chapter eight, illegal's more fun

NOBODY SAYS ANYTHING for a while. The tape recorder clicks off, and they sit in heavy silence. It isn't long before John B. finally cracks and gets up from the table. He stumbles into the wall, breaking down into a quiet sob.

"Holy shit... he did it," JJ breathes. "Big John, he found the Merchant—" He sputters in disbelief.

Kiara puts her hands up on the back of her head. "Can you please?" She stares at JJ until he clamps his mouth shut.

"Sorry." He murmurs.

Daisy cautiously walks over to where John B. has tucked himself into the corner of the wall. She hesitates for a split second, thinking of how to comfort her friend, until finally she wraps her arms around him from behind. John B. practically goes limp in her embrace, and their size difference makes it slightly difficult, but Daisy holds him up with all of her strength.

She rests her chin over John B's shoulder, and whispers 'I'm sorry' to him. He doesn't respond but instead grips onto her even tighter. And for a long time Daisy just holds onto John B., until his tears subside and choked sobs become shakey breaths.

"He's gone." John B. sniffles, harshly swiping away at the tears that keep falling. "I—I never even got to tell him I was sorry—" His voice cracks before he even gets to finish.

They manage to convince to John B. to go outside to get some fresh air. Everyone gathered down by the boat dock together, each processing everything that's happened over the course of the evening.

The night is busy with the chirp of crickets and quiet buzz of nature. Kiara strummed the ukulele in attempt to lighten the mood, but also to distract herself from worrying.

Daisy fell completely enamored by her, watching the way Kiara's fingers delicately worked themselves on the instrument. The lantern above them illuminated Kiara's features with a soft glow, revealing how her eyebrows slightly scrunched together when she was focused.

Daisy couldn't put into words what she was feeling inside. Part of her wanted Kiara to look back at her so badly, causing her heart to helplessly flutter. But another part hoped that Kiara might remain oblivious, so that Daisy could gaze at her for longer. These feelings were not only conflicting but confusing for her. Daisy wanted her friend back and they're slowly but surely getting there; so why was that still not enough?

JJ was the first to break the quiet amongst them. "How much was it again?" He asked.

"Four hundred mil." Pope answered with little to no enthusiasm.

A quiet heave escaped JJ's chest, "All right, let's talk the split." He bluntly prompted. "Now, before we say 'evenly' may I remind you that I am the only one that can properly defend us from those groupers who were after us—"

"Here he goes..." Daisy mutters under her breath.

JJ pulled the piece out of his pocket and waved it around in the air. "Protection? Not cheap, okay." He pointed a Daisy with the pointer finger on his free hand.

Pope leaned his head back against the wooden post on the railing. "You've done zero training." He reminds JJ.

"YouTube, bro! That's at least a five percent bump right there."

"You haven't—"

JJ interrupts Pope mid sentence, "Any objections? Didn't think so." He snarks.

"Okay, listen little psychopath," Daisy rolls her eyes, "You're not defending anyone with that thing." JJ starts to open his mouth to respond but Daisy continues without missing a beat. "And! If anything, John B. would get the bigger cut. His dad is the only reason we know about the merchant."

John be doesn't even lift his head, he currently isn't even listening to any of them. JJ mumbles something about Daisy being so 'bitchy' and she ignores him.

"What are you guys gonna do with a hundred mil?"

Pope is the first to answer Daisy's question, his answer not surprising at all. "Pay for college in advance." He nods to himself. "And also, textbooks. Those are expensive."

Daisy looks at Kiara next, "What about you, Kie?" She asks softly.

"Yeah, what does a socialist do when she's rich?" Pope eyes Kiara in fake suspicion.

She lets out a quiet chuckle, then staring straight ahead. "Just wanna make a double album." Kiara shrugs. "About OBX, the Pogues." She laughs to herself, which in turn brings a smile to Daisy's face. "You know, the way Catch a Fire is about Kingston... Record it at Marley Studio, Peter Tosh producing—"

"Peter Tosh is dead." Pope says at the same time as Kiara.

"I know." She continues. "Spirit of Peter Tosh will never die." Kiara raises her can up into the air as a toast.

JJ is next to share his plans. "I'm gonna get a big ass house on Figure Eight and go full Kook." He grins.

"You're gonna go full Kook?" Pope arches his brow.

"Yup." JJ answers confidently. "Gonna get a marble statue of myself, and then I'm gonna get a koi pond. Put a bunch of those fish—" The four of them laugh, trying to imagine the disaster of JJ as a Kook.

"I'm never visiting." Kiara says through a giggle.

"What you gonna do, JB?" Pope asks the quiet boy, John B. has yet to say anything all night.

