chapter two
child i should've had
Athena woke up the next day with a groan. Her curtains were pulled open, the sun now in the air and shining brightly through her window. Athena huffed, pulling her duvet over her head in order to stay in bed for a little longer. She quickly noticed the lack of her sisters in her bed, but didn't dwell on where they were and instead on wanting to sleep.
"Miss Athena, you need to get up." Dorota spoke.
Dorota was Athena's maid, of sorts. While she did everything a maid would do — cleaning, washing, laundry etc — she was also Athena's friend, one of her only real friends. Dorota would help Athena sneak out, whether that was to go to parties or to simply do her schoolwork not in her house, they even had a secret knock in order to recognise it was the other at the doors. Athena adored Dorota with her entire heart and to be honest she wouldn't know how she would survive without the woman.
"I'm dying." Athena groaned, sitting up.
"Have some tea, Miss Sarah is waiting for you outside." Dorota informed the blonde, placing a tray on her bedside table for her.
"Thanks Dorota." Athena slowly sat up. Dorota nodded, leaving the girl to get dressed. Athena yawned once more, leaning over and taking a few sips of her tea before slowly getting out of bed.
She opened her wardrobe, pulling out the first things that she found. It ended up being a pink bikini with jean shorts over the top. She grabbed a black Hawaii shirt from her vanity chair, pulling her high top converse on. She made her way downstairs, tea in her hand, taking small sips of it every now and again.
She walked outside, ruffling Wheezie's hair on the way past before looking at all the damage. There were tree branches on the floor and some leaves scattered around but Tannyhill had managed to stay okay... as expected. There were already people gathering and cleaning the place up, and the backup generator were on, leaving light and electricity in the house.
Athena knew the cut would be worse, seeing as their houses were already small and fragile and they were cleaning her house instead of their own. It was stupid to be honest, how they had to clean other people's houses before they could even start on their own just to earn a little bit of cash. The blonde sighed, upset as she thought about the fact that people would be wasting their summer cleaning the island.
She shook her head, grabbing a medium sized branch off the floor as she made her way over to Sarah, who was very awake and had a large smile on her face. Sarah greeted Athena before handing her her tennis racket, the two scaring the birds away so they didn't eat the mice that were crawling in the burrows.
"Sarah. Athena." Their father, Ward called for them.
Ward Cameron was one of the richest men in the Outer Banks. He was a good father, for the most part, and to Sarah, very humble. He, himself, used to be a pogue and worked his way up in life and so liked to employ and pay as many people who lived on the cut as he could.
"We're busy." Sarah replied loudly, the twins both jumping to shoo the birds away.
"What are you doing?" Their dad questioned, a confused look on his face as he made his way closer to them, an unknown woman behind him.
"The burrows filled with water from the surge. The birds are having a field day." Sarah explained as she ran in one direction towards a flock of birds, Athena jumping up once more.
"Birds have to eat too girls." Ward told them.
"No, it's mouse genocide out here dad." Athena disagreed, swinging the rackets.
"No!"
"The cycle of life is what it is sweethearts. Now, come on." Ward tried to stop them.
"We can't be apart of it. First they came for the mice, daddy." Sarah spoke exasperatedly, panting slightly. The two huffed, finally turning around to stand opposite their father and the woman. Athena quickly recognised the woman as Lana Grubbs.
"I have a human being you might help." Ward raised his eyebrows at them.
"Hi." Lana greeted.
"I'm Sarah, nice to meet you." Sarah introduced.
"I'm Athena." Athena shook the woman's hand.
"I'm so sorry." Sarah stated, apologising for, not only ignoring her but also for their sweaty, breathless states.
"This is Lana, Scooter's wife. You were storm prepping with him, right?"
Scooter Grubbs was a man, who lived on the cut. He and Ward knew each other for reasons the twins did not know but he often helped them at the house, including last night when he helped close everything up, in preparation for the storm.
