by S. K Munt
‘What did you do for the rest of the weekend?’ Mischa asked.
‘Hung out with Paige for a bit, hung out with them all as a group…’ Finn sighed happily, leaning back against the fence beside Gemma. The big clock on the face of the castle said was quarter past two already, but thanks to the detention she’d gotten the other day, she now knew she could make it to work in under ten minutes from there anyhow. ‘We had a bonfire down on the beach on Sunday night and stayed there until like, one A.M. just talking. And then yesterday we went for a swim in their dam and swung off rope swings and-’
‘Wow!’ Cara cried. ‘They’re allowed to have Roast ‘n Toasts?’
‘Well, they don’t call them that- it was just four friends, having a bonfire on the beach.’ Finn shrugged. ‘But yeah, Reeve and Bailey’s parents own their islands, so there’s no curfew, or anything, like there is here. Might be different on Whitecap though...’
‘I have a question!’ Bonnie interrupted. ‘What was the deal with Reeve and his date?’
‘Yeah!’ Mila piped up. ‘Are they like a couple? Because I’ve gotta say… the way he ran down those stairs- I thought for sure he was running to claim you for himself!’
Finn’s blush returned with all the force of an inferno. ‘Really?’ Silently she added: So, it wasn’t all in my head?
‘I thought so too,’ Mischa admitted. ‘In fact, when I first found you two alone in the quarry the night of the Strike, I thought I was interrupting something then.’
‘Say what?’ Finn asked, thunderstruck as Mischa nodded.
‘Yeah! So, when Paige said he had a date and I was like: No way!’ Bonnie giggled. ‘Man, Aaron would be dead if he spoke to another girl that way while I was around.’
Finn was sure that her face was going to melt off, but there was something vindicating about knowing that other people had read more into Reeve’s behaviour as well, so she managed to smile as she said: ‘Well, his behaviour threw me off at first too. But the more time I spent with him, the clearer it became that he’s like that with everyone, so I guess his date Telle is just used to it, you know?’
‘Ask Bailey how serious Reeve and this Telle are, won’t you?’ Mila pressed, her brown eyes shining with excitement. ‘Because if Reeve’s not serious about her, then maybe next time you go to visit your boyfriend, you can take one of your single girlfriends with you.’
Everything inside Finn shrivelled up at the idea of seeing Reeve being dipped in honey and sucked into the Hive, but she shrugged as though it were no big deal, thinking that maybe setting Reeve up with someone else would be the key to getting over him herself anyway. ‘I suppose I could do that…’
‘Why just one?’ Cara cracked. ‘Seemed like there was enough Hay for Finn’s entire stable of single friends over there, if you catch my drift…?’ and all the girls giggled.
Oh… so now you’re in my stable with me? Finn couldn’t help but think as Cara wrapped an arm around Finn’s shoulders and squeezed her, like all of a sudden, they were the best of friends. Last week, you were treating me like a stable hand!
‘Are you and Bailey serious now though?’ Mischa asked, sobering a little. ‘Like… did he ask you to go steady or anything?’
Finn nodded. ‘Just as I was getting on the boat…’
‘Oooh… how’d he do it?’ Bonnie asked, perking up again. Finn smiled and picked up her bike, prepping herself to go back into storyteller mode. ‘Well, we he leaned his head against mine while we were hugging goodbye, and I thought he was going to kiss me goodbye you know? But instead, he said: ‘So… I want to be able to tell my mates at school about the manic weekend I had but what I want to know is when I do, do I tell them that I finally found the girlfriend of my dreams? Or do I tell them that the girl of my dreams broke my heart, by refusing to be my girlfriend?’
‘Oh my GOD!’ Cara crowed, feigning a swoon as she collapsed back against Mila. Gemma spat out her long, fuzzy red mane, which she’d been sucking on until then. ‘Oh, he is too much!’
Yes! Finn wanted to cry, but she kept that to herself as she giggled at Cara’s theatrics. Yes, he kind of is, isn’t he?
