SEASON ONE,
CHAPTER 22:
MIDSUMMERS
"I look like a bourgeoisie pig."
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MIDSUMMERS, the annual event where Kooks all meet up and hold a party as a celebration. When it take place, even if it's just once a year, it's clear as to who is the most popular among the island as people try to befriend them all. The Pogues are expected to work at the event where they have to serve food and drinks to the attendees.
But this is something that Kiara is now forced (by her parents) to attend as a Kook for today — much to her dismay. However, the brunette had managed to successfully convince her family to allow her to bring Delilah along as a guest. The adults weren't so fond at first due to the girls reputation, but soon gave into their daughters pleas as they know Kie wouldn't want to attend without her friend.
So, currently, Delilah stands inside of the Carrera household, more specifically in Kiara's bedroom with the girl herself. The redhead's gaze is trained ahead of her as she stares back at herself in the tall body mirror that Kie has propped up. Anna, who is the brunettes mother, has given Delilah a dress and even styled her hair as a kind gesture.
The dress has a wide open back that shows off the pattern of the strings that are used to tie it up. The emerald green colour compliments her fair skin-tone and ginger hair beautifully. As well as that, it brings out her eyes more due to the fact that they're a grass green colour. It hugs at her body frame and brings out the curves of her hips. The cuts and bruises on the girls body hasn't been covered up since they're not fully healed and may cause an infection.
Kiara walks back into the room and moves to stand right beside to Delilah. A lavender coloured dress loosely hangs around her body as her brown curly hair is styled up into a messy bun with big purple flowers poking out of it. The pair are both staring into the mirror and at the reflection of themselves, their appearance being totally different to how it usually looks like. Though, Delilah is unable to decide whether she currently views herself as pretty or as if she's a troll playing dress-up.
"Cheer up, buttercup." Kie comments, tapping the girl's chin gently with a smile.
"Wrong flower." Delilah mumbles.
"Hey, JJ will be fine." Kie reassures. "You know how he tough he is since you two run around committing small crimes together. He'll be fine with the police."
But it's not JJ being the police that Delilah's worried about. It's the fact that an abusive father is going to have to bail his son out of jail, which will then lead to more cuts and bruises being inflicted onto the boys skin. Delilah has to attend an event surrounded by Kooks while knowing that JJ, the one person that she cares about the most, is at risk of being harmed.
Anna enters the room with a smile tugging at her lips as her eyes rest upon the teenage girls. They look so clean in their expensive dresses and with their hair styled, which is all thanks to the mother since she kindly helped them get dolled up. It's different to how they look in their everyday lives with specks of dirt on their skin from the activities they get up to.
"You two look gorgeous." Anna compliments.
"I look like a bourgeoisie pig." Kie fires back.
"Will you please not worry about socioeconomic injustice for one night?" Anna tells them.
"Mom, people that aren't even three miles from here have no power, no running water, and we're going to Midsummers." Kie states. "That's so tone-deaf."
"Do you know how hard we had to work to get into the Island Club?" Anna asks.
"Yeah, Mom. How could I forget? You had to grovel for ten years—" Kie replies, annoyance in her voice.
"Twelve." Anna corrects, interrupting her. "We also had to cough up a huge chunk of dough, and do you know why we did that?"
"To keep up with the Joneses?" Kie questions.
"No, so you could have the same experiences that I had as a child." Anna replies. "Honey, do you know what the Island Club is?"
"A factory farm for debutantes." Kie bluntly replies.
"It is a nice place, with nice people, where you can do fun stuff." Anna informs.
"With out-of-touch rich people while they island sinks slowly into the ocean." Kie adds.
"No offence, Miss Anna, but none of these things are really that fun." Delilah speaks up to help her friends argument. "You see these cuts on my face? They're from the so called nice people."
"Girls, it's for one night. Now put your party faces on and get out there." Anna instructs, walking out of the room.
The pair turn to look at each other with similar looks of annoyance plastered across their faces. Lila has experienced these things first hand and made that argument to back their points, but it got ignored.
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The teenage girls are now at Midsummers where they carefully push their way through the crowd of rich people. They've been here for awhile now and feel nothing but boredom because everyone that surrounds them both are all so much older. Though, their eyes are locked ahead of them and onto Pope as he works on barbecuing the food — his father and him are two of the workers responsible to provide service for the Kooks.
"Excuse me, sir." Kie begins, putting on a British accent. "Do we have to shuck these ourselves?"
Pope slowly turns around with an unimpressed look crossed over his face as a sigh slips past his lips. But this is instantly replaced by a wide smile at the sight of two of his friends standing in front of him. He was unhappy when Heyward first put him up to this job, but now he's relieved that he won't be completely alone in a place filled with tone-deaf Kooks.
"'Cause it might mess up our costumes." Kie continues with a smile.