They all look at him with hopeful faces. He seems to think about it for a little, his eyes roam around the dock. Finally, he turns his head to them. "To going full Kook."

"To going full Kook!" They repeat, and together they raise their cans for a group toast.

Daisy can't help but smile at the bittersweet moment with her friends. "I know I'm not technically apart of the group anymore, but for what it's worth... a treasure hunt does sound fun." She swirls the drink around in her hand a couple times. "If you'll have me?"

"Shut up." Kiara, surprisingly, says. "You're one of us. Once a Pogue, always a Pogue. Right?" She holds out a fist to Daisy.

Without any hesitation, Daisy fist-bumps Kiara back. An eruption of cheers come from them all, and Daisy laughs.

JJ clears his throat, "Her share is coming out of your cut though." He points to Kiara and takes a sip of his beer.

"Shut up."

"I'm just saying—"

THE POGUES were out on the water bright and early the next day, much to Daisy's dismay. She still wasn't used to the sun — as it just never seemed to go away — and Daisy often forgot to apply sunscreen. Apparently her skin wasn't used to it either because she had to rub aloe all over her back and shoulders as a result of her skin peeling.

They were passing through the marina, perched up against the boat's sides. Daisy was in the middle of reapplying her sunscreen when JJ let out a long whistle.

He jerked his head in the direction of a boat in front of them "You guys see that? That's the Malibu 24-MXZ, the world's finest wakesetter."

"English, please?" Daisy stared in confusion, not understanding a single word of what JJ was saying.

"Fancy boat, very expensive." Kiara explained in simpler terms.

JJ continued to go on about it anyways. "Number one in luxury, quality, and performance." He listed. "200k, easy."

"We picked the wrong parents." Pope mutters miserably.

"I hate to break it to you guys but that's Topper and his girlfriend." Kiara slowly looks away, but Daisy's head turns quicker than ever.

She had essentially been ghosting Sarah for the last week. Not entirely on purpose, but Daisy hasn't had time to come up with a good excuse, and she couldn't exactly reveal that she had been running from smugglers with guns, escaping law enforcement, grave digging, and hunting for treasure for the past few days.

Daisy scrambled down to the floor so that she was hidden out of sight. They all looked at her like she was crazy, but she signaled for them to pretend she wasn't there.

Just barely lifting her head up, Daisy peeked to see if Sarah was looking their way. The two boats engaged in a mini stare off as they approached each other. Sarah was clung to Topper's side, her gaze cold.

"You don't have to act like you don't see us, bitch" Kiara snarls once they pass by, she looks down at Daisy crouched on the floor. "They're gone." Kiara announces. Daisy huffs and sits up again.

"Sorry, I didn't want Sarah to see me." She moves to sit next to Kiara.

This news brings a smile to Kiara's face. "What happened, I thought you guys were besties?" She coos, her bottom lip sticking out into a pout.

Daisy smiles sarcastically and flips her off. "We're still friends," She states very 'matter-of-factly'. "But, I've also been accidentally avoiding her." Daisy frowns a little. Sarah had been a good friend to her, so she felt awful about how she's been treating her.

"How do you accidentally avoid someone?" Pope asks, sounding genuinely curious.

Kiara scoffs, "Who cares, good riddance." She tosses her hands up happily. "Sarah Cameron is a snake."

"Y'know she cost me my job with Ward?" John B.'s frustration visibly surfaces from the mention of Sarah.

Daisy's mouth gapes. "Woah what— Ward fired you?"

"Yup."

JJ looked at Daisy with a smirk, "Still wanna be friends with her?" He asks, and Daisy expression drops.

"Doesn't matter anyways, she's pretentious little Kook Princess." Kiara gives an answer before Daisy can. "Now, she can't have you anymore."

The others look around at each other just to make sure they all heard the same words come out of Kiara's mouth. Pope's eyebrows shoot to the top of his head, and both JJ and John B. look down to avoid bursting into laughter.

"Can't have me?" Daisy repeats, a sly grin creeping up on her face. This causes the boys to quietly snicker.

Kiara rolls her eyes at the pure immaturity of her friends. "You know what I mean." Her voice regains that sharp edge it once had, back when she still 'hated' Daisy.

"Aww c'mere," Daisy hooks her arms around Kiara, and pulls her into a mushy hug. "I knew you didn't hate me." Kiara weakly attempts to shrug her off. Realistically, she could've pushed Daisy off, but she also wasn't trying all that hard.

They break apart from their hug, and Kiara still has the remnant of a smile on her face.

NEXT MISSION: sneaking into a hotel to use the computers in order to search the coordinates that Big John left on the map. Why did everything always have to require sneaking into some place? Daisy was still trying to figure that part out.

