──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝘁

──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────

The sun had gone down when John B drove the Twinkie to The Wreck since they all had been starved after the day's events. John B was apparently able to steal the drone from the storage container, putting them all in good spirits. "Stealing drones makes you hungry," Kiara commented with a grin.

"What I would do to a beer and shrimp and grits right now," JJ dreamed as he got out of the Twinkie.

"It would not be pretty," Pope followed behind him.

They all trailed behind Kiara who led them into her parent's restaurant. "Hey, Dad."

"Hey," Mike Carrera greeted. "Oh, hey, Cassie," he noticed.

"Hi, Mr. Carrera," she smiled at him.

"How'd we do?" Kiara asked her father.

"Didn't turn it over once," he answered as he walked out from behind the counter.

"It's probably just bad luck because of the storm," Kiara assured her as she wrapped her arms around her father, giving him a hug.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to tell the banks that."

Cassie continued walking with the boys before her phone buzzed again since they had entered Kook territory, meaning Internet. She pulled out her phone from her pocket, and sighed once she saw who it was.

Rafe Cameron
Heywhere areyou?
The party'sstill going
On
Stop byPleas

She furrowed her brows when she read the message. Is he drunk off his ass right now? Cassie thought to herself before she shook her head, placing the phone back in her pocket.

A week ago, Cassie would have never missed out on a Kook party if it meant to secure her image as a Kook. But now, she found herself starting not to care as much. Maybe it was because Rafe had invited her, but she hadn't been feeling that fear of missing out and the fear of not being seen amongst the Kooks as much as used to.

She then looked up to see that Kiara and Mike had been looking at them, prompting the four to wave in their direction. The two then continued conversing before Kiara hugged her father and then Mike toward the kitchen, causing Kiara to say to them, "Sit down."

The Pogues all sighed in relief and enthusiasm as they made their way over to the tables, waiting to be served their food. And once it came out, they started to gobble it right up like they hadn't seen a good meal in years.

Well, maybe they hadn't, which is what Cassie began to realize as she watched them scarf down their meals. She almost wanted to give hers up to them, feeling bad.

Kiara turned up the radio since there weren't a lot of customers inside, beginning to dance. Cassie started to smile as she watched her friend dance alone before she pointed at John B, wanting him to dance with her.

John B pointed to himself then to her, arching a brow. Kiara nodded as she urged him to get up and he ultimately did, dancing his way over to before he spun her around.

Cassie continued to watch them dance with another, prompting her chin up with the back of her hand as she leaned her elbow against the table. She was starting to not understand why Kiara had rejected him since it clear to Cassie he had liked her a lot. And it even seemed like Kiara liked him back despite the girl telling her she didn't.

She was gonna hit Kiara on the head if the real reason she rejected him was because of the stupid no Pogue-on-Pogue macking rule since she just wanted her friend to be happy. And she looked happy with John B from what she could see.

The blonde girl began to frown a bit once she thought about her own love life. Sure, it seemed like Rafe had wanted her, but not in the overly romantic way that Cassie had always secretly dreamed about. He had just wanted to fuck her to see if she was worthy of being with him. That's what she assumed or else he would have asked her on a proper date prior to their hook up.

And it wasn't even like Cassie wanted to date him. She harbored no real feelings toward the boy. She just wanted someone, anyone, to like her in a way that wasn't just lustful. Someone to see her as a human and not a fuck toy to play with.

But with how the world was, she assumed she would never get that. Especially because all the good guys never seemed like to her, not with her mouth and attitude she could never get a hold on.

Cassie didn't even realize that Kiara was gesturing for her to come up and dance until Kiara said, "Cece, come on."

Cassie pointed to herself. "Me? Oh, no. No, I can't," she shook her head.

"Oh, come on. Since when do you get embarrassed?" Kiara replied.

"I'm not embarrassed," Cassie scoffed, looking around at that the Pogues who were staring at her expectantly. "Okay, fine. Fine. I'll dance, bitch."

"Yeahhhh," Kiara drawled as Cassie got up from her seat, making her way over to her friend and grabbing her hands to dance with her.

"Sorry, JB. Can I steal her from you?" Cassie teased.

John B's face flushed. "She's-she's all yours," he stammered and Cassie giggled before she turned back to her friend, dancing to the rhythm of the music.

