Finn yawned silently to himself as Mr. O'Neill started handing back the essays the class was required to write about poetry.

"Here it comes." Finn thought. Mr. O'Neill did the same thing as he handed back his essays. He told his students that if they felt strongly about their grades, they should express themselves.

"A few of you have shown significant improvement. Well done, Jeffy." Mr. O'Neill passed by Finn and his buddies, handing back a few pages. They didn't appear to be in any order, and Mr. O'Neill was often consulting his seating chart to find out where everyone sat. Finn nearly fell asleep as the process took nearly ten minutes.

"So, guys, I'm thinking after the game on Friday, we hit the arcade than the batting cages." Jeffy offered.

"I'm liking it." Joey replied.

"Why not?" Finn agreed. Ever since the death of Tommy Sherman, the guys had been spending more time together doing things. They got over the gloominess of the tragedy quickly. People weren't condemning him as the jerk he was, but at least they weren't mindlessly praising him, and that was good enough for Finn.

"Finn, did you have something you wanted to ask?" Mr. O'Neill perked up. Finn cursed silently. Talking to someone else was the only way to make Mr. O'Neill's class bearable, that or sleep, as long as Mr. O'Neill wasn't the focus of Mr. O'Neill's class.

"Errr..." Finn thought quickly. "I didn't get my essay back." He blurted out the first English class-related topic that popped into his head. True enough, Mr. O'Neill had not yet handed back Finn's essay.

Finn didn't even know why the man bothered. The only person Finn knew who was remotely close to failing Language Arts was Kevin. And that was because Kevin was completely and irrevocably stupid. Everyone else passed, and passing was all that mattered to everyone that mattered: Coach Gibson, Aunt Rita, Dad, his buddies. Only Helen Morgendorffer talked about grades as letters. And Finn's grades would never be enough. C's were not B's, B's were not A's, and A's weren't with extra credit.

"I can see why Mom doesn't like Mr. O'Neill that much. They're both so alike. They're both completely pointless with grades." Finn thought.

"Oh, of course, Finn. I didn't give you your essay back." Mr. O'Neill replied. Finn sighed. Was this going to be another "stay-after-class" lecture, where Mr. O'Neill told him he needed to do better in class? It was nothing a little talk with Coach Gibson about his English grade couldn't fix.

Finn had no trouble asking Mr. DeMartino for extra credit when he needed it on a history assignment, but Finn was not about to give Mr. O'Neill that sort of respect. He was just too pathetic, with his whiny sappiness, and his talk of feelings, but, in truth, he didn't care about anyone, or if he did, he didn't care enough to help people with their problems. Mr. O'Neill still messed up his friends' names most of the time, and often called Jamie other names when he didn't have his seating chart handy.

"Can I have it back?" Finn rolled his eyes.

"In a minute. Class, I have an exciting announcement to make!" Mr. O'Neill clasped his hands in an enthusiastic delight. His eyes sparkled with glee, and Finn wondered if perhaps the man had perhaps had one too many hippie drugs.

"When I assigned you that essay on the styles of writing poetry, I knew I'd get work that reflected the teen within. Whether it be the happy-go-lucky cheerleader or the quiet, sensitive person. But never was I so impressed by the essay that Finn Morgendorffer wrote for us!"

"Excuse me?" Finn cocked an eyebrow.

"I'm going to share his absolutely fantastic essay with the rest of the class!" Mr. O'Neill cleared his throat and started to read the last remaining essay.

"To assign one to write a poem? Blasphemy!" Mr. O'Neill excitedly read the final lines of them poem. "How dare you rein in the power of creation, or put a fence around an idea. To create a poem is to give life without the squishy parts, but even then, any animal can squeeze out offspring. To birth a poem is to flirt with the immortal hand of the divine." Mr. O'Neill finished reading.

"Just. Incredible. Truly fantastic. I almost feel foolish for assigning poetry writing." Mr. O'Neill looked at Finn with reverence.

Were Finn in his normal state of mind, he probably would have encouraged O'Neill to do so. After all, less assignments to do were less assignments to do. Instead, Finn just started feeling sicker and sicker to his stomach as Mr. O'Neill read his essay to the entire class.

