There was a point in the life of Dallas Hyland where she was unconditionally in love with Rafe Cameron.
It was Dallas's first year at 'Kook Academy'. She felt out of place with everyone there. She only had Kie, and when Kie befriended Sarah, she never felt so alone.
Only one fateful day was when the two first came into contact.
There was something about her rendition of Scorpions' Still Loving You when auditioning for the academy's annual musical that drew him to her. She was a siren, and he was the fisherman that fell under the siren's song.
She tried resisting him, she really did. Boy, did she wish she tried harder.
After getting enraptured by Rafe Cameron, she gets enthralled into the Kook lifestyle, leaving John B, JJ, and Pope a distant memory. That very thing is the thing that Dallas could never forgive herself for.
No matter how much Rafe tells her that he loves her, he loves the drugs even more. It should be the biggest red flag that Dallas has missed that she wished that she could've seen.
It doesn't take a detective to know that Rafe Cameron is addicted to cocaine. Whenever Rafe is high on cocaine, he treats Dallas differently.
Violently. Possessively. Obsessively.
Dallas is not the one to be scared, but seeing that different side of him is scary.
At first, she just chalks it up as his dad treating him differently than Sarah, who is often referred to as the golden child. However, she refuses to help someone who doesn't help themselves.
One fateful night at a party is where it all comes to a boiling point. Rafe was high on cocaine, and it was to a point where Dallas couldn't take it anymore.
She gives him an ultimatum: either he helps himself or he continues his downward spiral.
He didn't say anything, and when she goes to leave, he proceeds to take the one thing that can never be given back to her.
In the aftermath, she witnessed him lying to everyone about how she cheated on him. And everyone buys into the lies, even her own mother, because why would the Kook Prince lie?
He comes from a respectable family, he is going to take over the family business, he will be going to college very soon (well, at that time), and him being good-looking and charismatic is just the icing on the cake.
She is just some Pogue on the wrong side of the tracks.
After a week of not seeing her, Kie notices that something is wrong. Though she is just regaining the trust of the Pogues, JJ knows that Kie would never lie about anything that involves Dallas.
And that is how they came across the unusual form of Dallas curled up into a ball on her bed, eyes void of emotion. According to Trent Hyland, she didn't eat and has only come out of her room to just go to the bathroom.
When the truth eventually came out, every single one of them had a mixture of emotions, however there is one common emotion amongst all of them: visibly upset.
Pope recoiled in disgust after hearing the horrible things that Rafe had done to Dallas.
John B, who's dad has just disappeared, was seething in anger about the injustice done to the girl that he has been friends with since he was only 9-years-old.
Kie, who is rather empathetic, felt all of the pain that Dallas has gone through and tried her best to comfort her in her time of need.
JJ Maybank saw red. He wanted to hurt Rafe Cameron. Somehow, he knew deep inside that it wouldn't solve anything. The best he could do is just be there for her.
There is nothing that they can do to take back everything that has happened.
Dallas snaps out of those horrible thoughts she tried to forget about when Pope's dad comes into Heyward's. "Hey, Pope. There's someone here to see you."
Dallas looks up and sees Deputy Shoupe enter Heyward's following Pope's dad.
"Evening, officer." Pope greets. Dallas can sense that he is trembling.
"I have an arrest warrant for felony destruction of property." Shoupe says. Pope looks over at JJ, Kie, and Dallas, eyes having a clear coat of fear as Shoupe approaches him. "Hands where I can see 'em."
Dallas steps in front of Pope. "You're not taking him." she insists.
"Out of my way, Miss Hyland." Shoupe tells her as one of the other cops just moves her out of the way. She was at all not pleased.
While everyone is protesting, even following Shoupe outside. As soon as Pope is about to get into the car, JJ steps up.
"It wasn't him!" he yells. "It was me."
"JJ…" Dallas is about to warn, but JJ didn't listen to her.
"He tried to talk me out of it, but I was mad because he'd just been beaten up. I was so sick of those assholes from Figure Eight that I lost my shit." JJ continues as he walks towards Shoupe and Pope.
Dallas knows, deep in her heart, that she would do that exact same thing, regarding Pope's future, but it didn't mean that she would still worry.
"I can't let you take the blame for somethin' I did. You've got too much to lose." JJ tells him.