‘What a doll!’ Mischa looked enraptured. ‘You’re so lucky!’
‘I know,’ Finn admitted. ‘Anyway, I said that if he didn’t mind having a long-distance girlfriend, then yes, he could tell his friends that he had one now, but I warned him that it was probably going to be a hassle, and that I wasn’t sure I was worth it.’ Finn shook her head, smiling fondly. ‘But he just kissed my hand and said he’d come see me in two weeks, and would write every day until then so yes… I have a boyfriend now, which is funny, because I honestly don’t know what I’m even supposed to do with one…’
‘I’ll write you a list,’ Bonnie teased, and though Finn laughed it off, she made quick work of getting on her bike after, knowing that Finn had a long way to go before she would be anywhere near ready to do anything that was probably on Bonnie’s boyfriend checklist even if her boyfriend was superior to Bonnie’s own!
*
Finn had been right to fear that buying Tim the Outsider the sling would leave her with one less volunteer, because only Malry and Sean showed up that day. That was disappointing, but Tim had wanted the sling so that he and his tiny family would be able to start the trek north, so she supposed that was exactly what they’d done.
Still, it would cost four whole chips to ride the barge to the Shards and back every time she went, which meant that Finn was going to need all the money she could get- not just to pay the crossing fee on the barge, but to take across some food with her too, so she wouldn’t feel like she was mooching off the family every time she stayed there. So, in the spirit of investing in her future and picking up the slack, Finn took two boxes off Granger that day and filled them both, with every intention of carting them back herself. Lugging them back to the refuse centre was so exhausting that at one point, Finn couldn’t tell if that was sweat running down her temples or frustrated tears, but the pay-off felt incredibly worthwhile after she rode home and staggered down to the dock in time to meet the French Connection at five because there was not one letter waiting for her when she arrived but two: one fat and one thin and both smelling vaguely of lavender.
Cool! Finn thought, turning the thinner letter over in her hand, but there was no return address on either- just her name and her port on the back. Paige must have decided to start writing me too!
The French Connection wasn’t a French vessel by any means- it was just an ancient, twenty-one-foot gaff-rigged yacht that was owned by Simon French, a fisherman from Whitecap, who’d quickly worked out that he could make a killing with his wind-powered rig if he made a habit of sailing back and forth between the Shards, Laidlaw and the Peninsula, transporting people, parcels and correspondence for a pittance. He’d only done a trip a couple of times a week in the beginning, but he’d started making two trips a day, every weekday since Laidlaw Kingdom had been established and now docked at the Pen early in the morning, then again late in the afternoon, staying for an hour each time while he enjoyed his breakfast and then his dinner. There was the big, fuel-powered barge that came once a day in the middle of the day, seven days a week too, but because the captain of that charged two whole chips for every trip, it was really only good for transporting massive parcels or people across the bay with.
‘Thanks, Mr French!’ Finn said, tossing him a passionfruit she’d found growing in the wild on the way home, making her jelly arm twang uncomfortably. You didn’t have to pay him to receive stuff, because that toll was paid by the person who did the sending, but it was a common practice to tip him anyway- to keep him honest and to inspire him to keep his trips frequent and punctual.
‘Anytime kid!’ the man called back, before handing an entire bushel of ripe bananas to Principal Van Der Merwe’s oldest son, Lutie, which made a lot of the watching refugees: ‘Ooh,’ with envy. Finn felt awful for them, and Lutie looked embarrassed to have so much in front of people who had so lit
tle, and as he shuffled away, Finn glanced back at the refugees, wondering if they were making enough fishing all day to support themselves, or if they were as poverty-stricken there as they had been as Outsiders.
We really all should be doing more to help them, Finn chewed on her lip as she trudged home. I mean, we’ve all given up on the concept of a higher power saving us, so why are we still hoping that a higher power will save the others too?
‘Wow!’ Finn’s mother said, as Finn sat down on the outdoor picnic table and opened the fattest letter, which she assumed was from Bailey, her eyes widening when she realised it was pages and pages long! ‘Someone likes you!’
