A few people were still staring and whispering, but he had gotten us into class, subliminally unscathed, and we were home free.

He shot me a grin, unnoticed by everyone but me. He then proceeded to begin setting up his paint supply. We would be starting a new project.

We were instructed by Ms. Stephens to draw anything of our choice. I already had a plan to draw some lorikeets from the zoo. They had once attacked Finny on our class field trip there. He had bought some seed to give to them, since they were the only animals we were allowed to feed. Because he was playing around with Brinker, he spilled the seed down his shirt. This caused about fifty of the little birds to swarm over him and start pecking him. Finny has started screaming and running around while we all watched and laughed. Finally, Mr. Cashaak, our geometry teacher at the time, had had to call the zoo security guards to throw some seed in another direction to get the lorikeets to leave Finny alone. Finny almost never got all of the feathers and birdseed off of his shirt.

Anyway, I planned to draw one of the beautiful little birds.

I looked over at Finny. "What are you gonna draw?" I wondered.

He gave me a sinister look. "I'm gonna draw the lunch lady."

Finny, for as long as I had known him, had an obsession with lunch ladies. He thought everything they did was hilarious. He would always make a point to talk to all of them every time he was in the lunchroom. He had once asked one of the meaner ones to go with him to the prom. It was a strange obsession, but then again, Finny had many strange obsessions. Plastic sporks, for example, were one of the stranger ones.

I guess he should have been allowed his obsessions. After all, he was a junior in high school during "The War on Terrorism." Everyone got a little crazy. No one could maintain their sanity during wartime. Especially not Finny, or myself.

I watched as he sketched the plump outline of his favorite lunch lady. Her name was Barbara. He began to draw her face and cheeks while I watched him.

I shrugged and began to draw the outline for my lorikeets. I imagined what the picture would look like if I put Finny in the background. I blushed lightly. Finny was becoming a major part of my life, and he didn't even know or suspect a thing.

Soon, the bell rang for second block and I bid Finny farewell until Spanish class.

A young bird in flight that has just received its wings cannot be kept in a box or in a cage. It must be set free so that the world can see its flight, for birds do not always last through the winter. Instead, some of them freeze and some of them break their wings in the cold, frigid months. Only those who truly understand young birds will set them free. We must all realize the pain of a bird that is held and pampered indoors, when all it wants is to be liberated and fly with its brothers. If you truly love the bird, you should set it free.

Like I promised I would, I met Finny at my locker at the end of the day. When I got there, he already had it open and was stuffing his books into it.

"Don't you have a locker?" I asked, startling him.

"Of course I do," he replied, matter-of-factly. "It's just that it's on the other side of the school. Yours is more convenient. Otherwise, we would be meeting at my locker instead."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Are you ready to go skate?" I asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

"What are you kidding?" he demanded. "I'm always ready to go skating!"

I glanced at Ollie, across the hall. He was staring at us with a demeaning look of rage and anger.

Finny noticed my gaze and saw Ollie. "Yo! Ollie-man! Wanna go skating?" he called.

This surprised me. I had never known Finny to have a liking for Ollie. It most certainly wasn't the other way around.

"Get lost," Ollie said, sharply, walking away and down a different hallway.

Finny shrugged. "Let's go. Forget him."

I nodded in agreement. "You're right. We don't need losers like him hanging around," I told him.

"I never said THAT," Finny argued. "Let's just forget about it and go skate."

I nodded once again, and we were off.