ONE MONTH.

john b, emery, and mara had been on that cargo ship for a month.

for mara, it was a painful month of third wheeling.

she was once again reminded that her 'quality time with mom and dad' may not have been worth it when she woke up on the floor while john b and emery shared the bed.

"emery?" john b whispered. "wanna get married?"

"oh, gag me." mara groaned, rolling over and covering her ears.

"no." emery said bluntly, making mara laugh.

"what- why not?"

"because why marry you when i can marry mara?" emery asked, with a shrug, reaching over the edge of the bed to high five mara. "you also have no assets."

"neither do you guys." john b fired back.

"yeah, but we have parents." mara said bluntly with a shrug, making john b scoff offendedly while emery giggled.

"rise and shine, lovebirds and blondie." the captain, who they had found was named terrance, said when he entered the room. "we're coming up on port, you best not be seen onboard if you ain't got a passport."

"thank you much, skipper." emery told him with a warm smile, the captain chuckling as he thumped her on the shoulder, john b and mara following her out of the cabin.

"you guys can take my bridge." he told them, gesturing for them to go up the stairs. the room they were in was made of glass, john b's jaw falling as he looked at the island.

"dude, i've never been to a foreign country before." he breathed, emery wrinkling her eyebrows.

"again, australia." she deadpanned.

"again, don't remember." john b fired back.

"i was there too, you definitely went to australia." mara retorted.

"welcome to nassau." emery cut off the australia conversation, pointing her finger out the window. "that is our house."

"whoa." john b muttered. "sometimes i forget you're rich."

"think we could stay there a couple nights?" mara asked, emery rolling her eyes.

"hey, mom, just so you know, i'm alive and i might also be breaking into the cameron's beach house to take back the royal merchant gold they stole from us, where are the keys for the nassau house?" emery said sarcastically, mara shrugging.

"i'm sure milly will understand." she assured, emery shaking her head, something on the dock catching her eye.

"guys." she whispered, pointing out the window at where terrance was talking to a group of men who appeared to be cops. "we've been shanked."

"shit." mara whispered.

"what's the plan?" john b asked, emery shaking her head.

"lock the door, once they're up here, break the window and we'll go, if you we go too early, they'll see us." she explained, watching intently as the cops climbed onto the boat, listening to the lock click as mara hurried across the bridge to lock it. emery grabbed a rubber band from the table, using it to pull her hair back, passing another one to mara, who did the same.

"now." emery whispered, right before the cops knocked on the door, john b picking up a chair and shoving it through the window, the glass shattering outside the room, emery and mara climbing through before john b, the two girls jumping the railing around the ledge outside the window onto the main deck, john b following them as they ran off the boat and into town.

"left, left, left!" emery yelled, sliding across the pavement before turning left sharply john b and mara right behind her.

"they're still behind us!" mara called, emery making an abrupt right and then going left, in turn pretty much making a circle but doing it fast enough the cops would lose sight of them.

"shit." emery breathed as she leaned against a wall, bending over and putting her hands on her knees, mara sliding down the wall to sit next to her, the stevens girl breathing heavily.

"please- please tell me you know where those keys are." john b panted, emery nodding.

"come on." she mumbled the three walking down the street until they made it to the gated community where emery's family had their beach house. she punched the code to the gate in, which opened enough for a car to fit through, the three teens walking through the gate and down another street to the house they had seen earlier.

the house was nothing like the house on figure eight, in fact, it was far nicer. multiple fountains were in the front, with large hedges and bushes that were constantly maintained lining the fences that separated the property from the neighbors. the sidewalk itself was an assortment of seemingly floating marble pieces that were in a pool of crystal blue water, the house being a similar white color to the house owned by the cameron's just a little further down the road, just with more of an actual house appearance to it than a tropical resort.

"holy shit." mara whispered, emery picking up one of the throw pillows on the lounge chairs and unzipping the side. she reached inside, pulling out a small silver key.

"is amelia gonna know we're here?" john b asked as emery unlocked the door, shaking her head.

"no, they send her an email if the door gets unlocked, but she never looks at her emails." she explained, shutting the door behind her. the inside of the house was almost identical to her house on figure eight, just bigger.

emery went straight to the kitchen, reaching into one of the drawers in the island and pulling out an iphone, grabbing a ziplock bag with a sim card in it and putting it in the phone.

"what's that for?" mara asked.

"our phones don't work down here so we have phones to leave here. and since mine is at the bottom of the ocean now, i can't send a message from beyond the grave with it." she said nonchalantly, powering the phone on as john b looked around in shock. "feel free to make yourselves at home. there's all sorts of standard snacks in the pantry, don't worry about bugs, this place gets exterminated every month, and i have a black card in this drawer if i need to go get groceries as well as the keys to the three cars and a boat we have here."

"you just called me broke in every language." john b mumbled, emery picking up her phone.

