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//chapter forty-two • things people do
𓅰彡𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐃𝐀𝐘
SUPPOSEDLY, THE ROUTLEDGES, John B and Big John, had been on a little adventure on their own trying to find El Dorado. They were supposed to find some idol that would show the way, lead them to it. Now, as to why they didn't tell anyone, Andrew has no idea. Considering it put Mister Sunn, a high school history teacher, in the hospital.
But...
"Yeah, so we, um... we went to the archives in Charleston, and, uh..." John B looks up at his dad as he speaks. "It was... it was a dead end. A dry hole. So..."
Sitting on either side of John B, JJ and Kie are watching with the utmost care as their best friend speaks. Kie drums her fingers on her knees.
Pope immediately goes: "So that's the gold, the Cross, and now El Dorado. We're three-for-three, guys." He throws his beer can away. "The streak continues."
They all split up after that. Sarah and John B had an argument, Kie went home to argue with her parents more, JJ 'went fishing' and Pope went to school. Spencer and Andrew when down to Heyward's, taking Cleo back with them in Spencer's car.
Heyward offered them drinks and let them stick around, they were surprised when a certain Heyward boy came home from school about five hours too early.
Spencer sees him first. "Hey Pope, babe, you look like shit."
"Yeah, that's 'cause I quit school."
Cleo stares at him, dumbfounded. "You did what?"
"Quit school," he repeats.
Right. They just entered some alternate universe where Pope doesn't want to become a coronary, it all makes sense now. At least a whole lot more than him giving up on school.
"What the hell, Pope?" Cleo cries out, trying not to sound as harsh as she's worried. "You had your scholarship, and everything!"
"Yeah, I lost it. I lost all my old classes. I'll be lucky if I even passed the grade." Pope scoffs. "My transcript is ass. Everything I had going for me, gone. And do you know why I'm screwed? Because I tried to do the right thing. I tried to help John B with his treasure, to get my family's inheritance back, and do you know what I got for it? Kicked in the dirt. It's over. I'm done."
Andrew pressed his lips together. He knew what that was like, some what, anyway. Andrew had always wanted to be a doctor, to give his accidental existence a little more purpose, so when he dropped it, it felt like loosing a part of himself.
"Sorry, Pope." The brunet mumbled.
This whole thing is surreal. Pope's entire future is about school, university. That's what he always wanted. "That's what you do, Pope, the right thing," Spencer starts. "That's not a bad trait, that's why we-"
