Js and Cigarettes //JJ MAYBANK//

Introduction

We're the Pogues, and our mission this summer is to have a good time, all the time.

The Outer Banks, Paradise on Earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two jobs, or two houses. Two tribes, one island. Figure Eight is the rich side of the island. Home of the Kooks. So, guess where we don't live. 

This is the southside, or the cut. Home of the working class who make a living busing tables, washing yachts, running charters. The natural habitat of...drumroll please...the Pogues. That's us. 

Pogues, pogies, throwaway fish. Lowest member of the food chain. Okay, so the downside of Pogue life is we're ignored and neglected. The upside of Pogue life? We're ignored and neglected, which means we do whatever we want, whenever we want. 

There's JJ, my best friend since third grade. He's about as local as they come. Latest in along line of fishing, drinking, smuggling, vendetta-holding salt-lifers who made their living off the water. Best surfer I know. Just, don't tell him I said that. Mild kleptomaniac, and a future tax cheat. 

And then there's Kiara, or Kie as we call her. When she's not saving turtles, listening to Marley, or getting a dolphin tattoo, she hangs out with us. I'm not really sure why though. So, she's a rich kid, actually. Foot in both worlds. Her family owns The Wreck, this Outer Banks institution. Total cash cow with the tourists. I'm not really sure how her parents feel about us, though. We all have a thing for her. Well, all but JJ. He has a thing for her sister, Blake. 

And then there's Pope, the brains of the operation, finalist for the Lucas T. Vanderhorst Merit Scholarship. And the smartest person I know. Little bit of a weirdo. His father's this legendary character, Heyward. Anything you wanted on the island, Heyward could get for you. Now, I'm not sure Heyward knew what to make of his oddball son, but it didn't matter. He was a Pogue, just like the rest of us. 

Finally, there's Blake. Well, Amelia Blake Carrera. Kie's baby sister. Honestly, I say baby sister, but she's only a year younger than the rest of us. Her and JJ have this weird thing going on, I don't think they know that we all know. Kind of dumb, but her hearts in the right place. 

So, that's my crew. 

And then there's me, John Booker Routledge. And this is where I live, an old fish shack on the march. The Chateau, as my dad used to call it. He disappeared at sea nine months ago, looking for a shipwreck. Who disappears at sea these days? I miss him. And then there's mom, she split when I was three. Last I heard she was in Colorado. I think it was Colorado. Since Dad's vanished our Uncle T is supposedly our legal guardian. At the moment he's in Mississippi, building houses. Which means it's just me right now, on my own, hanging out with my friends. Three months after Dad went missing, he was presumed dead. I refused to sign the papers. Until I see a body, I'm not giving up.