"come get in here for a picture." she said, mara wrinkling her eyebrows.

"why are we taking pictures?" she asked, emery smirking.

"you got a funnier way to tell our friends we're alive?"

LEVI ALWAYS HATED SCHOOL.

it had a lot to do with emery never being at the same school as him, but she always was waiting for him outside in the parking lot every day anyways. after she got her license, anyways.

but now, climbing into his truck with jj, he was looking forward to school even less than he normally did. because while he was going to emery's school, she wasn't there.

"if i black out, don't tell me." jj mumbled as he took a shot from his flask, passing the metal canister to levi, who took a long drink from it as well before paying attention to the road again. it wasn't like it was the first time he had driven after drinking.

he parked behind kiara's car, the two boys climbing out and meeting kiara, ainsley, and pope, the four walking towards the school.

"hey, it's them."

"i wasn't even sure they'd show."

"i heard they got arrested."

"i heard levi told his dad he wished he was dead."

they stopped short in front of the school where a surfboard was snapped into three pieces and propped against the rock in front of the school, one of the names of the trio written on it in marker with assorted photos of them from over the years.

"i feel like people are staring at us." kiara stated the obvious.

"oh yeah." jj muttered.

"guys, i can't be late." pope said suddenly, starting towards the school.

"hey!" kiara called, pope turning back to her. "we gotta stick together." she said, grabbing ainsley's hand, the five of them walking in together.

levi stopped briefly at his locker to grab a history textbook, but hurried to class when he heard people whispering, emery's name prominent amongst the murmurs.

he sat next to jj, with ainsley on the other side of him, kiara behind her, and pope behind levi. jj was scribbling on a piece of notebook paper instead of taking notes, levi doing the same.

turns out, school is the same, even when you aren't surrounded by rich assholes.

boring.

it was the first day, levi had no interest in learning about this emperor of some country that didn't even exist anymore and that he had never heard of.

his phone buzzing in his pocket took him from the sketch of a hibiscus he was drawing, but it was joined by the buzzing and dinging of four other phones around him, mr. sunn actually turning to face the class for the first time since he started class that morning.

"who's phone was that?" he asked, but no one answered. "no one? you will be tested. now, to recap-"

everything from there went in one ear and out the other, because when levi pulled his phone out of his pocket, there was a text from a number that, while labeled as unknown, was familiar to him. he tapped the message to reveal, much to the shock of him and the other pogues, a picture of john b, emery, and mara seemingly in the kitchen of their house in nassau.

the melville felt the breath leave his lungs, his mouth drying immediately as he stood up, grabbing his bag and rushing out of the room, not saying anything to mr. sunn or waiting for the others. he could hear pope and kiara mutter half-assed excuses to sunn, while ainsley and jj just followed him out.

the group was running down the hall when jj suddenly tripped over a mop bucket, pulling levi from his intense train of thought, he looked back to see the janitor yelling at jj, who scrambled to his feet.

"dumbass!" levi exclaimed as jj caught up with him, the group practically kicking the door down to get to the courtyard.

"i mean, is it even possible?" kiara asked. "shoupe said they didn't make it."

"screw shoupe." levi mumbled, taking his phone out again. emery was kissing john b's cheek, mara throwing up a peace sign behind them. he hadn't even noticed the message below the photo, which he assumed was mara.

unknown
quality time with mom and dad is overrated

"i think we need to remember that there is definitely the possibly this is all a cruel hoax." ainsley reminded the others, levi shaking his head.

"i'm just gonna ask." kiara stated, and soon, her message popped up on the screen.

kie
wtf is this you???

unknown
is lee there?

levi's breath hitched in his throat as he shakily started typing.

lee
no i'm up your ass

unknown
pissed your pants over an apple pie lately?

levi laughed, and he was soon joined by the others, another message popping up on screen.

unknown
what abt jj

jj
i'm here bree

unknown
not bree but anyways
i know what you and john b did when you were fifteen

unknown
i told her not to say it but it was funny

jj laughed again, the other pogues doing the same.

"it's them." levi whispered, stating the obvious.

"it's definitely them." jj added, smiling. they were all crying out of happiness, another message popping up just as jj yelled loudly in happiness.

"forever grateful ems and lee are rich, we found an awesome place to crash in nassau." ainsley read aloud.

"how the hell did they get to the bahamas?" kiara asked.

"you can't kill a pogue, especially john b." pope replied simply.

"i wonder how mara's liking third wheeling." levi mumbled as he sent a text asking that exact question to his sister and the others, a reply coming not long after.

unknown
they make me want to jump into a man-o-war, they were talking about marriage this morning and i almost died

"sounds about right." jj mumbled as he read mara's reply, the pogues all laughing again, tears still streaming down their faces.

their friends were alive.

kens speaks 🪐

bro this was lowkey fun to write??