SO THERE'S A MOMENT in every kid's life when you feel like anything's possible. When you feel like you got the total mojo. You could, I don't know, free-climb El Capitan, land on Mars, or, uh... get elected president.
The whole world's there for the taking if you've got the sack to go for it. And then, when you least expect it, some Kook shows up and tells you there's no eternal mystery.
And then all that talk about free-climbing and Mars, and the president... bullshit. Magic gets cancer and dies.
"It's not there. Look, just-- just pull the drone up."
The thunder rumbled, causing Laura to look up at the incredibly dark sky through the window. She knew it was about to storm badly, knowing they had to get back to shore soon or they were going to have to struggle through it. And that was not something she planned on doing today.
"Look, we can do another pass. Recharge the battery. We can-- we can go back down." Pope said, obviously wanting to find the gold. They all wanted to, but they had all pretty much accepted that it wasn't there.
"Guys, we've been through it three times. There's nothing there." JJ said, looking out the window. Kiara yelled at him to shut up, not giving up yet. "What? It's true! Are me and LB the only people who are aware of it?!"
Kiara sighed out at his remark, raising her voice, "The gold could be buried. We don't know."
"If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B replied angrily. "Somebody beat us to it."
"Or it was never there." JJ said quietly to himself, although Laura heard it.
The thunder continued in the background as the entire group grew more and more disappointed.
Instead of going back to the house with John B, Laura had decided on going to hang out with JJ again. She could tell her twin was not the happiest with her right now since she didn't believe anything about the gold. But Laura knew nothing was going to stop John B.
The two were walking down the streets of the Outer Banks, not really talking. It felt awkward, which was weird between the two. JJ and Laura were probably the closest two in the group besides JJ and John B. Not even Laura and John B were as close and they were twins.
They used to be close, until their dad disappeared and then it all went to hell from there.
"John B is probably pissed at me, JJ." Laura said, her head low.
The blonde looked at her confused, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk. "Why would he be pissed at you?"
"I don't know." She said, turning to look at him. "Probably because I have no hope that our dad's alive and I let him ramble on about it for so long!"
JJ walked over to her, grabbing her shoulders tightly, but not too tight. "Who gives a damn if you believe differently than him? You've always been in a shadow. We all know it except you, LB."
All she did was nod her head, turning around and continuing to walk. Laura hadn't said anything, taking her friend's words to heart.
"You wanna shoot it?" JJ asked the brunette girl once they got back. She looked at him confused, but glanced down to see the gun in his hand. Laura shrugged and grabbed it out of his hand.
JJ laughed excitedly, putting the headphones over her ears. He tried to explain to her how it works, but instead of listening she just pulled the trigger and hit the teddy bear straight on. Laura smiled to herself, before handing the gun and headphones back to JJ.
"I know how to shoot, surprisingly." Laura said with a cocky tone, giving him a smile.
JJ high fived the brunette, then placed the headphones over his own ears, getting ready to shoot the gun. As he was doing so, Pope walked over looking frightened.
Pope started continuously yelling JJ's name while he was shooting, obviously not being able to hear him. Laura watched the scene go down, laughing to herself.
"They know." Pope said, a scared look on his face. Laura looked at him confused and stood up.
"All right, chill, bro. All right? They don't know shit." JJ replied, starting to clean up his things.
"Topper knows I sunk his boat." Pope replied, causing Laura's face to drop immediately, walking over to the two boys.
"How do you know they know?" Laura asked.
"Because Rafe and Topper posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged me." Pope explained while pacing back and forth, panicking.
"Will you calm down and get a grip, man? They don't know shit." JJ added.
"They have cameras. They could've seen me."
"Dammit. They have generators. That's actually very possible." Laura stated while sitting down on a tree stump, looking down at her hands while picking at her nails.
"They don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats." Pope continued, still pacing. "It's not a good look on my transcript."
"Enough with the regret, bro!" JJ started, raising his voice. He stood up and walked over to Pope.
"They caved your face in. They hit us, we hit them. It's the law of the jungle. Now, if any kooks come up to you and ask if you had anything to do with it, you walk up to 'em, look 'em right in the eye, and..."
"Deny the living shit out of it." Pope said, lowering his voice that was one filled with panic. Laura looked between the two weirdly.
"That's right. Deny, deny, deny. But just for safety, we don't go anywhere without protection." JJ said, pointing towards the gun. "Right?"
"Is the gun your only solution to anything, JJ?" Laura asked, looking at him trying not to laugh.
The blonde walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulder. "You know you love it."
Eventually, the trio from earlier had met up with Kiara to go see a movie. Laura and JJ were walking next to each other, keeping small talk going while Pope and Kiara did the same. The conversation wasn't anything special, but the two just enjoy having each other's company.
"I'm so glad they're still doing this." Kiara said. "Keep calm. Carry on. Back to OBX life. You know? Aren't you glad I made you come?"
"Ecstatic." Pope said, clearing his throat.
"My couch was pretty comfy, I'll be honest." JJ said.
"You know what, Kie, I'm glad you made us come." Laura said, smiling at the curly haired girl.
Laura laid out a blanket, and immediately sat down on it while the boys set up chairs and Kiara went to the concessions stand. The brunette looked around, catching Rafe talking to Kiara, then her walking back towards them confused.
"Just saw Rafe, and he said, and I quote, 'Tell your boy I know what he did.' What is that?" Kiara said, handing them their drinks. They all looked at each other before JJ responded,
"Where is he?"
"Right there." Kiara said, turning around, causing the other three to turn around as well.
Rafe made eye contact with Laura, and winked at her while drinking whatever was in his cup. She turned around quickly, pulling her knees up to her chest and looking at the screen with nothing on it yet.
"Great, the whole death squad. Ah!" JJ grabbed Pope's head, turning him around.
"Don't stare bro. And did Rafe just wink at you, LB?" JJ asked, leaning forward in his chair to talk to the girl.
Laura nodded her head, "It was probably nothing, JJ."
"If they corner me, I'm coming out swinging, okay? Slice and dicin'. I'm on edge right now. If that doesn't work, I got this right here." JJ said, holding up his bag which concealed the gun.
"Yeah, yeah. So we gotta stay in the group." Pope said.
"I'm sorry, JJ... Please tell me that you did not bring a gun here. JJ there are kids." Kiara said, getting frustrated.
"No! Kie, I didn't bring the gun. Everything's fine, okay?"
"Oh, wow, thank you. That's really convincing. I love that, JJ." Kiara replied sarcastically. JJ looked away, towards the girl sitting on the ground silently. "Founding principle, you guys. No secrets amongst Pogue's. What is Rafe talking about?"
"Kie, it might go down tonight." Pope said, turning to the girl.
"What does that mean? 'Might go down tonight.' What did y'all do? LB?"
Just then, the girl snapped out of it and turned to look back at Kiara. "Huh?"
"Never mind."
JJ grabbed Laura's shoulder, causing her to turn to him quickly. "Can I talk to you for a second?" Laura nodded, then the two got up and walked towards a more private area while they could still be seen so the Kooks didn't get to them.
"What the hell is going on with Rafe?" JJ asks quietly, but still frustrated.
"JJ, I really don't want to talk about it. I'll tell you when I'm ready, okay?" Laura said, crossing her arms over her chest and looking up at him.
He could tell something was definitely wrong, but he didn't want to make her any more uncomfortable than she already was. "Okay."
The two walked back over, and JJ sat down on the blanket next to Laura. The movie had started, and Laura tried to block out all of the negativity that was clouding her mind.