Bad Karma

six

Leilani Elrod

Episode 1. Pilot

After an hour nap and twenty minutes of petting Rocky, I felt better and the group was still trying to convince Pope, and now me, about not going dark at all.

"For the record-" He snatched the cash from JJ's hands, "-if that is a smuggling ship with illegal contraband on the inside of it... it probably belongs to someone else."

"Minor details."

"They could come looking for it. Taking it-" (The cash) "-would be catastrophically stupid."

JJ took it back, "Right. Well, stupid things have good outcomes all the time. All we need to do right now is figure out a way to get into the cargo hold of that wreck. Until then, we just lay low. Just act normal."

I sighed, "And how do we even do that?"

"Kegger?" Kie suggested.

"No. No way."

The group eyed me and I knew there was no way of getting out of this. Finally, I gave in. Maybe a good Kegger, (which is this totally awesome party that we sometimes throw at the Boneyard) would be good for me. Safe to say I was a sucker for Keggers. Basically, all my morals were thrown out the window at these parties.

And tonight was zero exception of that, because while the boys did the hard stuff, like setting it up, Kie and I did the important stuff. Like shotgunning beers.

JJ whistled, "Gotta say, Lee, you really know how to shotgun."

I grinned widely at him, "Why, thank you, JJ." I grabbed another beer, shoving it at him, "Your turn!"

All right. You can't understand the Outer Banks without understanding the Boneyard. It's kind of like a three-layer burrito. There's us and our friends, the working-class derelicts from the cut.

"Could you tell me where I could get a beer, pretty lady?" A boy wearing a button down Hawaiian shirt (which was fully unbuttoned) and sunglasses asked me, tilting his sunglasses down a bit.

"Sure!" I beamed, pointed to where the keg was, "Over there!"

I'm not sure if that was the answer he was looking for because of the un-pleased look on his face, but he left me alone and waltzed over anyway.

Then, there are the Kooks, the rich second-homers. They're mostly from poncey-ass boarding schools, just rich trustafarian posers. Our natural enemies.

"Okay, back to what I was saying." I turned back to the brunette girl next to me, her hair in two braids and a woven fedora on her head, "This place is awesome! Where did you say you were from again?"

And then, there are the Tourons. Totally clueless. Here for a week on vacation with their families. Chum for the sharks. Or for the guppies, because Lei always became best friends with at least one and talked this place up so that they'd move here. Yeah, it's never really worked.

"Isn't that dangerous?" The girl said, who's name I found out was Maggie, looking over my shoulder. I turned around, seeing what she was seeing.

"Nah." I shrugged, "She's fine."

That's Sarah Cameron. Kook princess. Kiara's best friend in the ninth grade, worst enemy in the tenth grade. Lei and her were friends too, before her parents died and she moved in with me. I work on her dad's boats, so, you know, I've seen her around.

"He's gonna get her down anyway." I turned back to Maggie, continuing my rant about how awesome the Outer Banks was.

Then that's Topper, her not so pleasant boyfriend. Topper actually thinks Pogues were bred to mow lawns.