THE GROUP WERE SITTING ON THE DOCK IN SILENCE.

levi was a questionable distance from ainsley, who was leaning against of the beams of the railing. next to her on the ground, jj had his pinkies held up while emery and mara used them to hold the threads tight for their bracelets they were making. kiara was strumming her ukulele with the remaining boys just stared at the water.

"how much was it again?" jj asked.

"four hundred mil." mara replied quietly, she and emery focused intently on what they were doing.

"alright, let's talk the split." jj said, emery rolling her eyes.

"always money with you." the girl said with a smile.

"now, before you say evenly, i'd like to remind you that i'm the only one who can protect us against those groupers." the blonde boy said. "protection? not cheap. that's at least a five percent bump."

"you have no training. you've done zero training." pope deadpanned.

"jj, i'm more trained in firearm safety than you." emery added.

"i'll pay emery to save my ass any day, you looked hot on the porch this morning." mara told her friend, jj unhooking his pinkies from their tread and looking at them, unamused.

"you and your bracelets can go to hell." he said to the girls, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"that's not how you talk to your future wife." emery told him looking between jj and mara as she did.

"shut up!" mara complained, smacking the melville girl on her knee.

"whatre you gonna do with your fifty mil, pope?" kiara asked, the heyward boy shrugging.

"pay for college in advance. and textbooks, those are expensive." he added, emery rolling her eyes at the answer that was most boring to her but most fitting for pope.

"what about you, kie?" emery asked, the girl shrugging.

"i just wanna make a double album. about obx, the pogues, the way catching fire is about kingston. record at marley studios, peter tosh producing."

"peter tosh is dead." pope said confusedly.

"peter tosh is dead, i know." kiara said, holding her beer can up. "spirit of peter tosh will never die."

"actually, i know what i'm gonna do." jj spoke up. "i'm gonna get a big ass house on figure eight and go full kook."

"like my brother full kook, or topper full kook?" emery asked him, jj shrugging.

"i think i'd look amazing in a polo." he said simply, mara turning and pretending to vomit off the dock at the thought.

"we can be neighbors, you can get a house next door to mine and eat my moms cooking every day." emery added, jj nodding.

"yeah, and i'll get a koi pond, fill it with all those fish, get a marble statue of myself." he added.

"i'm never coming to stay with you." mara chimed in.

"you guys will be married by that point, you'll be living there." levi corrected her.

"so what are the already stupid rich people gonna do with their money?" jj asked emery, mara, and levi.

"i'd probably get a new board, deck the shit out of it, head for australia, honestly." emery admitted.

"australia?" jj asked, emery nodding.

"gold coast, baby. or maybe melbourne, sydney, get a little house not far off the water, my own personal brand of the chateau, if i may, a jeep- light teal, of course- and just... surf until my legs give out or mom and levi need me to come back. i'd come back for holidays and such, but apart from that, just carve it out."

"sounds like you've had this planned for a minute." mara pointed out, emery shrugging.

"my mom's family is natively from australia, i went there all the time as a kid." she explained. "i love it out there, it's where i learned to surf."

"i always wondered where you got your accent." pope mentioned. it was true, it was definitely noticeable in causal conversation with her or levi, but certain words both melville siblings pronounced with a thicker australian accent than others. their mom's accent had been very prominent during emery's childhood, where emery and levi both developed it.

"can you say 'good day, mate?' just once, please ems." jj begged, emery shaking her head and pretending to zip her lips shut and lock them.

"i guess i'm moving to australia." mara said, levi nodding.

"we could all go, it's like here but with better healthcare." he pointed out, everyone turning to john b.

"what about you, booklet?" emery asked, the brunette thinking for a second before turning to his friends with a smile.

"to going full kook."

EVERYONE STAYED AT THE CHATEAU THAT NIGHT.

emery was about to call it a night, head into john b's room to lay down when levi pulled her by her arm onto the porch wordlessly. confused, she still follows him.

"you good?" she asked.

"ainsley's going out with rafe." he deadpanned, emery's jaw hanging slack at the new information.

"she's what?" she asked, levi nodding.

"i've never even seen them talk." he pointed out.

"was he with the group of people ainsley ran off with at the kegger?"

"probably, i was too busy trying to save your drowning boyfriend to watch them." levi sassed, emery looking at him with raised eyebrows.

"so what does this mean? are you gonna try and break them up, like, what's your game plan exactly?" the younger melville asked, sitting on the couch and looking up at levi questionably. "are you two gonna battle it out for ainsley and you like- throw him in the ocean and he never comes back?"

"i don't know, emery." levi dragged out.

"ainsley honestly deserves rafe cameron, she's not a good person, lee. you haven't known her as long as i have." emery told levi as she opened the chateau's front door. "and you deserve a million times better than ainsley, she doesn't come close to deserving you, especially if she's going to stoop to the level of going out with rafe."

"that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." he said to her retreating figure, the younger girl heading to john b's bedroom, where the boy was laid with his upper body resting on the wall.

"what up?" emery asked, grabbing a baseball off the dresser and laying on her back on the bed, tossing it up into the air and catching it repeatedly.

"you're gonna move across the world with your money?" john b asked, emery nodding.

