chapter thirteen, god save the may queen

DAISY SPINS around at the sound of her name being shouted behind her. The country club is buzzing this morning with young teen girls from the wealthiest families of Kildare county; all of them here to be the next May Queen. Most of their chatter consists of excitement over their brand new dresses for the ceremony later that evening, or the hefty donations their family's made to various organizations — in order to 'encourage' their win — which ultimately reminds Daisy that these people are in an entirely different tax bracket than her.

She traces the voice back to Kiara, who is standing by the entrance with her mother. Daisy's previous look of boredom fades into a genuine smile. The girls start toward each other, meeting halfway.

"Hey, Rocky." Kiara lightly jabs Daisy in the arm, making her laugh.

"Shut up," Daisy playfully pushes her away. "I'm pretending last night didn't even happen."

"Don't act like you didn't enjoy punching the shit out of Rafe Cameron—"

Daisy quickly shushes her. "Not too loud. I'm pretty sure Rose is probably lurking around here somewhere." Kiara tuts. "What are you even doing here?"

"Didn't you hear? I have to follow in my mother's footsteps and be the next May Queen like she was at my age." Kiara clasps her hands together and bats her eyelashes dramatically.

"Well good luck because I just overheard a girl say her parents promised her a Bentley if she won, and she seemed pretty adamant on doing whatever it took."

Kiara cackles. "You're lying!"

"I swear to God." Daisy chuckles along with her.

"And my mom seriously thinks I'm gonna fit in with these people." Kiara shakes her head, the faintest hint of sadness in her eyes. "Hence why she's making me do this crap."

"You don't wanna learn what it takes to be a proper, poised young lady in society?"

"I'd rather chew off my own arm."

Daisy starts to call her dramatic when the voice of Rose Cameron urges them to be quiet. All the girls begin to migrate to the front of the large ballroom where she is standing with a microphone. Kiara and Daisy end somewhat in the back of the crowd, although still able to see everything. The loud chatter dies down into a low mixture of whispers.

Standing beside Rose, is Sarah Cameron. She's got on a white dress with a powdered blue floral design, and a look on her face that screams she'd rather be anywhere but here. Daisy waves to Sarah, but the blonde simply scoffs and looks away. I deserved that, Daisy thinks to herself.

"Hey, I've got something to tell you." Kiara says in a low voice next to Daisy. "It's about the merchant."

Before she gets the chance to continue, Rose begins talking to them about the history of Midsummer in Kildare as well as the May Queen ceremony. Although, Daisy tunes her out mid lesson now unable to focus on anything but the Royal Merchant.

"Tell me."

Kiara doesn't look away from where her eyes are focused on the speech front of them. "We found it. Yesterday morning."

Daisy's mouth suddenly goes dry and her eyes widen as the words settle in her brain. "It's real?"

"It's real." Kiara repeats.

Daisy snaps her head over to Kiara. "You fuckers went without me?"

"You weren't picking up, I texted you."

"I was—" And then Daisy remembers that she had been dragged along into dress shopping with her aunt and cousin for most of the day yesterday. "Never mind."

"We did it. We actually fucking did it." Kiara turns to her.

Daisy looks down to see Kiara grasping her hands in her own, which the other girl doesn't seem to notice through the look of glee on her face.

"Did what?" Anna appears out of thin air, causing Daisy to nearly jump out of her skin.

Kiara quickly drops Daisy's hands and faces forward again. Daisy struggles to suppress the disappointment that fills her afterwards.

"Jesus, Anna." Daisy hisses. "And nothing."

"Well, anyways, I can kiss May Queen goodbye. If Sarah 'sweetheart' Cameron is our competition then we already lost." Kiara snorts, but quickly covers it up by clearing her throat.

Daisy wraps her arm around Anna's shoulder. "Your mom is hosting this entire thing, I think you've got the best chances here."

"Wrong." Anna huffs. "Her dad basically owns every building within a five mile radius. This isn't about who's the most upstanding young lady, it's who can toss the most money into these events."

"I don't get rich people."

"Amen." Kiara adds with a nod.

Anna pokes her head around Daisy. "What're you 'Amen'-ing. You live in the freaking White House." Daisy quietly snickers between them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kiara whips her head around. "Just because I don't want to associate with a bunch of out of touch snobs."

"You can pull that fake poor people advocate bullshit on everyone else, but let's be real; your wannabe rebellious act doesn't hide the fact that you live in a six-bedroom, five bath home, and don't donate shit." Anna narrows her eyes. "At least the rest of us rich people live our truth and don't cosplay being poor because we hate our parents."

Kiara clamps her jaw shut. "I'll talk to you later, Daisy." Without saying another word, she storms off in the opposite direction. Daisy is shocked there's not a cloud of smoke flowing behind her with how heated things just got.

Daisy rubs her temple with one two fingers. "Anna, that was mean."

"That girl needed a reality check. I honestly don't know how you are friends with her." Anna settles down a bit.

"I think you're just stressed about winning and taking it out on the wrong people." Anna seems to think about it for a moment before she scowls.

