BREE WAS IN CLASS, WORKING ON AN TEST WHEN THE DOOR OPENED. They all looked up at the sound to see a man in a suit standing there, holding an envelope in his hand. He looked to their teacher. "Mr. Sunn, can I borrow Pope for a minute?"

"We're in the middle of a test right now," he whispered, getting out of his chair and walking over to the man so that they could talk in low voices so as to not disturb the 'hard-working' students while the four teenagers looked at each other in confusion. What did he want with Pope?

The next thing the man said kind of answered the question that they were all thinking. "I'm from the Vanderhorst Foundation." It was about his scholarship.

"Mr. Heyward, it's for you," Mr. Sunn called when he realized who the man was.

Kie and Bree made confused faces at each other, wondering what the Vanderhorst man had to say after Pope walked out on the interview. The Heyward boy just stood and walked toward the door, the man leading him out but not before telling the teacher, "Thank you." As they walked out, they heard him greet, "It's good to see you, Pope."

"What's that all about?" JJ mouthed to the Callaway girl who just shrugged.

"Eyes on our paper, Mr. Maybank," the teacher ordered, noticing the interaction between the two friends as he sat down. He then looked to the girl. "Miss Callaway, stop giving him answers."

After a moment of talking with the man outside, Pope came back into the classroom quickly with an envelope in his hand as he sat down at his seat. He looked pretty spooked about something. Kie furrowed her eyebrows at him and asked, "Okay, Pope, what was that?" He held up the envelope so that they could see the wax stamp on it. JJ leaned across, like, three people so that he could see since he was in a completely different corner of the room. "Is that the wheat symbol?"

"Yeah," he confirmed.

"What the f—" the Maybank boy started, but when Mr. Sunn whipped his head around to look at him, he paused. He finished, "fu—fudge." Bree facepalmed because the teacher was probably more upset about the fact that he was talking during a test than the fact that he almost cursed.

After class, all of them went to the library so that they could read the note and talk about it. As they walked in, JJ questioned, "Is this a game of tag?"

"I don't know," the brunette girl answered with a shrug.

"Am I gonna have to beat you with your protractor?" the blonde boy asked the Heyward boy who was making his way to one of the desks with computers on it. The library lady shushed JJ, but he just ignored her. "What's going on?"

Kie nodded along with him, and she whispered, respecting the rules of the library, "Seriously, Pope, you are driving me insane."

"Okay, so that guy was from the scholarship committee," he explained to them as the Carrera girl sat down in one of the chairs, leaving the rest of them standing. He handed the note to JJ who snatched it out of his hand and whipped the card out of the envelope. "Take a look at this. Read it."

"Out loud," the raven-haired girl added to the Maybank when he was not saying anything.

He paused for a second before looking to each one of them. Slightly embarrassed, he muttered, "I can't read cursive."

"Oh, for fuck's sake. Give it here," she ordered, earning her a dirty look from the librarian. She read aloud, "'Dear Mr. Heyward, I am reaching out because I have material evidence that can exonerate John B. Routledge. It is of vital importance that you come and meet with me in person at my offices at King Street, Charleston at 8:00 p.m. sharp tonight. Please come alone. Regards, C. Limbrey.'"

"Charleston?" JJ exclaimed, his eyes widening when she read the word. That was a long ways away, and they would have to move fast if they were to get there by 8:00.

Pope nodded. "It's like an eight-hour drive plus the ferry. How will we get there tonight?​​"

"We'd have to leave, like, right now," the blonde boy informed them. Then, he thought about what the letter said. "'Material evidence'? What does that even mean, 'material evidence'?"

"It means he can clear John B," Kie answered.

JJ then made a face like he had no clue why they were even contemplating the trip. He spoke really loudly, but the librarian had given up on trying to get them to be quiet. "Oh, shit, then we're going to Charleston."

"I gotta tell my mom," the Carrera girl sighed.

Bree's eyes widened when she remembered that half of the group had people that would not be too happy if they just skipped school and drove to Charleston. "Yeah, she's probably not gonna be happy about that."

"No, she is not," the raven-haired girl confirmed before moving on. "Look, if we get it this time, we are not giving it to Shoupe."

"Yeah. No duh," the blonde boy scoffed.

Pope typed something into the search bar of the computer, and then he picked up the letter, looking between the paper and the screen with a confused and slightly worried expression. Kie looked to him and asked, "What?"

"I'm not sure, but I think whoever this Limbrey person is, they might be related to the captain of the Royal Merchant."

《✵》

"HOW MUCH YOU WANNA BET THAT THIS GOES TERRIBLY?"

Pope, Bree, and JJ were sitting in Pope's dad's truck outside of the Carrera house while they waited for the girl to finish talking to her parents. They all knew that Anna and Mike would not be pleased that their daughter was skipping school to drive to Charleston with the Pogues. Having Bree there would probably put their minds at ease a little bit, but not enough for them to let her go.

The Heyward boy nodded at her question. "Yeah, probably."

"They're taking it really well," the Maybank boy pointed out sarcastically, gesturing up at the parents on the deck that were screaming at their child. He glanced at Pope for a moment before quizzing, "How'd you get this rig? I know your old man didn't let you have it."

"I undid the intake valves on the carburetor. Made it start pinging," he answered, causing Bree to run a hand through her hair. Sooner or later, they would all be criminals running off to the Bahamas if they kept this up.

JJ nodded slowly. "And now you're just gonna take it to your cousin Jeff's house. Just gonna get it fixed." The two boy said the next part together. "Crash overnight." The blonde boy smiled. "I think I'm rubbing off on you, Pope. Lying to your old man, stealing his truck. Kinda sounds familiar."

"That's not a good thing," the Callaway girl told him, rolling her eyes.

Ignoring both of them, Pope just watched the parents fight with Kie. They both noticed his silence, and the Maybank boy said, "All right, that's a sore subject. My bad."

"I'd say we have about eighteen hours before he absolutely loses his shit," he informed them, talking about his father and the car that he stole. "So as long as we get it back before then, I think we're good."

"Boarding school? What? I'm not going to boarding school," Kiara yelled, and that grabbed all of their attention. They whipped their heads around to watch as she ran down the stairs.

Anna kept trying to convince her daughter, shouting at her from the deck. "It's just an option. It could broaden your horizons, baby, get you out of OBX."

"It would give you structure," Mike added, and Bree frowned because she had never seen that side of the Carrera man before. He was usually so kind and caring. JJ opened the door and climbed out so that Kie could get in the middle. "Look at your life right now! Look at your life!"

"It's good to see y'all, Mr. and Mrs. Carrera," the blonde boy greeted, offering a small wave. That just made them more frustrated.

Bree glared at him, poking her head out a bit so that he could see her. "You're not helping."

"Hi, uh, ma'am, sir," Pope called to the adults, and they all looked at him in confusion, wondering what he was doing. "I... I promise to have her back at a reasonable hour and safe."

"What are you doing?" the raven-haired girl questioned with an annoyed voice.

Anna, ignoring him, addressed her daughter. "Kiara, listen to me. You wanna go, then you can go, but if you don't come back at the proper time, then don't come back at all!"

"She's bluffing," the Maybank boy told the Carrera girl as she climbed into the car, climbing over Bree so that she could sit next to Pope. It was going to be tight in there. The blonde waved once again to the Carreras. "Y'all have a good day."

As Pope started the car, Kie muttered, "This shit would be so much easier without parents."