POISONED YOUTH ✸ Pope Heyward

𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐇

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SUMMARY
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OUTER BANKS, PARADISE ON EARTH — a place where no one is ever famous for the right reasons. After all, the Outer Banks is a small island, and the thing about place like this is that rumors travel twice as fast, and labels stick.

Cassidy Liberato happens to be a prime example.

Her story is quite simple: brazilian girl, daughter to wealthy businessman Lorenzo Carvelli, arrives at the Outer Banks at the young age of eleven and rapidly grows in popularity. Kids from all over Figure Eight (and even a few daring ones from The Cut) trip over each other to befriend her and maybe —just maybe— score one of those sought after spots in her good graces. Because being in the Liberato's nice list means all kinds of privileges— starting with impromptu all-inclusive trips to the white beaches of Bahía, Brazil.

In short, Cassidy Liberato was quite popular during her first years in the Outer Banks. The operative word being popular, not famous. Only does the Liberato name become truly renown once tragedy sticks to it— particularly when it comes to the family's downfall.

She blames her father for it all. Because once Lorenzo went down, the rose-filtered picture she had of her future burned down with him. All assets frozen. Her dad in jail for fraud and embezzlement. And Cassidy's life over before it had even began. A perfect trajectory carved in silver and gold over the course of sixteen years becomes dust in an instant.

And just like that, faster than the tides turn, Cassidy Liberato becomes the most famous name in Kildare County.

Soon enough, the Liberatos could not even afford to continue living as Kooks anymore. Trading yachts for fishing boats and their three summer houses for three separate jobs, Cassidy was certain it could not get any more humiliating. And yet, imagine her surprise when she tried calling her friends, only to find out she'd been blocked by them. By all of them.

And so, Cassidy finds herself stuck in a strange limbo— not rich enough for the Kooks, and not local enough for the Pogues. Being treated as radioactive by most, Cassidy Liberato had to once again swallow her pride and start job hunting. And after embarrassingly long days of being turned away, being called bad for business by one too many shop owners, she finally manages to score a part-time gig at The Wreck. And with her mother still reeling and recovering from her Dad's arrest, Cassidy seems to find herself alone in the task of keeping her family afloat.

Change is never easy. Cassidy would be the first to tell you that— and after watching her ivory tower crumble from underneath her, there's nothing she wouldn't do to go back to how it was. Get back her perfect boyfriend. Her perfect group of friends. Her perfect family. Her perfect life.

Enter, the Pogues.

A rag-tag crew of self-denominated misfits and underdogs— or, as Cassidy knows them, Kiara Carrera's group of weirdly-cute lapdogs. Either way, Kook or not, she knew better than to get involved with any of them. After all, trouble is still trouble on either side of the island.

It's a weird thing, fate. Cassidy has always believed that there's a more powerful being or entity pulling the strings, yet after hitting rockbottom, she couldn't quite see the point of it all.