BEFORE CARSON COULD MAKE IT TO THE KEGGER, the one that they were throwing as a distraction, she knew she would have to at least check in with her mom at home first. Even though her mom didn't technically enforce her grounding, she still figured it would be best to make sure she knew she stopped by first. It was this acknowledgment of respect that allowed their relationship, as weird as it may seem to others, to work.

"Hey, Mom?" Carson called out as she entered her house. She walked into the kitchen to see if she was in there but she wasn't. Just as she was about to leave though, she saw an open envelope on the counter. She picked it up and peeked it open out of curiosity. When she saw that it was a check, her curiosity just heightened. Her mom always yelled at her when she went snooping around in things that didn't belong to her, but she couldn't help herself. She always said that if her mom didn't want her to see something, she shouldn't just leave it out in the open for her to find. Clearly, that applied to this situation.

She pulled the check out, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at what she saw in front of her. "What the hell?"

It was a check for $1,000 from Ward Cameron. Carson's grip tightened around the check as she searched the house until she found her mom sleeping. "Mom." When she didn't wake up, she shook her. "Mom." She slowly opened her eyes but as soon as she saw what Carson was holding, they shot open. "Do you want to explain why you have a check for 1K from Ward Cameron?" Her mom sat up in bed, running a nervous hand through her hair. "I asked you a question!"

"Carson, sweetie, sit down," her mom said. Those words never meant anything good so it just put her on edge more so than she already was.

"I don't want to sit," she said. "Just tell me why the hell Ward is giving you money." Her mom looked like a million thoughts were running through her head before she sighed.

"It's child support," she finally said. Carson stared at her in shock, like she hadn't just said "child support".

"What?"

"He's your father, Carson," her mom revealed. Carson took a step back, feeling like she had just been punched in the gut. She stared at the check so intensely, like it was going to give her all the answers that she had questions to, but the three 0's just stared up at her like they were mocking her. Maybe they were.

"I- I don't understand," Carson choked out. She suddenly felt like every tear that she had cried about not knowing who her father had built up and threatened to drown her. It was a feeling that she hated. She hated it even more now knowing who it had been that she cried over.

"We had an affair," her mom told her. Though, that wasn't what Carson really meant. She had figured that out obviously. It was more the general shock from it being Ward. They lived on the other side of the island. She was half-sisters with Kooks. It was this realization that suddenly pissed her off.

"You're telling me that all this time, he's been living in a huge ass mansion with his three other kids and we've been stuck here in this place, a place that is probably smaller than Sarah Cameron's bedroom?" Carson yelled. "What is this? Some pitiful charity?" She threw the check onto the bed, feeling disgusted by the sight of it. "What have you been doing with his money anyway?" As far as Carson knew, she always thought they struggled with money. She had no idea that her mom had been receiving money from Ward Cameron. 

"Some of it I use to help pay the bills," her mom confessed. "But I put most of it away for you for college."

"Does his family know?" Carson asked. Her mom shook her head 'no', and somehow that made her still not know how to feel. If Sarah and Rafe had known and still went about their lives like this truth didn't matter then she would be pissed. But if they were still in the dark about it too then she would almost feel bad. In the end, her anger overruled anything. "I need to go."

"Carson, please," her mom begged her. "I'm so sorry. You need to understand that I didn't tell you because I was trying to protect you."

"I just- I need to go," Carson said. She wanted to be mad at her mom, and part of her was, but she also knew her mom never meant to hurt her. She understood that sometimes the truth was better left unspoken. But it was too late for that.

✰

By the time that she got down to the boneyard, the kegger was in full swing. The second she saw John B standing by the keg, handing out beers to people she headed straight to him. She pushed past a bunch of Kooks that were waiting in line.

"Hey! Wait your turn, Pogue," one of them said.

"Don't start with me," she snapped, grabbing the cup full of beer from John B. Her voice must have been full of venom because no one tried to argue back. 

"You okay, Car?" John B asked, noticing the anger in her eyes. 

"I'm fine," she said, though it was clear that she was not fine. John B knew not to push her when she was like this though. When JJ and Kiara walked up behind them, JJ threw an arm around Carson's shoulder. She shook him off, feeling completely irritated by everything. John B shot the two of them a look as if to warn them that there was something wrong but he didn't know what. Kiara frowned at her, hating when Carson was upset. Carson was sarcastic and blunt, but she wasn't a naturally angry person. She loved to have fun and joke around. If something pissed her off, it had to be something worth being pissed about.

"Come on. Let's go get fucked up," JJ said. She threw back her beer and immediately filled it again before nodding her head. JJ knew a lot about anger, and he knew that the best thing for her right now was a distraction from whatever it was that was getting to her. Of course, getting drunk wasn't the answer to that problem, but it would have to be for that moment. 