John B took a step back as he watched the two dance, a small smile on his face. Pope, who had been watching Kiara the whole time, continued to watch as he secretly wished that it could have been him.

And JJ, he had been watching the Blake girl dance with his best friend as he went over the day in his head. The way that Cassie helped him with no hesitation even though how much she loved to say she wanted to shoot him. She could have easily let the dog drag him down if she really wanted to see him hurt, but she didn't.

He couldn't really understand her anymore.

He used to think she was just this Kook who only tagged along because of Kiara and didn't want to actually be a Pogue, but now...now he wasn't so sure. Now, he kind of even tolerated her despite their constant bickering. It was something he looked forward to, trying to plan out things to say to her to piss her off and for her to come right back at him.

It was like a little game. And he enjoyed playing games.

Cassie let Kiara spin her around, making her face back her so that she was looking at the boys. She met eyes with JJ, who had already been looking her way, and flipped him off jokingly.

JJ let out a breathless laugh and shook his head before he placed his hands behind his head, leaning back against the chair. Cassie watched the movement, seeing the way it had made the muscles in his bicep accentuate. She tried not to notice it as she turned back to face Kiara, dancing with her to their heart's content.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

After the Pogues had tested out the drone equipment and deemed it worthy the next day, they were forced to wait around until the perfect weather came in since a storm was approaching.

Cassie and Kiara took the opportunity to go shopping on Figure Eight, trying to pick out dresses for Midsummers since they were a bit behind.

"So, you're telling me you seriously don't like him?" Cassie questioned her friend, browsing the dresses that hung from the hangers and mannequins around the store. By him, she meant John B.

"No, Cece, I don't. How many times do I have to tell you that I don't?" Kiara replied, shaking her head in annoyance.

"Because last night, it seemed like y'all had something good going on," Cassie told her and Kiara glared at her. "Look, I'm just saying. You don't dance with a guy right after you friend zone him."

"It was a...friendly dance," Kiara defended herself with a shrug.

Cassie scoffed at her. "Yeah, okay, maybe you thought it was friendly, but he definitely didn't. He's a dude, remember? And he was like, talking about you to JJ and Pope when you were distracting the security guy."

Kiara whipped her head over to her. "They were talking about me? What the hell? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I didn't get the chance to when we were with them the whole day yesterday," Cassie said like it was obvious.

"Well, what were they saying?"

Cassie sighed, wracking her brain to the remember exactly what they said. "JJ kept asking John B if you totally rejected him and he said pretty much. And then Pope thought it was because you liked someone else instead. They then tried asking me if I knew."

Kiara pursed her lips. "And what did you say?"

"I told them I didn't know, because I don't," Cassie told her and Kiara nodded slowly. "But do you? Like someone else?" She inquired curiously, also wanting to know the answer.

"No," Kiara slowly shook her head. "No."

Cassie furrowed her brows a bit. "I'm not sure if I believe that. Come on, Kiki, you can tell me anything. I'm not gonna judge. I'm in no place to, honestly." She held her hands up.

"No, no, I don't like anyone else," Kiara continued to deny. "It's just...it kinda felt nice for him to like me, you know? That's why I thought I liked him, but I don't. I'm like pretty sure I don't."

Cassie nodded, completely understanding her since it had been what she was thinking about last night. "Yeah, that honestly makes total sense. A guy hasn't liked me in forever."

"Oh, come on, that's definitely not true. I bet there's a ton of guys who secretly like you and are just too scared to say anything," Kiara assured the girl.

"Why? Because they're afraid I'll clock their shit and beat them up?" The blonde spoke bitterly.

"No. Because they're afraid of your hotness," Kiara corrected as she walked past her, patting her on the shoulder.

"Yeah, sure," Cassie muttered with an eye roll before she spotted a purple, satin dress. "Oh, my God, Kie. This dress would look perfect on you. Come here."

Cassie took it off the hook, holding it up to show Kiara. "Really? You think it would?"

"Well, anything looks good on you but this, definitely. You have to go try it on," Cassie urged and Kiara smiled before she took it excitedly, practically running over to the dressing room.

Cassie continued to skim through some of the dresses that were left on the rack outside the dressing room, seeing if anyone gave up something that could have looked good on her.

"What do you think?" Kiara asked as she stepped out from the dressing room, holding her hands out.