"Does anyone have anything to share regarding Finn's marvelous essay?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

"I gotta go hurl." Finn moaned. Without even being asked, he excused himself from the class.

Finn spent an extra long time in the bathroom. His stomach cramps stopped shortly after leaving Mr. O'Neill's class. After washing his face, he returned to the class with just enough time to snatch his essay from the teacher and pack his bags before leaving class.

Finn wanted to move quickly through the halls so that he wouldn't be talking to anyone. But before he could get very far, his buddies called out to him.

"Yo, Finn!" Joey called. Finn wasn't about to pretend he couldn't hear his friends.

"Yeah?"

"What was with that essay, dude?" Jamie asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, that was pretty lame, wasn't it?" Finn tried to deflect it. Too be a brain and to be a football player at Lawndale were mutually exclusive, which didn't bother Finn in the slightest.

"That was...pretty cool!" Jeffy stated.

"No, it wasn't, it was just a lame assignment." Finn countered harshly, the first time he had ever taken his petulant tone with his friends.

"Huh?" Jeffy seemed surprised at Finn's reactions.

"Just forget about it. Mr. O'Neill was just being sickeningly nice, like always. We've got more important things to do than that." In their group of four, Finn would never be thought of as the crude one. Although none of the four were refined gentlemen, Finn was, by far, the most impeccable of them. But now, with the angry thrust of his shoulders as he walked, and the angry glare in his eyes, one wondered if there was a beast dressed in the latest fashion trends walking down the halls of Lawndale.

Home was no haven from this grade for Finn. He had absolutely no desire to tell anyone of how he had performed today, but apparently, Mr. O'Neill had called his mother, probably giving her the same sappy speech Finn skipped out on in school.

"I knew you could do it, Finn." Helen was surprisingly complimentary about the assignment as the family ate dinner. She didn't tell him to do better like she normally did, but, at least as far as grading went, there wasn't anything to improve upon.

"Where is this essay, sport?" Jake asked.

"I left it in my locker." Finn lied.

"Oh, and I was hoping to read it." Helen noted. "Well, I'm sure you can bring it tomorrow."

"Daria, don't you have anything to say to your brother?" Helen asked.

"How much did it cost?" Daria asked.

"Daria!" Helen replied.

"Fifteen, but I threw in an order of fries since they finished it in two days." Finn, much to Daria's surprise, joined in on her joke.

"Finn, you aren't serious!" Helen was aghast.

"No, Mom, I didn't cheat." Finn replied, almost grudgingly.

"So he says." Daria replied. "You know where the hidden cameras are, Mom."

"Daria, we should be encouraging this." Helen replied. "Finn, it should be clear to you know that you are capable of getting incredible marks, and you didn't even miss a practice. Don't you see, Finn, you can do both. They're not exclusive to each other."

"Sure." Finn was annoyed more than ever. "Whatev. Everyone's making such a big freaking deal over a stupid essay."

"Finn, you should take pride in these accomplishments. After all, what's the difference between getting an A and intercepting a pass to run a touchdown?" Helen asked. "They're both incredible achievements."

Finn stood up from the table.

"There's a huge difference!" Finn growled as he went upstairs to his room. The family ate their dinner in quiet, everyone present thinking about Finn's extremely odd behavior. Jake wondered if his son was just being modest, as he tended to be. Helen was confused as to Finn's abjectly hostile reaction to getting a good grade. Even Daria found herself perplexed by what had happened today. How, exactly, did Finn manage to succeed at writing an essay?

After dinner ended, Daria retreated to her room, but it wasn't long before there was a knock at the door and in stepped Finn.

"Come to revel in your victory?" Daria replied, not in a sense of cruelty but in a sense of coldness. However Finn managed to get this good grade, it probably wasn't due to his own merits. She had read Finn's work before, and, while it wasn't as bad as, for example, Kevin Thompson's, it was not high quality by any stretch of the imagination.

"Daria...about this whole essay thing. You don't think I'm a brain or anything, do you?" Finn asked. He fidgeted with nervousness.

