THERE WAS NO GOLD.

all that work, the running, the stealing, the lying, all for nothing. the gold wasn't there.

"we can charge the drone, we can go for another pass!" pope yelled.

"the gold could be buried, we don't know!" kiara added.

"if it was there, it would've come up on the metal detector." john b shouted. "someone beat us to it."

emery frowned as jj and levi turned the boat back to shore. john b had been so passionate about the gold, he was looking for it for his dad, he was trying to find it so his dad hadn't died for nothing, but he had lost his faith. the gold was gone, he hadn't found it. none of it was real.

"do you want to... i dunno, come watch a movie? i'll have mom get us popcorn, we can eat junk food all night in my basement." emery suggested to the brunette as they tied heyward's boat off, the routledge boy shaking his head.

"not tonight, emery. thank you though, really. you really have done your best to help." john b told the girl, grabbing her hands and running his thumb over her knuckles.

"that's what unlabeled kissing partner best friends do." emery replied with a smile, john b returning the gesture as he squeezed her left hand once more before walking to the hms pogue, emery following after levi, who was walking towards her car where mara was sitting waiting for them in the passenger seat.

"well that was a waste of my time." levi deadpanned from the back seat as emery rolled her eyes.

"if you could be less of a snobbish bitch, that would be great." she replied bitterly, watching in her rear view mirror as john b pushed the boat away from the dock and steered towards the south side of the island.

"i'm not being a snobbish bitch, ems. we literally almost died for something that wasn't even there." levi retorted, emery glaring up at him in the mirror.

"so what, you gonna run back to rafe and topper since there's no more entertainment for you on my end? you gonna be the next notch in ainsley's belt of kook hookups?"

"i feel like i'm intruding on a moment." mara muttered as she looked between the two arguing siblings before her eyes stayed on emery. "also, should you be driving in your pissed-off state?"

"how can you say that?" levi asked emery. "i've had to sit and watch you get everything you want your entire life, y'know? every present, every new pair of shoes, every school transfer, and for the last week i've had to watch you get to be with the one person you love more than anything- don't even bother denying it, either, because i've seen you two holding hands and say you love each other- meanwhile the one girl who i thought liked me left me for rafe. so yeah, emery, i am a little pissed off, because for once, i was hoping something would go wrong for you, princess. but i guess what the rest of us what doesn't matter, does it?"

emery slammed the brakes, unlocking the doors and glaring at her older brother.

"get out!" she yelled, levi pursing his lips and holding his arms up in surrender.

"of course, your majesty." he replied sarcastically.

"you are such a child!" emery yelled. "i'm sorry that you were too blind to see that ainsley never liked you, she was using you to get close to rafe, because that's what she does, she uses people. if you had asked me about her, i would've told you."

"save it." levi spat, slamming his door and storming off down the sidewalk, emery rolling her eyes and turning down a side road.

"i feel like there was more to that." mara chimed, emery sucking on her teeth and shrugging.

"if he wants to throw a fit like a toddler, he can at least make it entertaining. i've met teenagers who throw better hissy fits than that." emery deadpanned.

"maybe if you were a little more compassionate to levi and his situation, you wouldn't be caught up in these tense moments so often." mara suggested, but emery shook her head.

"but you're wrong, levi brought that on himself." emery replied, slowing down to let a cop suv pull out in front of her, the melville girl following the slow vehicle.

"how, exactly?" mara asked.

"he tried to date ainsley." emery deadpanned, mara shrugging, the cop suv in front of them stopping, emery wrinkling her brow in confusion as the driver stepped out and began looking behind the car for someone.

"what're we doing?" mara wondered out loud, but suddenly, john b was jumping out of the backseat, running towards emery's car.

"ems! emery! unlock the door!" he yelled, emery unlocking the car as john b jumped in the back. "drive!"

"okay- okay! i'm driving!" emery shouted back as she put the car is drive, speeding past the cop suv and driving in a zig-zag around the neighborhood to ensure she had lost the cop before stopping to let the routledge boy grab the photo he had dropped out the window of the cop car, looking back at john b as he climbed back in the car.

"what the hell did you do?" mara asked for her, john b panting heavily in the back seat.

"they tried taking me to foster care." he explained.

"so my mom can't adopt you but they'll take you away? makes sense." emery deadpanned, turning down the road to the melville house, john b nodding.

"cheryl's logic, not mine." he explained as emery turned into her driveway.

"your house is going to be crawling with cops." the melville girl deadpanned as she shut off her car, john b climbing out of the backseat and strolling towards the house.

"thank you, emery. that's very helpful." john b replied sarcastically, amelia turning to look at the kids walking through the door, he face dropping when she saw emery.

"what has gotten into you?" she snapped, emery wrinkling her eyebrows.

"what're you talking about?"

"levi said you kicked him out on the side of the road?" amelia asked in disbelief, emery rolling her eyes.

"mom, he was being a baby over the fact that john b and i get to be a happy couple and he was in love with rafe cameron's latest homewrecker." emery snapped, john b slowly reaching onto the counter to take one of the chocolate chip cookies amelia had on a plate, breaking it in half and passing the other piece to mara.

"so you kicked him out of your car?" amelia asked in bewilderment, emery nodding slowly.

"mara watched the whole thing happen." emery defended, pointing to the stevens girl who nodded.