Cassie's mouth practically dropped at the sight of her friend. "Kiki...you look so good right now. Like, holy shit, you have to wear that."

Kiara went over to the mirror outside the dressing room, examining herself. "I don't know, I usually don't wear stuff like this..." She trailed off.

"Kiara, if you don't wear that dress, I'm actually going to slap you," Cassie told her with a serious expression on her face, making the Carrera girl's eyes widen because she couldn't tell if she was joking or not. "It's literally perfect on you."

Kiara thought over it for a moment before she gave up, "Okay, fine! I'll get it! Now, it's your turn." Cassie squealed happily, wrapping her arms around her best friend. "Whoa, calm down before you rip it!"

Cassie quickly pulled away. "Right, sorry. It's just, you know, we haven't properly gotten to dress up like this in a while." She then took the time to continue browsing the store, trying to find a dress that would look perfect the way that Kiara's dress had looked.

She spent a while trying on dresses only to put them back because she decided she hated them until she put on a light pink A-line maxi dress with a some flower patterning adorned onto it.

She stepped out for Kiara to see and she immediately stood up from the chair she was sitting in, her mouth dropping. "Cece...that's the one."

"Really?" Cassie breathed out before she went toward the mirror, examining herself. It had seemed to fit her perfectly and the color went very well with her skin tone and hair. "Whoa."

"You look so fucking good," Kiara complimented which made Cassie grin happily as she continued looking in the mirror. "If Rafe sees you, I'm sure he'll want to hook up with you and you can finally get back at Sarah."

At Kiara's words, Cassie's face fell a little before she quickly masked it. Not only had she never wanted to hook up with Rafe again, but now the guilt she had been feeling before had started to creep up on her once again since Kiara still had no idea what had happened between them. But she knew she still had to keep it a secret. Kiara would never look at her the same again.

"Yeah," was all Cassie said in response.

The next day, the Pogues took Heyward's boat out to where the coordinates of the Merchant were since the weather had cleared up. They had spent the night before surfing. Well, Cassie had tried to surf but wasn't as good as her friends unfortunately. That made her promise herself to get better so she didn't feel left out.

"All right, JJ. Pin it here," John B instructed since JJ had been manning the boat.

"Roger that! X marks the spot," JJ responded as he turned the wheel to stop the boat.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen. To going full Kook," John B voiced as he raised the drone up, lowering it down into the depths below them. Kiara helped lower the yellow tether further below to make sure it wasn't dropping too fast. "All right, JJ, we're right over it, ten seconds northwest."

"Got it! Ten seconds northwest."

"One hundred feet," Kiara voiced once she saw the red line on the tether.

Pope and Cassie watched the camera footage as the drone dropped farther down, seeing a squid pass by which made Pope gasp. "What, what, what, what?" John B came running over eagerly.

Cassie covered the smile that was making its way onto her face. "It's nothing," Pope shook his head, causing John B to groan. "Sorry, I thought..."

"Don't do that to me man, come on!" JJ called out.

"My bad. I just thought I saw..." Pope trailed off and Cassie patted his back, giving him a nod although the entertained smile was still adorned on her face. "And to quote The Hobbit, 'Down, down, to Goblin Town. Down, down, you go, my lad.'"

"Pope, word of advice, if you're gonna say that, don't say it in that voice," Cassie told him honestly.

Pope nodded, "Right."

"No offense, though. Just trying to help you out," Cassie cleared up.

He furrowed his brows. "With...?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, whipping her braid over her shoulder. "You know, stuff, like...girls," she replied nonchalantly, which had caused John B to snort behind him as he kept his eyes on the monitor in his hand that had the coordinates.

Pope's eyes widened. "I don't need help with girls!" He instantly defended himself. "I'm-I'm good. I'm super good. I have a bunch of girls on-on, uh...what's it called?"

"Your roster?" Cassie guessed, making John B laugh even more.

"Yeah, that!" Pope pointed at her.

Cassie held back a laugh even though John B didn't care to the same since he continued to crack up behind the Heyward boy. "You know what? I believe you, Pope."

Pope released a sigh. "Thank you. I mean, they don't believe me cause like—"

"Hey, Cassie, if you're gonna be saying that, you're gonna have to show for it on your end, too!" JJ joined in on the conversation since he had overheard it.

