A/N: What do you know, another teen Willifer AU haha. This is actually a reimagine of a story I wrote in 2012 (it was so bad), with a bit of a personal touch now that I have seen many of these places with my own eyes.

This is just a short intro to provide some background, and then we're getting right into it!

Enjoy! Please leave a review if you can!


Sprawling green mountains, set beneath the canopy of almost constant rain clouds, spreading apart into deep valleys carved by endless waterfalls. At the foot of those mountains, nothing but miles of coastline, turquoise waters, twinkling under blue skies and sunshine. It was an island so green that one could think it had been dropped in the ocean directly from the hand of God. A place that exuded culture, beauty, and a sense of togetherness. Small hamlets, one airport, and a thousand souls that knew you by the way you walked through a parking lot without ever seeing your face. Here, the hustle and bustle of most people's lives gave way to chasing waves, waterfalls, and sunshine.

This was Kaua'i. And for Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, it was home.

At least, it had been since she was eleven. That was when everything had changed. A quaint, quiet life in Pennsylvania, upturned by tragedy, had evolved into a life that was a stark contrast from what they had had before. But in spite of all of that, JJ had never looked back.

Her parents could not have come from places more distant from Hawai'i, and yet it was here that they ended up. Her mom, Sandy, had been born into a very straight laced family in Maine. Rebellion against rules at the age of eighteen had seen her flock to Chicago in search of fun and a future that didn't involve a white picket fence, but as it so happened, that was where she met Michael Jareau. She hadn't been able to resist the charms of the farm boy from rural Pennsylvania, and after a couple of years of dating, they had married shortly after Sandy's 21st birthday. In the end, her happily ever after had most certainly involved a white picket fence, but with Michael at her side, she wouldn't have had it any other way. Three children followed the wedding; Roslyn, the oldest, joined less than two years later by little brother Nolan. Their family was supposedly complete at that point, only for a third surprise bundle to join them four years after Nolan… Jennifer.

Roslyn's death by suicide at age seventeen had completely upended their quintessential life, and Michael had made the decision to move the family elsewhere. In search of a completely fresh start, he could not have chosen a more far flung destination than Kaua'i, the furthest inhabited island of the Hawaiian archipelago, but that was where the shell shocked young family ended up.

The adjustment period had been hard. But JJ found her groove, settling in in their new home in Princeville, on Kaua'i's north shore. There, she made fast friends with another expatriated mainlander, William LaMontagne Jr, or Will. Will's family had transplanted from New Orleans only about eighteen months prior to the arrival of the Jareau family, after his dad, a police officer, had accepted a senior position at the Hanalei Police Department. It was a huge move, and a big change for the Southern family, but they had embraced it as an opportunity to try new things, and in the end, it had paid off. Will was nearly two years older than JJ, but the two of them were thick as thieves, and the residents of the North Shore had come to expect all sorts of mischief whenever they saw the two of them around town together.

Now almost sixteen, JJ spent most of her days in the water. Surfing had come to her fairly naturally when she first jumped on a board in the days following their arrival, and the local kids had eagerly showed her the ropes. Now, she was a regular in local surf competitions, with a potential to take it further. Even so, she knew in her heart that surfing wasn't her forever.

It was just her now.

But, in order to give her the most opportunities possible, her mom had started homeschooling her at age thirteen, after a bit of a rocky first two years at the local middle school. It had been the catalyst for JJ's happiness, and finally, the family were completely settled in their new life. They would never have picked themselves for being a family who forever chased waves and sun, but it was how the cards had fallen, and they were forever grateful for the happiness and healing it had brought them after Roslyn's passing.

As it would turn out, however, that decision from five years earlier had set the stage for the waves of change to strike once more, lurking deep beneath the surface until the time came.