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Not a lot had been the same since Claire Hastings' boating accident six months ago. She'd lost her father, Mark, that day and also her love for the water. All it brought her now was sadness and bad memories, instead of happiness. Every time she closed her eyes, all she saw were flashes of that day, and all she wanted was for the nightmares to stop. All she wanted was to go back to a year ago when she and her family first moved to Kildare Island from Australia.

It was always a passion of Mark Hastings's to return to his hometown. He'd been living and working in Sydney for almost twenty years and wanted to spend time with his family where he grew up. So the Hastings family moved and settled in fairly quickly. Mark showed his wife and daughter around the island, teaching them all about the two sides: The Cut and Figure Eight, plus the two tribes that came with: The Kooks (the rich) and The Pogues (the not so rich). The Pogues worked multiple jobs and always found a way to put food on the table to feed their families. The Kooks on the other hand, had everything handed to them on a silver platter and Claire hated the idea of living in luxury.

She loved The Cut. Especially when she met her friends. She fit right in with them, and they were all curious and excited to welcome her into their tight-nit group. Especially Kiara, or Kie as they called her. She was the only other girl in the group, and despite them hardly knowing each other, the two girls quickly found comfort in being able to relate to one another on a level that the boys: John B, JJ and Pope, would never understand. Kiara and her family kindly gave Claire a job at their restaurant, The Wreck, too; a very popular place among tourists and the locals of both The Cut and Figure Eight.

The Pogues were carefree and wild, but fun and worked hard. They more often than not did whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They surfed, drank and went on boat rides along the marsh almost every day. It was absolute bliss for Claire, who'd felt like an outcast her entire life. Yet here she was, surrounded by a bunch of other kids who felt the same way.

But after the accident, Claire's couldn't even set foot on a boat without having a panic attack.

They were out fishing when a much bigger boat collided with theirs, and the impact alone was enough to send them both overboard and flip the boat upside down. The last thing she remembered seeing was her father struggling to untangle himself from an empty fishing net, before her head collided with the anchor, rendering her unconscious. She woke up three days later in the hospital and after the doctors explained she'd suffered a major concussion and almost drowned, they informed Claire that Mark had been unsuccessful in untangling himself from the net and drowned.

Her entire world came crashing down that day.

The authorities believed it was an accident but Claire believed otherwise. Of course, she had no proof to say it was a Kook's boat that hit them, so she had to drop the subject.

The Pogues tried to be there for her as much as they could, but it was hard since they didn't really understand what she was going through. They invited Claire along to their fishing trips, but she'd often refuse, instead waiting on the dock at John B's Chateau for them, or simply sat on the sand when they went surfing. Even her relationship with her mother, Jackie, wasn't the same after the accident either. Jackie dealt with her grief in silence, often occupying herself with unnecessary housework and cleaning, or by locking herself in her room and listening to sad music from the 90s. She became unnecessarily harsh and hardly ever spoke to Claire. When they did speak, it was never a very long conversation. Claire had started to believe her mother blamed her for Mark's death, which didn't make the situation any better for either women.

Eventually she started to deal with her grief by distracting herself in many ways, including hanging out with, and getting into trouble with her best friends, as well as getting drunk a lot of the time and doing things with people she shouldn't have.

After all, the first rule of being a Pogue was "no Pogue-on-Pogue macking," and yet, she was doing exactly that with a certain blonde haired, blue eyed friend.

Claire and JJ both knew it was wrong, and kept it a secret for as long as they could, but eventually they realised they were both just using each other as excuses to escape from their harsh realities. They agreed from then on to stay friends and forget that it ever happened.
There was always a slight tension between the two teenagers though afterwards, and everyone in the group could feel it lingering in the air.
They ignored it, of course, and instead, JJ focused his energy on trying to help Claire with her fear of the water.

He showed up to her house on the HMS Pogue a few months after the accident, and begged her to hop on so they could go for a ride out on the marsh. When Claire refused, JJ got down on his hands and knees and literally started to beg. Reluctantly she agreed, and surprisingly had an okay time. You know, after a mild panic attack...or two. Claire felt some comfort in having JJ with her though, who knew how scared she was and wouldn't do anything to worsen the situation. When they'd returned later that evening, she asked why he did that for her. JJ had thought about his response before answering, thinking about the main reason he did it was because he cared for her in a way he still didn't understand, but settled on the excuse that they all missed their "favourite foreign Pogue." It wasn't a lie, they did miss her, but he knew his own reasons didn't matter in that moment.