Biting her lip to pinch in a pleased grin, Finn eagerly pinned the chunky wad of recycled paper down on the table with her forearm so the wind wouldn’t blow it away, but sucked in a breath as she read the opening salutation:
To our Tiny Dancer,
Hey… hope it’s cool that I’m writing to you? It’s just that I saw Bailey only wrote like, half a page, and I was worried you’d think it was because he didn’t have anything more to say to you. He does trust me- because he’s done nothing but talk about you non-stop all day! But he’s never been much of a writer, so I thought I’d return to my wingman duties by informing you that-
Finn gulped and immediately opened the second latter, spreading it out over the top of Reeve’s, like the good, loyal girlfriend she wanted to be. There was a funny feeling in her face though, like she’d developed pins and needles in her cheeks, and she knew it was because she was working too hard not to smile, because she was a little too happy that Reeve had written to her as well.
But he’s not my boyfriend- Bailey is! Finn scolded herself as she continued to wrestle down her smile. So let’s ACTUALLY read his first, shall we?
Dear Finn,
I’ve been thinking about you all night since you left, wishing I’d kissed you one last time. I get that you’re nervous about all that stuff, so rest assured that I want you in my life too much to do anything that might risk scaring you off so don’t worry- I won’t rush you to get naked or anything. I do still wish I’d had the guts to kiss you one last time though, because I think you would have kissed me back. But then you said you’d be my girl and I was so happy that I just kind of forgot, ha ha. Oh well, I guess all the waiting will only make our next kiss even sweeter, yeah?
Yours always and already missing you like crazy!
-Bailey Burnett.
Get naked? Finn rested her forehead in her hand and supported her elbow as she re-read the letter, frowning in consternation. She got what Bailey was trying to say, but if he’d intended to take some of the pressure off her then he’d failed, because at the end of the day, all he’d written about was kissing her, which made her worry that that was all that had been on his mind that whole weekend too.
Feeling panicky, Finn went back to reading Reeve’s letter, and felt herself exhaling slowly when she realised that at least Reeve was observant enough to make up for Bailey’s lack of self-observation!
-Bailey has been grinning all day, in a way I haven’t seen him smile in years and I do mean, even before the Strike. Obviously, his mates wanted to know things like how hot you were, etc etc, and if you could kiss or not, but most of the time he was grinning too much to get many words out at all, and the one time he did try to describe you, he started tripping all over himself, using words like ‘bubbly’ and ‘light’ and ‘fun’ which is funny, because that’s how he’s been all day, which is just out of this world, given what a sad sack he’s been since the Strike…
Finn read on, smiling to discover that most of Reeve’s letter rambled on in a similar fashion, raving about how into her Bailey was, and how it had made Reeve realise that he wanted to connect with a girl like that too. His words became more sober though, as he confessed that he’d broken things off with Telle after realising that he was never going to feel about her the way Bailey did about Finn, which naturally, was a revelation that made Finn gasp. Telle had taken it hard, and Hadley had yelled at him for making her friend cry in the toilets at lunch, but Reeve insisted that he’d done the right thing, and then had apologised to Finn for over-sharing before saying that it was just easy talking to her, which had made Finn’s heart clonk.
Well, I better go, because Bailey’s gonna end up being the jealous one if he sees me writing his girlfriend an essay and we don’t want that! It’d be cool if you did write back, because I kind of get sick of talking to the same twenty people week in and week out and I KNOW they get sick of me talking to them too… but if it feels weird, you don’t have to- I know postage isn’t cheap. But hey, just in case you’ve got some time to kill, I thought I’d enclose a little gift to make it easier. I know paper is hard to come by nowadays, so it must be painful for a writer like you to find enough to meet their needs, right?
Either way, it was epic seeing you again, and I hope I get to see way more of you in the future, especially if that’s what it’s gonna take to keep all of us smiling the way we are today, especially Bailey!
Exes and ohms! -Ratbag.