"Okay, maybe you're right." She admits. "I still don't like her though, she thinks she's above the rest of us because she drinks out of metal straws."

Daisy shakes her head, returning her attention to the reason they were there in the first place. Rose was still finishing up the history of the celebration. She had on a bright pink floral print midi dress, and a ridiculously large flower crown on her head.

"Now, a big part of Midsummer is charity. The choosing of May Queen is largely based off of charitable acts done for the community. I urge all of you to prepare a short letter about a passion project of yours, or even a hobby in the case that you are to be crowned." An eruption of clapping and cheers fill the room. "Alright, that's enough talking. Now we will spend the day going over your entrance and ballroom dance for tonight."

Shit.

Daisy doesn't know her right foot from her left, and that's apparent as she is struggling to keep up in the dance combination. Poor Anna — who has had her toes crushed several times now — agreed to be Daisy's partner since Kiara was still throwing a little fit over earlier. She was across the room from them, dancing with some girl Daisy did not recognize.

The dance was actually really beautiful. It looked something out of a princess fairytale. Daisy just has zero coordination and looks extremely foolish. Thankfully, the tradition of having to have a boy partner was dropped this year on account of trying to be more 'modernized'. Daisy can't imagine the embarrassment she would have felt having to do this with some random guy.

The girls have to switch partners halfway through the dance, so it does not come as much of a surprise when the beat changes and Sarah Cameron lands in front of Daisy. Sarah looks shocked for a split second before her face returns to neutrality.

Daisy accidentally steps in the wrong direction, causing them to stumble a little. She lets out a small noise of frustration.

"It's left, ball change, back, ball change, right." Sarah mutters, not making eye contact with her. Daisy corrects herself and begins to move a little smoother.

"Thanks." She smiles gratefully.

They continue to dance in silence "I'm ignoring you." She then suddenly blurts.

"Oh?" Daisy presses her lips together. "May I ask why?"

"Fine." Sarah halts them in the middle of the floor while everyone continues around them. "It's because I'm upset with you."

"Sarah—"

"I mean I knew we weren't ever that close to begin with but I thought maybe after those few times we hung out that we'd made some kind of friendship, right?"

Daisy nods. "Of course we're friends."

"Well you've got a real funny way of showing it." Sarah looks away angrily. "One day you just leave my house and then I don't hear from you again. If you don't like me, fine. Just say it. Okay? Because I am nobody's second choice—"

"No, no. It's not like that at all." Daisy's eyes soften.

Sarah stares at her for a moment, the anger slowly withering into relief. "It's not?"

"You are my friend, Sarah. And you've been a really good one." Daisy quickly reassures. "I'm sorry made you doubt that even for a second. I've just been so caught up in," She glances over at where Kiara is moving in sync with her dance partner. "Stuff from the past."

"Oh..." Sarah pauses. "Right, your other friends." She follows Daisy's gaze to Kiara.

"It's stupid, really. And I didn't want to drag you into it."

"I get it." Sarah half shrugs. "Just maybe talk to me next time?"

"Of course." Daisy grins which Sarah returns the gesture.

The girls continue to dance, moving more in sync than they were before. Daisy considers that maybe she's not half as bad at dancing as she thought. Across the room, she catches Kiara throwing her a nasty glare every once in a while. Daisy raises an eyebrow back in response but Kiara just ends up turning away. The mood swings with this girl. Half the time, Daisy can't tell if Kiara's mad at her or just mad at the world. When they were younger, JJ used to say he had a theory that she was born with a scowl and it never went away.

"How are you, anyways?" Daisy asks, grabbing onto Sarah's hand and delicately twirling her around.

Sarah chuckles. "Have I ever told you that my boyfriend is a total dick?" She jokes.

"No, but I have a feeling that you're about to." Daisy says with a smirk.

"I DON'T GET how you can be friends with her." Kiara mutters as she finishes ringing up another customer.

After their Midsummer training — and Kiara finally let up on her tantrum — she dragged Daisy's along to the Cut to help out Pope in his dad's shop. Even though restocking shelves wasn't apart of her summer plans, she went along with it anyways. Daisy finds herself doing just about anything to stay on Kiara's good side these days. JJ was there already when the two girls showed up. He'd do anything to make a quick buck. And Pope, of course, was busy at work in his dad's shop too.

"She's actually really nice, Kie." Daisy answers from one aisle over where she is organizing the cans.

Kiara smiles and hands the customer their receipt. Once they are out of earshot her fake friendly face drops. "No, she's just a two-faced bitch."

"Well she's been a good friend to me."

JJ stops to lean against the register, taking another 'break' from helping. "It's useless, she's been on about this since freshman year."

"Mark my words, she will show her true colors soon and then everyone will know I told you so." Kiara pops open the register drawer.

Daisy scoffs. "Even if she did switch up, which I don't think she would, I wouldn't tell you because you would revel in being proven right way too much."