"Of course not." Daria replied apathetically. "The key word there is brain." Daria returned to her book.

"Good." Finn smiled, and Daria now found herself looking at him strangely. Did he just let her get away with insulting him? True, Finn cared less if Daria insulted his academic prowess than if she insulted something he cared about, like his boxing skills, but Finn never let Daria one-up him if he could help it. Dumb as Finn was, he would have been able to counter an insult like that.

"I mean, come on. This whole thing just got way out of hand. Seriously, what the hell is up with O'Neill anyway."

"He's off his meds." Daria's voice was still apathetic.

"He's like, an affront to education, giving an A to someone who didn't earn it."

"Preach on, Father Finn." Daria teased him, still enjoying the idea of freely insulting her brother.

"Here, Daria, read it for yourself." Finn handed her a piece of paper, which, presumably, was the offending essay. Sure enough, there was a large smiley face and an "A" in Mr. O'Neill's handwriting written in red pen on the top.

"Go ahead, tell me it's the stupidest thing you've ever read." Finn offered. "Tell me O'Neill was high as a kite when he did his grading." Daria laughed as she put down her book. The life of Lenin could wait while there were living people to insult.

Daria slowly read the essay. It was only one page long, so reading it thoroughly still took five minutes.

"Pathetic, isn't it?" Finn asked. But Daria didn't answer him. She sat on her bed, staring at him motionless, as if time had stopped.

The silence was broken with a doorbell.

"Daria, Jane's here!" Helen called from downstairs, and Daria could hear her friend's footsteps ascending the stairs. The door opened, and both Morgendorffer siblings regarded the intruder.

"Yo." Jane smiled. Finn took his cue and left the room.

"Hey." Daria replied once Jane had shut the door.

"What was that all about? Were you and your brother making eye babies?" Jane teased. Daria shot her a glare.

"Yikes." Jane replied half-heartedly. "There a problem?"

"Other than that essay everyone talks about Finn writing?" Daria asked.

"Oh yeah, I think I did here something like that. So, who did he steal it from?"

"I don't think he stole it. I read it, and it does sound like something he'd write." Daria replied,

"Okay, so who did he paraphrase?" Jane returned.

"Finn was in here because he wanted me to read the essay and tell him what I thought. I didn't tell him yet, then you got here." Daria conveniently left out the silence between the two siblings, which lasted long enough for Daria to give an honest opinion.

"And what might that honest opinion be? Don't quit your day job? What is his day job anyway?" Jane teased with a chuckle, but she stopped when she realized she was the only one chuckling.

"What's the problem?" Jane asked.

"It...it was good. It was really good."

"He actually wrote a good essay?" Jane asked. Daria did not reply to her. Eagerly, Jane snatched it out of her hands. She pored it over silently.

"Well, with my last grade on my English essay, I don't feel qualified to talk about good and bad." Jane replied. "But I could understand what he wrote."

"Of course you can. He follows the journalistic code and writes like an 8th grader." Daria returned.

"Daria, why does this bother you so much, that Finn got a good grade. I mean, he won't have grades like you unless he does that all the time, and even then there's that whole cumulative crap." Jane laughed light-heartedly.

Daria didn't say anything for an extended moment.

"Well, at least Finn will get to experience life as a brain. He hates the idea of that so much, I couldn't make things more awkward for him if I tried." Daria tried to crack a smile. She did enjoy it when her brother felt awkward. If Finn had cheated on this essay, Daria would have condemned him. If Mr. O'Neill took it easy on him, Daria wouldn't have cared. But this was something else.

"You get to be a brain now, Finn." Daria thought. "What do I get to be?"

Finn tried to avoid everyone's gaze on him as he walked down the hall. If he had won the big game against Oakwood, he would have been happy for the attention, but now, he knew what people were discussing. Word got around in Lawndale quickly, and everyone knew he had written an outstanding essay.

"Yo, Finn!" Joey's voice called while Finn was putting books away in his locker.

"What is it, guys!" Finn asked pleasantly.

"You're famous!" Joey eagerly said.

