Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
WHEN EMERSON WAS little, her parents often referred to her as a daydreamer. She had stars in her eyes and her head was always in the clouds, dreaming about lavish adventures and faraway lands like the ones she read in her bedtime stories. The little girl spent most of her time outside, fantasizing the golden water that her house overlooked and sketching sunsets in her journal. She would dance around her yard barefoot and pretend that she was in a field of flowers in Switzerland, and when the sun finally set she would put on her nightgown and narrate stories in her head about how she was trapped in a tower and a prince would come to her rescue.
Of course, those childish fantasies faded as Emerson got older. Her parents slowly turned from encouraging her daydreams to crushing them with the facts of reality, teaching her how to read and write and study and preparing her to get into the best of the best colleges. But still, she dreamed. She wondered about her life and the difference she would make where she went, who she could meet, and still the adventures she would have. Meeting the Pogues reawakened the child in her, the little girl who would have died of happiness if she knew the adventure she'd have right here on this small little island.
But those fantasies were ripped away the fateful night that John B and Sarah fled the outer banks into a hurricane and died on their journey. There was nothing romantic or fantastical about that — or anything else, Emerson came to realize. As much fun as it was to galavant around the island with the Pogues, feeling like they were invincible, this was a dark, horrible reminder that they were not. And Emerson was forced to accept the fact that not everything was as magical as it was in her pretty little mind.
That starry-eyed girl was replaced with someone different. Heavy with grief and traumatized by what she thought would be her best summer yet, Emerson turned those emotions into anger. There weren't many people she wasn't angry at these days, two of the only ones who escaped her wrath being Kie and Pope. Even JJ succumbed to her bitter anger after they had a falling out following John B's death, which no one dared talk about.
Emerson remembered when she had told JJ that the kook versus Pogue rivalry was stupid and they all had their faults. She wished she could take it back sometimes, and if given the opportunity she'd beat the living shit out of any kook that crossed her path. She had been thrust right into the heart of the class war, seeing firsthand how royally screwed the Pogues were and always would be. It was because of this divide that John B was dead. Emerson vowed she would never forgive Shoupe for driving John B into a hurricane or for feeding into Ward's obvious lies. She would never forgive a lot of people. That only made her anger stronger.
It also didn't help matters that Ashley George couldn't care less about her daughter's feelings. The only time she ever had an opinion was when Emerson's actions affected her own reputation, because god forbid she actually acknowledge the reasons behind her daughter's suddenly rebellious attitude. But Emerson had grown used to their dynamic. It was very similar to how things were after Duncan's death, and she quickly learned how to avoid her mother's criticism. Emerson began to realize that this was what her friends dealt with on a daily basis. John B, who's dad had gone missing at sea and ended up dead, and JJ, who's mother had split long ago and his father couldn't stand him. They were alone in the world aside for their friends, and now Emerson was too. Except now she was two friends short.
