the sucky parents club

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/53638363.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandom: Outer Banks (TV)
Relationships: Kiara "Kie" Carrera/JJ Maybank, Kiara "Kie" Carrera & Pope Heyward
& JJ Maybank & John B. Routledge, Kiara "Kie" Carrera & JJ Maybank
Characters: JJ Maybank, Kiara "Kie" Carrera, John B. Routledge, Pope Heyward,
John "Big John" Routledge, Luke Maybank (Mentioned), Mike Carrera
(mentioned), Anna Carrera (mentioned)
Additional Tags: Childhood Friends, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, bc the pogues are my
favourite found family, Emotional Baggage, Enemies to Friends to
Lovers, If You Squint - Freeform, really the enemies part is all in JJ's
head, y'all remember jj's s3 "i'm not good enough for kie" arc?, yeah he's
had a complex about that since age 12, JJ Maybank Needs a Hug, this is
a luke maybank hate club, Crush at First Sight, Childhood Trauma, bc
these kids have terrible parents, if mike and anna carrera have zero haters
i'm dead, Bonding, Kiara "Kie" Carrera Needs a Hug
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2024-02-09 Words: 2,810 Chapters: 1/1
 the sucky parents club
by blue_sherbet

Summary

“Oh,” JJ said. He hadn’t known her father was a Pogue. “Sorry.”

“It’s all good,” Kiara placed a fry in her mouth. “I punched her in the face. She didn’t say
anythin’ else after that.”

The corners of his lips quirked. “Cool.”

[or: a young jj and kie find out they have a lot more in common than they thought]

Notes

here's a little fic I've been working on the last couple of days. i feel like the writing quality is
far better than the last one i wrote, so things are looking up haha

i don't have a beta, it's just me and my son grammarly, so please excuse any errors.

**please note: i use the english/australian versions of most spellings, except for things like
"mom".**

hope you enjoy reading!

See the end of the work for more notes

The first time JJ Maybank talked to Kiara Carrera was on a random Wednesday in the sixth
grade.

Pope and JJ were sitting at their usual cafeteria table, positioned as far away from the Kook
kids as possible, when John B approached with a curly-haired girl in tow.

“Great,” JJ groaned. “John B’s got himself a new groupie.”

“Shhhh,” Pope hissed as the two got closer. “They’ll hear you.”

As though JJ cared if they heard him. All he wanted was to eat lunch with his boys one time
without John B dragging a girlfriend-of-the-week into the mix. He’d liked it better in fifth
grade when girls still had cooties.

“This is Kiara,” John B announced, jerking a thumb in the girl’s direction. “She’s from my
science class; I invited her to sit with us. Kiara, this is JJ and Pope.”

“Hey Kiara,” said Pope, friendly as always. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too.” Kiara smiled at him, moving to the chair across from JJ. “You can
just call me Kie if you’d like. All my friends do.”

Pope nodded. “Alright, Kie.”

There was a moment of silence. John B and Pope looked at JJ expectantly. Kiara tilted her
head, waiting.

Slowly, JJ took a bite of the sandwich Pope had given him. He always gave him JJ extras; he
said his mom packed too much. JJ wasn’t entirely sure how true this was. He didn’t question
it, though. He never had his own lunch to eat anyway.

A sharp pain stabbed his ribs- Pope was elbowing him. With a sigh, JJ gave the girl a forced
grin.

“Hello, Kiara.” He said deliberately.

Kiara raised a brow. “Hi.”

If she was bothered by his refusal to call her by the suggested nickname, she didn’t show it.

“Happy?” JJ asked Pope and took another bite of his sandwich.

He had seen Kiara before this, in English class. She wrote with a purple butterfly pencil.
Sometimes, he saw her at lunch, too, hanging out with the rich, popular girls. She had pretty
hair, a washed face and fresh, new clothes. If there was one thing he knew about Kiara
Carrera, she wasn’t the type of girl that should ever be hanging around the likes of JJ
Maybank.
The others start to chat about last night’s football game. JJ listened, carefully chewing his
food.

He could tell John B had a crush on Kiara. This wasn’t unusual. John B had a new girl
trailing after him nearly every week. That said, it was unusual for that girl to be a Kook.
What was she doing, following a Pogue boy around?

