CHAPTER THIRTEEN: MACKING ON SARAH CAMERON?

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"hey, guys. so like, my dad's already gonna kill me. so what's this mandatory meeting about?" pope asked.

"might as well tell him man, before we're gaffed," jj spun a stick around before placing it into the fire.

"you ready for this?" john b wondered as we all responded with a yes. "so, the gold never went down with the royal merchant."

"oh my god. here we go again with this," pope grumbled, annoyed with the whole treasure hunt thing.

"no, all right, wait. here him out, all right?" jj compromised, which was quite surprising.

"it's been here the whole time," john b announced, "it's on the island."

"are you serious? oh my god," kie's eyes widened, as did mine.

"i'd like to voice my skepticism," pope, the voice of reason, spoke out.

"i'm sure you would pope, but can i present you with my evidence, sir?" john b interrupted him.

"proceed," pope dramatically gestured his hand, allowing john b to continue.

"all right, so, in my backpack, i have a letter from denmark tanny."

before i got the chance to reply, kie read my mind, "who the hell's that?"

"denmark tanny was a slave that survived the royal merchant wreck. check this out. here you go," john b handed kie the letter as she scanned it, "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 his gold from the merchant to buy his freedom. after that, he bought his farm. drumroll please, because that farm is.... tannyhill plantation."

"tannyhill?" kie questioned with doubt.

"yes. 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 of the white planters, and then, they decide to lynch him. so on the day they were trying to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of the letter, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold."

"where?" kie smiled goofily.

"harvest the wheat, in parcel nine, near the water. except, there's no wheat. you see, wheat is gold for gold. check it out. the gold is in parcel nine, near the water. all we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold!"

"okay, so this might have a small chance of actually being true," pope stood up.

"dude, it's like king tut," kie beamed as jj picked john b up by the fire.

"i'm so proud of you right now," jj told his best friend.

"thank you. that's really sweet of you," he placed a hand on his cheek dramatically, the bromance being real.

"okay, so, guys. what's the plan?" pope paused our joy.

"good question. so, sarah cameron's coming tonight. she's gonna bring an original survey map-" john b began to explain as kie's faced turned to confusion. oh shit.

"hold on. sarah, wh-why sarah?" kie paused.

"um-" john b stopped in his tracks.

"this is gonna be good," jj looked at the ground and chuckled.

"sarah, um, she. she got me into the archives in chapel hill yesterday, and that's where i got the letter," he clarified.

"you were in chapel hill with sarah cameron?" kie retorted.

"he was mackin' on her," jj stated simply as i laughed at his bluntness.

"i wasn't macking. in fact, we've gotta talk about that," a light switch visibly flickered in john b's brain.

"what, about you macking sarah cameron?" i spoke up defensively, knowing where he was going with this.

"no, you two macking on each other," john b disclosed.

"took you long enough to find out," jj smiled widely, standing behind my chair and hugging me. i smiled at his touch, understanding that we weren't keeping it a secret anymore.

"yeah for real," pope surprisingly said, earning the attention of the other four pogues. jj and i looked at each other and started cracking up.

"are you guys just forgetting about the rule or something?" john b inquired.

"dude, you gotta chill," jj started, "it was no problem when you had your experience with kie, which, need i say was awkward to say the least. with us, we act the same way around you guys regardless! what're you gonna do? make us walk the plank?"

"better to mack on a pogue than a kook," i mocked john b, causing him to groan.

"i wasn't macking on her, okay? i was using her for access," he raised his hands innocently.

"there was access all right," jj said lowly, causing me to choke on my saliva.

"did you tell her about the treasure?" kie poked at john b, demanding for answers.

"i was just trying to get into the archives!"

"is that a yes?" kie was growing increasingly frustrated.

"i left out key details," he slipped.

"john b, are you serious? you're basically giving, not only her the facilities to find the gold, but her goddamn family too! rafe fucking cameron!" my blood boiled at the name, remembering how disgusting he is.

"you let a kook in on our secret? what about pogue life? what about the t-shirt company, bro?" kie added on.

"i was just using her for information."

"why don't i believe you?"

"i'm trying to make us filthy rich here!" john b defended himself, "okay, so that we can pay off a boat. or, uh- send you to autopsy school to study dead bodies. or what about this? to pay for jj and elsie's wedding!"

"i'll gladly accept that," jj, who i was now sitting next to, said gratefully.

"look, you guys know me. do i look like the type of person to fall for sarah cameron?"

pope looked at him, unsure if he actually wanted a truthful response. "do you uh, want us to answer that?"

"look, you don't know her yet. i do!" kie explained, "you can't trust her!"

"her brother did hit me in the back with a golf club," pope added to kiara's point.

"he did this too," i removed my hair from my shoulders to reveal the bruises that john b didn't know about.

"wait what?" his eyes widened at the sight.

"yup. those cameron genes, can you trust them?" i asked.

"rafe and sarah are different human beings."

"they could still both pack the same poison, you know?" i suggested, earning a hearty laugh from the blonde next to me.

"what did she do to you exactly?" jj tried to remember what kiara told us, except she never told us the story.

