Chapter 9

                                    

                                          
Now that they had discovered that the gold was no longer in the Royal Merchant, Evelyn didn't know what the next step was. She figured that John B would want to still go searching for it, but she didn't know where they would even start.
For now, she was going surfing with the pogues. She was starting to enjoy her time with them, mostly because of JJ. They hadn't been able to hang out just the two of them since the night of the party, but Evelyn was okay with that. She kind of enjoyed being able to see him with his friends.
They were still waiting on JJ and Pope to get to the beach, so for now it was just her, John B, and Kiara waiting around for some waves. Evelyn got bored of waiting, so she started to search around in the water for sand dollars, leaving the other two to their conversation.
"Hey, do you remember when you kissed me?" Kiara asked John B. That sparked Evelyn's interest. 
"Yeah," John B replied. "Yeah, I remember."
"Did you tell JJ?" Evelyn dropped the shell she picked up. She couldn't have just said that. Did Kiara like JJ?
"Um... I had to," John B said hesitantly. "I mean, pogues don't lie to pogues, right? And plus, JJ just laughed at me cause you shot me down, so."
Kiara scoffed, "I didn't shoot you down. I mean , it was really bad timing. You were freaking out, right?"
"Yeah. Yeah, no, , I- I was freaking out. Why do you ask?"
"Just wondering. It's not-" Kiara started. "He's just been acting really weird recently. Hasn't been  like, super into hanging out with us recently."
Evelyn noticed some undertones in her voice. Kiara did like JJ. From what Evelyn could tell, Kiara implied that 'recently' was ever since she and JJ became friends again. Evelyn didn't think JJ had been acting too differently, but maybe he had been. 
"Hey, save some waves for us!" Evelyn heard JJ yell. She couldn't help but smile. She immediately hopped back on her board and paddled back to the group.
"Hey, where you been?" Kiara called out.
As the boys came up to join them, Pope replied, "Just helping my dad out."
Evelyn noticed what looked like blood on his face, but she didn't mention it. She could tell Pope was already in a not so great mood.
"Hey, Ev," JJ said, turning towards her. "Gonna do some of those cool tricks today?"
Evelyn felt Kiara's eyes glaring into her as she replied, "Oh, you bet I am. Can't surf without 'em."
He smiled. Evelyn winked at him, and turned towards the waves. Some were finally starting to come in. She let the others grab some before her, waiting for a bigger one to roll in.
They all did a few moves, but nothing like what she could do. Ward was talking about sending her to train with the national team, but Evelyn thought it would take the fun out of it.
"Hey, I got the next one!" she exclaimed.
Evelyn paddled towards her wave and jumped to her feet. She wasn't going for a warmup this time. She busted out every move she could think of. Behind her, JJ joined her on the wave. The two of them kept weaving past each other, like a zipper.