The next day, I got a ride from my dad and went to school. First block was art, which I shared with Finny. We were going to finish our wax fruit paintings, which would be about as much fun as any other class I was taking. Finny had decided at the very beginning to skip the wax fruit and paint his hand instead. Of course, he hadn't decided to tell Ms. Stephen about it either.

I waited around at the table I usually shared with Finny, setting up my paints and brushes. The first bell rang, and no sign of him, which was pretty normal. He had probably left in plenty of time, but had found something more exciting and fun, like a fast food breakfast place.

Soon, I was finished with my painting, and still no Finny. I began to wonder if he had forgotten the way to school. I made up my mind to call him if he wasn't there by third block, Spanish class.

Second block was Pre-calculus. My best subject. I've always been a whiz at math, whereas, Phineas had decided to take Algebra II Review instead.

After a few challenging problems and a returned test with a perfect score, Pre-cal was over. I was on to third block.

No Finny. Halfway into the class, I begged the teacher to let me leave. She requested that I repeat my appeal "En español."

I mentally groaned. "¿El….uso el cuarto de baño?" I pleaded.

"Sí, pero vuelve rápidamente," she replied, nodding.

"Gracias."

I fled into the bathroom, hoping that no teachers were in there. I fiddled around in my pocket for my cell phone and dialed Finny's number.

One ring...two rings...three...four..five...six...

"Hello, you have reached Finny's house of looooooooove. I'm just here recording this...well, I mean, I'm not exactly HERE recording this while you're listening. Now that you're listening to it while I...or, you're not exactly listening right now, but you are...I'm so confused!" BEEEP.

I sighed and turned off my cell phone. Finny always left his phone in his car. He also left his car unlocked, and left all of his stuff in it. He once said, "There's nothing in my car that I can't live without." He rarely even used his cell phone. He had an old phone still attached to its cord that used to be in his room but stopped working. He liked to put up to his ear and pretended to talk into while he was driving.

Anyway, Finny was either not answering his phone, or not in his car.

I trudged back to Spanish class.

Upon reentering, Mrs. Cortez questioned, "¿Aprendió usted algo mientras usted estaba en el cuarto de baño?"

I responded, "No se."

The rest of the day (history class) dragged on very slowly. Another boring lecture that I had learned two years before. I hoped that Finny hadn't decided to make himself scarce because he didn't want to study.

Finally, after a long, torturous fourth block, the final bell of the day rang. I sighed in relief, as I gathered my books.

I raced down the steps and to my locker. If I were going to get to Finny's, I would need to find a ride somehow. Maybe Ollie would give me one. He lived relatively close to Finny.

I caught him just as he was leaving his locker. "Ollie!" I exclaimed. "Wait up!"

He turned around and smiled a friendly smile at me. "Hi Gene, old pal! What have you been up to?" he asked, cheerfully.

I groaned inwardly. Ollie had a tendency to be very…..clingy.

"So..." he said, cautiously, looking around the hallway. "Is Finny...um...here?"

Ollie was also very jealous of Finny. "No. I need a ride, you see," I told him. "A ride to...Finny's."

Ollie's excitement suddenly died and was buried right there in the hall. He then shrugged. "Oh-kay. I guess I could give you a ride," he muttered. There was something in his eyes that made me shiver.

Ollie's car was nice. Not as nice as Finny's, of course, but it wasn't all that bad either. It was dark green with chrome around the edges. The seats were leather, and it had a great stereo. Finny's car was still better, though.

I began to wonder, as Ollie chattered endlessly though the sea of school traffic, if Finny, for the first time since I had known him, was sick. I had thought him to be invulnerable to all sickness and disease. Perhaps I had been wrong...

Finally, Ollie and I arrived at Finny's house. As could be expected, Finny had the biggest and nicest house for miles around.

I thanked Ollie and hopped out of the car. I heard him grumbling about something, as he drove away.

I ignored it.

Finny's car was in the garage.

I entered the code on the security lock, and the door to the house was opened.