"JJ, what are you doing?" Pope asks, just as bewildered as Dallas.
"I'm tellin' the truth. For once in my goddamn life, I'm gonna tell the truth." JJ replies to Pope as he turns to Shoupe.
"I took his old man's boat, too." JJ tells him, pointing over at Heyward. "What the hell?" Heyward asks.
Pope tries to reason with JJ, but it comes to no avail. JJ was still carted off in the police vehicle.
Moments after the car left, Pope runs off, with his dad calling for him.
Dallas can feel tears welling up in her eyes and she feels as if her chest is constricted, finding it hard to breathe.
"Luke's gonna kill him, Luke's gonna kill him." Dallas keeps repeating as Kie is trying to calm her down. While Kie was doing that, an expensive car came rolling up to Heyward's, and out comes Octavia Neville.
"There you are, Dallas!" Octavia says, exasperatedly. She storms up to her daughter and grabs her by the arm, her French manicure digging deep into her arm. "You are coming with me."
Kie glowers at Octavia. The Pogues' feelings about Dallas's mom is blatantly and painfully obvious: they all don't like her. In the aftermath of Octavia's infidelity, everyone in The Cut has turned against her.
"For once in your life, just leave her alone." Kie snaps at her. Octavia just ignores her and proceeds to drag Dallas to the passenger seat of the car and then speeds off.
"You ungrateful brat. I cannot believe you made me drive all the way up there." Octavia rants, and Dallas is sure that Octavia is breaking several traffic laws by the way that she is driving.
"Then why fucking bother?" Dallas retorts, the venom biting every word.
"Language, missy." Octavia hisses. "I knew that it was a mistake letting you come back to The Cut."
"Better there than in Figure Eight." Dallas mutters, making sure that her mother hears her. Because of that, she gains a disbelieving look from Octavia.
"You heard me." Dallas responds as Octavia pulls up to the driveway. As soon as the car is set to park, Dallas wastes no time in getting out of the car.
"Excuse me?! I am your mother! You will show me respect!" Octavia screeches out.
Dallas scoffs in disbelief. "Now you want to play the concerned mom? My mother would've been there for me when I needed her most. She wouldn't ice me out at any given opportunity, she would've understood that I prefer The Cut way more than this prison." Dallas snarls.
The girl didn't falter under her mother's scathing gaze, however the tension seems to be broken up when Ray comes outside. "Dallas, good to see you again."
"You're not my dad." Dallas snaps at him before storming off inside, harshly bumping into him in the process.
Dallas knows that Ray doesn't deserve her coldness, but she doesn't see him as a father figure. All she could see is the man that her mom cheated on with, the same man that broke her dad.
Getting up to her old bedroom, she sees the different dresses that are displayed on her bed. She groans to herself, knowing that it is Midsummers tonight.
Her mom enters her room. "Dallas, I don't want to fight. I just want to help you be decent enough." Octavia tells her.
Dallas rolls her eyes. "You just need to have the last word, don't you?" she rhetorically asks as she sits in front of the vanity. Her mother begins to criticize her while she is doing her hair.
"It is utterly ridiculous that you did your hair like this." Octavia tells her as she is curling her hair. Dallas mentally rolls her eyes. Octavia is barely in her life, and when she makes an appearance, she taunts both her and her dad with what she gained in that affair.
"You have no idea what you put the Cameron family through with all of your lies you spread about their son." Octavia mentions as she is sewing in the white and gold flower crown in her hair. That got Dallas to clench her jaw out in anger.
No matter who she told about what happened between her and Rafe, people on Figure Eight would still call her a liar.
Dallas opts to do her own makeup and puts on the dress that had been displayed on the bed amongst the other dresses.
The Pogue would not lie that she took a moment to look into the full-length mirror. She looks like a different person in the high low black lace dress that is sleeved and has additional spaghetti straps. Her hair had been curled
"Dallas, let's go!" Octavia demands. Dallas huffs out a sigh as she gets out of that room and makes her way downstairs.
"Well, well, that's a much better look." Octavia approves, dampening Dallas's mood even more and lowering her self esteem. But, hey, that's the type of mother Octavia Neville is.
Ray just puts his hand up. "Never mind that. You look beautiful, Dallas." he tells her, opting for his step-daughter to give him a tight smile. "Thanks, Ray."
