Chapter 12

In the moments following Finny's fall down the staircase, we all were in aw as we watched finny slowly dying on the floor. Brinker shouted "Phineas must not be moved"(170). Everyone knew that there would only be one night nurse at the infirmary so everyone rushed to go get her.Dr. Stanpole arrives and has finny carried out on a chair. " The foyer and the staircase of the First Building were soon as crowded as at midday"(170). They would not let me in so I had to sneek my way in through the window. As I arrived throught he window I heard a voice say "Who is it"(176)! All I could think to say to him is "Im sorry" and just kept repeating myself. This was one of the few times I had cried in my life. After I thought about the tree and how none of this would have happened if it wasnt for that one accident. I started to cry more and more. Dr. Stanpole was the one that delivered the worst news I could have ever heard. Just four words that would ruin my life for ever. These four words were "your friend is dead"(185).

Chapter 11

When I had returned home from my trip " I found finny in the middle of a snowball fight in a place called the Fields Beyond"(144). I asked finny how he could play with out his cast on because I did not want to see him get hurt. He replied I can feel my bones getting stronger. He had also informed me with a bit of information also saying that bones come back stronger where they were broken. Later Brinker came into our room to come and talk about Leper. I told them the truth I said that Leper had changed dramarically and that he has desserted the army for good because he felt that it was doing wrong things for him. We get closer and closer to enlisting and all the boys that can have except for me. Leper decided that he was going to testify against me. I just felt like he was going mad. In there finny arrose and said "I dont care what happened"! and ran out of the room. Everyone could her him as his cane would hit the floor with tears in his eyes. He ran out the courtroom and down the hallway. Everyone was very quiet and then I hear a big thump again and again. I knew right away that it had to be finny falling down the marble staircase in the main hall of the entire Devon school.

Chapter 9

As me and finny train together I start to think about how unreal that the war is. What makes it even more unreal is the fact that Leper Lepellier is looking up skii troops to enlist in. Brinker starts to make fun of Leper and finny wants no part int it. When we were at the butt room they started to talk about leper and finny refused to join in so I did too. As we started to get more and more closer I eventually stopped going to the butt room. After that I stopped talking to my friends all together. It seemed as though if I talked to finny everytime I would be takin further and further away from my friends. And after a while it was just me and him training for the olympics everyday. I think it was at the point when Leper said "I'm going to enlist in these skii troops"(117) that finny wanted nothing to do with them. He felt as though that was a cowards way into the war. Finny had decided to organize a winter carnival and everyone was assigned jobs. But durring this Leper had left a letter that he had escaped and should go to the "Christmas Location".

chapter 10

I wanted to visit Lepers "Christmas Location" this was just his home in Vermont. I took the train and then the bus through the entire New England area. I landed in Leper's town the next morning. I walked the rest of the way. But I just could not get out of my head that Leper had decided to desert the army. "If Leper was psycho the army had done it to him, and all of us were on the brink of the army". Leper was waiting for me in his window and he grabbed me quickly and brought me into the dining room. He asked me about the army and what I had known about it. I told him I knew what was normal but Leper replied with " Nromal, he reapeated bitterly. What a stupid ass word"(135). When I said this it really enraged him so much. It was all because they thought that he was a psycho and he needed to take tests and put it down on documents. This meant that he could not live a normal life. Because most jobs would not allow a person of his stature in there. Before I knew this I thought it was all because he was afraid to go to war but after all it was because he was using his head, instead of doing things first like Brinker.

Chapter 8

Finny already is starting to give me a hard time. He started to make fun of my clothing we both just laughed. Mainly I laughed because of the fact that I was happy to see him again. The next day Brinker rushed in and was about to ask me if I was ready to enlist. Brinker continued to say " Your little plot didnt work so well after all huh"(98). Finny began to get supspicious of me. So I decided to change the subject again. I told him that I wanted to enlist into the army with him. Seeing from his facial expressions he clearly did not like the idea of me leaving him again. So I decided I wanted to show finny how much I really cared about our friendship and told Brinker
" I wouldn't go to war with you if you were General MacArthur's eldest son"(100). This enraged Binker but I don't really care because finny means more to me then him and what ever finny wants and thinks is right for me i'll go with. It ended with finny making Brinkers new nick name "Yellow Peril". As we walked to our first class we finny said winter loves me. I wondered why until he continued with because I love the winter so it has to return the affection. Finny proceeds to tell me that he wanted to go to the olympics and wishes that I would try and do it for him. Me and finny were training running around the house. I finally had found my sprint figure and started sprinting better than ever. This was all because of finny.