"We wouldn't want that now, would we?" Pope says.
The boy walks forwards and greets them both with the Pogue handshake that the group of five made together. Delilah smiles back at Pope before pulling him in for a proper hug, knowing that he's really needed it after everything that's been taking place.
"That accent was bad." Delilah informs.
"Yeah, it was. I'm just gonna let it go." Kie replies, pausing as she glances around. "You ever seen this many Kooks in one place?"
Pope nods. "Yeah, last year."
"We're in the lion's den." Kie states.
"Yeah, we are." Delilah agrees.
"You aren't going to fight with Rafe and Topper again, are you?" Kie asks, turning to the girl.
"If they start one then I will, yeah." Delilah truthfully tells them. "But I won't start one because I know it might get you guys into trouble and your parents will hate us even more. So, I promise not to."
"Thank you." Pope says.
Suddenly, a round of applause fills the air and pulls the three's attention away from one another and the conversation they were having. The Cameron family are currently exiting the building straight ahead of everyone with wide smiles on their cheerful faces. The adults of the family are greeting other adults with simple waves to come across as friendly.
"Here come Lord Capital and the Exploiters." Kie mumbles, annoyed at the sight of them.
"Copyright! Copyright!" Delilah blurts out, earning looks of confusion by her friends. "Rose is copying the Statue of Liberty."
"I don't think that's how it works, Lila." Kie tells her.
"Whatever. This bitch really thought she did something with that headband." Delilah comments.
"She's definitely going to poke someone's eye out with that." Pope adds.
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The sun has now set once again, time seeing to pass by slowly and dragging on into the night. Fairy lights have been switched on and brightens up the area for those attending the Midsummers event. Music is still blaring from the hired singers and filling all of their ears — no one is complaining as the individuals are all extremely talented. People are dancing along to the rhythm of the songs with wide smiles of joy.
The three friends have been attending the annual event since the beginning of it, meaning that they've been stuck in the place for sometime now. Delilah can be found either standing beside Pope or Kiara, not wanting to leave their sides. The girl is like this for the entire time to prevent accidentally running into Rafe and/or Topper as she promised not to get into a fight with them, and she plans to keep that.
However, deciding to take a risk, Delilah walks away from Kie and heads to the table that is serving drinks to people. She grabs herself another glass of alcohol to ease herself, but suddenly stops at her eyes catch sight of Pope hugging a particular blond haired boy before letting go. That's when her heart pounds as she realises who it is; JJ.
Within an instant, not even wasting a single second, the redhead places the glass back down and sprints towards them both with relief and excitement. The heels on her feet click loudly against the pavement and threaten to give way under each of her steps. JJ spins around at the very last second, a grin already on his face at the mere sight of her.
Delilah throws herself into JJ, wrapping her arms around him as his arms snake around her waist. The boy pulls her as close to his body as he possibly can, holding on tightly. The pair embrace for what feels like forever as their bodies unknowingly sway from side to side. As they continue to cling to each other, their hearts are pressed against one another through their chests and beat as one.
Reluctantly, the teenagers pull away from the hug and find themselves staring at one another. Delilah is quick to notice the new cuts and bruising on his face, which only proves her fear as correct; his father really abused him again as a punishment. Her green eyes immediately water at the pained sight as she feels her heart drop to her stomach. The girl then lifts her hand up where she cups JJ's cheek and lets her thumb gently brush against his skin.
"I'm sorry." Delilah whispers.
"It's okay, Ly. It's nothing that hasn't happened before." JJ tells her, trying to shrug the subject off.
"I'm sorry." Pope apologises. "I shouldn't have let you take the fall for all this. It's my fault."
"No, it's not." JJ reassures.
"It's my fault!"
"Shut up."
"You took the fall for me."
"Shut up, man."
"I'm gonna tell the truth, go to the cops—" Pope begins.
"Pope! Shut up!" JJ interrupts, holding the boy by his shoulders. "For once in your life, trust someone else. John B and I got it all sorted out. We're gonna be filthy rich, guys."
Delilah's brows furrow. "Wait, what?"
"We're back in the G-game, baby." JJ announces with a smirk.
"No way!" Delilah exclaims.
"But I thought we lost the gold." Pope says.
"Yeah, well, we're in overtime now." JJ replies.
"Oh my god." Pope mumbles in disbelief, glancing between them both. "Hey, I'm gonna give you guys a second to talk."
The pair nod in response and watches as their friend disappears back within the crowd of people to find his father or Kiara. Delilah turns back around to face JJ to see that he's already looking down at her. His blue eyes are travelling down the girls body as he scans the emerald green dress she's wearing. Then, he looks back up to meet her green eyes.
"You look beautiful, princess." JJ whispers.
"Thank you." Delilah replies.
The redhead smiles up at the boy as a red tint rises on her cheeks at the sound of his compliment. She reaches up and fixes the way that his bow tie sits against the suit that engulfs his body.