"she's like, a spitting cobra. first, she blinds you. and then-"

"this is a bad analogy," pope stopped her.

"listen to me! whatever we get, she's gonna try to take."

"whatever kie," john b gave up, realizing he wasn't going to get through to the stubborn girl.

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"hit it boys! we're goin'. recon mission," jj got out of the trusty van.

"yo, so uh, i think i'm gonna do this one by myself, tonight," john b eyed the rest of us as kie's face filled with distaste.

"really?" jj pretended to be surprised before turning to me, a devilish grin on his face, "oh, sarah cameron! thank you for this map!" jj gawked at me, putting on a scene as if the two of us were sarah and john b. of course i needed to join in.

i grabbed jj's shirt, biting my lip. "we're gonna find that gold. but for now, why don't we head back to my place so i can get some of that john d-"

"oh my god, sarah! of course i'll have topper's sloppy seconds!" jj rolled his eyes before i fell into his lap, my eyes tearing up due to laughing so hard. kie and pope found it hilarious as well, but john b just watched us with a monotone expression.

"you guys are unreal. i don't want to spook sarah with the peanut gallery, and your little performance just supported my point," he motioned to the two of us, still dying, barely paying attention to the words flying out of his mouth.

"i just don't understand why we're involving her at all," kie resorted back to the original point. i hushed jj as the conversation went back to being serious.

"kie, we're not involving her, okay?" john b slammed his hand on the driver's seat, "it's just like, uh, like a business m-meeting. thing." he stuttered on his words as jj made sexual gestures. i inhaled sharply before letting out a chuckle, along with pope and jj.

"look, once we get what we need, we cut her loose, all right? plus we need the map."

"i would love to hear sarah's reaction to those words coming out of your mouth john d," i turned my head, which was still resting in jj's lap, to look at him. annoyed, he ignored my comment as he continued to dispute with kiara.

"promise me nothing's happening between you two," kie challenged him, to which he just rolled his eyes.

"nothing is happening, kie," his eyes widened, just wanting to get away from us so he could meet with the kook princess.

"i'm being serious."

"okay!"

"this isn't about you, and this isn't about us. this is about her. dude, she's gonna get inside your head. just promise me nothing's happening between you two."

i pointed my right pointer finger and imaginatively wrapped my other pointer finger around it as a silent way of saying that sarah cameron already had john b wrapped around her finger. he was whipped.

"i promise," john b answered as they stared into each other's eyes for about five seconds.

"that was really believable," jj butted in.

"a hundred percent believable," pope added.

i returned my eyes back to john b, "sarah cameron's got you whipped man. there's no denying it." jj nodded in agreement, along with pope.

"anyways, um. i'm gonna take care of business," john b pushed the car door open, not taking any more of our shit.

"you're gonna take care of that business soo well," jj shook his head.

"we'll just sit here, in the hot ass car, while it's lightening," pope sassily said.

"kiara, holding onto your grudge is like drinking poison and thinking sarah will die," pope and kie were chatting with one another while jj and i did the same.

"i don't think i ever told you how hot you look in that dress angel," he said in merely a whisper so that only i would hear. my cheeks turned pink at the compliment before taking notice to bruises scattered on jj's face. somehow, i didn't see them prior to that moment.

"j, what happened?" i pointed at the marks on his face, making sure not to touch them, knowing that they'd be sore.

"daddy issues," he answered simply.

"that's not fair," i pouted, "you're the last one that deserves that, pretty boy," my hazel eyes met his blue ones. he smiled at the nickname as i moved a strand of hair that was in his eyes. after that, my eyes rested as i dozed off, due to being so tired. in all honesty, i was up most of the night prior, an unsettling feeling keeping me awake; jj was sleeping behind bars.

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"we gotta get up princess," i felt a familiar blonde's touch stroking my cheek, "hurry up." i obeyed as i took his hand, running towards where john b was meeting sarah.

"sarah, what happened?" pope sprinted to sarah, who was sitting near john b's body, unconscious on the ground.

"oh shit," i gasped.

"i don't know what to do. he needs help. topper shoved him," sarah explained briefly, jj fuming with anger.

"where the hell is he?" jj raged.

"oh, please, please, please get help. i don't care who. just call someone," sarah sobbed, almost as if she was the only one who cared about the pogue.

"go, go!" jj nudged pope, who ran the opposite way to find someone.

"pope hurry!" kie yelled but remained calm.

"john b, stay with me," sarah cradled his body, kissing him. i took notice of kie's expression; full of disgust. almost forgetting about the situation at hand, i came close to letting out a giggle at the comical aspect of the situation. i kept control though; that'd look pretty shitty if i actually did laugh.

soon enough, an ambulance came which hauled john b's still unconscious body into the stretcher. he was going to be fine.

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{2108 words}

i think you can literally TELL who my least favorite pogue is by the way i write this fic, but maybe not lmao.

also elsie's character is pretty much just modeled off of me ... but there are some differences hahah

thank you for almost 1k reads! thank y'all! feel free to comment and vote and stuff!!

ally <33