chapter 10.
kids.

୨୧

"Where the living and dead collide, the gatekeeper will guide the way." john b reads the english translation of the amulets inscription.

"sounds like a bible verse." josephine furrows her eyebrows as cleo adds, "it's like some fable."

jj enters the room with wet hair and a towel draped across his shoulders. the trio had showered immediately upon returning; jo had taken the longest, hence her brother just now getting out. she had to change her bandaid at least three more times, pumping the shit out of the travel-sized bottle of hand sanitizer she keeps on her at all times.

"it still sounds like directions to me." john b shrugs. cleo is unconvinced. "yeah, but to what?"

"well, i mean..." john b pauses, thinking carefully. "genrette was obsessed with blackbeard, so maybe directions to his treasure?"

jj reaches over his friend, retrieving the amulet and studying its inscription. "and how much would that be in american?"

"in almost every major currency, i think it's considered priceless." john b responds, turning over his shoulder to face the blonde. "unlimited us dollars."

jj shrugs. "tempting."

"so, what is this treasure?" cleo chimes. "gold?"

"no, wait a minute." jo recalls, shaking her head. "i remember hearing the diver talking to some lady about something on the pier. not gold..." she trails off, trying to remember the man's exact words. "it was like a...a crown. a blue crown."

"a blue crown?" jj stares at his sister, unimpressed. he cracks open a can of pbr, tipping his head back. "a blue crown, jo?"

"i'm just passing along information!" josephine defends, holding up her hands in mock surrender. "don't shoot the messenger."

"well, what else did they say?"

"i dunno!" josephine tells kiara honestly. "i was too focused on the snow cone you two made me get!"

"the snow cone we made you get?" jj argues. "be for real, josephine."

"yeah, all right." joey scoffs. "that's rich, coming from you."

"okay, okay." sarah jumps in, putting a halt to the siblings argument. "honestly, what even is a blue crown?"

"apparently, it is the most sought out artifact in the ancient world." john b answers and the other teens turn to see he had crossed the room in the midst of their argument; he now stood in front of a tall bookshelf, a weather title in hand. he taps the front cover, "i don't belive i am capping on this one, pope."

josephine fake gags. "oh, vomit."

john b casually flips the younger girl off, opening the book and rejoining the teens. "look right here."

pope sits beside his friend, reading the open page. "'legends abound of the crowns fabled origins.' okay, so it's a real crown."

john b flips through more weathered pages, landing on one in particular. "right here, look."

"that's what genrette wanted."

"a literal blue crown." josephine breathes out, following her brothers initial realization.

john b drags his finger across the page, reading, "the blue crown was created for darius the great of persia over three thousand years ago."

jj cranes to look over john bs shoulder. "looks more than fifty k, i'll say that."

"it was said to possess the blessing of the gods themselves," john b continues, "granting the wearer immense favor and rare invincibility."

"oh shit, look at this." he curses, gesturing to a collage of images on the opposite page. "xerxes, the son of darius the great; he was a badass, he's wearing it. alexander the great beat the shit out of everybody, he's wearing it. julius caesar, also a badass; murdered a bunch of people."

"so, your dad told you all of this?" asks a curious josephine.

"no. no, i don't remember any of this." john b denies, shaking his head. he doesn't tear his gaze from the books yellowed pages. "i just know that it grants wishes."

"grants wishes?" kiara stitches her eyebrows together, mimicking josephine's similar expression.

"what, like a genie?"

"how many wishes?"

"hold on." john b continues, flipping a bit further. "it says right here, 'the crown was lost sometime in the seventeenth hundreds, but was rumored to be hunted down by...." he pauses, adding suspense. "blackbeard."

"what?"

"come again?"

"that's crazy." the teens all crowd around the book, aching for a glimpse of the passage. "there's no way."

"it's right there, look!" pope points. "hunted by blackbeard."

"guys, come on." jj decides. "we're doing this. i know we're doing it, all right?"

josephine turns to her brother, wearing a look of confusion. "what are we doing?"

"what do you think, jo?"

she shrugs. "i dunno, that's why i'm asking."

"priceless or fifty k?" jj firmly sets both hands on each of his sisters shoulders. "we're getting this fucking crown, joey."

𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼

Josephine watches with disgust as her brother swaps saliva with kiara carrera. didn't they know that eighty million microbes, on average, are exchanged per kiss? and even six months after the fact, the human gut microbiomes are still altered consistently. his bacteria would be in hers forever, and vice versa. eighty million of them, growing and breeding and joining each others bacteria and producing god knows what. the very thought made josephine shiver with disgust.

jj feels his sisters eyes on them and turns, smiling cheekily at the girl sprawled across the hammock. "what you lookin' at, joey?"

josephine turns up the corners of her lips ever so slightly. "nothin' much."

"oh, you've done it now." he declares, rushing toward the hammock and flipping it over. jo squeals, toppling to the dirt below. and as she watches from the ground as her drunken brother and his friends playfully wrestle under the glow of the islands setting sun, josephine doesn't even think about the billions of bacteria in each single gram of the soil beneath her.

she doesn't remember exactly when, but at some point that night josephine retreats on top the hammock, falling asleep to the sounds of her brother and his friends goofing off underneath the stars. this is the first of seven nights that she had slept peacefully through till morning.

"wakey-wakey, everybody!" joey jolts awake, nearly falling right out of her hammock. jj and john b stand above her, shouting as they attempt to wake the other three teens. "we're goin' to the beach!"

jo rubs lingering sleep from her eyes, reluctantly heading inside after her brother. she finds four of the five teens at their roof hangout; kiara is already in a bikini, towel draped over one shoulder as she applies wax to her surfboard. jj pulls his phone from his pocket. "now that's a perfect swell, bro. probably the best of the year."

pope jogs up the steps, a backpack hanging from one shoulder. "come on, guys, are you seriously surfing today?"

"oh, don't." john b groans. kiara stitches her eyebrows together. "as oppose to what?"

"well, i don't wanna sell the million dollars i have in my hand for fifty k, so..." he holds up the ambient. "i'm gonna look into this."

"wait, pope, you just heard me right?" jj repeats. "i said it's a perfect swell day."

unbothered, pope only shrugs. "yeah, and there'll be other swell days."

"that's like saying there's other pizza to eat, all right?" jj retorts, growing offended. jo wishes he had defended her with this much passion four years ago. she still wishes for such.

"listen to your earth mother, pope." kie joins in. "she's, like, begging you to surf."

"i think my earth mother is telling me to maximize our intel."

"mines telling me to maximize the swell." kiara shrugs, returning to her wax. john b turns to sarah, who sits in a swing-chair behind kie. "you wanna maximize the beach day?"

"i'm gonna maximize this tan." sarah corrects. joey smiles softly. as much as she hated beaches—too much bacteria—she couldn't pass up this rare opportunity of calmness. everyone was happy and at peace, josephine included. for now.

"okay, well, everyone have fun maximizing." pope makes like he's about to head out when joey stops him, looking around. "wait, where's cleo?"

"oh, she just texted me." pope pulls out his phone. "she said she's on pogue patrol and is looking for bait in the cut."

"lame." kiara scoffs. "tell her we're closed."

"i'll text her right now."

"pope, hey." jj steps forward, placing a hand on his friends shoulder. "rule number one: no working on a swell day. that's rule number one!"

"hey, somebody's gotta do it." pope shrugs. jo was beginning to find him quite boring; not that she could say much. "you guys have fun. catch a nasty one for me."

"we will," sarah singsongs as he descends downstairs. "miss you already!"