Chapter 7

Brinker came across the hall to congratulate me on getting a huge room to myself. Jokingly he says " I'll bet you knew all the time finny wouldn't be back this fall, thats why you picked him for a roomate right"(79). I tried to play along with it saying of course not. But it kind of enraged me a little bit even if he was joking. It was one of those things that I was really sensitive about. To try to get off the subject I asked Brinker " I feel like a smoke, don't you? Lets go down to the Butt Room"(80). When we got there Brinker tried to make it like a dungeon and he had brought me into it because I had killed my bestfriend. I had tried to play it off well by making an obvious statement of how it happened but I had choked up when trying it and the boy said that, that is an obvious mark he really did. Then to try to get the attention off of me I brought out the kids hatred then said I had to study for french and left. To get money they had brought up they idea that if we shoveled off the railroad tracks we could get money for it. on my way there I saw Leper. Leper told me that " Well, you might want to come sometime, if I find the place"(87). So I replied I deffinetley will do so. I work on the same team with Brink but the work doesn't really interest me and I think its boring and tedious. As we start to walk home Brink says that he wants to enlist now. I agree and after a night of thinking I go up to. But as I return home there is a suprise waiting for me. It is finny.

Chapter 6

I returned from our vacation and went to the first chapel of the school year. Everything seemed like it was all back to normal. Besides the fact that finny was still not back to school. " After morning classes and lunch I went across to see brinker"(66). But then I decided I didn't want to go see brinker and his snails. I had suddenly realized " I was late for my afternoon appointment"(67). On the way to the meeting I stopped at the bridge and started to see a lot of things. " I thought of Phineas not of the tree and pain, but one of Phineas's favorite tricks"(67). This trick was when finny would stand on the top of the canoe like a river god. This had always cheered me up no matter what. I was promoted assistant senior crew manager. But this meant I had to work under Cliff Quackenbush. He was always unhappy and never joyful about anything. He was one of those bullys that you picture taking a four year olds lunch money. He started to get insulted that I took assistant he said " The crew waits for no man"(68). I thought that it was halrious because he took this thing way to serious. But obviously he didn't because he thought that I took this whole thing as a joke. I really didn't I just felt what he said was so uneccesary and funny. He just kept tormenting me to the point where I couldn't hold myself back and I blasted him in the face and we started to fight. We fell into the river, I pulled myself out and he said not to come back, in my head I thought to myself why would you think im gonna come back. When I returned to my dorm Mr. Ludsburry told me that I had a long distance phone call waiting for me. I was curious to see who it was. So I went into get it and it was finny. He had called and wished me a happy first day of the year, gladdly i replied thanks thanks a lot. Then he began to talk about how I was getting kind of crazy and asked me if I had recovered. I told him that I was assistant crew manager and he was so happy for me. But then I had to tell him that I got in a fist fight and don't think I have it anymore. No matter what I said finny was still stuck up in me getting the job. Finally finny told me that I had to take his place in sports which I gladly will do.

Chapter 5

When the results came back we had discovered that finny's leg had been shattered from the fall off the tree. "I couldnt go on hearing about it much longer"(53). A lot of people have come up to me asking about finny's injuries but no one thought that it was my fault. I think I might have done it on purpose and dont know what I was thinking at all. Latley I have been sitting in my room thinking of what has happened and it has really been getting to me latley. One reason is becasue I can not see finny because no one is alowed into the infirmary. I decided to try on finny's shirt shoes and jeans and I saw him in me. It was actually kind of scary. After Chapel Dr. Stanole told me that " He could use a visitor or two now, after these very nasty few days"(55). I was so estatic that I could finally talk to my best friend again and talk over what had happened. The good news was that he would be able to walk again. But of course what came along with the good news was the worst I had ever expected. Finny wouldn't be able to ever play sports again. I could not feel any worse when I had heard this. Sports was finnys life no matter what happened he could always turn to sports, but now I have taken it away from him. I could not stand it " I burst out crying into my hands"(56). I cried infront of everyone including Phineas and the Doctor. I was so afraid that finny would blame me for the accident. So instead of brining it up I asked what he remembered and he said he only knew that somthing made him fall. I felt a lot of relief at this point. I told him that I tried to grab him but he fell way to fast for me to react quick enough. He told me that he thought that I had done it but then apologized for even thinking it. Then I decided to tell him but just as I started Doctor Stanole walked in and had to move him. The vacation had started and finny went back to his house in Boston and I went back to the south for a few months. When we returned I decided I had to tell finny. So I did but this enraged finny in disbelief.

Chapter 4

"The next morning I saw dawn for the first time"(41). Finny had woken up around the same time and took a swim right before we left. We had gotten home right on time for my trigonometry test at ten. Suprisingly when I had recieved it back I had flunked it and was almost enraged at myself because I had never flunked a test before in my life. I think it could have something to do with the Super Suicided Society getting in the way of all my studying and homework I needed to get done. Soon after I was going to study but the finny gave me no time to do anything and we played blitzball for the rest of the afternoon. When we finally got home I decided to work on my trigonometry but then finny told me " I work to hard". He told me all I wanted was to be the valvictorian but of course I denied. I just wanted something I could hold over finny something that he could not do. I feel like he is trying to take this away from me so I wont be better than him in any way. I asked him how he would feel if I had become valvictorian and he had a come back in a joking manner. I started to become angry and felt a rivalry coming between us that I had never noticed before. So as I fellt this I decided to work harder and harder. I blew right by my next closest competitor Chet Douglas and just kept moving. Finny couldnt keep up with me academically of course but he could make up for it in athletics. For the next couple weeks me and finny got along well but never once brought up that night. The next night finny came in and told me that Leper Lepellier was going to make the jump off the limb off the tree. I did not believe this because I thought it was a way for finny to keep me away from my studies. But I decided to go because I was a main member of the society and felt I needed to be there. As we arrived at the tree we decided to make a double jump. But as I got to the top of the limb I stumbbled and this had made finny fall into the river.

