"Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?" Pope said after Midsummers. The group has traveled back to John Bs where they sat around a bonfire.

JJ sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair before turning to John B. "Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed."

"Excuse me?" Quinn asked. JJ turned to her, a small smirk on his face as he nodded. John B let out a single breath, making the group turn to him. "You ready for this?"

Quinn, Kie and Pope nodded and John B stood up from the spot he was sitting on so he could look at everyone. "So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."

"Oh, my God. Here we go again with this." Kie groaned, pointing the bridge of her nose. JJ quickly turned to her, pointing at her as he shook his head. "No. All right, wait. Hear him out, all right? It's been here the whole time. It's on the island."

Quinn slowly looked up from the fire, her eyes wide as she looked at John B. "Are you serious?" Before John B could answer her question, Pope raised his hand from beside Quinn. "I'd like to voice my skepticism."

"Of course you would, Pope." Quinn said in a sarcastically happy voice, making Pope hit her shoulder, small smiles on both of their faces.

"Can I please present you with my evidence, sir?" John B asked and Pope sighed, nodding his head. "Proceed." John B nodded, turning to look at the rest of the group. "All right. So, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny."

"Who the hell's that?" Kie asked and John B turned to her as he pulled out a piece of paper. "Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out."

John B quickly passed the paper to Pope and Quinn since they were closer to read over the copy of the original 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. After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is... Tannyhill Plantation."

Quinn instantly winced as Kie's jaw dropped. "Tannyhill?" John B nodded. "Yeah. So, after that, he used his money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pisses off 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."

"And how do we do that?" Quinn asked, looking up from the letter to John B with furrowed brows. The boy pointed at her, a small smile on his face. "Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water. Except... there's no wheat."

Quinn brows furrowed, looking to Pope beside her. "What the fuck does that mean?" Pope shrugged as John B continued. "You see, wheat is code for gold. Check this out. The gold is in parcel nine, near the water." Quinn's mouth fell into an 'o' shape finally understanding.

"All we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold." John B explained and Quinn turned to Pope, a small smirk on her face. "Skeptical still?" Pope turned to Quinn at her question, their faces inches apart before Pope turned to John B. "Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true."

JJ cheered at Pope's words, running towards John B to lift him into hug. John B's eyes went wide, looking at the fire over JJ's shoulder. "Hey, whoa! Hello! Fire! You're near the fire. You're gonna burn me." JJ quickly put John B down, laughing as he patted his shoulder. "I'm so proud of you right now."

"Thank you. That's really sweet of you." John B mumbled, chipping JJs cheek. "Okay, so, guys. What's the plan?" Kie asked and John B quickly pointed at her, walking to sit in the other side of Quinn on the logs. "Good question. Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She'll bring an original survey map-" "Hold on. Sarah? Wh-why Sarah?" Kie interrupted, making the whole group tense slightly.

"This is gonna be good." Quinn whispered, leaning towards Pope so only he could hear. He slowly nodded as John B began to panic slightly. "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?" Kie yelled and John B averted his eyes from her, looking towards the ground. "Yeah, um..." "He was mackin' on her." JJ interrupted, making Quinn's eyes go wide, a small laugh escaping her lips. "You're macking Sarah?!"

"I wasn't macking." John B quickly said, pointing at Quinn but JJ just laughed, hitting John Bs shoulder. "You were totally macking Sarah Cameron."

"I wasn't macking on her, okay? I was using her for access." John B said and Quinn's eyes went wide as JJ snickered. "There was access, all right."

"Kinda a douche move but go ahead." Quinn mumbled but was only met with a smack on the back of the head from JJ behind her. "Did you tell her about the treasure?" Kie asked and John B quickly turned to Kie, opening and closing his mouth to think of an answer. "I was trying to get into the archives."

"Oh... he didn't answer." Quinn mumbled, making Kie quickly turn to her with wide eyes before looking back at John B. "Is that a yes?" John B sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I... I left out key details."

Kie's hands flew to her forehead, staring at John B in shock. "Yo, what? You let a Kook in on our secret? What about Pogue Life? What about the T-shirt company, bro?" "I was just using her for information." John B said, making Quinn sigh, leaning towards Pope. "Still not nice."

"Will you hush?!" Kie yelled at Quinn, making the blonde girl slump slightly before Kie turned to John B. "Why don't I believe you?"

"I'm trying to make us filthy rich here." John B yelled back as Pope rubbed Quinn's leg in comfort. John B sighed, pointing at Pope. "Okay, so that we can pay off a boat, or... or, uh... 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..." Pope mumbled, leaning towards Quinn, hiding his face in her shoulder to hide his laugh. Quinn laughed before quickly composing herself to look up at John B. "Do you want us to answer that, or..."

"Just... just stop." John B said, silencing the other Pogues before Kie cut him off. "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 and Quinn quickly turned to him. "Rafe and Sarah are different human beings." Quinn mumbled before turning to Kie. "What did she do to you, exactly?"

Kie sighed, sitting up. "She's like a... like a spitting cobra. First, she... she blinds you, and then..." "This is a bad analogy." Pope mumbled, making Quinn snickered.

