Amelia Raymond. She had the biggest crush on Finny in his long history of crushes. She was very loud and very clingy. She should have been dating Ollie.

Finny didn't seem to take any interest in her whatsoever. She was rather plain-looking and a little chubby. She sometimes wore black thick-rimmed glasses to cover her already-dull eyes. Her voice was very shrill when she talked and even worse when she yelled. Her hair was a very dull brown. I personally have nothing against brunettes; Amelia's hair was almost dirt- colored.

The moment Finny noticed her, his face turned blue with fear. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into a bush. He meant to stoop down, but lost his balance and pulled me on top of him.

I froze. My eyes met his, and we just stared at each other in surprise. Suddenly, Phineas' eyes brimmed with tears, and I raised an eyebrow, confusedly.

"Gene," he whispered, "you're on my leg."

I released my breath slowly and rolled off of him. He turned to me and was about to say something when suddenly the bushes above us began to rustle. We froze in terror.

"It's an ambush," Finny whispered.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Ambush Amelia."

A hand came through the bushes and felt around on the ground between us. I held my breath. The hand grabbed Finny's ear and tried to pull him out of the bush.

"OW!" Finny cried. "I surrender!"

Leper's face quickly shot through the bush to see what was going on. He quickly let go of Finny's ear and blushed. "I'm sorry! I dropped my glasses in these bushes and I was just trying to find them! I didn't mean to pull your ear or anything..."

Finny rubbed his ear to relieve the pain. "Ah, don't sweat it," he assured Leper. "Simple mistake..."

"So, what are you guys doing in this bush anyway?" Leper wondered, raising an eyebrow, suspiciously.

I waited for Finny to answer. He was, after all, the one who had pulled me into the bush. But, Phineas was silent.
Suddenly, he grabbed Leper by the neck of his shirt and pulled him into the bush between us.

"Be still and be quiet," Finny advised. "You never know...the bushes have ears..."

"Ohhhh-kay," our light-skinned classmate said, making a strange expression. He looked at me and I shrugged.

Finny was busy glancing out of a sunlight-embraced hole in the bush. "She's coming this way!" he hissed. "Don't make any sound at all!"

Leper nodded in silent agreement, while I simply rolled my eyes at my best friend. I could hear the sound of high heel shoes tapping on the sidewalk nearby. All three of us suddenly froze. Leper closed his eyes tightly, and I clenched my teeth. Finny's eyes widened fiercely as he saw legs moving by the bush. The pair of legs paused beside our hideout, then continued on. The three of us released our breath slowly, feeling very relieved.

Finny poked his head out of the shrub, and waved to us that it was safe.

I stood up, and, after looking around carefully, helped Finny to his feet. Leper shakily stood behind us, muttering something about getting to class on time, and left.

I grabbed Finny's abandoned crutches and handed them to him. He placed them under his arms and made his way back to the sidewalk, carelessly.

"That was a close one," he said, alleviated. "Shall we get to class?"

"Sure," I answered, raising an eyebrow. "Never thought I'd hear you say that..."

As soon as we entered our art class, Finny was bombarded with questions from everyone in the classroom, including Ms. Stephen. Finny reacted to the questions as he usually reacted to everything.

"It was horrible!" he exclaimed. "My bloody, mangled body and I crawled through the living room trying to get to the man who was trying to murder my Aunt Margaret!"

And, not surprisingly, everyone believed every word of it.