Upon arriving at the country club where Midsummers is being held, Dallas is also not surprised when Ray and Octavia ditched her. In the distance, she is glad that she can spot Pope and Kie.
Taking the two glasses of whatever type of alcohol from the serving dish that the waiter has, she makes her way towards her friends. Her real family.
"Thank God you two are here. I literally thought I was going to gauge my eyes out from being around this many Kooks." Dallas tells the two as she gets over there.
Kie whistles at Dallas. "Look at you, gorgeous!" she compliments.
"Kiara Carrera, I better be a goddamn full-length mirror with your goddess self." Dallas responds.
Kie then spots the beverages in Dallas's hands. "What is that?" she asks her. Dallas peers over at the glasses. "Some kind of alcohol. I don't know." Dallas shrugs.
"Good. I need some to get through tonight." Kie tells her, grabbing the glass out of Dallas's left hand.
"I would offer you a glass, Pope, but I don't wanna be on your dad's bad side." Dallas tells him. "After Cruella made her appearance at Heyward's, you're not even on it." Pope responds to her.
"You look like you're at a funeral." Pope adds in.
"It is a funeral, Pope. For my sanity." Dallas responds. "You two hear anything from JJ?" she asks, that worrying feeling gnawing at her stomach.
Pope shakes his head. "No. He'll be all right. You out of everyone know that he's got the survival instincts of a cockroach." Kie tells her.
"It's all my fault." Pope blames himself.
Dallas gives him a blank look. "Don't you ever fucking say that ever again. If anything, Rafe and Topper are the ones at fault." she reassures him in her own Dallas Hyland way.
"You didn't do this, Pope. Topper almost killed you. Remember?" Kie pipes in her support.
The three hear an applause, so they look over to see the Cameron family make their entrance.
"Here come Lord Capital and the Exploiters." Kie scoffs out.
"Copyright infringement." Dallas abruptly says, pointing over at Rose, who is very noticeable because of the hot pink dress and the spiky golden flower crown. "Lady Liberty called, and she wants her look back."
"She's gonna poke somebody's eye out with that." Pope agrees with Dallas.
"Well, anyways, I gotta get ready. Must put on a show." Dallas tells Kie and Pope as she downs the glass of alcohol. "Behave, you two." she adds in as she departs for the stage, where she sees the guitarist.
"Hey, so your dad sent in some music suggestions that you can perform. Black by Pearl Jam, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, and As The World Falls Down by David Bowie." he tells her.
"That's perfect, actually. And if possible, we can do it in that order." Dallas gives out the feedback.
"Okay, boss." the guitarist replies, doing a sound check with the guitar.
After that little sound check, her set went ahead.
(Song #1: Black by Pearl Jam *VIOLET ORLANDI COVER*)
(Song #2: Nothing Else Matters by Metallica *VIOLET ORLANDI COVER*)
(Song #3: As The World Falls Down by David Bowie *VIOLET ORLANDI COVER*)
After those three songs, the people who attended the event went into an applause, with Kie and Pope being the loudest. In between those three sets, Dallas had taken a swig of water.
After her performances, the day had quickly turned into night. She finds herself at the bar, waiting for a bartender until she feels a presence next to her and her name getting called. From the corner of her eye, it was Topper.
"Nope. Not doing this." Dallas snarls out.
"Look, all I want is to be civil." Topper tries to reassure Dallas.
Dallas's mouth slowly contorts into a smirk as soon as she sees the bruises on Topper's face. "Nice welts, Frosted Tips. Looked like whoever did that to you felt wronged and felt like those were well deserved."
"He sunk my fucking boat. He owes us $30,000. What else was I supposed to do?" Topper tries to explain, but Dallas is not having any of it.
"Are you seriously that dense? Do you need me to explain it to you like a child?" Dallas asks him.
"Some of us are not as fortunate as you. Some of us need to work so we can get bills paid and food on the table." The Pogue girl explains to Topper, as if he were a child.
"I, you, and everyone else knows that you can wish $30,000 just like that." Dallas concludes, snapping her fingers for further emphasis.
As soon as she turns around, Topper grabs ahold of her arm. Dallas freezes up momentarily, her past trauma kicking in.
"Don't fucking touch me." Dallas aggressively tells Topper, yanking her arm out of his grasp. Topper was taken aback. Never in his life has he seen a fearful look on the face of Dallas Hyland.
