After fleeing the scene that the Kooks called the Midsummers party, the Pogues sat on the beach around a bonfire they started. The biggest surprise to Maggie was that John B himself told Adriana about the whole Royal Merchant situation — he hadn't told her about the new discovery either. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he wanted to include a certain blonde Kook.

            "Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope asked.

            "Yeah, please tell us," Maggie added, taking JJ's arm to show how eager she was to know. "We're dying over here."

            John B finger–gunned at JJ, signalling he should talk."Might as well tell 'em, man, before we're gaffed."

            "You ready for this?"

            Adriana looked at Kie beside her, than back at John B. "Don't leave us hanging, pendejo, tell us."

            John B rolled his eyes but finally started talking. "So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."

            Maggie sighed, she looked into the fire. All this about the Royal Merchant yet again. She shivered from the cold. Pope agreed. "Oh, my God. Here we go again with this."

            "No. All right, wait. Hear him out, all right?" JJ told his friend. He noticed Maggie was starting to get cold, despite sitting in front of fire. He put his arm around her shoulder and rubbed his hand on her arm, creating warmth.

            "It's been here the whole time." John B continued. "It's on the island."

            "Are you serious?" Kiara exclaimed. "Oh, my God."

            Adriana put her hand in front of her. "Wait, so you know where it is?"

            Pope folded his hands in front of him. "I'd like to voice my skepticism."

            "I'm sure you would, Pope," John B replied. "But can I please present you with my evidence, sir?"

            "Proceed."

            "All right," John B proceeded. "So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny." He took said letter out of his backpack.

            Kiara turned her head to see if Adriana knew who that was, but she shook her head. "Who the hell's that?" Kie asked.

            "Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck," John B answered. "Check this out."

            The brunet gave the letter to Kie, Adriana looking along over her shoulder. He continued explaining his theory. "Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery. So Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom."

            During his speech, Kiara whistled at Maggie, making her look up from the fire, to give her the letter so her and Pope could look at it. JJ'd already seen it before.

            "After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please," The Pogues slapped their legs, pretending to drumroll. "Because that farm is... Tannyhill Plantation."

            Kiara's eyebrows raised. "Tannyhill?"

            "Yeah." John B confirmed. "So, after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit ton of rice, which pisses off all the white planters."

            "Honestly, good for him," Adriana remarked. "He was ahead of his time. Mi hombre." She held up a fist.

            "But then they decided to lynch him." John B finished his sentence, looking directly at Adriana.

            She sunk back, falling silent. "Oh."

            "So on the day they were coming to get him," John B looked around the bonfire. "He writes a letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of that letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold."

            Kiara's smile grew. She whispered. "Where?"

            John B pointed at Maggie to read the translation out loud. She was holding the paper in the end. "Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water," She said doubtfully. "Parcel nine, is that like a place around here or something?"

            "Except," John B took over again. "There's no wheat. You see, wheat is code for gold. Check this out," Maggie gave the letter back to John B, who shone light on it to show markings of a wheat drawing. "The gold is in parcel nine, near the water."

            Kiara laughed. Adriana cackled, jumping up to hug the brunette girl next to her. Kiara was surprised, to say the least, she looked at Maggie, not knowing what to do. Maggie urged her to hug back, which later she did.

            Pope took the letter and flashlight over from John B. "Holy shit."

              "All we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold." John B finished.

            Pope was still looking at the letter, Maggie looking with him over his shoulder. "Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true."

            JJ stood up from his spot. He walked over to John B, who stood there with his arms wide open. "Dude, it's like King Tut." Kiara exclaimed. Adriana agreed with her.

            "I am a genius!" JJ went in for a hug, almost standing in the fire. "Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn."

            JJ didn't care. "I'm so proud of you right now."

            "Thank you. That's really sweet of you."

            Maggie sunk back in her seat after reading the letter over and over numerous times. She felt so stupid. Back at home, they had nothing, no idea of any whereabouts of anything. And now this group of mere teenagers looks at it for a couple days and find the boat and the gold. She felt humiliated. This was not how she wanted to honour her father, by letting someone else do it.

            "Okay, so, guys," Pope wanted to bring their attention back. "What's the plan?"

            JJ pointed at him. "Good question."

            "Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She's gonna bring an original survey map—" John B explained before getting interrupted by Adriana.

            "Hold on," She said. "Who's Sarah Cameron, and why do I recognise her name?"

            "A bitch," Kiara replied shortly. "Sarah? Wh— why Sarah?"

            John B took a few seconds to reply. "This is gonna be good." JJ said to Maggie in the meantime. She slapped his hand, telling him to shut up. JJ pretended it to hurt.

            "Sarah, um," John B stammered. "She— she got me into the archives in Chapel Hill yesterday, and that's where I got the letter."

            Kiara continued arguing. "You were in Chapel Hill with Sarah Cameron?"

            Adriana mentioned. "Relax, Kie, it's not like he kissed her or anything." But as she did, John B's face scrunched up.

            JJ saw it too. "He was mackin' on her."

            "I wasn't macking."

            "You were totally macking Sarah Cameron." JJ repeated.

            "This isn't helping, J." Maggie singsonged.

            John B replied. "I wasn't macking on her, okay? I was using her for access."

            "There was access, all right." JJ echoed lowly.

            "Did you tell her about the treasure?" Kiara continued drilling. Maggie hadn't seen her that irritated anymore in a while.

            John B avoided the question as he answered. "I was trying to get into the archives."

            "Is that a yes?" Kie asked.

            "Look, JB, it's better to be honest now," Maggie agreed with her friend in a soft tone. "Lying now won't help you if Sarah wants to join us later on. You know she'll want to if she knows what Kia's saying she knows."

            John B finally answered Kiara's question. "I— I left out key details."

            "Yo, what?" Kiara's voice raised. "I couldn't tell Ana for days, meanwhile she's a Pogue, and the first chance you get, you let a Kook in on our secret? What about Pogue life? What about the t–shirt company, bro?"

            "I was just using her for information!" The brunet kept saying, but Kiara didn't believe him. "I'm trying to make us filthy rich here. Okay, so that we can pay off a boat, or— or, uh— send you (to Pope) to autopsy school to study dead bodies. Look, you guys know me. Do I look like the type of person to fall for Sarah Cameron?"

            The Pogues all said variations of a hidden yes. Maggie even said everyone could be the type of person to fall for Sarah Cameron. She couldn't blame John B for it.

            "You can't trust her." Kiara told her friend.

            Pope added to that mid–sentence. "Her brother did hit me in the back with a gold club."

            "He did what?" Maggie exclaimed, her eyes widening. "Boy, imma whoop that tosser's arse again."

            "Rafe and Sarah are different human beings." John B shrugged. He despised Rafe with all his might as well, but he couldn't blame Sarah for that.

            "What even happened between you two?" Adriana asked the upset girl next to her.

            Kiara started rambling, "She's like a— like a spitting cobra. First, she— she blinds you, and then—"

            "This is a bad analogy." Pope mentioned in the middle of Kiara's sentence.

            "Listen to me!" Kiara's voice raised. "Whatever we get, she's gonna try to take."

            "Well," Maggie finished. "How fun."

the fact that this whole chapter is basically one scene baffles me fr

but ay ig its okay

not that much jaggie scenes in here though my bad