"Yeah." Sarah nodded. "He helped us latch the cabin on the druthers."
"Last night?" Ward wondered.
"Yeah."
"And did he go out after that." Ward asked, the constant questions starting to feel like an interrogation.
"From here?" Athena's eyebrows knit in confusion at the, what she thought was a, stupid question. "No that's crazy. There was a category three hurricane."
"Well, did he say where he was going?" Lana piped up for the first time, her voice full of concern that made the twins share a look. "Get a phone call or mention anything?"
"He didn't say anything to us." Sarah told her, shaking her head. "I'm so sorry."
"Is he okay?" Athena asked in concern.
"He's absolutely okay." Ward reassured them, Athena having a slight inkling he was lying.
"I hope so." Lana muttered quietly, as if the girls couldn't hear her.
"He's hunkered down somewhere, we'll find him." Ward then led her back towards the house, the girls apologising for their lack of help once more.
"I think I'm going to head down to the cut, see how they're holding up." Athena turned to Sarah.
"Yeah, I'll cover for you." Sarah hugged the blonde, taking her racket off of her.
Athena looked around, making sure Rose, Ward or Rafe weren't around to catch her. When she knew the coast was clear, she blew a kiss to Sarah before making a dash out the back gate. She took her bike that was leant against the house, walking around to front of the house and down the driveway. Once she was on the road, she hopped on her bike, pedalling towards the south side of the island.
As she reached the cut, she looked around at the devastation the hurricane had left. Trees had fallen on houses, some little houses had fallen down, tree branches were through windows, leaves absolutely everywhere... to be completely honest it was an absolute shitshow. Athena huffed, pedalling faster as she made her way towards Heyward's.
Her pedalling slowed once more when she got closer, her movement stopping when she arrived. The blonde got off her bike, propping it up and going closer to Heyward, who was spraying the dirt off of his dock.
"Hey Heyward." Athena bounded over to him.
"Hello Athena." Heyward greeted her with a side hug.
"I thought I'd come and help." She told the older man, gesturing around to the mess that the hurricane had produced.
"See, this is why you are the child I should've had, mine ran off with his little shithead friends." Heyward rolled his eyes at the mention of the pogues.
"Well then, you're lucky I have none." Athena laughed. She walked away from the man, going to clean up outside the shop. She sweep up the leaves from outside the shop and off of the deck, and then picked up the large branches. Heyward helped her clean, the two working in perfect harmony.
When they had finished, the sun had begin to set, pink and orange hues filling the sky. Heyward placed a hand on Athena's shoulder, "Thank you, Athena."
"No problem." The blonde smiled. "I'm always here to help."
With one final smile and a side hug, Athena grabbed her bike and began to pedal home, the evening breeze in her hair. She looked up at the sky, the beauty of it taking her attention as she pedalled. Luckily, she managed to stay on her side of the road, not being distracted enough to get run over.
Once she got home, Sarah was sat in the kitchen, waiting for her arrival. Athena grabbed a packet of mini jammy-dodgers from the cupboard when Sarah's attention snapped up from typing on her phone.
"Get changed. We're going to a party." Was all she said before going back to typing.
"Okay..." Athena put one of her jammy dodgers in her mouth before making her way back up to her room. She put on a sage green floral print ruched bust ruffle hem cami dress paired with her white adidas trainers. She made her way back downstairs to meet Sarah at the bottom of the stairs. "You ready?"
"Yeah, um, by the way..." Sarah trailed off before speaking very quickly. "Topper is taking us."
A car horn then sounded from outside, Sarah running out the front door, but not before grabbing onto Athena's wrist. Athena groaned as Sarah dragged her outside, Topper's car sitting in the driveway, a smile on his face when he spotted his girlfriend.
"Hop in." Topper told the girls without even greeting them. Athena sent a wide eyes look at Sarah, who smiled sweetly in response. The blonde rolled her eyes, huffing as she got in the back of the car.
"This is hell."