"yeah, what about it?"

"i don't know, the thought of leaving the island with the money never really crossed my mind." john b explained, emery shrugging.

"australia is gorgeous, a lot better than here." emery told him.

"never been." he said, emery wrinkling her eyebrows at him.

"yeah, you have. you and jj both have."

"no, we haven't." john b replied confusedly.

"you, jj, and mara all came with us one year. we stayed in that house right by the ocean and we all stayed in the guest house. it wasn't that long ago, we were like ten."

"emery, i would remember if i had gone to australia." john b replied with a laugh, emery sitting up and shaking her head.

"you clearly don't- i was there!" she enunciated.

"yeah, and i wasn't!" john b replied, grinning like an idiot.

"stop smiling, i know you're lying when you smile." emery deadpanned, john b putting his hands up in surrender.

"think what you want, but i know for a fact i've never been to australia." john b stated, laying down completely on his back. "can you shut the light off now?"

emery jaw hung slightly slack as she looked at him in disbelief. she grabbed the old tackle box full of embroidery floss on the floor and turned off the big light and clicked on the lamp next to the bed.

" i said shut the light off." john b groaned as he rolled over.

"the fan could fall out of the ceiling and you wouldn't even flinch, don't give me that." emery said as she cut three long strands of thread.

"that for me?" john b asked, emery shrugging.

"don't know, maybe i'll give it to ainsley's new boyfriend." she said, john b rolling over to look at her.

"that's what levi wanted? he and ainsley are together?" he asked hopefully, but his good mood was quickly shot down.

"i wish, she's going out with rafe." emery replied, tying the loop in place and securing it in the lid of the box, beginning to separate the bracelet how she wanted for the chevron pattern she was making.

"hold on- rafe as in rafe cameron?" john b asked in disbelief sitting back up as emery rolled her eyes.

"no, rafe the dog- yes, rafe cameron!" emery retaliated as she started her bracelet, john b snatching the box and thread out of her hand.

"how can you make bracelets at a time like this?" he asked in disbelief. "ainsley is on the route to be the next sarah and you're just... okay with it?"

"honestly, i was never a fan." emery deadpanned, snatching her box back. "not very reliable, she left you on the beach to drown as soon as jj got the gun out and she was one of the last people he would've shot."

"ems, it doesn't matter, she's still our friend. and you of all people know how horrible rafe is, you can't just let her go out with him." john b said exasperatedly, emery rolling her eyes.

"what exactly do you expect me to do, john?" she asked impatiently. "tell ainsley 'hey, no offense, but your boyfriends a little bitch and you should be with my brother instead.'? she's dating rafe wether we like it or not, and she may claim to be a pogue, but she always goes back to the kooks, she and kiara both."

"kiara was just trying to branch out." john b said, emery rolling her eyes.

"oh, don't even. john b, i have far more obligation to be with the kooks than kiara, and where am i? i'm literally in your bed. she left us when you needed her most and then came back and expected us to act like nothing happened when she stabbed us in the back, so i'm sorry i'm not quite ready to forgive her." emery spat, leaning back against the wall.

"i didn't mean it like that." john b replied calmly. "ems, you are my best friend- hell, i don't know if you're my girlfriend or not, but i don't want to make that decision for you. you've always been the best judge of people as a whole, but i'm not ditching ainsley just because she's dating rafe, not when we can try and stop her before she gets completely pulled into the dark side."

"and i get that, but i don't understand why you're defending her or kiara, you know damn well me, mara, jj, and pope were the ones who were there for you, not them." emery replied. "john b, i don't see either of them as my friends, i can't ever forgive kiara for what she did. i'll still hang out around her and remain civil, but i refuse to be friends with her."

"and that's perfect fine." john b replied. "really, em, i'm not gonna tell you who to be friends with. but i cant let ainsley go down the same path kiara did."

"i think it's too late. she was willing to let us fry at the kegger, she left us for the kooks. even levi stayed to try and help you." emery said. "and levi looks at her like she put the stars in the damn sky and she's with his best friend. if ainsley has to be with a kook, she's going to have to prove that she deserves my brother, and this isn't her doing that."

"so what are you suggesting?" john b asked.

"isn't it odd that rafe cameron, someone who's constantly looking for his father's approval, starts going out with someone in our inner circle the same week we start finding clues toward the royal merchant."

"you think ainsley's a rat." john b deadpanned, emery nodding.

"nothings even coincidence with her, she always has a plan. you have to be five steps ahead of her or she leaves you in the dust, and takes everything you earned with her. whatever we get, whatever we find? i guarantee rafe's hearing all about it." emery explained, putting the box and thread onto the floor, shrugging her shoulders as she pulled herself under the blankets. "but hey, what do i know? i'm only the best people-reader you know."

kens speaks 🪐

ainsley? relevant to the plot? this is revolutionary.

give me your hcs abt emery, mara and levi, tell me what they do when not trying to find gold either with each other or with other characters (momma mills included)

i personally believe that emery and mara used to make levi, jj, and john b dress up with them for fashion shows they did for amelia and the pictures are framed on a wall in the melville's hallway.

courtesy of another deal with me and harringtonssss were the reason each other's books get consistent updates.