He glanced across the room toward the table where she usually spent her lunchtimes. The
girls sitting there were watching them back. A blonde girl named Aiden, who JJ knew as the
group’s ringleader, was shooting Kiara a dark glare.

He turned back to the girl in question. “Not hanging out with your prissy rich friends
anymore?”

Pope and John B looked appalled at his rudeness. JJ rolled his eyes at them. A cute girl paid
them the slightest bit of attention, and they turned into a pair of prudes.

Kiara snorted. “They’re not my friends. Not anymore.”

“What, did Aiden insult the colour of your nail polish?” JJ snickered. It seemed like the sort
of dumb thing that rich Kook girls would fight over.

Pope elbowed his ribs a second time. JJ ignored him. Kiara would get sick of the boys sooner
or later; there was no use delaying that realisation with false niceties.

“No,” she said flatly. “Aiden called me a mutt ‘cause my mom’s a Kook, and my dad’s from
the Cut. Said he was a lowlife who didn’t deserve to be on her side of the island.”

Damn, that was certainly less funny than what he’d been going for. JJ cringed as immediate
regret set in. His dad was right. He had to learn when to keep his big mouth shut.

“Oh,” he said. He hadn’t known her father was a Pogue. “Sorry.”

“It’s all good,” Kiara placed a fry in her mouth. “I punched her in the face. She didn’t say
anythin’ else after that.”

JJ blinked, surprised. This girl didn’t strike him as the type to go around swinging her fists at
people. She wore light-up sneakers and ribbons at the end of her two braids, the picture of
innocence. But, even as he was thinking this, JJ saw a quiet fierceness in her eyes.

The corners of his lips quirked. “Cool.”

“Thanks,” said Kiara, chomping three more fries.

Keen to diffuse the tension, John B launched into a story about the time he’d accidentally
punched a fish while surfing. They ate the rest of lunch in relative peace, the boys laughing
and jesting like always.

It felt almost normal, except for Kiara and the looks she kept sending JJ’s way. He wasn’t
used to people paying attention, not when he wasn’t disrupting class with a joke or climbing
onto the school’s second-storey roof. It made him uncomfortable, a swirling feeling that
settled in the pit of his stomach.

When the bell rang, and they got up to go to their next class, John B offered to walk Kiara to
her locker.

She laughed brightly. “No thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow at lunchtime, okay?”

John B looked stunned. Pope and JJ exchanged a grin. That might be the only time they’d
ever seen a girl turn down the Great John B’s attempts at flirting. It was about time, JJ
thought.

As Kiara walked away from them down the hall, Pope whispered in his ear. “She’s kinda
pretty, don’t you think?”

“Ew, no.” JJ wrinkled his nose and rubbed a hand across his cheek, wondering why it felt hot.
He hesitated. “She seems okay. Probably won’t stick around long, though. She’ll make up
with the other Kooks by next week.”

“You think?” Pope asked doubtfully.

“I’ll bet you five bucks on it,” JJ said, extending his hand. “Deal?”

“Sure, deal.” Pope agreed, and they shook on it.

Pope used his five dollars to buy a new pencil case, the most boring purchase imaginable.

Despite his loss, JJ kept waiting for Kiara to realise she was too good for them. Strangely, it
hadn’t happened yet. In fact, she was progressively spending more and more time with them.
She’d started coming to John B’s house most days after school, watching movies on his worn
couch and making friendly conversation with Big John.

“I like her,” The man told them one afternoon when she wasn’t there. “She’s gutsy; keeps you
boys on ya’ toes.”

Gutsy was definitely an accurate characterisation of Kiara. Once, she even managed to spend
the night at the Chateau, calling her parents to tell them she was at Aiden’s. John B lent her
some of his clothes to sleep in, and JJ determinedly disregarded how edgy the gesture made
him feel.

Kiara’s parents FaceTimed her later that night while the kids were watching Cars 2.
Launching towards the television remote, Kiara hammered the pause button and shushed the
boys before she answered. Mr and Mrs Carrera fussed over their daughter for a few minutes,
lecturing their disapproval of sleepovers on school nights and reminding the girl to brush her
teeth. She pursed her lips and nodded, remaining silent.