Six months later, things were still hard, especially since it'd been almost nine months since John B's father, Big John, had gone missing at sea too. Everyone was convinced he'd died. Everyone except John B, who still believed he was alive. Claire believed it too, purely because she understood how it felt to have the person you're closest to disappear. She was going to be there for him the same way he and the rest of her friends were there for her.

However, in doing so, none of them knew just what they'd truly be getting themselves into.

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"That's what, a three-story fall to the deck? I give you about a one in chance of survival." Pope said.

John B was currently balancing on the rooftop on one foot while drinking a beer. JJ and Claire were sitting on the scaffolding watching him, while Kie was inside inspecting the unfinished house and Pope was on the ground looking out for unwanted visitors. A.k.a. the police.

The five friends were making quite a habit of coming to Figure Eight and annoying the cops.

"Hm." John B licked his finger and put it up to the wind. "Should I do it?"

"Yeah you should. I'll shoot you on the way down." Pope said.

"You're gonna shoot me?" John B asked, then the two boys played pretend with finger guns.

"Yep, pow!"

"They're gonna have Japanese toilets with towel warmers." Kie said, wandering out from inside the house after her inspection.

"Of course they are. Why wouldn't they?" Pope said.

She sighed. "This used to be a turtle habitat, but who cares about the turtles, I guess?"

"I can't have cold towels." JJ muttered beside Claire. She furrowed her eyebrows at him but didn't respond.

"Can you please not kill yourself?" Kiara asked John B.

"Don't spill that beer. I'm not giving you another one." JJ warned him.

"Whoa! Oh shit." John B said as his beer dropped and smashed to floor.

"Of course you did, like right when I told you not to..."

"Smooth." Claire said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Dumbass." Kiara muttered, earning a chuckle from Claire.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly shouted from below.

"Hey, uh, security's here..." Pope announced. "Let's wrap it up."

"Boys are early today." John B said.

"Humpty Dumpty, let's roll." JJ exclaimed.

"Don't have to ask me twice." Claire said, getting up from the scaffolding and climbing her way down carefully.

"Gary is that you? It's me!" JJ yelled from above her. "Gary, good to see you, man!"

"You're asking for it." Kiara giggled.

The five teens then ran through house laughing and whooping, as Gary and another security guard chased, and almost caught them.

"I got him!" The other security guard yelled. Claire turned around and saw him grabbing JJ, but grinned as the blonde boy broke free and ran off.

"Not much of a hugger." JJ said.

"Go Pope!" Claire called out to the boy ahead of her.

"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" JJ yelled from behind her.

She reached the white-picket fence and jumped over it, but caught her foot on the top and tripped, landing on the grass with a hard thud. She let out a grunt as the wind was knocked out of her, then felt a hand grip her arm and pull her up. She looked up and saw JJ shaking his head, meanwhile Pope had also fallen over and was still groaning on the ground.

"You always do that." He muttered, letting go of her arm.

"And you always come to my rescue." She smirked, then ran ahead of him.

"Hey!" Gary shouted from the fence. "Come here you little pricks!"

"Bus is leaving!" John B yelled, honking the horn of the van.

"Come on, boys–and girl! Whoo!" Kiara cheered as the three of them jumped in.

"Check out Gary, gunnin' for a raise." Pope laughed.

"Come on, Gary!" JJ encouraged, sticking half his body out the side of the van.

"Hey! You little pricks!" Gary shouted, running after the van.

"You're gonna give him a heart attack!" Claire laughed.

"You're so close! You can do it. There you go." JJ yelled, and threw the beer in his hands to Gary. "They don't pay you enough, bro." He added.

"JJ, stop. Stop." Kiara said, trying not to laugh.

"Oh, come on. That sort of initiative is just begging to be punished."

For the remainder of the journey home, the others chatted and laughed indistinctly, while Claire sat quietly and watched the scenery change as they went over the bridge. The spectacular view was something she never got sick of seeing, especially in the evenings.

Being a Pogue truly was the best thing in the entire world.

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Okay so there's the first new and improved chapter done and dusted! Hope you guys enjoyed xx