Violets For Roses

Prologue

The small island of Kildare, home to the kooks and the pouges and the long going battle between them. At first when I was younger I never really understood why kooks and pouges never got along, I mean when you're 5 years old with a hippie mom who always told you "People are people, they're just born that way," you never really understand what people meant when they went around cussing out a kook or beating up a pouge. Though, when you get older you realize it's not because of the fact that they just hate each other, it's the fact that the kooks will always have more than they could ever want without having to lift a finger, but when you're a pouge, you have to work for not just what you need, but also for the things you want. 

Sure pouges are jealous, but jealousy can only go so far, kooks are born kooks because their parents worked hard to get there to be able to be called kooks. Though for a lot of pouges, it seems almost impossible to reach that goal. Kooks are kooks because of the money they have and pouges don't hate them just because they have money, no, they hate them because they're entitled and brag about the money they have and shove it in their faces like spoiled brats. The kooks hate the pouges because they hate them and because they don't see how entitled they're being. 

Growing up to me was realizing that my mom wasn't completely right about people being people and that they were born the way they are. People are people because they chose to be that way, sure there are things in childhood that can influence and person to be that way, but that's only an influence, in the end, the way people act and the things people do are choices that they've made to make them become the person they chose to be. A person isn't born an alcoholic, they chose to be that way, a teenager isn't born suicidal, they chose to think that way, and like I said, there are influences in a persons life to make them turn out the way they are, but they can chose to go down the path the influences make for them, or they can make a path of their own and chose to be better and it's never too late, to turn your life around. 

I'm at that spot where I don't know what path to choose. The influences make me want to continue being a pouge, sitting in an old rickety boat, smoking joints and drinking cheap beer or cheap strawberry wine with the pouges, not giving a single fuck about anything besides the feeling of being free in the times that I'm with them during the hot summer days under the boiling North Carolina sun until I fail out of school and unable to get a job and basically having to live with my dad for the rest of my life until I basically die of old age or get so fed up with it and kill myself.

But I could choose the other path. The path where I still enjoy the hot summer days with the rest of the pouges, just care a little more and put in effort in school. Try for a scholarship, like Pope, go to college on the mainland, open a small book shop or become a professor and teach a class that teaches young girls how to embrace themselves and love the world around them and not let any man tell them that they can't do the things they want to do because they can do anything. I could do so much with my life, I could be so much more than what my mother was, not that she was a horrible person, I love my mother, but I could accomplish so much more than she was able to. I could-

"Harper? Yo, dude are you even listening?" whelp there goes my inner monologue. Letting out an annoyed sigh, I lift my sunglasses off the bridge of my nose and squint up at the person standing above me who had pulled me out of my thoughts, using my left hand to block the sun from burning and drying out my eyes. 

"nope. I didn't hear a single word any of you said." I replied with a monotone voice, smirking at the brunette boy standing at my feet in his old rickety boat. 

Rolling his eyes he turned around and headed back to the steering wheel of the boat, "there's a storm coming in, we're thinking of heading back to the Chateau and having a few beers while waiting for it to pass." He states while starting to drive the boat back towards where we originally came from a few hours ago.

"Sounds good to me as long as we can play a drinking game while we're at it" scoffs and groans came from around the boat, specifically Pope and Kie, and a laugh from JJ could be heard too. 

"What?" I asked, my voice unintentionally pitching a bit as I sat up straight. 

"Nothing it's just you're drinking games can be really uncalled for sometimes." said Pope. He had a point, they did get a bit out of hand, but that's what made them fun.

"Yeah, but that's what makes them fun, Pope." I crossed my arms and legs to get more comfortable.

"I do agree with that, they are fun." JJ commented, pointing his index finger at me, then looking at Pope with his eyebrows raised.

"We can figure it out when we get back to the Chateau." John B said glancing at all of us before looking back ahead of him. 

We all agreed and I leaned back down and moved my sunglasses from the top of my head back to the bridge of my nose to protect my eyes from the sun and listened to the water splashing from the boat moving through the marsh and the sounds of my friends talking about what not. Letting out a breath of relief and feeling a soft smile appear across my face, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the peace of my home and my family.

This is the Outer Banks.