How Was Your Day? - Chapter 30

By the time Finnley’s mom took him home from school, the official school day was nearly over. At first, his visit to the dean’s office had been utterly boring: he didn’t care what the dean had to say about the school rules, and the dean didn’t listen when Finnley explained that the students were verbally attacking Mia.

Sylvie’s parents were there when he got out, so they all trooped back into the dean’s office and he was left alone in the waiting room, still angry at the other students for saying such awful things about his best friend. Although his mother had argued his case when she got to the dean’s, getting him off with just a detention, she had turned to scold him as soon as they stepped outside of the school.

“You need to know that it’s never okay to resort to physical violence,” she said for the fifth time within two minutes. She kept her eyes fastened on the road, though there was hardly a car in sight. Finnley chose to ignore her.

“I’m being serious!” she insisted. “What is this? You’re safe from magic and monsters now so you want to find trouble at school? Is this how Mia has been influencing you?” Finnley could tell by the stricken look on his mother’s face that she regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth, but she had already said them. And it made him push away from her.

“I am not ‘safe from magic and monsters’. They’re still out there! And by preventing me from learning further magic, you’re keeping me from the one thing that could actually protect me. None of this is Mia’s fault, and I didn’t get into trouble because she likes trouble — I got into trouble because they were saying terrible things about her, things that aren’t true.” Under his breath, he added, “Like you just did.”

She was silent for a moment, then said: “I think you should really think about visiting Dr. Lark. She’s still here, and will be for maybe a week. I hope that I didn’t call her up for nothing.”

Finnley groaned and his head fell into his hands. He couldn’t believe his mother right now. “Mom! You did call her up for nothing. I don’t want to talk with her. Allie’s death is too… too personal. Besides, what would she even say? That I need friends? I finally have friends, and they’re a monster hunter and a ghost, and you’re going to have to deal with that.”

His mother pursed her lips, then said quietly, “I’m trying to deal with it — really, I am. But just because they’re your friends doesn’t mean you have to get involved with all the monster hunting and ghost and magic stuff.”

Finnley remained silent. Maybe he hadn’t had a lot of friends before, but this was one thing he understood. Having friends meant that what they did was something that he was inherently involved in. More than that, he hadn’t chosen to get involved in the monster hunting. He had chosen magic, or magic had chosen him, and it seemed as if the monsters and ghosts and everything was caught up in that one choice. It became such that there really wasn’t a choice anymore. Everything seemed to be impossibly connected.

When they pulled into the familiar, cracked driveway to their home, Finnley started to unbuckle his seatbelt and his mom put her hand over his. He looked at her, and she met his gaze with warm brown eyes so unlike the pale blue ones Finnley must have gotten from his father.

“I want to make a deal with you,” his mom said quietly, as if it was going against her very nature to compromise with him. “If you meet with Dr. Lark, just once, and have a legitimate conversation about Allie’s death and your feelings and friends, then I will let you go back to Mr. Vaughn’s and learn magic. Not every day, mind you, but maybe twice a week.”

“Deal,” Finnley said instantly, and he realized in that moment how important the study of magic had become to him. It wasn’t just the magic though — he was still worried about the possibility of another magician. He had little evidence, but the idea was growing and growing in the back of his mind, gradually taking hold. He had no leads other than Uncle Henry and Mr. Vaughn.

His mother, still holding eye contact as if to make sure that he would really do his part, slowly nodded. She didn’t smile, but Finnley got the odd sense that the meeting with Dr. Lark was her first priority, and that she could work on stopping him from learning magic later. And that she knew he would resist it with all the strange, hidden parts of him that had fallen in love with the idea of magic.

“Bye,” Finnley said casually, closing the car door. As if it had been a normal conversation. He heard the car start up and back out of the driveway, carrying his mom back to work, but he didn’t look back as he unlocked the door to the house and stepped inside.

The ability to learn magic again opened new possibilities, but first he had to prepare himself to meet with Dr. Lark. An honest meeting. He was fairly certain that Dr. Lark wouldn’t conceal anything from his mom, and if she didn’t think that their conversation had been open and fruitful, then his mother wouldn’t consider their deal fulfilled.

He went upstairs to his room and closed the door, arming himself with a pen and paper. Slowly, heart thumping, he called up a single memory of Allie: there had been one day when she was playing basketball. She was younger then, and Finnley even younger than that. The ball had missed when she tried to shoot it, and Finnley had picked it up for her. She had enlisted him to rebound, but now she encouraged him to make a shot. Sloppily, with much arm flailing, he flung the ball into the air and missed the hoop by a mile. But Allie had just smiled at him, encouraged him to try a few more times, and told him that he had potential.

Finnley felt a little hurt in his heart thinking of that day. The memory was so old that it was fuzzy around the edges, but it was so strongly Allie. He wrote it down on the piece of paper as closely as he could remember it. Maybe if he did it slowly enough, he could have some honest things to tell Dr. Lark about Allie without it hurting so much.

Cautiously, he reached inside himself for another memory.