"Never touch me again." Dallas snarls as she gets away from him.
Making her way down the stairs, Dallas bumps into someone. She is about to yell at the other person, but pauses when her eyes meet the blue eyes of one JJ Maybank.
"J." Dallas breathes out. JJ breathes out a laugh. "Hey there, good looking." JJ greets her. Dallas then engulfs JJ into a hug.
"I thought you were dead." Dallas expresses her worries. "You can't get rid of me that easily, baby." JJ responds to her. Dallas then gets a better look at his bruised up face, and she already knows who the perpetrator behind the bruises is.
"Your dad did that, didn't he?" Dallas asks with hesitation.
"Yeah." JJ replies in the same tone as Dallas. "But, hey, this isn't nothing compared to what happened before." he tries to reassure her, but she is not having any of it.
JJ looks behind Dallas to see Rafe, Kelce, and the three other Kooks coming up to them. "Shit." he hisses inaudibly before turning his attention back to the girl that is in front of him.
"Listen, tell Kie that we are back in the G-Game. We're gonna be rich, baby." JJ explains to Dallas as he quickly pecks her on the lips before running off.
Her eyes widened in shock and she just froze there. In her mind, it is a lot to process.
Did JJ Maybank, her best friend before the double digits, just kiss her?
Dallas is able to snap out of it when she spots the Kooks chasing after JJ. She goes up to one of the security guards.
"Excuse me, sir. There have been some guys chasing after one of the employees. I believe they turned that corner over there." Dallas tells him, pointing out the corner. The guard grumbled out a 'Thank you' and has left in the direction she pointed him to.
Dallas then makes her way over to Kie, and before she could say anything to her, Kie's parents make her way over to the two girls.
"Dallas, honey, you never cease to amaze us up on that stage." Anna Carrera tells her as she gives her a hug. "Oh, thanks, Mrs. Carrera." Dallas responds to her.
"You have to perform at the restaurant one of these days." Mike suggests to her. "No, no. It's fine. I don't want to be a bother." Dallas brushes off.
"Look– look, man, I can walk myself." the two girls hear. It was JJ. "I got legs. Can you see that, brother?" he continues. Dallas and Kie look at each other before looking over at the scene that is JJ getting dragged out by the security guard.
"It's okay, everybody! Do not panic. Just leave it to the men and women in uniform." JJ announces. "Let's hear it for them!"
"Rose, you look like Lady Liberty." JJ tells the woman.
Dallas looks over at Kie, pointing her hand over at JJ. "Didn't I just say that?" she asks her.
"Let go of him! You can't just boot him!" Kie voices out, ignoring her parents.
"He's my date. He's my date!" Dallas tries to smooth everything out, only for a hand to slam down on her shoulder. "Be quiet, Dallas!" Octavia Neville hisses to her daughter after spending the whole night not even acknowledging her existence.
JJ then shoves the security guard off of him. "Hey, mandatory power hour at the Rixon's, ladies." he tells her. Kie looks over at Dallas, who smirks at her, which would only mean one thing.
They have a chance at finding the gold.
"Pope, you as well, all right?" JJ then tells Pope. "Rixon's Cove, all right?"
"Kie, come on. Workers of the world unite!" JJ exclaims. Kie didn't waste any time running away from her parents and towards her friends.
"Dally, come with us, baby!" JJ exclaims to her. Dallas has an infectious smile beaming on her face as she is now running down the stairs, ignoring the screeching that is from her mother.
Her moment of freedom was momentarily halted when Rafe turned her around, grabbing her very tightly around the arms.
"Him? You want to slum it with him?" Rafe asks her, almost to a point where he is shaking her. Dallas Hyland, on the other hand, will not give him the satisfaction of her being scared.
"I'm a Pogue, Rafe. I've always been, and it will fucking continue." Dallas growls at Rafe before spitting in his face. With his grip no longer on her, she continues her run towards JJ, and the two are in an embrace.
"You are so amazing." JJ breathes out. After seeing what Dallas did to Rafe, he is now confident that she is the person he wants to spend the rest of his life with.
The two then locked lips. Their moment of bliss was rather short because of John B.
"Hey, love birds! Let's go!" John B calls out. The two then grab hands and run away from the prestigious event known as Midsummers.
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