MATILDA , jj maybank

42

MATILDA! CHAPTER FOURTY TWO:
THE DIARY
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Liz was woken up by Pope. She was hungover, of course and rubbed her eyes as she lifted herself off the couch. Pope was trying to get John B up, as they had a test in 30 minutes. the past day, Sarah had shown up at the chateau and broken up with John B. That was what Liz had been worried about John B had been very sad the last 12 hours and Liz didn't know what to do.

"Hey, Kie we're going this way"

"Um... I will meet up with you guys later" Kie said

"Im starving. I need some pizza" JJ whined

"No, you missed breakfast" Pope pulled JJ out the door as he stuffed his face

Pope drove the Twinkie, and got to the school, stopping the car making JJ fly forwards with the force and hit the seat— since Liz was in the front. She got out from the passenger seat and opened the side door to get JJ out. in the class, Liz sat in front of JJ as the teacher passed out papers, their quiz.

"Glad you could join us, Mr Routledge" Mrs Williams told John B

"It's good to be back" John B responded

"Just in time for your first quiz" she said and John B pointed at Pope

"A test?" John B asked

"I told you we had a test" Pope whispered

"No you didn't"

"Yeah he did, like the first thing he said to you John B" Liz added before Mrs Williams cleared her throat

As they made their way out of the school, John B had told them that a girl had passed him a note about the bonfire. "Your sure she meant to give this to you? I think she meant to pass it to me" Liz laughed

"Mr Hayward, Mr Routledge, Mr Maybank and Ms Hart. Just the people I wanted to see" Mr Sunn, their history teacher said as he slightly pushed them into his classroom.

"Wish I could say the same" JJ remarked

"I have a question of historical nature for you— I digitize documents for the Maritime Museum, and in return I've been given access to the archives" he explained as they followed him to the back "and I found... this" he pulled out a box

"A box"

"More than a box"

"That's a good start" pope muttered and Mr Sunn opened the box, revealing something that was covered. "Go ahead Mr Hayward" Pope picked it up, and Mr Sunn warned him to be carful. Pope uncovered it to see a book that was tied. It was very old.

"It's a diary. The authors unknown." Mr Sunn said as Pope untied the ribbon and opened it, to see writing in it.

"Woah" John B awed

"And this is a sample of a Denmark Tammy letter" Mr Sunn set the sample in front of them "compare the handwriting" John B picked up the paper

"No way" pope said

"It's nearly identical"

"Very" Liz added

"This is Denmark Tannys Diary" Pope turned the page, to see a drawing "guys this is captain Limbrey.... August 6th, 1829."

"That's the year the total merchant went down" John B said

"I thought you all might find this interesting"

"Thank you so much for this" Pope thanked Mr Sunn

"It's important to know your own history" Mr Sunn told him and he walked away

"Oh my god" Pope muttered again and Liz looked at the page

"It's the Cross of Santo Domingo" Liz finished Popes sentence "holy shit" She spoke

"It was on the royal merchant" Pope said

"Guys this is from Denmarks Diary... August 15th, set sail from Port-an-Prince on calm seas. Came upon the Spanish ships San Hose on fire. The entire deck was aflame. And we could hear the screams of men trapped below. The Spanish captain cared about only one thing, his valuable cargo, the Cross of Santo Domingo and countless bars of gold. Once the cargo was on board, we went to help the crew, but captain Limbrey ordered us to pull bayonets and not to let any of the Spanish crew on board. He robbed them... and left them to die." Pope finished has he read out-load the diary entry.

"So it didn't go down off Bermuda"

"And it was Limbrey stealing shit again" Kie said

"This diary proves that both the gold and the cross of Santo Domingo were on the Royal merchant."

"Why didn't we find it in the well than?" JJ asked "I mean, if Denmark was able to get this, like, bedazzled cross off the merchant to shore why didn't he heir hide it with the gold?"

"Because it was too big" John B answered

"Your right" Pope nodded "he had to hide it someplace else"

"But where?" Liz asked

"Right before he was hung, Denmark said he'd buried the treasure at the foot of the angel."

"Wait, I thought this was about the key"

"Right. So what's the connection?" Kie asked

"The path to the tomb begins in the island room"

"But what is the Island room?"

"You know what helps me figure shit out?" JJ stood up

"Oh boy, here we go"

"Smoking beers and drinking weed. The ideas just pour out of me" Liz raised an eyebrow "if we just sit here and try to figure this out, we're gonna get nowhere. But if we get creative, and go to this bonfire tonight, maybe we'll get somewhere." JJ said

"We'll I just got disowned by my parents and I'm an official member of the i-have-nothing-to-lose club." Kie stated

"Lids?" Kie asked and she nodded

"I'm in" she stated

"Pope?"

"We're so close" Pope said

"Look, look, think about how much you could think if you just have your brain a rest" JJ leant down to Pope and both Liz and Kie had cheeky smiles on their faces.

"Okay fine" Pope budged and they all cheered lightly

"Okay, wait, we gotta shotgun before we go"