𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐔, jj maybank

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

﹙𝙨𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙬, 𝙟𝙤𝙝𝙣 𝙗?﹚'ˎ˗

˙· 𓆝.° 。˚𓆛˚。 °.𓆞 ·˙

darkness ensued as the five friends huddled around a fire on rixon's island. "hey guys, so like, my dad's already gonna kill me. so what's this mandatory meeting about?" pope asked.

flo looked over at john b, assuming he had the floor, who pointed finger guns at the blonde boy beside her, "might as well tell them, man, before we're gaffed" was jj's reply.

flo peeked up to meet jj's eyes instead of focusing on his hands as they threw twigs into the makeshift bonfire, "how do you even know that word j?" he just shrugged with a small smirk on his face knowing damn well he heard it from one of her books. the ones she would whisper to herself when she assumed he was asleep beside her, which was every night now that jj hadn't gone back to the maybank household in weeks.

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

"oh god, here we go again with this," pope complained and flora had to fight back an eye roll at the routledge boy.

"no. alright, wait. hear him out, okay?" jj said.

"it's been here the whole time" john b concluded, "it's on the island."

"are you serious?" kie piped up from her spot next to john b.

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

"yeah, actually me too," flora agreed.

"i'm sure you would, smartasses. but, can i please present you with the evidence?" john b questioned.

"proceed," pope then gestured with his hands as flora meerly gave a heavy sigh and nodded her head.

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

"pause. who the hell is that?" flo spoke up.

"denmark tanny was a slave that survived the royal merchant wreck. check this out." john b said, pointedly at flora before handing her the letter, "okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. that was his big discovery. so tanny used the gold from the merchant to buy his freedom." the note was then passed over to pope. "after that, he bought his farm. drumroll please, because that farm is.... tannyhill plantation."

"pause, again," flo interrupted sarcastically, "did you just say tannyhill?"

"yeah, so after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pissed off all the white planters, and then they decide to lynch him." john b continued, "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, he leaves a coded message about where to find the gold."

"where?" kie asked as john b walked towards her.

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