"If this is about my date last Tuesday, it was far too unbearable. Sneaking out the bathroom window was the only alternative!" Finn stated. All of the guys looked at him strangely.

"Oh. Crap. What am I famous for?"

"Your essay, dude! It's in the Lawndale Lowdown, in the Smart Thoughts column." Jamie cheered.

"You've got to be kidding!" Finn was aghast. "The school paper?"

"Isn't that awesome, dude?" Jeffy stated.

"No it's not awesome!" Finn replied just as angrily as he did in the previous day.

"Dude, what's your damage?" Joey crossed his arms across his chest.

"You don't need to be so humble. That essay was better than I did." Jeffy replied.

"That's not the point!" Finn growled.

"Look dude, we don't think you're like, a geek or anything. You still show up to practice and you play like a bad-ass. It's like Mad Mack." Jamie encouraged. But Finn wasn't even listening to them.

"No, no. No, no, no!" Finn repeated, banging his fists against the lockers. "I'm not like that, I'm not!" Finn ranted out loud, not caring who heard him. His friends looked in concern.

"It's not me, it's not me!" Finn's voice drew softer, as if he didn't want anyone to hear him.

"I'm not like that, daddy. Don't leave, I won't be like that." Finn ran off before anyone could hear him.

Jeffy stood in the hall puzzling Finn's strange reaction. No one was insulting him or telling him off, in fact, he and his buddies were actually quite happy to see that. Finn was an amazing guy, and he made things look so effortless. Seeing Finn get a good grade didn't make him a geek, it made him inspiring. It made class seem a bit easier.

"So what was that?" Jeffy wondered.

"What the hell?" Joey wondered.

"That was just like yesterday." Jamie agreed. "Is he okay or something?"

"I doubt it. We should beat some sense into him later for acting like such a jerk." Joey replied. Jeffy laughed.

"Hey, did you guys hear what he said?" Jeffy asked.

"He said no a bunch of times." Jamie answered.

"After that."

"It's not me?"

"The quiet part." Jeffy returned.

"I heard I won't be like that." Joey stated. "That's an unusual thing to say."

"Yeah, I did hear something else." Jamie returned. Jeffy looked at Jamie, and he knew that his buddy had heard the same thing.

"He said daddy, didn't he?" Jeffy hushed his voice so he wouldn't let something like that spread.

"We've met Mister Morgendorffer before." Joey answered. "He's a pretty cool guy. And he doesn't call his father daddy."

"But that was weird." Jamie acknowledged. "Maybe we should stop by Finn's after school and get to the bottom of this."

After school was over, Daria sought refuge at Jane's house. The entire day had been very strange for her. School didn't even seem the same after she read Finn's essay. Although Daria despised school and all it's cliques and gossip and all that other crap, she was still there, and she was the school brain. It was better to be the brain than the misery chick, but she was still looked at like she was some sort of rabid monster. But that identity was coming under siege by her own brother. Although Finn would certainly attempt to destroy an attempt she had at a social life, as he had done in the past, this was supposed to be something he couldn't, and wouldn't, touch. He was nowhere close to being smart.

But that was no longer the case now. He had proven to Daria that he was capable of doing the one thing she had over him.

"Something wrong?" Jane asked while she painted at her easel.

"How could that happen?" Daria wondered out loud.

"I looked at the easel and thought it needed to showcase the inherent insanity of the soul. And that's why I had burritos for lunch." Jane replied.

"I meant with Finn." Daria replied with a sigh. "How could he do that?"

"He wrote." Jane replied bluntly. "Seriously, Daria, it's just a fad. The game will come up and Finn will get bored with it, he'll revert back to brainless lunk and you'll be back to being the brainy misfit."

"But he doesn't do that. Ever. He's deadset against doing anything good in school."

"Why does it bother you that Finn did well on an essay?"

"If he's a brain, what does that make me?" Daria asked.

"A brain. It's not like one person holds the position." Jane bluntness was actually soothing Daria.

"But he's a brain with perfect hair, athletic skill, and goes on at least four dates a week." Daria stated.

"And he's got a killer body." Jane replied.

"What!" Daria rose her eyebrows.

