'HE DESERVED IT, RIGHT?" JJ QUESTIONED WITH RAISED EYEBROWS. All of the Pogues were at the Chateau. Bree was leaning against the railing of the dock in between the Maybank boy and the Carrera girl while he fished. Pope was sitting on the wood behind them, and John B was lying on the boat, staring out at the water with an expressionless look, like he was not sure how to feel.

The brunette girl had her geometry notebook in front of her. They all had a test the next day, and she had missed the last couple days of school. Luckily, Pope was happy to lend her his advanced notes that he had written down and allowed her to borrow them to copy down. At that moment, despite everything that was happening, she was studying. The last thing she needed was awful grades.

"Are you joking?" Kie scoffed like it was obvious because the blonde boy did not really sound sure when he asked the question. "Of course he deserved it."

The Heyward boy sighed, picking up pieces of the grass behind him and throwing it at the water aggressively. "Never seen anyone blow themselves up like that."

"Cross that one off the bucket list," JJ muttered as he cast his rod again after getting nothing the first couple of times.

The Callaway girl smacked him upside the head, almost causing his hat to fall into the water. Luckily for him, he was able to move his head in time so that it did not fall off. Once he was sure that his cap was safe, he looked at her with a confused and offended look. She scolded, " JJ!"

"Sucks for Sarah," he responded, and the brunette girl could not disagree with that. The blonde girl was at Tannyhill at that moment because apparently, her dad left behind a video that she needed to watch. Plus, she needed to be there for Wheezie.

Kiara, who was still worried about their friend that seemed neither happy nor sad about the death of his enemy. She quizzed, "Are you okay?" He shrugged with a sigh.

"It's not me I'm worried about."

Later that night, John B had informed his friends that Sarah had broken up with him. He refused to tell them why, but it did not take a genius to figure out that it had something to do with her dad. When the man died, the Routledge boy had not exactly been there for his girlfriend, leaving her to cry in the arms of Bree and, shocking to everyone, Topper.

So, while JJ, Bree, and Kie went to go get beers from the house, he and Pope were moping together about their lost loves. They were lying on the boat, which seemed to be a very mopey pace lately, when their friends came back. The Maybank boy threw a beer can at them without warning, yelling, "Hot potato, hot potato, hot potato two!"

"Impressive catch," Bree commented as the beer landed beside them and rolled off the side of the boat. Kie giggled beside her as the three teenagers leaned on the railing and stared at the boys that were climbing to their feet.

John B held his hands up, ready to catch it this time. He told his best friend. "I need another one."

"One, two," the blonde boy counted out, tossing one to each of the heartbroken boys before handing one to the two girls next to him. He raised his eyebrows at Pope and John B. "All right. What are you guys doing down here? Having a good cry?"

"Cry?" the Heyward boy questioned, shaking his head like it was the craziest thing in the world for him to cry over his breakup.

The brunette boy, who was obviously trying to convince them that they were not crying, which just made them think that more, scoffed, "Cry? What are you talking — We don't cry."

"You know it's not your fault, right?" the raven-haired girl asked, trying to comfort him.

He turned around, looking between the two girls because they knew Sarah the best and they were probably the best at giving relationship advice. "You think she'll come around?"

"Yeah, dude. She's a Pogue. She just needs some time to process everything," Bree assured him. Sarah was just going through a lot at that moment, and she just needed a couple days or maybe even weeks to process everything that was happening.

"Hmm. Sarah's a Pogue. She'll come around. Yep. You know, she'll come back to me. Right," he mumbled to himself as if he were going crazy or something, like he was trying to convince himself that it was true. "You know, I was just thinking about it. I'm gonna do a backflip."

Kie shook her head disbelievingly, and they all supported him as he changed the subject to something lighter for the time being. "You're lying."

"There's no way," the Callaway girl insisted before trying to bet with him jokingly. "You got any money?" Then, he shocked all of them by hanging his beer to Pope and doing a backflip right then and there, causing them all to cheer.

As his best friend resurfaced, the Maybank boy exclaimed, "That's my boy!"

"Woogity-woogity, baby!"

《✵》

"OH, MY GOD," BREE GROANED AS SHE SLAPPED JJ ACROSS THE FACE LIGHTLY. She looked over to Pope who was poking a sleeping John B with a stick made out of beer cans. The girls and the academic scholar of the group were awake, and the only task now was to get the other boys up. It was a task that was proving to be very difficult.

