——

It all happened in a blur.

Ward Cameron was in his druther and it blew up into pieces right after he admitted the crimes. In front of her very own eyes. Sarah screamed out, but the only thing Emelina's ears picked up was the explosion.

Sarah cried, looking at her boyfriend for an ounce of comfort, and Emelina was silently begging him to do something but he looked straight ahead into the water. Topper came to Sarah's rescue and held her tight yet her eyes remained on John B while he never looked at her once.

Even though she hated Ward Cameron, Emelina couldn't help but cry. Cry for Sarah. Fingers intertwined with hers. JJ's fingers. Brushing his thumb on her skin and she tried to focus on the feeling instead of Sarah's cries.

It happened yesterday and Emelina hadn't talked to Sarah since then. Even tried calling Wheezie a bunch of times to get ahold of her but it went straight to voice mail.

"Why didn't you do anything?" Emelina asked softly, sitting on the parked HMS Pogue with John B laying on his stomach. He turned his head to look at her before looking back to the water below. "He killed my father, alright? What was I supposed to do?"

"Hug her? Comfort her? Say your condolences? I don't know, John B, but you didn't have to do nothing." she told him, now looking at JJ who was fishing on the jetty, leaned up on the railing and she could tell he was eavesdropping.

He sighed, "You just don't know what it's like."

"No, but I do know what it's like to lose a father. She's going through a hard time and shouldn't be alone. You should go see her. It's the least you could do." Emelina said and hopped off of the boat, passing Pope and Kiara as she walked up the ramp to JJ.

"He deserved it, right?" JJ questioned.

Kiara gave him a look. "Are you joking? Of course he deserved it."

"I mean, out of every suicide, did it have to be an explosion?" Emelina threw out a rhetorical question. JJ shrugged, "I don't know. I'd ask him but I forgot my Ouija Board at home."

"Never seen anyone blow themselves up like that." Pope said and JJ quickly whipped out a quip, "Cross that one off the bucket list."

"JJ!" Kiara scolded.

Emelina's advice didn't go to plan, as later on John B told her that Sarah requested a break and now she felt nothing but pity for him.

"I'd be a terrible therapist," She breathed out the smoke from the joint she rolled. It wasn't perfect—and JJ made that clear when he made fun of it, but it did its job.

She laid on the couch in the porch, her free hand lazily running through her boyfriend's blonde hair since he decided to sit on the floor.

One of his t-shirts was stuck to her body, along with a pair of comfy shorts that hid underneath the shirt. JJ took the opportunity to bring his hand back and leave it on her bare thigh.

"You went hard on John B today," JJ said, taking the joint from her fingers to inhale it himself. Emelina sighed, "I-I didn't mean to, but it's hard not to say something when Sarah clearly wanted his comfort."

"I'm not complaining. I thought you looked hot getting all riled up," he told her truthfully and she rolled her eyes.

"You staying over tonight?" he then asked.

"We have school tomorrow..." she reminded him, retracting her hand to fiddle with her bracelets. He reached back to grab her hand and place it back on his head. She chuckled and continued to tread through his locks.

"So? We're all going to the same place."

"Fine," she agreed, making a mental note to come up with an excuse as to why she won't be home tonight, "only if we take the bed."

Kiara stepped onto the porch with five cans of beer in hand. She tossed two onto the couch, "Save me some of that j, please?" she requested. Emelina took a hit before raising it, "All yours."

"Bring it out," Kiara motioned her head to the door. JJ put his red cap backward on his head and all three of them set out into the night to meet the boys by the boat.

"Hot potato, hot potato, hot potato two!" JJ threw the beer cans into the boat over the railing to alert them. "Impressive catch," Kiara said sarcastically to the two.

John B shouted that he needed another one and Emelina and Kiara throw their remaining ones over to them and they catch them this time.

JJ leaned his arms on the railing. "What are you guys doing down here? Having a good cry?"

Pope and John B exchange a look. "Cry?"

"Cry? What are you talking—we don't cry." John B confirmed, flipping his hair back. Kiara sucked in the fumes from the joint, "You know it's not your fault, right?" she told him while exhaling.

"You think she'll come around?" he asked, staring out to the dark sea. Kiara nodded, "Yeah, dude. She's one of us."

John B grinned to himself, scratching his head as he spun around on the boat and looked down at the water. "Sarah's a Pogue. You know, she'll come back to me. Right."

He stuck his foot out, "You know, I was just thinking about it. I'm gonna do a backflip."

Emelina could only laugh, "I bet you won't do it."

"I won't do it?" John B feigned offense. Kiara pointed her finger at him, "You got any money?"

"Hold my beer that you already dropped," he said and handed Pope his beer. He chimed in, "I wanna see you do it!"

Laughter and cheers erupted from the group when John B proved them wrong and did a backflip right into the cold water. Emelina ran down the ramp, "I'm coming in!"

"That's the spirit!" John B smiled wide while peaking his head out of the water. Pope reached out and stopped her by the arm and shot her a skeptical glance, "You sure you wanna do that? You know what happened last time..."

"What? Am I gonna mack on John B?" she questioned sarcastically, sending JJ a wink and slipped her shoes off.