Cassie looked past Pope, seeing the Maybank boy who had been wearing a red cap and gray crewmen sweatshirt. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, I've never seen you around with any guys," JJ clarified, glancing over his shoulder at her. The only guy he saw her talking to was Rafe at the kegger, but he didn't count that since he knew nothing happened with them after keeping watch the whole party. For Kiara's sake, of course.

She crossed her arms. "Just because you don't see me with them, doesn't mean it's not happening," she countered, making Pope make an 'oh' shape with his mouth.

JJ seemed to shrug and nod at that, but he also wondered what kind of guys she had been secretly seeing. And when she had the time to do it since with the whole treasure hunt, he didn't have time to hit up any girls.

"Guys, focus! We're at four hundred feet!" Kiara called out as she marked it down with some chalk on the side of the boat.

"Sorry," Pope quickly apologized as his face burned before he turned his attention back to the footage, making Cassie arch a curious brow at him.

"The tide's turning!" Kiara told them.

"Hey, JJ?" John B voiced.

"Yup?"

"Ten seconds easy. All right? South-southeast."

"Copy that!" JJ turned the boat, trying to get it back on target.

"JJ, 20 seconds mid-speed, all right? South!"

"Copy that! Aye, aye! Come on," JJ said as he continued to spin the wheel. "Keep the tether out of the prop!"

"I'm trying!" Kiara yelled back.

"JJ, keep going!"

Thunder rumbled above and Cassie looked up, seeing the dark clouds heading their way. "John B, is that good?" JJ asked.

"We're good!"

"Okay, 700 feet!" Kiara marked before they all realized the wind had started to pick up and the waves had gotten a bit more aggressive.

"We're gonna have to hurry this up before we're caught in this storm," Cassie voiced what everyone was thinking.

"I know," John B said under his breath before the wind had gotten worse, the boat rocking more than it had previously. "JJ, hold it steady!"

"Okay, 900!"

"JJ, we're gonna turtle in this storm, man!"

"920!"

"Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!" John B shouted. "Pope, Cassie, how we doing?"

"Almost there," Pope answered as they continued to look at the footage the drone was picking up.

"John B, there's too much current! We're gonna lose it!" Kiara yelled as she tried to keep her hands on the tether.

"Shit," Cassie muttered as she continued staring at the footage, trying to find anything that looked remotely like a shipwreck.

"South, southwest, JJ! Hard!" John B bellowed as he kept looking at the coordinates on the monitor. "Half speed! Steady at this bearing, JJ!" The boat then lined up with the coordinates on the monitor. "What do you got, guys? Come on. What do you see?"

"Nothin'. A whole lot of nothin'," Pope said in frustration.

"Come on, you should be right above it, brother."

"Kiara!" Cassie called out.

"960! 970!" Kiara kept marking. "980!"

"We're at the bottom! We're at the bottom!" Pope exclaimed.

"Okay, steady here, JJ! Steady here! Quarter speed, all right?" John B instructed as JJ stopped the boat. "You should be seeing something, guys."

"I know, I know! Wait, wait...Oh, good God," Pope breathed out once a shipwreck made its way onto the screen in front of them.

"Holy shit," Cassie began to smile, sharing an excited look with Pope next to her.

"See anything?!" JJ called out from over his shoulder.

"It's the Royal Merchant," John B realized in awe. However, as the drone made its way through the wreck multiple times, there was no sight of gold or anything that looked like it at all. "It's...not there. Look, just-just pull the drone up. Shit."

"Look, we can do another pass, recharge the battery. We can...we can go back down," Pope told him, trying to stay positive as John B walked away.

"Guys, we've been through it three times! There's nothing there!" JJ reasoned.

"Shut up, JJ!" Cassie yelled at him.

"What? It's true!"

"The gold could be buried! We don't know!" Kiara said, siding with Cassie since she didn't want to give up on it for John B's sake.

"If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay? Somebody beat us to it," John B jumped right to conclusions, beginning to brood as he put his hood up and looked out into the ocean water.

"Or it was never there."

authors note!
this chapter is kinda boring sorry
i wanted to show more of kie and
cassie's relationship bc i just think
they're really cute and kie gets too
much hate so i wanted to appreciate
her in this fic :( like ik she's made mistakes
but literally all of them have and she
gets the most hate for it smhhh