Chapter 6

The summer session had ended. "Peace had deserted Devon" (64), it must have left with Finny. Everything seemed different after the summer session had ended. Mr. Pike had returned, leaving the substitute headmaster nowhere on campus."His face was as mild and hopeless as ever; mooning above the snappy, rigid blouse, it gave him the air of an imposter" (65), but he was the same as always. But so was everything else. The hymns, the sermons, the announcements. Nothing had changed. Except Finny hadn't been there, because of me. All the bulletins boards were filled with notices about everything going on at the school.

I started managing the crew with Cliff Quackenbush. I was Assistant to the crew manager. I basically had no rights at my position, as the head assistant was a class below me. Cliff did not seem to like me from the very beginning. Cliff and I started to aruge. I lost control. We got into a big fight. I'm no longer assistant to the crew manager.

I got a call from Finny today. I don't really want to say what happened on the phone call, but he's coming back soon. He's also happy to here his room is still empty...

Chapter 5

I think I made a big mistake...I think I accidently knocked Finny off the tree. I feel so bad! How could I do such a thing?

WE were going to jump off the tree the other day, and as he went to jump off, I think I shook the branch. Finny fell and hurt his leg. Badly. I watched him as he fell. He looked back at me, and reached his hand out, looking for my hand. But as he fell, I just should there watching him fall down to his fate.

Oh god, what if someone thinks I did this to him? How could I possibly explain? Everyone will know I purposely shook that tree! Why did I do this? All because I thought he was jealous that I was going to become valedictorian? I'm such an idiot! How could I do this to Finny?

The next few days, "I spent as much time as I could alone in our room" (53), because I didn't feel like seeing anyone. Soon we got the dreaded news from the infirmary. Finny had a shattered leg. He would be able to walk again, but not play sports...All because of me...

Chapter 4

We had been at the beach all night. When I first woke up, I looked over to see if Finny was awake yet. He wasn't. I looked out at the sky, and was rather surprised. "The ocean looked dead too, dead gray waves hissing mordantly along the beach, which was gray and dead-looking itself" (41), as the beach didn't look as beautiful as I thought it would have in the morning. After staring out for a bit, I soon realized that we had to be at Devon. It must have been somewhere around six thirty, and it would take three hours to get there. I had a trigonometry test today, and that was at ten. If we hurried, I could mkae it there in time for the test.

We barely got to Devon in time. We lost our changed somewhere over the stay at the beach, and couldn't get breakfast. I took my test. Failed miserably. I felt terrible after it. I had never failed a test before. I was going to be valedictiorian! Wait...that's it! Finny made me fail the test because he doesn't want me to become valedictorian! I can't believe this! Why would he want to sabotage me...?

Chapter 3

So what if Finny saved me from the tree the other day? I wouldn't have been in the tree if he didn't make me go in there! "I didn't need to feel any tremendous rush of gratitude toward Phineas." (25) However, our new club, The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session had an amazing start! We had recruits signing up on the first night, and we had an informational meeting that night that also made new members the rank of "trainees". Every night we initated the trainees by starting off the meeting. The leaders, Finny and I, were called Charter Members. We made the official start of every meeting by jumping from the tree. I never missed a meeting for The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session. Soon later, Finny realized how much he hated the summer sports we had. Instead of joining one, Finny suggested we create one. Its name was Blitzball. It was a mix of different sports. It was very similar to football, in the sense that you had to tackle the man who had the ball. Except, you could not use your arms to tackle. If you didn't want to be tackled, you could pass the ball off, but the person you throw it to can reject the pass. But Finny was always changing the rules around...

Chapter 2

Finny and I missed dinner last night. Mr. Prud'homme had noticed it, and he came by our door to check on us. "He was broad-shouldered, grave, and he wore a gray business suit. He did not have the careless, almost British look of most of the Devon Masters, because he was a substitute for the summer." (14) Finny did the talking for us. He had explained to Mr. Prud'homme that we had been swimming in the river for a while, then we heard there was a wrestling match, so we had to go see it of course, and we saw a beautiful sunset that nobody could resist, and a bunch of other stuff that he countinued to rant about! Mr. Prud'homme tried to stay strict, but Finny is just too good with words! Then he finally said that we had to jump out of the tree...what was he thinking??? Jumping from it is forbidden! We could have gotten in so much trouble! He argued, "What if they  lower the draft age to seventeen?", and then Mr. Prud'homme laughed, and that was the end to it...Gene got us out of another sticky situation by just talking...I wonder how he does it...

Chapter 1



Devon School



I hadn't been to Devon in about fifteen years. Everything seemed different now. "It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrorer windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnishhad been put over fifteen years before there had been a war going on." (1) The school now looked like a museum. I kinda assumed the school just started once I started going there, and once I left, I assumed it was gone. I walked around the school yard, the more memories that came back to me. I finally reached that damn old tree. Where everything started. Where the beginning of the end had begun. Where Finny would start to die. Where Finny's life would get ruined. All over stupid stuff. All over jealously that I couldn't let go. Why did I have to do it? He could have been something so amazing. But I ruined it all...He was the most athletic person I'd ever seen at our school. He wasn't a great student, but he didn't need to be...That tree looked more evil than ever. All dark. Covered in scars. The old jumping spot still hung over the river. Another limb grew in near that, but wasn't nearly as thick. This brings back old memories...

The Jumping spot