"It's bad enough I've gotta watch her win the stupid flower crown tonight, which she doesn't even deserve." Kiara counts the few bills she's holding before shoving them into the register in their correct spots. "The thought of it just makes me wanna get violent!" Kiara slams the drawer shut, smiling again when another customer approaches. "Hi, did you find everything okay today?"

"God save the May Queen." Pope mutters as he passes behind Daisy with another crate of seafood.

Daisy sighs, standing up from where she was crouched down by the lower shelves. "Can we talk about how we got ambushed last night?" She says in a hushed voice.

JJ opens his mouth but Pope cuts him off. "No we can not because it was humiliating."

"Pope, I told you already." JJ begins working again. "Don't let it get in your head bro, there was three of them and two of us. That's some typical Kook shit right there."

"I mean did you see Rafe? It was like he got a kick out of it." Daisy shakes her head.

"You see? The Camerons are psycho, all of them." Kiara chimes in.

Daisy ignores her. "Pope you shouldn't feel humiliated, you held your own pretty well before we got there."

"Yeah man, what was the thought process with using your head?" JJ smirks.

Pope groans. "I dunno, man. I just acted off instinct, alright? I was a cornered animal—"

"Hey Pope!" His father calls from the store's entrance. They all stop what they're doing to see what it was about. "There's someone here to see ya." Heyward points behind him to where Officer Shoupe has walked inside.

"E-Evening officer." Pope stutters nervously.

They all wait with baited breaths to see what happens next. Daisy feels panic ripple through her when Shoupe begins to reach onto his belt for his handcuffs.

"I have an arrest warrant for felony destruction of property." He strolls over to Pope with the cuffs. "Keep your hands on the counter where I can see them—"

As if on cue they all start spitting a hundred questions at once. Daisy looks to JJ, who remains silent with a grim look on his face.

"—Shoupe! What's he do?" Heyward shouts in frustration.

"Take a look at the arrest warrant." Is all he says as he begins to drag Pope out of the store. They follow behind him, Kie, JJ, and Daisy now shouting in a fit of rage while Heyward demands more answers.

"You can't do this!" Kiara yells at Shoupe as he ushers Pope to the car.

Daisy throws her arms down at her sides defeatedly. "JJ what are we gonna do? A felony! He's gonna do real time for this." She says to the blonde at her side.

JJ doesn't respond, he just watches his friend be taken into a police car. Daisy can tell he's thinking about to doing something stupid because JJ always gets quiet when he does.

"It wasn't him!"

Everyone gets quiet all at once. They turn to JJ who has just shouted the words in the midst of the chaos. Daisy tugs on him urgently, whispering 'what are you doing'.

"It was me. He tried to talk me out of it, but I was mad because he had just been beaten up." JJ slowly walks down to Shoupe. "I was so sick of those assholes, I figure I just lost my shit." He pauses in front of Pope with sad eyes. "I can't let you take the blame for something I did, you got too much to lose."

"JJ what are you doing?" Pope grits through his teeth.

"I'm telling the truth, for once in my goddamn life I'm gonna tell the truth."

Daisy watches as he turns himself over to Officer Shoupe. She can't help but let the tears that have began to well up in her eyes fall down her cheeks. The feeling of defeat overwhelms her, knowing there is nothing she can do.

"It was just all me." JJ admits.

Officer Shoupe stares at him, unimpressed, then turning to Pope. "That's the whole truth?" He asks him.

JJ answers instead. "That's the whole truth, I swear to God—"

"I know what you think, damn it! I'm asking Pope, here." Shoupe snaps at him.

Pope hesitates, unable to speak. If Daisy were in his position, she doesn't know what she would do. Torn between letting you best friend take the fall for you or taking the responsibility yourself. Either way is a losing game.

"That— about cover it..." Pope finally responds.

Shoupe settles for that response and removes the cuffs off of Pope, now securing them around JJ's wrists. He is stone faced as he is put into the car instead of Pope.

Daisy sniffles, stepping forward until she is standing next to Kiara. They watch JJ be carted away without another word. Kiara curses under her breath once the car is out of view.

Heyward wastes no time grilling his son with questions while Pope stares blankly at where Shoupe's patrol car was just parked moments ago.

"Kie what the fuck are we going to do?" Daisy whispers in a frenzy of panic.

Kiara shakes her head. "I don't know, I—"

"Maybe if I call my Aunt Lorelei? She knows JJ." Daisy suggests.

"No we can't ask her for that." Kiara disapproves.

Daisy runs a hands through her hair. "So then what?"

"Nothing... there's nothing we can do." Kiara says as though it pains her to do so.

Shit.

AUTHOR'S NOTE——

hey... don't hate me! pls ik it's been forever 😓 whoever said senior year is the easiest LIEDDD. this has been the absolute worst. i can't cope & i need to graduate right now.

but i've been in a writing mood all week. i have new ideas for new fics so i just kinda want to finish my ongoing works before i jump into a new one or at least finish act one!

anywayss next chapter will be midsummer for sureee ik i've kinda been dragging it out a lot.

as always i hope you enjoyyyy (again) im so so sorry to everyone who has actually been invested and reading! i swear im gonna try to get back to updating once a week again :)