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Caroline was texting Kiara back following the boys quietly as JJ tried to get her attention for who knows what now.
"bonfire? well, i think she meant to give it to me, so we're all good there. we're going." JJ said keeping his eyes on Caroline who quickly looked up from her phone.
"what?" she asked grabbing the paper from his hand.
"i was trying to get you to look at me and it worked." JJ grinned kissing her cheek, she sarcastically laughed crumbling the paper throwing it at his forehead which he caught.
"hey!" JJ pointed at her, Caroline laughed putting her phone back in her pocket.
"Mr. Heyward, Mr. Routledge, Mr. Maybank, Miss Hills, just the men and woman i wanted to see." Mr. Sunn smiled pulling the four into their classroom.
"wish i could say the same." JJ said, Caroline turned her head reaching for his hand which he smiled and took.
"i have a question of an historical nature for you four." Mr. Sunn started to say, "i digitize documents for the Maritime Museum, and in return, i've been given access to the archives. and i found.. this." Mr. Sunn opened his closet grabbing a box.
"a box." Pope blankly said.
"more than a box." Caroline and JJ looked at each other confused listening to their teacher.
Mr. Sunn opened the box which revealed a journal, "go ahead, Mr. Heyward."
"uh.. careful with that."
Pope opened up the journal carefully making sure it wouldn't break since it was old, "it's a diary. the author's unknown."
Pope flipped it opened seeing the wheat symbol, "woah." muttered John B.
"and this is a sample of a Denmark Tanny letter. compare the handwriting." Mr. Sunn rested a letter on his desk which John B grabbed.
"no way."
"it's nearly identical."
"this is Denmark Tanny's diary." Pope said as he continued to look through the diary.
"guys, it's Captain Limbrey." Pope pointed to a drawing, Caroline let go of JJ's hand going to Pope looking at the diary with him.
"August 6th, 1829." Pope read.
"that's the year the Royal Merchant went down." John B looked at his friends.
"i thought you might find it interesting." Mr. Sunn told the four.
"thank you so much for this." Pope said not looking up from the diary.
"it's important to know your own history." Mr. Sunn looked at Pope and left.
"P, look." Caroline pointed to the next drawing.
"oh my God. it's the cross of Santo Domingo." Pope said as JJ and John B stood over.
"holy shit."
"it was on the Royal Merchant." Pope said looking at the three.
"it didn't go down with it because we would've saw it when we found it." Caroline added remembering the day they went searching for the gold.
"which means we have to look for it." Pope looked at her.
~~~
"guys, this is from Denmark's diary. 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 boarded we went to help the crew, but Captain Limbrey ordered us to pull bayonets and. it to let any of the Spanish crew on board. he robbed them and left them to die." Pope read off the translated diary as the four Pogues listened closely on what Denmark had wrote.
"so it didn't go down off Bermuda." JJ spoke from the couch as he was laying down playing with his lighter.
"and it was a Limbrey stealing shit again." Kiara spoke her spot on the chair.
"this diary proves that both the gold and the Cross of Santo Domingo were on the Royal Merchant." Pope informed his friends.
"why didn't we find it in the well then?" JJ asked, Caroline turned her head to her boyfriend who sat up turning his body to face the Pogues keeping his legs on Caroline's lap.
"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?"
"because it was too big." both John B and Caroline said at the same time.
"you're both right. he had to hide it someplace else." Pope said.
"but where?" Caroline leaned over JJ's legs.
"right before he was hung, Denmark said he'd buried the treasure at the foot of the angel." Pope explained which lead them all to more thinking.
"wait, i thought this was about the key." JJ spoke.
"right. so what's the connection." Caroline said trying to figure it out.
"the path to the tomb begins in the island room." Pope looked at the key then at Kiara.
"but what is the island room?" Kiara asked with a slight groan.
"you know what helps me figure shit out?" JJ said swinging his legs off Caroline's lap standing up.
"oh boy. here we go." John B said.
"smoking beers and drinking weed." Caroline furrowed her eyebrows at JJ, "the ideas just pour out of me. if we just sit here and try to figure this out, we're gonna get nowhere." JJ turned to Caroline grabbing her hand pulling her up.
"why?" she muttered not wanting to stand up.
"but if we get creative and go to this bonfire tonight, maybe we can get somewhere." JJ grabbed the beer can trident from John B while Caroline sat on the arm rest of Kiara's chair.
"well, Ace and i got disowned by our parents, and we're officially members of the 'i-have-nothing-to-lose' club." Kiara spoke, Caroline nodded staring down at her shoes.
"Pope?"
"we're so close." Pope looked up at JJ.
"look, look, think about how much you could think if you just gave your brain a rest." JJ explained to Pope while the others leaned in closely to him with big smiles on their faces.
"okay, fine." Pope agreed as everyone cheered.
"okay, wait. we gotta shotgun before we go." JJ ran off inside grabbing a beer.