"Hey. We gotta go to school, man. We have a geometry test in thirty minutes," Pope informed the brunette boy as he stirred, and then, he went over to help the Callaway girl with JJ. He slapped him a little harder than she was, but he was still just barely awake. "Get up! JJ! Is he alive?"

John B, who was sitting up now, groaned out, "I don't know."

"Come on, JJ, here are your shoes," Bree told the blonde boy as he rolled over and off the couch. She kind of felt like a mom getting her kids ready for school.

Pope picked up JJ who was stumbling along and pushed him past the Carrera girl and toward the front door. He told her. "Hey, Kie. We're going this way."

"Um...I will meet up with you guys later," she muttered, and Bree was about to question it when JJ fell back on her and she realized that she had her hands full.

"I'm starving," he murmured to her as Pope opened the door so that she could shove the boys out of it. He tried to turn back and go inside, but she stopped him. "I need some pizza."

The Heyward boy shook his head before grabbing his friend's arm and pulling him onto the front porch as all of them grunted. "No, you missed breakfast."

They somehow got to school and in class in time, JJ running into a lot of doors on the way, so many that they would not be surprised if he had a concussion. They figured that that would not change him too much, so they were not particularly concerned.

"Glad you could join us, Mr. Routledge," the teacher greeted as she passed out the geometry test that Pope had told them about that morning and that Bree had been studying for the previous day. John B nodded up at her as she handed him his paper. "Just in time for your first quiz."

The Routledge boy whipped around and pointed an accusing finger at his smart friend. He whispered in disbelief, "A test?"

"I told you we had a test," the Heyward boy told him, and when he tried to protest, Pope cut him off, shaking his head. "The first thing I said to you—" The teacher interrupted him by clearing her throat, and they all — well, Pope and Bree — looked down at their papers and started their test.

After class, the four of them were walking to their next one, and John B was telling them about a note that some girl passed him during the test, asking if he was going to be at the bonfire that night. JJ was inspecting the note. "Bonfire? Well, I think she meant to give it to me, so we're all good there."

"She did not mean to give it to you," Bree told him.

"Okay, you can shut up. We all know you're just jealous," he responded, causing her to roll her eyes and trying hard to hide the blush that was rising onto her cheeks. Luckily, he seemed to miss it, but John B and Pope did not. The blonde boy turned to his best friend. "We're going."

All of a sudden, a classroom door swung open in front of them, and Mr. Sunn stepped out, ushering them into his classroom. "Mr. Heyward, Mr. Routledge, Mr. Maybank, Miss Callaway, just the people I wanted to see. I have a question of an historical nature for you gentlemen." He moved to the back of the room and opened a locked door with a key as they walked over to him hesitantly. "I digitize documents for the Maritime Museum, and in return, I've been given access to the archives. And I found...this."

"A box," Pope said simply because that was all it was. It was a cardboard box sitting in their teacher's hands in front of them that he had just pulled out of the closet.

Mr. Sunn corrected as he paced the box down on his desk, "More than a box."

"That's a good start," Pope told him, and Bree nodded because she would be a little weirded out if their teacher brought them in there and made them late to class just to show them a box. It was not even cool of a box. It was rather plain and boring.

"Go ahead, Mr. Heyward. Uh...careful with that," the man instructed as Pope pulled something in a bag out of the box. Once he pulled it out of the bag, all of his friends peered over his shoulder and realized that it was a journal. "It's a diary. The author's unknown. And this is a sample of a Denmark Tanny letter. Compare the handwriting."

As he handed them a copy of a letter written by Tanny, Pope examined the writing of both documents and breathed out, "No way. It's nearly identical. This is Denmark Tanny's diary." He flipped through the pages again and found a picture, pointing it out to his friends, the brunette girl specifically. "Guys, it's Captain Limbrey. August 6th, 1829. That's the year the Royal Merchant went down."

Mr. Sunn smiled at him, happy that he was interested in his find. "I thought you might find it interesting."

"Thank you so much for this," the Heyward boy told his teacher because that journal would be a huge help in their search for the cross.

The man nodded before walking back into his closet thing. "It's important to know your own history."

"Oh my God. It's the Cross of Santo Domingo," Pope exclaimed, causing all of them to crowd around him and gasp at the picture in realization. "It was on the Royal Merchant."