"And you look handsome in this suit, J." Delilah tells him.
"I'm glad you like it. You know, I actually stole it just for you." JJ jokes, earning a light laugh from her in response. "But I need to go do something. Save a dance for me, pretty girl?"
The boy winks before turning to leave, Delilah instantly reaching out and grabbing ahold of his wrist. He spins back around only for the redhead to cup his cheek carefully, rising up to her tiptoes and connecting their lips.
Hearts rapidly increases by the action, starting to pound against their ribcages. JJ places a firm hand upon the girls waist and another underneath her chin for support. Meanwhile, Delilah's arm naturally moves to loosely wrap around his neck as she places her other hand onto his chest to grip at the suits material. Electricity buzzes through their bodies at one another's touch, lips continuing to move in sync. They feel as though they're the only people in the world right now, everyone else being blocked out.
Eventually, the pair reluctantly break the kiss to catch their breaths before quite literally suffocating themselves. JJ presses his forehead against hers, staring down into Ly's beautiful green eyes with his blue ones. His hand shifts from its place under her chin to push strands of ginger hair behind her ear.
"I didn't get to say it back." Delilah whispers.
"Didn't say what?" JJ questions.
A smirk can be seen tugging at the corners of his split lips. It's something that the boy frequently does whenever he's trying to tease Delilah in an attempt to make her feel embarrassed — not out of spite, but in a playful manner. All JJ wants is to clearly hear three specific words leave her mouth. The redhead just laughs at him before biting down on her lip slightly to hold back the wide smile trying to form.
"You're an idiot, you know that, right?" Delilah tells him, pausing as he still waits. "I love you too."
A spreads across JJ's lips at the sound of the words that he desperately wanted to hear leave his mouth. This only causes Delilah to smile too, finding his too contagious to fight against. The blond then tilts his head slightly as he leans down, pressing a soft kiss onto her pink lips for a brief moment.
"I need to go. I'll see you later, pretty girl." JJ says.
Delilah nods in response, understanding that he's come to Midsummers to do something specific. The two let go of each and she watches as he walks away, instantly disappearing within the crowd filled with Kooks. Then, she proceeds to turn around and walk in the opposite direction where she makes her way over to Pope. He's standing near the food stand after having returned back to the job set for him.
Meanwhile, JJ had been walking throughout the whole event with his eyes peeled open in search for a certain someone. He eventually makes his way over to Sarah Cameron where the two pretended to dance in the rhythm of the song playing to avoid looking suspicious. JJ then hands over the small note that John B had instructed his friend to give to the girl.
However, the exact three Kooks (Rafe, Topper, and Kelce) that the blond didn't want to run into ended up spotting him from afar. The boys could all be seen sprinting through the building that Midsummers use for the night as they chase JJ down. They managed to corner the Pogue in the public toilets where they prepare to beat him up. Kelce grabs ahold of JJ and holds him still, ignoring his squirms while Rafe curls his hand into a ball as he readies himself to throw a punch at the blond.
"Very Rafe of you. Five on one?" JJ questions.
"If you could please stop talking." Rafe fires back, glaring at him. "It's very disrespectful. I'm trying to hit a ball. Learn your etiquette, my friend."
"Come on." JJ challenges.
"Your face looks really bad. Starting to look like your dad a lot more." Rafe taunts.
JJ narrows his eyes at the boy in anger, not wanting to talk about his abusive father with someone he can't trust. He just spits on Rafe in response. Then, Kelce suddenly lets go of the boy at the sight of a man entering the room with authority.
"Gentleman!" A deep voice calls, grabbing all of their attention. "Is there a problem here?"
"Pardon me, officer. No, there's not an issue." JJ assures, pausing slightly. "Actually, yes. There is an issue. Uh, we've got a criminal trespass in progress here. Beep! Call it in, right? Blatant disrespect for private property. I'm in violation of all kinds of shit, sir, but these young gentlemen..."
The blond boy trails off of his ramble as he reaches out to fix Kelce's tie, knowing that it would get under the Kooks skin. And it works. Kelce shrugs JJ off of him with annoyance in his actions.
"Don't touch my shit." Kelce hisses.
"...uh, caught me, sir. They're about to take me away. And that's what you should do, escort me out of here." JJ continues, holding his hands up as a way to surrender. "You got me."
"Come on." The guard says.
JJ begins to be escorted out of the building by the officer, understanding that he will be thrown out of Midsummers overall with the lie that was told. But the boy gives in fairly quickly as he knows that he'll be far away from the other teenagers. He just doesn't want to be part of another fight because that may put the rest of his friends in danger.
"Tell Delilah and Kiara that they're pretty hot for Pogues!" Rafe exclaims. "Redhead's a feisty one, I'll tell you that."
