Young Writers Society

Finnley sat in stunned silence for a moment, then spoke the words he knew he had to. “I’m not doing that.”

“What?” Mia asked sharply, probably loud enough to attract the attention of the man at the from desk, but he didn’t turn towards them.

“I’m not going with you, Mia,” he said. “I made a promise to my mother. Besides, we got in so much trouble just trying to defend ourselves from these things. Why go out and try to find them? Mia, I don’t know anything. One of us will get hurt and I’m going to feel terrible, it’s all going to be my fault.”

“I don’t care if you feel bad about yourself,” Mia replied haughtily, but stopped when she saw Finnley’s serious expression and sighed. “You’re probably right. I don’t know what I was thinking.” She turned away from Finnley, her ponytail falling across her right shoulder.

Now Finnley really did feel bad. He couldn’t possibly agree to her idea, since it went against everything he’d been trying to build, but he still didn’t want to let her down. “It’s okay, Mia, it’s a good idea, just... not the right time. We’re trying to settle down, readjust. You’re really brave, and I respect that, but it’s okay not to be strong enough to defeat these monsters. They aren’t attacking right now, so I think we’re okay if we back off. We don’t always have to be the heroes, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, still not looking at Finnley. He couldn’t tell how she felt based on just her voice, but it sounded like she was reluctantly submitting to his logic. Good. He didn’t want her out there doing stupid things — it would worry him half to death. It was times like these that he knew how his mother felt about him and his adventures. “Pizza’s here,” she added, looking towards the window.

The two of them went to collect the pizza, and Finnley paid for it since Mia had left her wallet up with her family. He gave the delivery boy a little tip, mostly because he was pretty sure the job was monotonous and tedious, and he was grateful for his own eccentric, magic training job. It was a much more exciting line of business.

The two friends headed back up to where Mia’s family was waiting on the pizza. They all ate and generally had a good time. Finnley kept an eye on Mia, but she seemed to have returned completely back to normal. After a little while, he began to relax. She had let it drop, thank goodness. He settled back in his funny blue hospital chair and enjoyed his mushroom pizza.

On the occasion when he had first met Mrs. Hart, Finnley was honestly scared of her. She had seemed strict, and wanted nothing to do with Mr. Hart’s side of the family, probably due to estranged Uncle Fred. However, now she seemed to accept that he was family, and she was quite a nice lady. She was witty and intelligent, and Finnley could see where Mia had gotten her sharp wits from. Her mother cracked jokes about her organs being in the hospital, but she did so in a way that made them wonder if she was really joking or if they would offend her by laughing. The joke was on anyone who fell for it.

Finnley was glad to see that the family could function so well, even in hard times, even around a hospital bed. He was glad that he had come. The trip had settled some of his worries, and he smiled around at the Harts. Time was sliding by, though, and Finnley knew for sure that he still had homework to get to. The others could sense it to, and they couldn’t all be with Mrs. Hart for the whole night.

“I’ll stay here,” Uncle Fred offered, “if you want to drive the kids home, John?”

“Sure thing,” Mr. Hart said easily, groaning a bit as he pulled himself out of the chair. “Mia, Finnley, are you two ready?”

“Yes,” Finnley said quietly, drowned out by a cheerful “yep” from Mia.

Mr. Hart twirled the car keys around his finger as they walked down to the car. He gave the man at the front desk a little wave, but once again, he hardly noticed. Not great for a hospital, Finnley noted, but it soon passed from his mind. He stared out the dark window of Mr. Hart’s car as he chattered away, thinking about nothing.

The lights from a police car flashed up ahead — they had a car pulled over by the side of the road right where the speed limit decreased by ten miles per hour. The police in this town seemed to be notoriously bored, and never had anything better to do than to nab people for speeding and watch the goings on at the school dance.

Only when Mr. Hart fell silent did Finnley realize that Mia hadn’t been responding to his idle chatter either. The two of them both had other matters on their minds. Finnley touched Mia’s shoulder and she turned, watching him with dark, steady eyes.

“You alright?” he asked gently. She nodded, and her lips curled upwards in a smile.

“When people get too used to you talking all the time, they get concerned when you want to be quiet for a bit,” she said by way of explanation, and Finnley had to laugh at that. It was a quiet laugh, as befitted the moment, and it made Mia laugh right back.

“It was nice to see you guys tonight,” Finnley commented.

“You too,” Mia replied, and Mr. Hart agreed. Finnley got out of the car when they reached his house, waving goodbye and then fishing his keys for his pocket. He let himself into the dark house and shut the door behind him, locking it again.

After he finished his homework that night, he dug up an old pocket knife from some ancient time when he had done boy-scouts and tucked it into a hidden pocket in school backpack. Mia’s words had gotten him thinking, anyway, and he couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t need it to defend himself against the creatures. Or if Mia felt inspired to drag him into the forest one day after school. For some reason, its weighty presence in his bag didn’t make him feel any better.