chapter fifteen
RIXONS COVE

Athena was dancing with Wheezie, enjoying the time with her baby sister. If there was one thing that everyone knew about Athena was that no matter what she would always love her little sister. Athena spun Wheezie around, smiling at the laughter that tumbled from her lips. Athena knew that Wheezie felt a bit overlooked in their family and she would do everything in her power to make sure she knew how important she was.

Their moment was interrupted by a commotion. They looked over to see JJ being walked out by a security guard.

"Leave it to the men and women in uniform. Let's hear it for them." JJ clapped his hand. Athena walked close to the commotion, Wheezie staying closely behind as they stood next to Rafe, who had just walked outside. "Rose! You look like Lady Liberty. It's good to see you again. Hey, buddy, can I have one of those?"

The security then grabbed JJ once more, while he downed a drink in front of one of the older kooks. He pushed him towards the exit.

"Let go of him!" Kie suddenly shouted, stepping forward, away from her parents. "You can't boot him! I invited him here. I am a member of this club."

Despite Kiara's parents demanding her to stop, Kie continued to shout at the security guard. JJ pushed the security guard off of him, spinning around to face him before glancing at Kie.

"Sorry about that." JJ apologised to the crowd staring at him. "Hey, mandatory power hour at Rixon's, Kie. Pope you as well, all right? Rixon's cove. Let's go."

"All right, Kie. Come on." JJ continued, urging Kie away from her parents. "Workers of the world unite. Throw off your chains!"

John B then suddenly appeared, greeting his best friend and telling him something quietly. Kie pushed away from her family, beginning to make her way towards them while JJ faced the crowd again.

"Hey! You too Cinderella. You're a pogue now that means you have to come to this stuff!" JJ shouted, making eye contact with Athena. The crowd turned around, all staring at the Cameron girl, not knowing about her involved with the Pogues. "Come on Attie, I know you want to."

Athena smiled softly, beginning to move towards JJ and the group when a hand reached out to stop her movement. She turned to face Rafe, who had narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're not going with them." Rafe ordered. "They're Pogues, Athena, bad people."

Athena shrugged. "They're my friends. And you're not dad, even if you were I wouldn't listen to you."

She then yanked her arm out of her brother's grip, sending him a sarcastic smile. She then smiled at Wheezie, sending her a look that told the girl she would see her later before Athena turned around and ran towards the group. JJ picked up and spun her around when she got close enough, basically catching her just as she was about to fall over from running in heels. When he put her down, the group carried on running.

Athena turned to John B, smiling at him and pretending to tip a pretend cowboy hat at him, "JB."

John B bowed slightly, "Miss Cameron."

The group then got into the Twinkie, driving down the road towards Rixon's cove. When the got there, they started a fire and were now sat around it. Athena was sat next to Kie, the two girls huddled up to keep warm.

"Hey guys." Pope piped up. "So, like my dad's already going to kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about."

"Might as well tell him, ma, before we're gaffed." JJ gestured to John B to explain why they were all there.

"You ready for this?" John B asked the group. They all stared at him in slight concern, his question scaring the group.

"Yeah."

"So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant." John B started.

"Oh my god. Here we go again with this." Pope sighed with an eye roll.

"Let the man speak." Athena told the boy with a pointed look before looking back to John B.

"Hear him out, all right?" JJ added.

"It's been here the whole time." John B continued. Everyone's jaw dropped, their eyes widening at John B's statement. "It's on the island."

"Are you serious?" Kie questioned him.

"Oh my god." Athena let out a laugh of disbelief.

"I'd like to voice my scepticism." Pope admitted.

"I'm sure you would Pope but can I please present you with my evidence sir?" John B asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Proceed." Pope nodded.

John B walked in front of the group. Athena laughed softly when she noticed he was standing like a history teacher about to give a lecture. "All right. So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny." John B explained, pulling a few pieces of paper from his bag.

"Oh yes a backpack, where all the greats put their important evidence." Athena commented sarcastically, making JJ snort quietly.

"Who the hell is that?" Kie asked, referring to Denmark Tanny.

"Ain't he the guy in my dad's office?" Athena asked recognising the name from all the stories her father had told her about the place they live.

"Yes, I'm getting to that." John B stated. "Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out."

"How do you know about a random slave on the Royal Merchant but you can't do basic math?" Pope whisper shouted to Athena while the others were distracted. Athena shrugged slightly. She could remember the random facts, it was just how her brain worked.

"Here you go." John B passed the papers to Kie. "Okay, slaves weren't mentioned on the ship but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery."

"That's great JB." Athena praised making John B smile at her gratefully.

"So Tanny used the gold to buy his freedom. After that, he bought his farm." John B continued his explanation. "Drumroll please because that farm is..."

Everyone slapped their knees in anticipation. They waited patiently for him for finish his sentence, John B waiting to build suspense.

"Tannyhill plantation."

"Tannyhill?" Kiara exclaimed in a questioning tone.

"I told you." Athena sang smugly.

"Yeah." John B nodded, continuing to explain. "So, after that, he used his money to free even more slaves and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pisses of all the white planters and then they decide to lynch him. 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 whispered, looking at up him in curiosity. Her and Athena had looked at the letter he was talking about, inspecting it with narrowed eyes as they tried to understand how John B had uncovered all of this.

"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine near the water." John B recited.