With anger flowing through his blood as he grows protective of both of the girls, JJ spins around as he squirms out of the officers grip with a grunt. He runs forwards to try tackle Rafe down to the ground, or even throw a punch. But Kelce quickly pushes his body in between the two as the guard pulls JJ away.
"Safe travels back to The Cut!" Rafe shouts.
"This isn't over!" JJ exclaims.
Meanwhile, while JJ is being escorted by the guard, Delilah can be seen still out in the lawn where the rest of the attendees are crowded. She's currently trying to down the many alcoholic drinks that Kiara hands over to her. This is purely because the pair were curious to see how many shots the redhead is able to down within a minute, deciding to test it out for themselves. The Kooks that stand around them both don't exactly seem impressed, but the girls are just trying to have fun like Anna told them too.
However, the doors to the entrance of the building suddenly burst open at once. Everyone falls silent as their attention is pulled towards the sound of shouts filling the air. A certain Pogue is being pulled along by one of the guards at the event, the material of the teenagers clothing being roughly held on to.
"Look, man. I can walk myself, I got legs. Can you see that, brother? Let me just walk out by myself." JJ argues as he struggles against the grip. "Oh, Mr Dunleavy! I see you got your drink. Good, that's really nice of you. I'm actually gonna down that."
JJ reaches out and snatches the glass of alcohol out of the old man's hands, not caring to look at the look of disbelief crossing over Mr Dunleavy's face. The blond lifts the glass up to his split lip and downs the content. He then slams it back down onto the table once he's done with it.
"What the hell's the matter with him?" Mr Dunleavy mutters under his breath.
"Sorry, sir." The guard apologises.
"It's okay, everybody! Do not panic. Just leave it to the men and women in uniform, huh? Let's hear it for them." JJ shouts.
Even more people start to fall silent as the scene slowly travels closer to where they stand. They watch as the teenager gets escorted out of the annual event, causing more commotion along the way.
"Rose! You look like Lady Liberty." JJ comments.
"Hey, I said that too!" Delilah exclaims.
"Great minds think alike, huh, Ly?" JJ tells her.
The boy glances up at the redhead standing beside Kiara on the porch, shooting a wink her way. The guard only continues to drag him through the even larger crowd, people starting to move closer with curiosity to know what's happening. JJ's attempts to escape the strong grip on his body are only ignored as they all want him to leave immediately.
"Okay, okay!" Delilah shouts, deciding to speak up and help. "That's enough, buddy! Let go of him!"
"You can't just boot him!" Kie adds.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" The guard questions, stopping in his tracks to look at them both.
"I invited him here." Kie informs, lying.
"Kiara, stop it." Her father demands with his voice a whisper to avoid capturing people's attention.
"I'm a member of this club." Kie continues, choosing to ignore him.
JJ notices that the guard's attention ss been taken away as he talks to the two girls, deciding to use this to his advantage. He forcefully shoves the man away from him and allows himself to be freed from the strong grip holding him back. This only causes the guard to stumble into a nearby table where the glass and cutlery instantly crash to the ground under the weight. Everyone gasps at the sight, shocked.
"Mandatory power hour at Rixon's, girls. Pope, you as well, alright? Rixon's Cove. Let's roll." JJ informs, loudly. "Ly, gorgeous, come on. Workers of the world unite. Throw off your chains."
Delilah grins at the amount of commotion being made by one particular boy, which happens to also be the person she's in love with. Her hands grip at the emerald green dress as she begins to make her way down the steps. Kiara doesn't hesitate to ignore the demands of her parents and trail closely behind Lila. Their heels click against the floor as they run over to JJ and Pope, who are patiently waiting. John B can even be seen beside them as he decides to make a guest appearance to Midsummers.
Delilah runs straight into JJ's already open arms, allowing his arms to wrap around her waist tightly. The blond proceeds to pick the girl up into the air and twirls her around like a princess attending a ball. Contagious laughs escape the pairs mouth as their gazes remain locked onto one another.
"Later, losers!" John B shouts.
As the redhead is set back down onto the ground, her hand slips into JJ's where they perfectly intertwine together. The five friends, after being reunited again, take off running through the grass field and towards the forest together. Excited yells can be heard leaving their mouths while wide smiles rest upon their faces.
Every single person attending Midsummers just stare at the Pogues in complete astonishment. It's hard from them to believe that such a small group of teenagers can cause this much trouble together when a guard was involved as well. They can't even take in the fact that they chose to disobey their parents and act against them without another thought about it.
The only individual that isn't reacting the same way as the rest is Sarah Cameron. The blonde haired girl is watching as the friends run off with their laughs still echoing loudly through the air. She wishes that she could be like them and have that much fun, just wanting to live a similar life. But Sarah doesn't feel jealousy or envy towards the five, rather wanting to join them and be part of the group instead.