fearless

seven; delightful little nerd

By mid day, the Pogues are out on the boat, killing time. Lettie has another shift at the Wreck, but not until the evening. John B in his captain's chair, Jj sitting on the bow, Pope on one side and Kiara and Lettie on the other. Lettie is practically purring as Kiara twists her hair into two braids.

Jj whistles, getting everyone's attention, "You guys see that?" He asks, staring ahead at a boat approaching. Lettie internally groans, at the familiar vessel, "That's the Malibu 24-MXZ, the world's finest wakesetter. Number one in luxury, quality, and performance, 200K. Easily."

"We picked the wrong parents," Pope states.

Lettie and Kiara share a look as they see whos aboard the boat, and Kiara turns to the boys, "I hate to break it to you guys, but that's Topper and his girlfriend."

Lettie stays silent as she and Topper make eye contact, too many words said and even more left unsaid between the pair. The two boats pass each other, and no one says anything until Kiara calls out, "You don't have to act like you don't see us, bitch!" Lettie knows Kiara doesn't like Sarah, but she's never told her the story why.

Scoffing, Lettie looks at her best friend, "Which one were you talking to?"

Kiara ties off the elastic on Lettie's second braid, "Remember when you were friends with him?"

"You were friends with Topper?" Pope harshly asks, his brows furrowed as he stares at the blue eyed girl. Lettie frowns, why does he care so much?

"For maybe a month," Lettie confirms, "Our Moms are pretty close. Then you guys adopted me and like a petty girlfriend, Topper gave the most amazing friendship ultimatum."

"You chose right," Jj states, holding his arms out and motioning to the group of friends, "Clearly."

Lettie smiles, winking at her boyfriend where he sits on the bow, "I know."

The french girl had met the Pogues at a party just a few weeks after she had moved to the Outer Banks. But, Jj and John B had run into her earlier that day, when the island had been experiencing a particularly good swell.

Lettie, the only girl out in the lineup, had just wiped out. And her only friend, Topper, refused to join her on the side of the island she was hitting. Paddling into line, Lettie sat up on her board, watching as a surfer with long brown hair started to paddle after a wave.

"Pretty bad wipe out," A voice beside her said, snapping Lettie's attention. She raised a brow at the blond beside her, "Better luck next time."

Lettie didn't like him. In fact, she hated how smug he sounded. So, she didn't say anything back, she just fixed her gaze back on the horizon and waited. Patiently. It only took a few minutes for the blond boy's turn to catch a wave came, and when it did, Lettie paddled after him. The wave forming was lifting high, signalling that it would be one of the best of the day. At first, he had shouted at her to stop, not wanting her to snake his wave, but he asked for it. So, Lettie dug her arms deep into the water, throwing it back behind her as she paddled aggressively, cutting the boy off from the wave. He didn't know how she was so fast. She could hear him swear as she stood up on her board with ease, dropping into a bottom turn. Lettie carved into the wave, she prepared herself to show-off, so that's what she did. She could hear the boys behind her cheering as she snapped off-the-lip a few times. Then, Lettie lifted her eyes to see the wave about to break. So, she bent her knees, willing the board towards it. Sure enough, when she hit it, she was airborne. Aerials were her specialty, especially in competition. The brunette gripped her board as she spun through the air, and landed roughly back on the water. She smirked to herself, bailing from the wave. The other surfers were silent at first, not quite believing what they had seen. Then, all at once, they broke out into a chorus of cheers. This girl that none of them had ever seen before, just landed a rodeo flip.