I bid hello to Finny's mother in the kitchen, as I made my way to the stairs. Finny's mother was sort of...crazy. She always let Finny get away with anything, and she let him have his way all the time, which is probably why he ended up so free-spirited.

"Hello, Gene!" she exclaimed. I was almost free...almost to the stairs….She hugged me. And I thought I was going to be squeezed to death. "Oh, it's been SO long since I've seen you! How is your dear mother?"

"She's fine," I squeaked out.

"Well, that's wonderful!" she wailed, happily. "Finny-kins is upstairs in his bedroom." And, with that, she released me.

I pulled my collar back into position. "Oh-kay. Um..thanks."

I nearly jumped over the first few steps in my hurry to get away from her. I slowed down as I rounded the corner of the hallway that led to Finny's room.

I knocked on his door, which was covered in stickers.

"It's open!" he called from inside.

Spanish books in hand, I creaked open the door. Finny had a huge room. In fact, compared to mine, it was like an entire planet in there. Mine was a lot neater and tidier than his, as he didn't fancy cleaning, but his was definitely bigger. His house was a lot bigger than mine, too.

Nothing could have ever prepared me for what I was about to see.

"Hiya, Genie!" Finny waved to me. His hair...it was blue.

"What...did you do?" I asked, solemnly.

"Remember how I said I was gonna bleach it?" he wondered.

I facefaulted. "And it turned blue?"

He shrugged. "Yeah. Weird, huh?"

I sat down on an unoccupied chair. "Your mom wouldn't let you come to school?" I questioned.

He laughed. "My mom doesn't know I dyed my hair blue...or that I stayed home all day."

I rolled my eyes. "You are crazy. Now, you and your blue head get ready-"

"For snacks?" he cried.

"No," I said, wrinkling my nose. "For the most intense night of studying you've ever lived through!"

"No!" he wailed, falling over.

"Now, translate this sentence into English," I prodded. "Hablé con mi maestro en la fiesta de Nancy."

"I don't know," he whined.

I threw the book toward him. It landed on the floor with a thud. "Then, get to studying."

Finny moaned and held his stomach. "Quick! Get a bucket! I'm gonna blow chunks!"

I turned my back to him and turned on his computer. His brand-new computer. "I can't hear you. Maybe when you grow a brain, I'll understand your language."

I heard a loud thud behind me and was forced to look. Finny had purposefully toppled onto the floor.

"Well, that's it," he said, sadly. "You said it was impossible, but I've proven that it's completely possible to be killed by too much studying."

"You didn't study for a minute!" I argued.

"I took a peek at one of the pages, and it killed me," he said, as his legs dangled over his face, in his awkward position.

"Well, you know what I always say," I turned around, "the best battles are the ones fought about learning. Good luck."

I heard Finny sigh behind me and flip over. I clicked on a website called Knowledgia.

I discreetly heard the sound of pages flipping. Finny had probably given up, discovering that I wasn't giving in for once.

I was wrong.

In a matter of moments, I heard the buzz of Phineas' surround sound. Before I realized what was going to happen, a huge blast of music zipped through the room. It wasn't even music that kids our age listened to. It was Scottish or something.

"Finny!" I wailed. "Turn that down! I'm working here! You need to study!"

"I can't hear you," he teased. "My hearing has been blocked out by bagpipes!"

I groaned and felt like pelting him...or pelting myself.

Finny never studied once that entire night.

Soon, it was time for us to go to sleep. Since Finny had a huge bed, we shared it. He climbed in first, assuming the position beside the window, and I hopped in next to him. We always slept this same way. I would be close to the floor, so he could kick me onto it. Finny was a very heavy sleeper. He was also a very wild sleeper. I seldom slept in the same bed as he did, for fear of being maimed.

I was prepared for a (somewhat) good night's rest when Finny said, "Don't forget to say your prayers, Gene! I'll be quiet until you're done."

I waited a moment, not praying, but trying to act like I was. "I'm done," I said, after awhile.