Finn’s lips curved into a smile as she read that last line, and then she turned the page, sighing happily when she realised that the majority of the paper that Reeve had sent her was blank, pre-Strike stationary that had been printed with feint lines for writing letters.
That’s so thoughtful! Finn lifted the watercolour-stained stationary to her nose and smiled when she realised that that was where the smell of lavender was coming from. God, is there anything they don’t have? And is it weird, if I write him back? Not wanting to overthink any more than she already had, Finn quickly reached into her bag and pulled out her pencil, which was still sharp from last period math. She wrote to Bailey first, of course, because that was what a loyal girlfriend would do, and because she knew she had to handle his letter before she over-thought that as well.
Dear Bailey,
Thank you for writing to me so quickly! I was a bit worried that you wouldn’t, so I smiled pretty brightly when Captain French called out my name! Truth be told, I don’t think I’m any more comfortable writing about kissing at length than I was physically kissing, but I’m glad I wasn’t so bad at it that I scared you off, lol. Oops- are we still supposed to say lol? Is that an archaic expression now? Oh well, you’re a tech guy, so hopefully to you, it’s kind of like poetry from a forgotten time! For me though, I’m kind of just glad that I’m feeling happy enough to use expressions like ‘Lol’ again because for a while there, things felt pretty dark hey?
I can’t write much because I want to be able to hand this back to Captain French before he heads home for the night, but I thought you might like to know that the Hive girls are green with jealousy over the fact that I got to spend the whole weekend there with you, and have followed me around all day, demanding details and introductions to your other cousins, like Reeve. Don’t feel pressured to extend an open invitation anytime soon though! High school has been even harder on me than the Strike was, and those girls have often been the reason why, so I’m happy to keep a part of my life separate from all of them for a while! That being said though, I might just have to drop Reeve a line, letting them know that if he’s looking to fish, then they’re biting over here to keep them from eyeing you off, if nothing else!
Until I see you again.
-Finn.
Feeling quite pleased with herself for having composed a nice, balanced response, Finn shook out her hand and immediately wrote back to Reeve, being careful to keep it shorter than the one she’d written to Bailey.
Dear Ratbag,
Thank you so much for the gift! I don’t have a lot of time to write today, but I wanted to make sure you know how grateful I am, both for the paper, and for the introduction to Bailey because I’m fairly certain we wouldn’t have gotten together without your intervention, given what hopeless romantics we are. And I don’t mean that in the traditional sense, but because we’re clearly both ‘hopeless’ when it comes to crawling out of
our shells in the pursuit of romance! I’m sorry that Telle is so upset, but you’re a great guy so I’m not surprised. On that note, I have to ask: are you actively looking for a girlfriend? Because if you are, I might have one or two (okay three or four) girls over here willing to volunteer for the job. Just tell me what your type is, and I’ll see what I can do! Let me know, and thanks again!
-Finny.
And even though Finn truly was exhausted, she immediately reached into her bag and pulled out the quarter chip she hoped would be enough to cover the postage of both letters, before racing down to the dock to catch Captain French before he left. Then, once that was done she headed straight back into her room, so she could write five times more in her journal! Only this time, instead of updating her professional journal, she poured all of her feelings out into the back of one of the old ones, so no one would ever be forced to read about what a hopeless romantic she was truly proving to be already, for being more excited to have received a letter from her boyfriend’s best friend, than from her actual boyfriend.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The letters came constantly the first week, and Finn was overjoyed every time she raced down to meet Captain French, who was asking her to call him Simon by Friday.
Reeve never gave her a solid answer about whether he was looking for a girlfriend or not, but there were apparently hundreds of other things he wanted to discuss with her- like what she thought of their king, and if she’d decided what she was going to do with her life if she never became an Enigma… But Bailey did mention once (between hints about how much making out he planned on doing with her during his visit the following weekend) that Reeve had already said that the most desirable girl in the Hive already had a boyfriend, which had made Finn sigh and think it served her right. After all, she had a wonderful boyfriend that was into her, so what right did she have to feel jealous to learn that Bonnie- who was the opposite of her in every way- was exactly Reeve’s type?