Chapter 3

After I had thought about it, I began to think that of course he saved my life but then again he would not have had to if he did not make me go up and climb the tree to prove I wasn't afaid of it. I dont think that I owe any grattitude to finny because it was his fault I was up there in the first place. "The super Super Suicide Society of the summer session was a success from the start"(25).because finny had recruited six more boys to the society. After they had joined both me and finny had decided that we needed to make up some rules for the society. So finny got right to it, one imparticular was my least favorite. This was that at the beginning of each meeting me and finny had to jump off the limb into the river below. I was so terrified of the jump every time yet I still jumped so I could show finny I was just as tough has he was. Finny had gotten word of the summer sports and was disgusted because they had added badmitten to one of the summer sessions. For this he decided to create a new game called "Blitzkriegball or just Blitzball"(29). Me and finny decided to make it a full contact sport. It involved using a medicine ball. This sport was much different from any other sport because it was not divided into two particular teams but who had the ball everyone would go after. If I had the ball everyone would go after me and tackle me untill I had fumbled or thrown it away then if another person had picked it up everyone would go after them and so on. But if you could not outrun the other player you could pass the ball off or be tackled and give it away. In the end there was no real winner. After we finished playing the game we went to the swimming pool and finny broke the records but he told me not to tell anyone I dont know why. We ate dinner at a hot dog stand and then we had a few brews which we had gotten with our draft cards. Finally we decided to sleep on the beach and finny started to tell me how glad he was that I came along with him and that I was his bestfriend. I began to start to say the same but held back. I didnt want to tell him because I didnt know if I could trust him still yet.

Chapter 2

After me and finny were "wrestling match"(14) we decided not to go to dinner because we were going to be late anyways. So instead we both went back to the dormatories and did our homework then went to bed. The next morning "Mr.Prud'homme stopped at our door"(14). I was excpecting a detention or session, but with finny's cleverness there was no way. And just like I thought finny talked us out of it with a very convincing story. Today finny decided to wear a bright pink shirt to celebrate the first succesful bombing of central Europe. Personally I felt that he looked like a "fairy". Mr. Patch-Withers decided to hold tea that afternoon. Most of us are awkward when talking to the teahcers, but of course not finny he got along great with them. I started to notice that finny was wearing his tie as a belt and I knew that there was no way that he would get away with it this time especially because they head master was there. But once again somehow finny managed to talk his way out of it and with no problem at all. Finny had such a way with words it was rediculous he would get us out of everything no problem. It seemed so easy for him I dont understand why I couldnt do the same thing. I started to feel jealous because all the success that I had gained I had to work for. But in finny's case it just seemed as though he could not try and do everything right. Every little thing that finny was praised for I felt like he had done no work for especially in sports. He never practiced or took anything serious in it yet somehow he would always win. For the last time me and finny went up on the tree to jump off into the river. I wanted to say somthing to finny before I jumped but I had lost my balance and was about to fall when suddenly finny caught me. I believe that finny had saved my life.

Chapter 1

It all started one day when I came back to DevenSchool in New Hampshire. I went into the gloomy town of where devon was. But as I went into the driveway of the school it seemed as though the whole setting had changed into a nice and calm place. It seemed as though "I had forgotten how beautiful it was" (2). As I drove up to the school I decided I wanted to visit two main place. The first place I wanted to go was the marble stairs in the First Academy Building. As I got to the steps I noticed how unusually hard they where. Even after 15 years "The worn moons in the middle of each step were not very deep" (3). After I was done wandering around the marble staircase I decided to move on to the tree that me and finny had alwayus played on. Finny was my roomate in Devon. After wandering around in the woods outside of Devon I "Finally identified the tree by means of certain small scars rising along its trunk." (7) Now that I think of it this tree seems a lot smaller then I had imagined. I seem to keep having flashbacks of the time me and finny and a few other buddies were going to jumb of the limb of this tree into the river below. I can still remember finny's words being " Do you want me to go first?" (7). I wanted to say no but of course he wouldnt give me the time to do that. Finny always seemed as though he wanted ppeople to look at him as if he was a rebble and did not need any parental vision. I always looked on him as if he was always independent like I would want him to be with me if we were by ourselfs. After finny jumped I was forced to so i would not look bad. But of course we both knew that the other boys were not going to jump off the limb.