IF YOU told Aurora that she would be searching for the Merchant in the ocean at the age of 16, she would have laughed in your face. Yet, here she was, searching for it with her friends. She didn't believe in John B's father being alive but, of course, she didn't say that- John B needed hope.
"Alright, Rory." John B called out, "Pin it here."
"Roger that." Aurora replied, as she stopped their boat in the middle of nowhere.
"To going full Kook." John B said, as he lowered the drone into the water with Kiara.
JJ took the wheel, whilst Aurora made her way to Pope who was looking at the iPad screen which showed them the drone footage,
"Anything?"
"Just fish." Pope replied, as Kie lowered it down even further,
"500 feet!" Kiara exclaimed, "The tides turning!"
"Hey, JJ." John B called, "Ten seconds easy. South-Southeast, right?"
JJ replied, "Copy that!"
The wind picked up as the boat moved up and down from the increase of waves. Aurora squinted her eyes at the ipad screen, which was empty.
"JJ, hold it steady!" John B shouted over the rumbling thunder.
"900 feet!" Kie called.
"We're gonna turtle in this storm." Aurora explained worriedly.
"950!"
"JJ! Steady, 10 seconds!" John B called, as he turned to Pope, "Do you see anything, man?"
"A whole lot of nothing." Pope replied, "Kiara!"
"980!" Kie replied, "990!"
"Wait! Wait! We're at the bottom!" Aurora exclaimed, as she pointed at the screen.
Unexpectedly, old wooden parts were shown on the screen as the drone swam past an old ship wreck.
"Do you see anything?" JJ called out from the wheel.
"Is that it?" Rory questioned excitedly, as she looked at John B, "Holy shit."
"We found the Merchant." John B smiled, "Pope, go through it."
Pope moved the lever, causing the drone to search the Royal Merchant. To Aurora's surprise, they didn't find anything. They'd searched through it three times, over and over, but still nothing.
"Maybe someone buried it." Kiara suggested, "That's a possibility-"
"If the gold was here, the metal detector would've picked it up by now." John B sighed, "Somebody beat us to it."
"Or it was never there." JJ mumbled, as Rory gave him a 'don't say that' look.
***
The next morning, Aurora was with her brother around the back of Heywards Seafood restaurant. JJ was wearing Aurora's sound proof headphones as he shot bullets into an old teddy bear, whilst Rory was reading a book she found in somebodies trash bin.
"Guys!" The voice of Pope made her look up, "JJ! Rory."
"What's up?" Aurora questioned, as she stood up to join Pope.
"They know." Pope replied sternly, his facial features filling with worry.
"What?" JJ questioned, as he took off the headphones.
"They know." Pope repeated.
"Alright, chill bro." JJ reassured, "They don't know shit."
"Topper knows I sunk his boat." Pope worried, as he paced around.
Aurora frowned, "How do you know they know?"
"Because Rafe and Topper posted outside of Heyward's and mad dogged me." Pope explained.
"Will you calm down and get a grip, man?" JJ sighed, "They don't know shit."
"They have cameras. They could've seen me!" Pope argued, "It's Figure 8, they got generators. They don't give scholarships to kids who vengefully sink boats. It's not gonna look good on my transcript-"
"Enough with the regret, bro!" JJ raised his voice, "They caved your face in. They hit us, we hit them. It's the law of the jungle."
Rory nodded, "If any Kook comes up to you and asks if you had anything to do with it, you walk up to them and look them straight in the eye and you deny the shit out of it."
"Right." JJ agreed, "Deny, deny, deny."
He paused, "But just for safety, we don't go anywhere without... protection."
Later that evening, Rory, Kie, JJ and Pope all met at the theatre evening. The field was filled with Kooks, which made Pope on edge.
"Hey, uh can I get two Pepsis, please?" Kiara asked the man serving drinks.
"Hey, Kie." The voice of Rafe came closer in the distance, "How are you?"
