Heavy • Outer Banks

𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕠

In that moment my world falls, it can't be right. My head can't process what's going on, and I just end up hugging JJ, since we were the only ones left. Why is everything so heavy?
Maybe I should start from the beginning.

The Outer Banks. Paradise on earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two houses or two jobs. Two tribes, one island.
Figure eight, the rich side of the island, home of the Kooks.
And then the south side or the Cut, home of the so-called working class, who makes a living busing table, washing yachts, running charters, habitat of the Pogues. Guess where I don't live.

What am I, born and raised in Newport Beach, California, doing here, in North Carolina? It's a long story, but basically my father decided to move in alongside me and my twin brother, Thomas, after an incident that happened back in California.
My dad rented this lovely two-story house, with a pool and a boat dock, where he put our boat he brought from Cali. The atmosphere was close to our house in Newport Beach, but it wasn't the same.
We arrived in the middle of the school year and dad enrolled us in the Figure Eight school. There I met my current group of friends: Sarah and Rafe Cameron, Topper and Kelce. They explained to me how things worked in Kildare County and the tension between Kooks and Pogues, which made me dislike Pogues, just like they did. Unfortunately for me, Tom didn't get along with them. He became friends with a group of Pogues. I still remember that day.

"Dad, we're going to get some waves!" Tom screams as we get our surfboards and leave in his car.

Already at the beach, we see a group, Pogues by the looks, with surfboards too, drinking and smoking what appears to be weed. Tom and I enter the water and shortly after one of them, a guy with dirty blond hair, does the same.

Suddenly I'm just catching the perfect wave when the guy tries to do the same thing and we end up colliding.

"Are you out of your mind?" I ask outraged.

"Sorry princess, I was trying to catch a wave and you got in the way, I'm sure it was not my fault." He answers with a not-so-innocent face.

Before I have time to say something, Tom reaches us. "Sorry about the wave, man. We'll be more careful next time." He says, knowing how I would react to the guy's comment. I didn't use to be like that, but since that happened in California, I had become a very temperamental person, easily irritable.

"No prob. Want to join for a drink?" The guy asks, pointing to his group, while we leave the water, after the incident, "We have beer and... beer, I guess that's it."

"I'll pass, thanks" I'm not in the mood to hang out with anyone, especially with Pogues. It's not by chance that Kooks and Pogues are rivals and since I'm friends with Kooks, I don't feel like hanging with Pogues.

"Your girl was, how do I say it, raging" I hear the boy say to Tom while I leave the beach and decide to do my way home by foot.

"She's my sister" Tom laughs "And she's calmer when surfing, but you kinda pissed her off when doing the one thing she truly enjoys. I'm Thomas, by the way."

I remember that day as well as I remember the day I first met Sarah.

"Here it is, Figure Eight Academy." dad says, stopping by the door of our new school. "Let's go, kids. We need to meet the principal to know your schedules and make sure you can start attending the classes tomorrow."

"You must be Thomas and Charlotte." The principal says when we are in his office. Then he turns to dad, "And you must be Mr. Palmer. I'm Henry Bonvalot, principal of Figure Eight Academy."

Dad and Mr. Bonvalot talk about stuff that I'm really not listening and I understand I'm not the only one when I look to Tom. We're both still a bit shaken due to what happened back in Cali. Dad thought leaving home would be the best for us, but it's not like things vanish just because we moved over here.

After the talk, Mr. Bonvalot introduces us to Sarah Cameron, a blond girl, who is supposed to show us around.

"Hi, I'm Sarah. And you're Charlotte and Thomas, right?" I nod with my head and Thomas just ignores her. "It is not normal for new students to arrive in the middle of the school year. People will be curious and look at you, but don't be intimidated, they are good people."

She finishes showing us the place and makes an invitation. "I'm going to met with some friends that finish classes now, do you want to come?" I look at Tom and he doesn't seem thrilled with the idea.

"I think it will be good for us to get to know more people from here."

"Thanks, Sarah, but I'm a bit tired and I might skip this one. Maybe some other time," Tom says, leaving me disappointed. "See you at home, sis." He gets into dad's car and informs him.

"Boys, this is Charlotte, she's just moved in and I hope you welcome her nicely," Sarah says when we approach a group of three boys. "Rafe, my brother who's supposed to be in college, but decided to hang out with us for another year. You can see who got the good genes.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." He said with a lovely smile.

"Moving on, this is Topper, my boyfriend, and last but not least, Kelce." We greet each other.

They asked me a lot of questions about why I moved in and how life was in California. They seemed the type of person I would like to be around.

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N. A.: English is not my native language, so the story may have some mistakes: Feel free to let me know, by comment or dm :)