"Except there is no wheat." Athena piped up. She had watched enough crime shows to know a code when she heard one. The girl loved crime shows, once, during one of her sad eras she spent an entire week in her bed, only leaving to eat dinner, watching crime shows. The only time Athena left her bedroom that week was after she watched someone have the time of their life surfing at the beach. She remembers noticing how free the person looked, how without care they were and Athena knew then she needed to leave her bedroom, which she did, going out and riding her bike, feeling the same sense of freedom the surfer did.

What she didn't realise until later was that, the person was none other than JJ. The blond had, without even knowing, forced her out of her little world of sadness and helped her shine brighter than she had before.

"Exactly!" John B pointed at her. "You see, wheat is a code for gold. Check this out." The brunet pointed to the picture of a gold bar, a wheat symbol printed onto it. "The gold is in parcel nine, near the water."

Everyone laughed at the discovery, not because it was funny but in disbelief that the five teenagers were the closest to finding the gold than anyone else in history. No one, not even Athena when they told her what they were doing, would believe they would get this far. It was a pipe dream, one that was never going to be real. They all had underestimated John B's need for this to be real.

"Holy shit."

"All we need is an original survey map of the property and we've found the gold." John B finished.

"Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true—" Pope tried to speak.

"Dude, it's like King Tut." JJ interrupted him, jumping up. The blonde walked around the fire, practically attacking John B into a hug.

"I'm a genius." The two boys stumbled forwards, nearly falling into the fire. "Hey, whoa! Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn."

"I'm so proud of you right now." JJ held John B's face in his hands, the praise about his discovery falling from his lips with a smile.

"Thank you." John B smiled at his best friend. "That's really sweet of you."

"Aww, bromance." Athena whispered to Kie, despite knowing that everyone could hear.

"Be quiet and go back to kissing Kie." JJ told Athena, making her laugh.

"Been there, done that, got the bracelet." Athena shrugged, holding her wrist up with her and Kie's old friendship bracelet on making JJ gape.

"Excuse me?"

"Okay, so you guys." Pope tried to speak up again.

"We will continue this conversation later." JJ pointed at the Cameron girl.

"Okay."

"What's the plan?" Pope asked.

"Good question." John B nodded. "Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She'll bring an original survey map—"

"Hold on." Kie stopped him. "Sarah? Wh-why Sarah? Why can't Athena do it?"

"Um..." John B stammered nervously.

"This is gonna be good." JJ muttered.

"Sarah, um, she got me into the archives in Chapel Hill yesterday, and that's where I got the letter." John B told her.

"You were in Chapel Hill with Sarah Cameron?" Kiara questioned.

"Yeah, um—"

"He was mackin on her." JJ cut him off.

"I wasn't macking." John B denied.

"You were totalling macking Sarah Cameron." JJ repeated.

"You were. You were macking Sarah." Athena nodded.

"I wasn't macking on her, okay?" John B exclaimed. "I was using her for access."

"There was access alright." JJ mumbled.

Athena glared at JJ for his comment, despite knowing if it was about anyone else she might have laughed before turning back to John B. She knew how her sister felt about the boy. "You were what?"

"Did you tell her about the treasure?" Kiara interrogated him.

"I was trying to get into the archives." John B avoided the question.

"Is that a yes?" Kie practically shouted.

"I-I left out key details." John B stuttered.

"Yo, what? You let a kook in on our secret? What about Pogue Lyfe? What about the T-shirt company, bro?" Kie scoffed.

"Athena's a kook!" John B exclaimed.

"We all like Athena." Kie countered.

"True." JJ and Pope muttered in agreement. Athena let the smile grow back on her face, glad that they did want her here.

"I was just using her for information." The Routledge boy tried to excuse his actions.

"You better be joking." Athena threatened with a scoff, her eyebrows raised at him.

"Why don't I believe you?" Kie disagreed loudly.

"I'm trying to make us filthy rich here. Okay, so we can pay off a boat, or— or, uh... send you to autopsy school to study dead bodies." John B looked at Pope before glancing at them all with a sigh. "Look, you guys know me. Do I look like the type of person to fall for Sarah Cameron?"

"Yes." Athena answered bluntly.

"Uh..."

"Do you want us to answer that or..." Pope trailed off.

"Just— Just stop." John B sighed.

"Look, you don't know her yet. I do! You can't trust her." Kiara snapped angrily.

"I disagree." Athena admitted sheepishly.

"She's your twin sister of course, you trust her." Kiara snapped angrily.

"Her brother did hit me in the back with a golf club." Pope agreed with Kie.

"Rafe and Sarah are different human beings." John B protested.

"What did she do to you, exactly?" JJ asked Kie, noticing Athena's growing discomfort at the topic.

"She's like a— she's like a spitting cobra. First she— she blinds you and then—"

"This is a bad analogy." Pope told her.

"Listen to me!" Kiara begged. "Whatever we get she's going to try and take."

Athena wanted to say something. She wanted to stand up for her sister. She desperately wished she could argue with Kiara but then the voice inside her head started talking. It was telling her that she would lose her friendship with Kie if she spoke up. Her fear of confrontation, the anxiety was eating away inside of her. She began to play with the rings on her finger, staying quiet, knowing that if she was going to say anything it was going to be in a less tense environment. She prayed that Sarah would never find out about the horrible words spoken about her.