"So, tell me," he whispered, "what did I miss today?"

"Not much," I replied, shortly. "I finished my art project, made an A+ on a Calculus exam-"

"PRE-Calculus," he corrected me.

"Yeah, yeah," I sniped. "I asked if I could visit the restroom in Spanish, called you, and you didn't answer, and nearly died during another boring history exam."

"I got a job," Finny said, quietly.

"What?" I demanded, having lost track of what we were supposed to be talking about.

"Remember that application for the clothing store that I wrote crap on?"

"Yeah."

"Well…..they accepted it."

"You're kidding!" I cried, unbelievingly. "They'll get mad when they find out you were lying!"

"It wasn't lying, exactly," he giggled, "it was more like half-truthing."

I rolled my eyes. "Go to sleep, Finny. We have to get up early tomorrow and get to school so you can finish your art project. If you stay up any later, you won't wanna get up."

"Good night, Mom," Finny said, sarcastically, as if I were nagging him.

"Good night, Finny-kins!" his mother exclaimed from the hallway.

I chuckled.

Finny facefaulted. "G'night Momma."

I slept fair enough. At least I wasn't pushed onto the floor.

I was awakened by sharp claws digging into the flesh on my face. "Ouch!" I cried, sitting up.

Finny fell backwards, laughing, as his cat, Mr. Finnymins, ran into the hallway.

"That was uncalled for!" I exclaimed.

Finny stopped laughing and said, "Well, I didn't want you to sleep all day!"

This brought me to my attention. I gazed at the window. It was bright and sunny, not like it should have been for that time of morning.

"Finny," I said, as calmly as possible, "what time is it?"

He looked at his watch. My blue-haired best friend was fully-dressed. "It's 10:00!" he shouted, cheerfully.

"WHAT!" I yelled, nearly knocking him off the bed. "WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP EARLIER?"

"Well, I thought you might like to sleep?" he suggested.

I slapped a hand across my face. "When did YOU wake up?" I demanded.

He seemed to be thinking. "Oh, about 5:30, I guess." He shrugged.

"What have you been DOING for four and a half hours?" I queried.

He pointed behind him. I looked and saw a ten-foot tall tower of cards, all perfectly angled, shaped like a huge castle.

I sighed and walked slowly into the bathroom. Once inside, I turned the water on cold, and put my head under the faucet. I heard Finny walk in and suppress a snicker.

"You are going to be the end of my scholarly career," I said, coldly.

"Or the beginning of it!" he argued, cheerfully.

In the end, I convinced him to take us to school. Once I told him that he had yet to show off his blue hair, he grabbed his keys and his books.

Most likely on purpose, he drove extremely slowly on the way to school. We would surely miss second block at the rate we were going.

"Hey! Look!" Finny exclaimed, pointing to the left. "They're giving out free pizza!"

I looked at the building. The sign said, "$1.29 slice."

"No, they aren't," I began to say, when he suddenly crossed over three lanes of traffic and into a pizza parlor parking place.

Phineas began to get out of the car.

"Finny," I interjected, flatly. "Can't we just go through the drive-thru? Please?"

"But, what about the atmosphere?" he demanded. "There's no atmosphere in a drive-thru!"

I sat, unbelievingly in a booth, as Finny waited at the counter for his pizza. I felt a gurgling sensation in my stomach, when I saw just what kind of atmosphere this was. Stains that looked suspiciously like blood splattered on the walls; week-old pizza crust practically glued to the table; floors that looked like that hadn't been swept or mopped, ever.

Finny surprised me when he suddenly sat down, flopping an entire pizza on the table.

"I'm really not hungry, you know," I mentioned.

"Oh, I know," he replied. "If you were, I'd have another pizza."

I groaned. "Finny, if you eat all of that, you're gonna get sleepy, and we'll never get to school!"

"Ah, you don't know what you're talking about," he scoffed, pouring an entire canister of Parmesan onto the pizza. "I would never be that irresponsible."