"I'm not going to date him. It's just, well, I saw him walking back to his room after he got a shower, and well, it was art appreciation. Wait, can I change that to entrapment?"

"You're not helping. So now the big man on campus has brawn, brains, and beauty. How the hell am I supposed to compete with that?"

"You want to be the big man on campus?"

"No, but...I want to have something he doesn't have. He always takes things from me."

"You have plenty of things he doesn't have. You have an infinitely cooler room."

"You've been in Finn's room?"

"I walked down the hall after he got that shower. I peeked inside." Jane blushed. Daria glared at her.

"He left the door somewhat open. It would have been rude not to look. And I didn't see anything so don't worry about it."

"I hate you sometimes."

When Helen got home from work, she heard Finn upstairs in his room working out. After putting her briefcase away, she started to get dinner ready.

She wondered if she should have gone up to encourage Finn again about his essay. Just like when a two-year-old used the potty, encouragement was supposed to make him believe that it was the right thing to do.

"And if it wasn't for your little freak-out, maybe I wouldn't be so worried." Helen wondered. Finn had never done that well in school, pretty much as long as Helen could remember. He put forth only the basest amount of effort into his studies, and only tried hard when he was about to get on academic probation.

She knew that neither Jake nor Rita encouraged him to do better in his studies: the former was scared of any sort of chastisement, and the latter didn't do well in school herself. With Finn convinced that his mother didn't care for him, he would never listen to her, and Daria would never encourage her brother.

"There has to be someone else, though." Helen wondered. Didn't the school encourage everyone to do their best? She had only met a few of Finn's teachers, and she wasn't too impressed. Timothy O'Neill was just so creepy, and even thinking about Janet Barch made Helen angry.

"Or is it his fellow students?" Helen wondered. Kids were so fickle, but kids listened to other kids, and it was doubtful that any of them would do so. Helen knew how kids worked: they thought the sports teams and popularity were all you needed.

They were fools, but they were kids. What else to expect?

Before Helen could get dinner started, she heard the doorbell ring. She answered it to find several teenaged boys standing in the doorway. Helen recognized them; they were friends of Finn's, all remembers of the varsity football team like he was.

"Hello, boys. Are you looking for Finn?" Helen asked.

"Err...yeah!" The redheaded boy answered, almost nervously.

"Well, come on in." Helen invited, and the boys took a seat on the couch. Helen started to move upstairs, but then realized this was a golden opportunity to dig deeper into Finn's essay. After all, he refused to talk to her about it, and refused to give her the essay to read herself.

"Boys, would you like a soda, or some coffee? I just put a pot on."

"Sure!" The blonde boy replied eagerly.

"Jamie!" The black-haired one noted.

"Come on into the kitchen." Helen led the boys to the kitchen, where they sat at the table.

After the boys had refreshment, Helen took a cup of coffee for herself and sat at the table.

"I understand that you boys have been close to Finn since he moved here. That's so wonderful you're such good friends."

"Ummm...yeah!' The redhead, Jeffy, he had introduced himself, stated.

"We've also talked with Mister Morgendorffer, when he's over here. He's funny." Jamie noted.

"Well, that's Jake for you." Helen dismissed playfully.

"Is he here, we wanted to say hi!" Joey, the dark haired boy, asked.

"No, unfortunately, he's with a new client. He's a marketing consultant."

"Oh."

"You know boys, I've been meaning to ask. Finn wrote a fantastic essay a little while ago, didn't he?"

"Yeah. It was in the school paper and everything!" Jeffy replied. Helen's eyes widened in amazement.

"Do you have a copy of it? Finn's keeps forgetting to give me one." Helen answered. Joey reached into his jeans and pulled out a folded page. Helen put it aside to read later.

"I'm surprised you kept it." Helen replied. "You liked it?"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool!" Joey replied. "It was, like really good. Better than me, that's for sure."

"Well, that's good to know that." Helen noted. Working so closely with lying clients gave Helen a sixth sense on detecting fibbers, and these boys were too genuine. Each of the boys affirmed that they liked the essay and were impressed with Finn for writing it, and Helen believed them.

