Ollie took me to my house and parked in the driveway. He proceeded to turn the car off. I stared at him, feeling uneasy. He had been uncharacteristically quiet for the entire trip. Thinking, I supposed.

"I don't see why you want to hang out with Finny, anyway," he said, tranquilly, not looking at me.

"Why not?" I questioned, defensively.

"Because he's only gonna get you into trouble!" Ollie yelled rashly. "He's only hanging around with you because you're really smart! He's trying to keep you from your studies so he'll be better than you!"

Everything stopped at that statement. I felt like I was standing on a cliff. All the occurrences in the past month where

I had goofed off with Finny instead of studying came back to me. Could Finny really be pulling me down on purpose? Was he trying to sabotage my chances for Valedictorian? Was he helping Brinker by distracting me?

"Whatever," I said, coldly to Ollie. "I'm leaving." I got out of the car and slammed the door shut behind me. I ran up to my front porch, away from Ollie, and what he had been saying. Once I was safely inside, I heard Ollie start his car and drive away.

My breathing sounded heavy. I tried to shake off the suspicion I felt.

I threw my things in my bedroom and looked in the kitchen for my mother. She was chopping carrots, and boiling something in a boiler.

"Hey, Mom," I greeted her.

She turned around. "Hey, Gene," she replied. "Where's Finny?"

"Track practice."

"You should call and invite him to dinner," she suggested.

"What for?" I grumbled.

She gave me a strange look. "Last I checked you two were still best friends. Did you have a spat at school today?"

"No," I answered, annoyed at the subject. "Ollie drove me home."

"Oh," she said, knowingly. "He's been trying to move in between you and Finny again, eh?" She sat down next to me at the dining room table, abandoning her cooking.

I shrugged, not wanting to talk about the subject.

"Ollie is jealous of your friendship," she explained. "He wants to be your only friend. That's why he's trying to make you and Finny have a fight."

I stood up and walked back to my room. "I need to think about this on my own."

I realized sometime later that Finny was indeed trying to interfere with my schoolwork. He was jealous, and always had been. He was better than me at sports and wanted to be better in everything else as well. I wasn't going to give in to him though. I wouldn't let him distract me.

I couldn't let my mom know that I was upset, though. I made my way back to the kitchen.

"Let's invite him to dinner," I said, as if it was my idea.

My mother smiled brightly at me. "I knew you'd come to your senses," she said, handing me the portable phone.

Finny arrived at around 7:00 p.m. I greeted him with normalcy, acting as if I suspected nothing.

"How was track practice?" I asked him.

"It was invigorating!" he exclaimed. "You know Andrew Smith?"

I nodded.

"Well, he was running and all of a sudden he tripped and fell!" He laughed. "He sat there on the ground going, 'Aye, my ankle came out from under me!' It was pretty funny."

"You like it when people fall, don't you?" I muttered.

"What?" he inquired.

I looked shockingly at him. I hadn't wanted him to hear me say that. "Nothing," I lied.

"Anyway, he was fine," Finny carried on. "He sprained his ankle, but he said he'd be running again in a week."

"Well, that's good," I said, half-heartedly.

Phineas walked into the kitchen. "Hi, Mrs. Forrester," he said, in a friendly tone.

"Hello, Finny, how have you been?" she greeted him without turning around. She had busied herself, draining a big bowl of pasta.

"Very well," he replied, grabbing some plates out of a cabinet and setting them on the table. He really enjoyed buttering up older people. "And how have you been?"

"Pretty bored," she answered him with a sigh. "Office work is very tiring and so boring."

Finny set the silverware on the table and sat down.

My mom set her pasta on the table. "Oh, thank-you Fin-what have you done to your hair?" she asked suddenly.

"Well," he began, "it's a long story, actually-"

And so began the most painful dinner of my life. I couldn't stop thinking about how, even though he was perfectly at ease and chatting with my mom, Finny was betraying me.

At last, Finny left and went home. I rushed into my room and plopped down on my bed. I noticed my forsaken schoolbooks abandoned on the floor. Now was a perfect time to start studying to catch up with all that Finny had made me miss.