Adore You ☼ JJ Maybank

16

[ LISTEN TO ME! ]

"hey, guys, so like, my dads already gonna kill me." pope said, sitting down on one of the logs next to the fire. "so what's this mandatory meeting about?"

john b did a weird hand motion.

"might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed." jj said.

"you ready for this?" john b asked.

"yeah." kei said.

"so, the gold never went down with the royal merchant." john b starts.

"oh, my god. here we go again with this." pope says.

"no. alright, wait." jj says.

"hear him out, alright." maya said.

"it's been here the whole time." john b says. "it's in the island."

"are you serious?" kei said. "oh, my god."

"i'd like to voice my skepticism." pope said.

"i'm sure you would, pope," john b stood, "but can i please present you with my evidence, sir?"

"proceed."

"alright, so, in my backpack i have a letter from denmark tanny."

"who the hell is that?" kei asked.

"denmark tanny was a slave that survived the royal merchant wreck. check this out." john b handed her the paper.

"what?"

"okay, so, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship but my dad found the complete manifest. that was his big discovery." john b says. "so tanny used the gold from the merchant to buy his freedom. after that, he bought his farm. drumroll, please, because that farm is... tannyhill plantation."

"tannyhill?" kei said.

"yeah. so after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit-ton if rice, which pisses off all the white planters, and then they decide to lynch him." john b says. "so on the day they were coming to get him, he writes a letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of that letter there's a coded message about where to find the gold."

"where?" kei says, completely astonished.

"harvest the wheat in parcel nine near the water." john b says. "except, there's no wheat. you see, wheat is code for gold. check this out." john b got another paper. "the gold is in parcel nine near the water."

"holy shit."

"all we need is an original survey map of the property and we've found the gold." john b says.

"okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true." pope says.

"dude, it's like king tut!"

"i am a genius. whoa, whoa." jj picked up john b, "hello! fire! you're near the fire! you're gonna burn."

"i'm so proud of you right now." jj said.

"thank you."

"okay, so, guys, what's the plan?" pope asked.

"good question." john b says, "sarah cameron's coming tonight. she's gonna bring an original survey map—"

"wait, wait, hold on." kei says, "sarah? w-why sarah?"

"uh..." john b trailed off.

"this is gonna be good." jj said, sitting down next to maya.

"sarah, um, she—she got me into the archives in chapel hill yesterday, and that's where i got the letter."

"you were in chapel hill with sarah cameron?"

"yeah, uh—"

"he was mackin' on her." jj said quickly.

"i wasn't macking on her."

"you were totally macking sarah cameron." jj said.

"jj, you're not helping." maya muttered with gritted teeth to him, only him being able to hear.

"i wasn't macking on her, okay? and you don't have much room to talk, jj, so just shut up." john b said. "i was using her for access."

"there was access, alright." jj smirked while looking over at maya, her only hearing him.

"shut up." she muttered, coming inches away from his face.

"you're hot." jj whispered, causing maya to playfully roll her eyes and look away from him and turn her attention back to john b and kei's fight.

"did you tell her about the treasure?" kei asked.

"i was just trying to get into the archives."

"is that a yes?"

"i left out key details."

"yo, what? you let a kook in on our secret? what about pogue lyfe? what about the t-shirt company, bro?"

"i was just using her for information."

"why don't i believe you?"

"i'm trying to make us filthy rich here, okay? so that we can pay off a boat, or—or send you to autopsy school to study dead bodies. look, you guys know me. do i look like the type of person to fall for sarah cameron?"

"uh..." jj said.

"do you want us to answer that or—" pope said.

"look, just—just stop."

"look, you don't know her yet. i do! you can't trust her!"

"her brother did hit me in the back with a golf club." pope said.

"rafe and sarah are two different human beings." john b says.

"what did she do you, exactly?" maya asked kei.

"she's like—like a spitting cobra. first, she blinds you, and then—"

"this is a bad analogy." maya said.

"listen to me!" kei said, making maya shoot her hands up in defense. "whatever we get, she's gonna try to take."