Daydreams| Outer Banks ¹

{Chapter One} Kook House

"That's what, a three-storey fall to the deck? I give you a one-in-three chance of survival!" Pope called up to John B, who was nonchalantly balancing on one leg with a can of beer in his hand on top of an obnoxiously large Kook house that was still in development. 

"Should I do it?" 

Pope held up a power drill that he'd found in one of the many tool boxes scattered around the house. "Yeah, you should jump. I'll shoot you on the way down."

"Do not jump," Indi sighed as she ran her hand through her hair. It was tangled with sand and saltwater from surfing all morning. "I don't think I could survive foster care alone."

John B slapped his hand over his chest in response to the rare concern his sister had just shown over his well being. "Did you hear that? She cares."

"Awh, does little Indigo care about her big brother?" JJ mocked before jumping off the scaffolding he was sitting on and slinging his arm around her shoulder. 

Indi flipped him off and sent a painfully sarcastic smile his way as Kiara finally appeared out on the balcony after touring around the house. 

"They're gonna have Japanese toilets and towel warmers," she scoffed, throwing her arms up in the air. "This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles, I guess?"

"I can't have cold towels," JJ responded, living out the fantasy that he owned the house. 

"Can you please not kill yourself?" Kiara yelled up to John B. 

"Don't spill that beer! I'm not giving you another one," JJ added as he finished the last drop of his own. 

As if on purpose, John B wobbled on top of the roof, loosing his balance and dropping the can onto the decking. The beer exploded out of the can, seeping into the brand new decking. 

A smirk appeared on Kiara's face when she saw the stained decking. It was what the owners deserved for destroying the turtle habitat. 

"Of course you did, like right when I told you," JJ huffed as he threw his arms out in the air. 

Indi peered over the unfinished balcony to find a security car pulling into the driveway to come and ruin their fun. "Hey, security's here. Let's wrap it up."

The five friends quickly gathered their things, that were scattered all around the decking, and said goodbye to a house that would only exist to them in their dreams. 

"Gary is that you?" JJ yelled from the scaffolding, looking a little too much like he was playing Juliet and Gary was Romeo. 

Pope was standing below the blonde boy, shaking his head and snapping his fingers to get JJ's attention. Despite being a Pogue through and through, there was nothing Pope Hayworth feared more than getting in to trouble and having all chances of a college scholarship taken away and given to a smug Kook instead. 

However, they couldn't blame him for this. Pope wanted out of the poor life and into the rich one. All of the Pogues did but Pope was the only one who was doing something realistic to achieve it. 

Unlike JJ who arrived at the Chateau at least three times a week with a new proposition for Indi and John B for breaking into a Kook house and stealing whatever they could find. 

Indi enjoyed the adrenaline and exhilaration that came with doing illegal things. It was fun to run away. It was fun to almost get caught. And it was fun to do it all with her best friends, who she wouldn't trade for the world. 

Wisps of light from the guards' flashlights momentarily blinded the teenagers as they all made their way to the front of the house to escape the same way they broke in. 

Indi tossed her backpack over the pristine fence before tossing herself over too, using the backpack for a slightly softer landing. She then held her hand out for Kiara to take which helped her to get over quicker. 

The two girls sprinted to the Twinkie, which was already up and running thanks to John B. He hit the horn in a slight rhythm as the girls dove into the van. 

"Come here you little pricks!" Gary, the security guard, yelled at JJ and Pope, who'd seemed to have purposely slowed down to give Gary a chance. 

Despite finding the scene in front of her amusing, Indi shook her head as JJ climbed into the van. The poor overweight, middle-aged man, who was just trying to do his job, had nearly been killed off by a bunch of weed smoking teenagers. 

"Check out Gary gunning for a raise!" Pope taunted as he caught his breath. He wasn't much of an athlete, he was on the math team. 

JJ, who was the world's most easily influenced boy on earth, joined in on the taunting. He hung out of the open door of the van, with his empty beer can in his hand, trying to get Gary to grab it. 

He looked like a dog owner trying to get his puppy to do a new trick for the first time. 

"Come on, guys. You're gonna give him a heart attack," Kiara sighed, rolling her eyes at the boys' foolishness. 

"You can do it. You're so close! There ya go!" JJ shouted just before he threw the can into Gary's hand. "They don't pay you enough, man." 

And with that the door slammed close and they forgot all about the man they had just nearly sent into cardiac arrest.