"very childish, i've seen john b throw better tantrums than that." mara added, john b smacking her on the shoulder. amelia looked around before leaning on the counter towards emery, who clenched her jaw and stood firm.

"i've never been more proud of you." amelia muttered. "take the plate." she added, motioning to the cookies.

THE TRIO WAS IN THE LIBRARY.

the melville's had a large home library, it had been jackson's office before he left, but once he abandoned his family, amelia took it upon herself to revamp the room entirely.

"who's the dude on the wall?" john b asked, pointing to the portrait above jackson's old desk- the desk itself was the same, everything in it belonged to emery, she used it the most for photography and making photo albums for people's birthdays- of a man in front of the tannyhill estate, which was owned by the cameron family.

"that's denmark tanny." emery explained. "founded of tannyhill."

"a slave founded a cotton plantation?" john b asked, mara shook her head.

"he was a free man, dipshit." she deadpanned.

"he showed up out of nowhere and... bought the land with gold." emery breathed, looking up at john b, who pulled his backpack off his back and pulled out a piece of paper, which emery and mara peered over his shoulder to take a look at, john b grabbing another cookie from the plate as they did so.

"slaves weren't mentioned as crew on the ship, but my dad found the complete manifesto- that was his big discovery." john b explained, showing emery the paper.

"but if there were no survivors..." she trailed off.

"then how did he buy the plantation?" mara asked.

"hey, how do you guys know so much about this guy?" john b asked emery, who shrugged.

"my dad made me and levi go to chapel hill after ward cameron bought tannyhill and found tammy's archives, his diary and some other shit, he donated it all to the archives there." emery explained. "i have a trustee pass, i can get us in."

"us?" john b asked.

"i'm going with you." emery deadpanned.

"i have a movie to watch in the park." mara said disappointedly.

"you have fun with rafe and bottom, come on, booklet, we have diaries to read." emery told the brunette boy, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the room as he grabbed another cookie, shoving it in his mouth.

"yes ma'am." he replied, mara following after the two, disappointedly reconsidering her life decisions.

THE PARK WAS PACKED.

"aren't you guys glad i made you come?" kiara asked mara and the boys, jj shrugging.

"my couch was pretty comfortable."

"but mara wasn't on your couch." pope deadpanned in reply, earning a harsh slap on the back of the head from jj.

"i could be going incognito mode with john b and emery right now." mara replied bluntly. "apparently they wanted to go on their romantic outing alone."

"shit- jj." pope muttered through gritted teeth, both boys turned and mara followed their gaze to where rafe was standing with topper, ainsley's arm wrapped around the cameron boy's waist tightly.

"great, the whole death squad." pope mumbled.

"hey, it's the homewrecker, we were just talking about her." mara mumbled to kiara, jj and pope whispering amongst themselves in hushed voices.

"what's the schoolgirl secret?" mara asked the two, both of their heads snapping up to her.

"no secrets." pope replied a little too quickly, mara rolling her eyes as she pulled the cash amelia had given her out of her pocket.

"okay, whatever. what do you guys want to drink?" she asked, not waiting for them to reply before walking to the drink tent, knowing what the boys' favorite sodas were and that kiara always brought her own beverages.

"two pepsis and a dr. pepper." she told the sever, handing over the money, watching out of the corner of her eye as rafe walked over and stopped a couple inches away from her.

"hey, mar." he said politely.

"i'm not talking to you." the blonde girl deadpanned, but rafe stepped in front of her before she could walk away.

"just... tell your little boyfriend that we know what he did." rafe murmured before walking away, mara only standing in confusion before walking back to the boys and passing them their sodas.

"just ran into rafe." she announced. "it was the funniest thing, actually, she told me to tell you that he knows what you did." she looked at jj, who was staring at the ground. "no secrets amongst pogues, guys, what is the polo boy talking about?"

"mar, it might go down tonight." pope said seriously, the girl rolling her eyes.

"that doesn't help me at all, but whatever floats your boat, i guess."

later on, night had fallen and the movie was still playing. mara had taken jj's lawn chair, the maybank boy leaning against her legs on the ground.

"jj." pope whisper-shouted to the boy, shaking his shoulder.

"what, man?" jj asked annoyedly.

"i gotta take a piss." pope replied hastily.

"hold it." jj snapped.

"i can't, i drank too much soda."

"it's too exposed. they'll totally see us." the blonde boy replied.

"who'll see you?" mara interjected, but pope ignored her.

"jj, i gotta go." he snapped. both boys turned, and mara once again followed their line of sight to rafe, topper, kelce, and ainsley, who, sure enough, were all sitting directly in front of the bathrooms.

"they're blocking the bathrooms." pope said unhelpfully, jj looking around and sighing heavily.

"come here. i know where." he whispered, both boys getting up.

"where are y'all going?" kiara asked.

"pope has to piss, so jj has to leave." mara answered for the boys, who continued to walk away.

"that's..."

"zesty, i know." mara finished, movement in her peripherals catching her eye, her head moving over just in time to see rafe, topper, and kelce go behind the tree jj and pope had just vanished behind.

"shit."

kens speaks 🪐

starting to lose motivation for this fic, the first five episodes are so boring for me to write

chapterly reminder to go read summertime sadness by mara even tho the ending gutted me emotionally !!