"I'm fine." Kiara deadpanned, as she gave Rory a look.
Aurora snapped, "What do you want, Rafe?"
"We know what your boy did." Rafe said eerily.
"What boy?" Aurora questioned sarcastically, "There's 3 of 'em."
"Oh, he'll know." Rafe replied, as he towered over the girl, "And I know you know, too. So watch your back, Maybank."
"Get the fuck out of my face." Aurora spat, as Kiara linked arms with her and they both walked away.
"Douche." Kiara called back to him.
Kiara crouched down next to JJ and Pope, "Can someone tell me why Rafe just walked up to us and said, tell your boy we know what he did. What is that?"
"Uh, where is he?" JJ questioned nervously.
"Right there." Aurora motioned to the back of the crowd, as Pope whipped around exaggeratedly. She rolled her eyes, "Don't make it obvious, Po."
"Great the whole death squad." Pope complained sarcastically.
"Don't stare, bro." JJ replied, turning his head around. He paused, "Just to let you know, if they corner me, I'm coming out swinging, okay? Slice and dicin'. I'm on edge right now."
"Yeah, yeah." Pope whispered, "We just gotta stay in the group. Like a school of fish."
"I'm sorry, JJ, please don't tell me you brought a gun here." Kiara said sarcastically, "JJ, there are kids!"
"Kie, I didn't bring the gun. Everything's fine." JJ lied.
"What's going on? Rory what's-" Kie turned to the girl, "Do you know what's going on?"
Aurora widened her eyes at JJ, who kept shaking his head frantically behind Kie's back. She rolled her eyes, "We have to tell her, J. She's a Pogue. She deserves to know."
"Shit's going down tonight, Kie." Pope informed.
"Would you like to elaborate?" Kiara asked sarcastically.
"Deny, deny, deny." JJ whispered to Pope.
Watching films was one of Aurora's many weaknesses, especially because she couldn't sit still for over an hour. It also didn't help that she was clean and sober- the world seemed as if it was moving in slow motion. Rory rubbed her hands on her sweaty face, trying to get rid of the urges.
Unexpectedly, JJ and Pope both stood up and Kiara frowned, "Where are y'all going?"
"We gotta wring it out." JJ whispered, as they continued to walk away.
"You gonna hold it for each other?" Kiara grimaced sarcastically. She paused, looking at Aurora who was bouncing her leg, "You okay?"
"Yeah." Rory lied quickly, "I, uh, just don't like long films."
Kiara took a breath and smiled slightly, "Wanna walk?"
Rory smiled, "Yeah, thanks."
Aurora noticed JJ's bag (containing the gun) on the floor, so decided to take it. They walked through the crowd of people, then continued to walk around the edge of the field.
"Where's John B?" Kiara broke the silence as they walked slowly through the grass.
"Uh, he wasn't at the Château this morning." Aurora replied, "I figured he was with you-"
"Is that all you got?!"
Aurora's head snapped up when she heard the familiar yelling from her brother. She grabbed Kiara's hand, before running towards the gathering of boys behind the theatre screen.
"Let go of him, Topper!" Kiara yelled, as she shoved him, "Fascist asshole!"
Aurora jumped on Kelce's back, wrapping her arm around his neck. He finally let go of JJ, before shoving her to the ground. She tried to catch her breath, as she saw Rafe push Kie to the floor.
"Kie!" Aurora shouted, as she saw the girl crawling towards the theatre screen with a lighter in her hand.
Suddenly, a foot pushed chest back down to the floor and Aurora looked up to see Rafe,
"Stay out of this, Aurora."
"Or what, bitch?" Rory spat, as she kicked Rafe in the nuts, causing him to stumble back in pain.
"The screens on fire!"
"Quick!"
They gathering stopped fighting when they saw the screen being lit up in flames. The Kooks all ran, leaving the four Pogues alone. Rory quickly ran over to her brother, who spat the blood from his mouth onto the grass- the Kooks always win.