JJ thought the interaction was weird. He’d heard Pope having similar discussions with his
mom and dad, ensuring he didn’t eat too much sugar or stay up late. This didn’t feel the
same. Pope’s parents were strict, but Kiara’s parents seemed suffocating.
When she’d finally gotten rid of them and hung up, Kiara slumped. “Thanks for keeping it
down, guys. They’d go totally mental if they found out I lied.”

JJ’s eyes snapped toward her. He thought of the way his dad got when he caught JJ in a lie.
Mental was undoubtedly the way to describe it.

Pope and John B decided to get more popcorn while the movie was paused. When they’d left
for the kitchen, JJ and Kiara sat in awkward silence. Despite how much time she was
spending with them, JJ didn’t talk to Kiara much. Some small part of him knew he didn’t
want to get attached, just in case.

Unfortunately, what Kiara had said was nagging at him now. He lamented inwardly, annoyed
at himself for feeling concerned. It was probably nothing, yet something pushed him to ask.

“Hey, Kiara?” He poked her with his foot.

“Yeah?” She was distracted, gnawing anxiously on a fingernail. If JJ had to guess, she was
probably planning what she’d do if her parents did discover her lie. His own fingernails had
been chewed off long ago for similar reasons.

“What did you mean,” He asked, desperately trying to keep his voice even. “When you said
your parents would go mental if they found out you were here instead of Aiden’s?”

Kiara sighed heavily. “Like, they’d probably ground me for a month and never let me hang
out with you guys again.” She sounded exhausted, like simply thinking of her parents made
her tired. “They don’t understand me, y’know? They want me to be like the Kooks. When I
don’t act right, they yell. It’s easier to lie.”

JJ nodded. “I get it. It’s easier to lie to my dad, too.”

Maybe it was sick to think this way, but it helped that Kiara’s parents were also difficult. In a
small way, they had that in common.

She smiled softly and held out a fist. “To the Sucky Parents Club.”

“The Sucky Parents Club,” JJ repeated, bumping his fist against hers.

They went back to a more comfortable silence. It would’ve been an excellent opportunity to
find more common ground, like surfing. The boys had taken her out the other day, and she’d
seemed to have fun. JJ could offer to give her a lesson sometime. Maybe she’d say yes.

But something was still niggling at him, boiling away for nearly five minutes before he
couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“But you’re like…safe there, right?” He blurted.

Kiara looked confused. “What do you mean?”

JJ paused. What did he mean?

“Like,” He stumbled over the word. “They don’t hit you or anythin’, do they?”

Kiara stared at him in shock. JJ wasn’t entirely sure what to make of her reaction.

“No!” She said. “Of course not. Never. They just shout a whole lot.”

“Good,” said JJ gruffly, though his heart was glad. He could feel Kiara still looking at him, so
he tried to change the subject. “Pope and John B are taking forever. You wanna start the
movie without them?”

“JJ.”

“Yeah?”

Kiara’s brow was wrinkled, expression a jumble of emotions JJ couldn’t quite grasp. “What
made you think my parents were...hurting me?”

JJ’s face went red. He was glad the room was dim; hopefully, she wouldn’t be able to notice.
Much to his relief, the two other boys chose that moment to finally reenter the room.

“No reason,” he said in a tone that told Kiara he was done talking. “I was just wondering.”

“Oh,” she said, biting her bottom lip. “Okay.”

JJ wriggled along the couch when John B and Pope sat back down, positioning himself away
from her. She got the hint, not attempting to initiate conversation again for the rest of the
night.

Try as he might to stay focused on the film, JJ found himself watching Kiara again, not even
ten minutes later. Her eyebrows were pulled together, low, and he could tell she wasn’t
paying attention to the TV either.

She hadn’t believed him when he’d said there’d been no reason for his questions; JJ knew
that.

Oddly enough, he didn’t feel as nauseous as when the other boys got too close to the truth of
just how bad things were with his dad. It felt like Kiara understood better than they could, at
least a little.

Maybe she and JJ were more similar than he had anticipated. Different, but the same.

The Sucky Parents Club had a nice ring to it.

The first time JJ Maybank realised Kiara Carrera was in his life to stay was a random
Monday in the sixth grade.

