merchant half the time, and he knew how to play the part. It worked for him, certainly on the island. He had street smarts, it seemed, though he wasn't so smart when it came to making good decisions or keeping his temper. When Kook-on-Pogue fights broke out, JJ was the one usually involved. Easy to set off, Topper once said, like a firework in July.

   Dumb metaphor, Sonny said. But she didn't doubt it.

She'd only had one run in with JJ Maybank, and that had been at a beach party six months prior. He had offered her a light and they had spoken for a minute, maybe two, until she left and never saw him again.

   At least, not up close. Sometimes she spotted him from afar with the other Pogues, causing trouble, smoking and drinking, surfing and partying. Ignored and neglected.

   She envied that.

   Sometimes Sonny wished people ignored and neglected her more. Kooks were too nosy.

   Still, she didn't have anything against the Pogues. To set the record straight, if she was a people person, maybe she would have been a Pogue person. But she wasn't — Sonny wasn't an easy people person, and she definitely wasn't a Kook person, nor a Pogue person. She was just Sonny. Loner, free spirit. No interest in being tied down to people, nor the suffocation that came with them. It was nauseating, like being stuck in a small room without any light.