"All right, keep a look out." JJ pulls out his gun and clicks the clip back into place. "We're behind enemy lines."

John B. parks the van in the hotel lot. "Yo, come on, man. Just put it back." He begs JJ as he turns the engine off.

"You can never be too careful."

Pope gets out of the van first, leaning up against the passenger side window where JJ was sitting. "Hey, I predict that bringing a weapon to a four-star hotel will likely cause more problems than they solve."

"Thank you, Pope." John B. pinches the bridge of his nose.

Kiara leans up into the middle console between the two of them. "I swear to God, I'm gonna throw that thing in the ocean, JJ." Her voice is completely calm. "Put it back." She growls.

JJ presses his lips into a thin line, allowing John B. to snatch the gun away. Daisy pats the back of his seat consolingly, "Sorry, bud." She says, sounding not the least bit apologetic.

"You can't grab a gun like that." JJ explains to John B. "Can't forget my badge." He picks up a small plastic card off the dashboard. "Professional busboy."

Daisy stands back, arms crossed over her chest. "You are literally the only person to break into their own job." She grumbles as they make their way towards the hotel.

"So, where are we going now?" Pope speaks next.

"We're getting on the internet because only rich people have electricity right now." JJ leads the way for them. "This way!"

JJ is able to get them in through the kitchens. From there they enter the hotel lobby from the dining area. Each of them play it cool, pretending as if they have any business being there in the first place. The hotel has a small computer room for guest use that will allow them to search the coordinates on Big John's map.

They get into the room as inconspicuously as possible, without getting into trouble. Daisy considers this a huge win as every other plan of theirs has gone miserably wrong.

"Sweet Lord, the internet!" Pope takes off towards the first computer he sees. "I've missed you."

JJ carefully shuts the door after Daisy slips in. "Let me get in there. Gotta check out my Insta models." They circle around the computer together.

"We don't have time for that." Kiara hisses.

John B. spreads the map out in front of them and begins to read the coordinates aloud to Pope. Daisy watches him enter the numbers into some kind of search engine. Within seconds it is able to pick up a location.

"Boom, continental shelf right there." John B. points to the dot on the screen.

"Okay, well, if it's off the deep end it's not gonna be much of a treasure hunt, is it?" Pope looked over his shoulder at John B. He zoomed in with the mouse on the point to see exactly which side it was on.

"Shit, it's on the high side. It's only nine hundred feet." John B. shrugs.

Daisy nibbles on a hangnail on the side of her index finger. "Why does that sound like a really big number?" Her eyes flicker between the rest of them.

"That's not too deep." JJ declares.

"Is that doable or something?" Kiara asks hopefully.

JJ nods, "Yeah, totally doable." He answers confidently.

"Okay, will we be taking your personal submarine?" Pope swivels around in the chair.

"How do you know this 'Mr. Dive Master'?" John B. urges JJ to further explain.

"The salvage yard." JJ looks around at all of them. "They got a drone that can drop a thousand." He continues, his idea sounding promising. "It has a three-sixty camera and everything. It's for, like, deep dives and stuff. Exactly what we need."

Daisy interrupts JJ's idea, "Are they just gonna let us borrow it for the day? Or..."

"Or can your dad get his grimy little hands on that?" John B. suggests.

"Well, my dad's grimy little hands got his ass fired." JJ tells them, So that ideas out the question, Daisy sighs. "I guess the salvage captain frowns on showing up shitfaced, turns out." They all slump down, slightly dejected by this. "But the drone's there. It's in the impound yard out back."

Daisy claps cheerfully, "Yay, I can add theft to my list of crimes this summer, too!" She says with false enthusiasm.

"Yeah, but maybe it's worth it." Kiara interjects. "How much did you say was on the Royal Merchant again?"

"Four hundred mil." They all remind her.

Kiara hops up out of her seat and heads right for the door without needing any more information. "Four hundred million dollars." She repeats to herself.

"No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. No!" Pope attempts to block the door with his body.

Kiara pushes him out of the way. "Pope, move." She pulls open the door. "Come on."

"Guys, that's too—" Pope huffs defeatedly. "Can't we do anything legal for money?"

Daisy follows begins, giving Pope a sympathetic smile. "Probably, but the illegal way is faster." She shut the door behind them on their way out. "And more fun, I guess."

AUTHOR'S NOTE——

very very short chapter! ik but there's a lot more coming in the future i swear

also since the midsummer episode is coming up i thought a fun twist would be like making it almost like the debutant thing from the summer i turned pretty?? bc lorelei would 10000% make daisy do it 😭 idk it sounded cute in my head

much love to u all & don't forget to comment + vote!