"Listen to me!" Kie yelled, making everyone turn to her. "Whatever we get, she's gonna try to take." Quinn felt a small pit fill her stomach at the mean comments. She sighed, resting her head on Pope's shoulder. Pope slowly looked down at Quinn slowly wrapping his arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

...

"All right." JJ sighed as he pulled up to the destination. Quinn threw her hands up in the air from the back and let out a cheer as John B turned from the passenger seat. He quickly cleared his throat, making Quinn shut her mouth to hear what he had to say.

"Yo... so, uh, I think I'm gonna do this one by myself... tonight." John B whispered and Quinn sighed, leaning back into the van wall as Kie scoffed. "Really?"

"What?" John B shrugged, making Kie roll her eyes, shaking her head. "Nothin'."

"I don't want to spook Sarah with the peanut gallery." John B defended and Quinn slowly raised her hand in the air. "Uh... I'm allergic to peanuts." Pope quickly grabbed her raised hands in his, interlocking locking their fingers to pull it down, turning to look at her. "You're allergic to walnuts." Quinn made a quick 'o' shape with her mouth and nodded. "That's the one."

Kie looked at Quinn with an 'is she serious?' look before shaking her head, turning back to John B. "I just don't understand why we're involving her at all." John B groaned, hitting the dashboard slightly. "Kie, we're not involving her, okay? It's... it's just, uh, like a... a business meeting... thing. Look, once we get what we need, we cut her loose, all right? Plus, we need the map."

Kie sighed, scooting closer to John B's seat. "Promise me nothing's happening between you." John B barely turned around to face her, nodding his head. "Nothing is happening, Kie." Kie rolled her eyes, glaring at him. "I'm being serious."

"Okay!" John B yelled, making Kie angrier. "This isn't about you, and this isn't about us. This is about her. Dude, she's gonna get inside your head. Just promise me nothing's happening between you guys."

"I promise." John B mumbled, making Quinn roll her eyes, resting her head on the van wall as JJ turned to John B. "That was really believable."

"A hundred percent believable." Pope added, making Quinn snicker, turning to look at John B. "I'm moved by your words."

John B annoyedly shook his head at the group. "Anyways, um... I'm gonna take care of business." "You're gonna take care of it." JJ nodded as Quinn let out an over-exaggerated sigh. "We'll just sit here... in the hot-ass car."

"While it's lightning." Pope added while John B got out of the van.

"And then there were four." JJ cheered, making Quinn snicker. JJ quickly put the car in park, moving to sit next to Kie and in front of Quinn with Pope next to her.

"So what do we do now?" JJ asked as he took a drag of his weed. Quinn tiredly groaned, sitting up slightly to reach for the weed. "Gimme." JJ pushed her away, chuckling. "No. Get your own."

Quinn sighed, leaning back and resting her head on Pope's shoulder. Pope slowly rested his head on hers as the thunder clapped. Quinn jumped slightly at the loud thunder. Pope looked down at Quinn, slowly reaching to grab her hand and Quinn immediately squeezed his hand back.

She watch as JJ flipped his lighter on and off, the flame being the only source of light in the van since JJ refused to use the car lights since it drained the battery.

Quinn slowly sat up, a faint screaming rang through her ears, making her shake her hands in front of her friends. "Wait, do you guys hear that?"

JJ, Pope and Kie all went silent. "What?" JJ asked loudly before Quinn shushed him.

"Please, somebody help!" The voice screamed and the four shot up. "Oh, wait, no, I hear that." JJ yelled, running out of the van, Quinn, Kie and Pope running after him.

As they got closer to the screaming, Quinn could finally make out Sarah hovering over John B. "Shit!" Quinn yelled, running faster as Pope's eyes went wide. "What the fuck?"

"It's okay. It's okay, I'm with you. You're okay, okay..." Sarah whispered as Quinn and the rest of the Pogues got to her. Quinn's eyes went wide as she stood over Sarah and an unconscious John B. "Sarah! What happened?" Quinn asked and Sarah sniffled, reaching her arm out to Quinn to have her sit next to her.

Quinn quickly kneeled down so she was next to Sarah who was barely catching her breath. "I don't know what to do. He needs help. Topper shoved him."

"Where the hell is he?" JJ asked and Sarah slowly looked up at him. "Oh, please, please, please get help. I don't care who. Just call someone."

"Go. Go!" Quinn yelled and Pope went running back to the van as Kie looked around the woods. "Help, please!"

"Pope, hurry!" Quinn yelled as Sarah grabbed Quinn's hand with one hand and cupped John B's face with the other. "John B, stay with me. Please don't leave me. John B?" Sarah whispered, kissing John B's lips.

"Pope! Come on!" JJ yelled as Quinn rubbed John B's shoulder. Quinn moved her hands to wrap her arms around Sarah, pulling her into her side. "He's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay." Quinn mumbled to Sarah and to herself as she stared at one of her best friends, not sure if he was okay.

–no bc HOW DID JOHN B SURVIVE THAT FALL I LITERALLY NEVER UNDERSTOOD IT
I LOVE SARAH AND QUINNS FRIENDSHIP😫