He was sitting alone at the Pogue’s usual cafeteria table, waiting for the bell to ring. He had
nothing to eat today. Pope was out with a cold, and John B was playing hooky with Big John.
The bonehead hadn’t even bothered to text and let JJ know so he could ditch, too.
It had been a rough weekend. His dad was on a bender all Saturday; by Sunday, he’d been
hungover, waspish and looking for someone to take it out on.

JJ had tried to cover up the black eye with makeup he’d shoplifted for situations like this. It
hadn’t done much good; his skin's blue and purple mottle showed through the watery
concealer.

Some of his classmates used to stare when he would come into class with visible marks on
his arms and face. Not anymore. It had become as normal as the school walls' scuffed paint.

Nobody stared today, not even the teachers. JJ was okay with this. It meant less chance of
some nosey do-gooder calling CPS on him.

He was debating whether anyone would notice if he snuck out before the next period when a
lunch tray was slammed on the table. JJ looked up to see Kiara plonking into the opposite
seat.

“JJ and Pope aren’t here.” He said immediately.

“I can see that,” she said slowly.

“So…?” JJ was confused. Sure, they were almost always together nowadays, but he had
assumed it was a byproduct of Kiara choosing to spend time with the other two. Pope and
John B were the nice ones. They didn’t say the same stupid things JJ did.

Kiara peered at him. “So…you’re here. I’m sitting with you.”

“Why?” He asked. Even as the words came out of his mouth, he realised it sounded pathetic.
He was being genuine, though. He didn’t get it.

Kiara’s hair was neatly braided and pulled back to show her sweet, rounded features. She was
wearing a blue turtle-themed shirt and a thin necklace that JJ was ninety percent certain was
made of real gold. She was perfect, and he was…decidedly not.

What was she doing, following a Pogue boy around?

“Because I like you, idiot. You’re my friend.” Kiara said. “That’s cool with you, right?”

She was glaring, but when JJ looked closer, he realised she was apprehensive, as though she
wasn’t sure whether he actually wanted to be her friend. It was stupid because, of course, he
wanted to be her friend. Kiara was unlike any other rich kid he’d met. She cared about
people, sometimes to the point of inconvenience. It was irritating how much JJ liked that
about her.

He shrugged, wiping a hand across his cheek. It was warm again. “Yeah, I’m cool with that.”

“Good.” Kiara nodded, relaxing. Then she frowned. “What happened to your eye?”

JJ stiffened. Instinctively, he wanted to get defensive and lash out at her for asking instead of
ignoring it like a normal person. He forced himself to take a breath, challenging her gaze
calmly.

Friends, JJ reminded himself. We’re friends now. Friends don’t bite each other’s heads off for
caring. No matter how much it makes me wanna punch something.

“Walked into a door,” he said casually.

Kiara studied him disbelievingly. JJ got ready to make an excuse and bolt from the table.
Friends or not, he didn’t want her pity.

Just as he was rising to his feet, she finally spoke. “Want half my burger and some fries?”

JJ collapsed, nodding eagerly. She handed the food over with no further questions. JJ
swallowed half the burger with one bite, not particularly caring that it was bad manners. He
hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning either. All their bread had mould.

“Good?” Kiara asked, amused.

“Mmhm,” said JJ.

While they ate, Kiara complained that her parents wouldn’t let her go on the boating
expedition the Pogues had organised for Thursday night. In thanks for the food, JJ provided
tips and tricks he’d learnt from years of sneaking out past curfew. Together, they outlined a
plan to get Kiara out of the house: she’d go through her bedroom window, down the
drainpipe, and climb over the back fence to avoid setting off their security light. JJ would be
waiting around the corner with his bike, and she’d hitch a lift to the Chateau on his
handlebars.

When the school bell rang and Kiara got up to leave, JJ caught ahold of her wrist.

She turned, head tilted with curiosity. “Yeah?”

“I just wanna say…” JJ let out a breath. “Thanks, Kie.”

He wasn’t talking about the burger.

Kie smiled. “You’re welcome, JJ.”

End Notes

kudos and comments make my heart happy; please leave some if you're able<3 kindly
worded constructive criticism is always welcome, too!

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