John B raised an eyebrow, "Uh, what happened last time?"

"Nothing," she answered and before any of her friends, minus John B, could stop her, she jumped right into the cold water with her clothes on.

"Woogity-woogity!"

§

"Can you wake him up? He won't budge." Pope said to Emelina as he leaned on the doorframe of the bathroom. After brushing her teeth, she walked back into the living room to hover over the sleepy blonde on the pullout couch. They weren't able to claim the bed.

She pushed his shoulder. "Wake up."

JJ barely moved, his eyes glued shut as if he were really sleeping. Emelina leaned down, granting many pepper kisses on his cheek and she felt his smile grow. "We have school."

"I think we should stay here and skip," he said his first words in the early morning, his voice deep from the slumber. Pope threw him his shoes, which landed on his stomach, and he groaned. "Dude!"

"We have a geometry test in thirty minutes. Get up," he informed him. John B lazily sat at the edge of the mattress, slipping his shirt on. So, maybe getting wasted a night before school wasn't the brightest idea, but Emelina hoped the painkiller pills would kill her headache.

Kiara rummaged through the cabinets. "Do you have anything that isn't expired?"

"I haven't had time to go grocery shopping..." John B mumbled, shoving something in his backpack. JJ grabbed a pencil from a table and shoved it in his pocket before rubbing his eyes. "I'm starving. I need some pizza."

Kiara said she would meet up with them later, so Pope and Emelina were in charge of taking care of the hungover boys. Pope drove the Twinkie, whereas Emelina stayed in the back with them.

JJ was fast asleep on her shoulder, his arm secured around her waist. She tried to concentrate on her notebook of a few math problems to refresh her brain, but it was hard when the van was hitting every bump imaginable.

Their math teacher handed out the test the second they sat down. Pope was in front of her, JJ was to her right, and John B was behind him. The teacher handed him the packet, "Glad you could join us."

"It's good to be back," John B replied, his eyes widening at the sight of the paper. "Just in time for your first test," she told him. Emelina didn't know why he was taking a test when he wasn't here all semester, but she said nothing.

He pointed to Pope accusingly and whispered, "A test?!"

"I told you we had a test," Pope whispered back. "No, you didn't."

"Yeah, he did," Emelina defended, her voice soft since the teacher was in the other row. Pope nodded, "Thank you. The first thing I said to you—"

The teacher cleared her throat, cutting their conversation short. Just in time for a girl, Emelina wasn't sure of her name but knew she was a Pogue, handed John B a note. With a raising eyebrow that he noticed, he mouthed to her, "bonfire,"

Emelina went to her locker after going through two classes and when she closed the door, JJ was on the other side with a bouquet in hand that covered his face.

She smiled and took the flowers from him and inhaled the fresh scent. "My neighbor doesn't grow these... Where'd you get them?"

He rolled his eyes and leaned his body on the lockers. "Some girl was selling them to raise money for charity or some shit. Thought you might like them."

"I do." Emelina kissed him sweetly and used the flowers as a shield for any passerby. She pulled away, "Thank you."

When they got home, Emelina found a dusty vase that she later cleaned and popped the fresh flowers in them after filling it with water. It sat on one of the kitchen counters near the window and every time she passes it, a smile forms on her lips.

Pope's history teacher gave him Denmark's diary that he was able to make copies of and it seemed to be giving everyone the answers about the mysterious cross.

JJ laid on the couch in the porch, his legs sprawled over Emelina's thighs as he fumbled with his Zippo lighter. Pope paced around and read off of the sheets of paper.

"August 15th, set sail from Port-au-Prince on calm seas. Came upon the Spanish ship San Jose 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."

"So, it didn't go down off Bermuda," JJ concluded and ran his fingers through his hair. Kiara added on, "And it was a Limbrey stealing shit again."

Pope sat down on a stool next to John B on the sofa. "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 then?" JJ inquired, now sitting up and glancing at all of them, "I mean, if Denmark was able to get this, like, bedazzled cross off of the Merchant to shore, why didn't he just hide it with the gold?"

"I think it was too big," Emelina said. Pope pointed to her in agreement, "You're right. He had to hide it someplace else."

"But where?" Kiara asked, glancing back down at the printed sheets. "Right before he was hung, Denmark said he'd buried the treasure at the foot of the angel," Pope informed them.

JJ furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait, I thought this was about the key."

Kiara nodded. "Right. So what's the connection?"

"The path to the tomb begins in the island room," Pope repeated with the key in his fingertips. Kiara groaned, "But what is the island room?"

JJ stood up from the couch. "You know what helps me figure shit out?"

"Oh boy. Here we go," John B sighed and pulled out a stack of empty beer cans taped together from behind.

"Smoking beers and drinking weed. The ideas just pour out of me. 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 get somewhere." JJ finished, stealing the stack of beers and looking around for confirmation.

"Well, I just got disowned by my parents, so I'm an official member of the I-have-nothing-to-lose club." Kiara grinned.

"Pope?" JJ looked at him. He sighed, "We're so close."

JJ exhaled a breath in annoyance and kneeled to his level. "Look, look, think about how much you could think if you just gave your brain a rest."

They all looked at him, pleading with silence until he caved in. "Okay, fine."