Her heart was so golden, it rivaled even the sun.
In which a girl is tired of living by everyone else's rules, so she decides to make her own.
[Outer Banks season 1]
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SCHOOL WAS OFFICIALLY out for the summer, and while for the rest of the island that meant going to parties, getting ridiculously drunk, and spending their days on the beach, Emerson's life was a different story. Her days were consumed with studying and tutoring other students, and now as of lately she was trying to decide where she wanted to go to college and which places she would have the best chance at getting a scholarship from.
The brunette sighed quietly to herself as she flipped through an SAT practice booklet, which her parents had given her strict instructions to finish by the end of the summer. They didn't agree on much, but they almost always did when it came to the young girl's education. She was trying her best to focus, but her eyes kept drifting out her window and to the ocean beyond. She found herself longing to take a walk on the warm sand and let the waves wash up over her feet. She huffed and shook her head, pushing the thought out of her mind. She didn't have time to take breaks.
Emerson was fortunate enough to live right on the water, but also unfortunate enough to be slammed with some of the worst damage when hurricanes hit — which, speaking of hurricanes, there was one hurdling towards the coast of the outer banks at that very moment. She glanced at her phone as it lit up with a weather warning and slid her thumb across the screen. She had been tracking the hurricane since it was nothing but a tropical storm in the middle of the ocean, and she could tell that it was picking up speed and strength as it drew nearer to the shore. You would never know it looking out the window though, because it was still warm and as sunny as could be. But Emerson had been through her fair share of hurricanes and she knew that things could change in the blink of an eye.
The girl let out a groan and slammed her practice book shut, standing up from her desk chair and taking a moment to stretch. She was beyond exhausted and worn out and she needed a break. Plus, she wanted to get out of the house before she was holed up during the hurricane. She gathered her things and shoved them into her worn-out canvas backpack, slinging it over her shoulders as she opened the door and slipped out of the house. Neither of her parents were home — they rarely ever were during the day. Her mother's sole pride and joy was in her work as a lawyer, and her father preferred to spend his time anywhere but the house. Emerson honestly couldn't blame him, because all her mother seemed to do these days was berate him. However, he could have picked a better hobby than gambling. She knew he was going to dig himself into a hole he wouldn't be able to get out of.
The pink fifties style bike that she owned crunched over the gravel as she peddled, her wavy brown hair fanning out behind her. She closed her eyes for a quick moment and relished in the warm ocean breeze as she rode into town. The Cut wasn't all that big, so Emerson got lucky and was within walking distance to the beach and biking distance to Main Street.
The breeze picked up ever so slightly, and Emerson could smell the oncoming rain in the distance. As she rode into town, she watched all the residents of The Cut start to board everything up and take cover for the impending storm. The girl shrugged to herself at the thought of having to do this herself — she highly doubted her parents would be home. They'd probably stay on the mainland and wait the hurricane out there, with the expectation that Emerson would keep the house safe. She wanted to scoff at the idea, and silently vowed not to board up the house. Sure, everyone thought she was perfect, but she could use her humanness to her advantage and simply tell her parents that she forgot.