After a while of drinking and having fun, Carson had started to slowly forget about the bombshell that had been dropped on her earlier. Well, that was until Sarah Cameron showed up. Carson gripped her cup so tight that it almost broke in half. At that point she was already pretty drunk, and mixed with anger, she was bound to break. And that was exactly what happened when she saw JJ and John B talking to her and Topper.

"Sarah Cameron, nice of you to come out of your castle and hang out with us peasants," Carson said.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sarah said. Out of all of the Pogues, Carson Keller had been one of the few that wasn't outwardly rude to Sarah. In fact, Sarah had always even secretly wanted to be friends with Carson. That was until now apparently.

"That's a cute dress. Did Daddy buy it for you?"

"Why are you being such a bitch, Keller?" Topper stepped in to defend his girlfriend.

"What did you just call her?" JJ snapped, just as ready to defend Carson.

"We were just leaving," Sarah said, trying to pull Topper away before it got worse than it was.  

"Hey, you know what? I'll take that beer now," Topper said. "Thank you, man. I appreciate it."

"That's nice of you to suggest that, Topper, but I didn't ask you," JJ said. "Now if you said pretty please, maybe, but you didn't."

"Oh, pretty please," Topper said. "Pretty please?" When JJ tried handing the beer to Sarah again, Topper slapped it out of his hands and into face. "She doesn't want it." JJ immediately grabbed Topper by his shirt, but John B was quick to step in. "Dirty Pogues!" Clearly this set off John B because then he was the one to shove Topper.

"We're supposed to be incognito, remember?" Pope said, trying his hardest to stop a fight before it happened. It obviously didn't work though because Topper slammed his fight into John B's face. While Sarah tried yelling at Topper to get him to stop, Pope used all his strength to hold JJ back, which was not an easy thing to do.

"Hey, John B, don't make me drown you like your old man, alright?" Topper said.

"He did not just go there," Carson said. The crowd started chanting at them to fight, which just ended up adding fuel to the fire. Carson threw her full drink at the back of Topper's head, beer dousing his hair as the cup bounced off his head. It obviously was not meant to hurt, but as Topper was distracted, John B was able to tackle him to the ground.

"What the hell, Carson? You're not helping!" Sarah screamed.

"No one asked you, Sarah," she snapped. Eventually JJ stopped fighting against Pope and then joined the crowd as they watched it go down, cheering John B on as him and Topper brawled. "Kick his ass, John B!"

"Come on, Topper!" he screamed after he threw him down into the ocean. "Let's go! Come on!" Just as quickly as John B was winning, he was losing. Topper pushed his entire body weight on the other boy, holding his face under the water. It was then that everyone realized this fight was taken too far.

"Topper, stop!" Sarah begged. 

"He's gonna drown him," Carson said, grabbing JJ's arm. "You need to do something!" Obviously that was a dangerous thing to say because the next thing they knew JJ had the gun held up against the back of Topper's head.

"Yeah, you know what that is," JJ said. "Your move, broski."

"JJ, stop!" The remaining teenagers started yelling at him as everyone else dispersed, fearful of what could happen if JJ actually fired the gun. No one wanted to get hurt and no one wanted to be associated with the boy with the gun.

"Put the gun down!" Sarah yelled.

"Did you say something, princess?" JJ said.

"JJ, come on. Stop. He's letting him go," Carson finally said. When she had told him to do something, she didn't think about the gun. She didn't even realize he had brought it. Topper slowly stood, putting his hands in the air so that JJ could see that he was done.

"Kie! Can you check your psycho friend, please?" Sarah yelled.

"You should watch what you call people, Sarah," Carson snapped. Sarah shot her a look of disbelief that after that whole thing, Carson was really telling her not to call JJ a psycho. 

"Are you serious right now?" she said.

"Your boyfriend is the one that tried drowning John B!" Carson reminded her. 

"Okay, everyone, listen up! Get the hell off our side of the island!" JJ screamed to anyone who was still at the boneyard. He fired the gun as a warning, making everyone run.

"Are you crazy?" Pope said.

"Stupid!" Kiara said.

"You idiot! Why would you do that?" Pope screamed.

"It's not worth it!" Kiara added.

"I'm saving his life, okay?" JJ said.

"You're gonna jeopardize everything!" Pope continued to freak out, which made absolute sense. The whole point of the kegger was to stay low-key. Carson walked over to JJ and stared at him.

"JJ, give me the gun," she demanded. "Now." She once again had the same furious look in her eyes. He didn't know if it was directed at him or just at the situation, but he didn't want to find out. So, although reluctantly, he placed the gun in her hand.