"So it's not his friends. I guess maybe it's his teachers?" Helen thought.

"Hey, what's going on down here?" Finn's voice sounded from the living room.

"Hey, Finn, we're in here!" Jeffy called.

"Oh, Finn, there you are. Your friends came here to see you. I got them some coffee." Helen stood up.

"Yeah, thanks Mom." Finn replied tersely.

"We just stopped by to say hey, and tell you to meet at Pizza Palace at 12:30 on Saturday." Jamie quickly fibbed.

"You couldn't tell me tomorrow."

"Didn't know if you'd be free." Joey quickly compounded. Finn accepted that.

"We should get going." Jeffy replied.

After the guys exited the house, it wasn't long before they started to discuss what had happened.

"I wish we could have seen his dad." Joey noted. "He did say that."

"But Finn's dad is so nice. He's a little weird, but he's not a bad guy. I don't think his dad would do something like that. Did you see Finn and his mom?" Jeffy asked.

"Cold front moved in." Jamie nodded his head.

"I've never seen him that frosty before." Joey noted.

"Maybe we misheard him?" Jamie thought.

"Maybe. But I don't think so. That was kinda awkward."

"Well, none of our business." Joey noted. "I mean, some people don't get along with their family."

"Yeah." Jeffy looked down at his shoes. Jamie averted his gaze. Joey sighed. So Finn was human after all.

Three days later, Finn had to turn in a short essay in Mr. O'Neill's class. The day after that, Mr. O'Neill returned the grades. When Finn got his paper back, Mr. O'Nell put it face-down, the universal sign in the English teachers class that someone did not do well. Finn turned it over and breathed a sigh of relief. On the page was a large 72 in red pen.

"Phew. I did it." Finn was actually smiling as he saw the grade, it was exactly what he wanted. He turned around to his buddies, who all got slightly better grades. He did not show off his paper, but the other guys could see them from his desk. None of the three guys seemed happy with Finn. In fact, they almost looked disappointed. Finn had no idea why. They didn't like brains, and they jeered Daria and all the other geeks just as much as Finn did.

But then, his gaze turned towards Stacy, who also looked disappointed when she noticed the test score too. She had encouraged Finn, just like the guys did. She told him she liked the essay, just like the guys did.

But it was Stacy's soft, sad eyes that made Finn feel like he really let someone down. And then he realized that he let his buddies down too. Just like when he got a good grade in O'Neill's, he felt like he was going to hurl.

Daria heard the gossip about Finn's low essay grade sometime between 6th and 7th period.

"So, everything is back to normal." Jane noted. "Finn's stupid, you're smart, and all is right with the world." Jane smiled as the two walked towards Ms. Defoe's class.

"I couldn't be happier." Daria lied. It was true that her identity crisis was over. Finn wasn't about to encroach on her territory of being a brain, and it was through his own deliberate action. Finn wouldn't try something like that again anytime soon.

But this didn't relieve Daria. Instead she actually felt sick. Not with Finn, but with herself. It was through his own deliberate action that he got such poor test scores. Whether it was just apathy towards grades, or if he consciously made his work look bad, Daria couldn't tell. But she knew that Finn was still a brain, he just didn't want to succeed at school.

It may have been due to Finn's horrible relationship with his mother, who always pushed him to do well in school. He would do poorly just to spite her.

"You're not the only brain in the family. Whether or not he does good in school, he's still a brain." Daria never went to her brother's boxing matches willingly, but she had been forced to go on occasion. Looking back on them now, she realized Finn was incredibly tactical as a fighter, and used his opponent's strengths against him. He didn't win in boxing because of his fists; he won because of his brain.

"Where does that leave me." Daria wondered. Ever since they were young, Daria and Finn had always taken things from each other. The favorite flavor of popsicle, the last cherry soda, even money. But now Finn took the only thing Daria wanted, to be smarter then him. Even though he didn't seem to want it, now it was his.

Her identity crisis of being the smart girl at Lawndale was over. But she could no longer call herself the brain. And being the brain was the only thing Daria had over Finn.

"Is that me? Do I just define myself by who Finn is not? Who are you, Daria?"