Back to the Start

Chapter 1

"Go where you feel most alive."

"What if I can't?"

—

"Newton's laws of motion: Go."

"Inertia," he stated, glancing quickly at the book beforehand. "First one is inertia."

Sometimes, I couldn't believe how utterly hopeless he was.

"You're going to get a D if you write that," I snapped. "First one is inertia. Honestly, we've been at this for two days now! They need a damn explanation."

"It's complicated! There might be fifty-five laws for all I care, what difference is it going to make in my life?"

I glared at him. There were some people who badly needed a physical demonstration for things. Finn was one of them.

That's that.

Instead of answering him, I reached across the table, pushing his chair backwards. Finn toppled, nearly, just managing to right himself at the last second.

"There," I said, as he spluttered in disbelief, "you were in a state of rest, and my pushing you disturbed that into a state of motion, causing you to topple backwards. That inertia was the only thing keeping you from falling."

"You could have killed me!" Finn yelled. "Has anyone ever told you you're psychotic?"

"Why? Did you hear something?"

"Yeah, like two seconds ago."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

 I got up, pushing the chair in its place while I stashed my book in my bag. It was near worn out, basically a piece of cloth being the only thing keeping it together but it was stretchy and I didn't want to buy another one.

Partly because I couldn't afford to spend any extra money.

"Where're you going?" Finn questioned as he eyed me putting his things back in place. Living alone had somehow instilled in me a need to keep things proper, especially since I was living with a twelve old who's entire being was built around a sense of entropy.

"Out" I replied. Living with a twelve year old had also instilled in me a flair of lying right around the question. Especially since my twelve year old was as curious as they got.

Finn hesitated and then nodded, and I breathed in a sigh of relief, thankful he'd taken the ruse. He could be very nagging when he wanted to be, especially with matters concerning me. It didn't matter that he was five years younger than me, he'd always be the one keeping tabs.

I didn't know if it was just his new teenager hormones acting up or just Finn being characteristic Finn.

"Hey, wait," I heard him call as I left for the door, "can you bring some chocolate then, if you....."

"Three laws of motion," I called back, not bothering to turn around. 

He'd get it.

Finn knew I'd inadvertently get the chocolate for him, no matter what, but he'd still do what I expected of him, albeit not remember it, but he'd still finish. He strived to do the little things that made me happy, because they did. Seeing him rattle out the three laws of motion without hesitance gave me an odd sense of satisfaction, and even though I'd never said it out loud, Finn knew that.

I took the right as I walked towards the garage, not bothering to check in with Rogers. 

Finn didn't like Rogers. Rogers didn't like Finn. There was a mutual understanding of hate between them. Though I didn't give a flying fuck about what Rogers felt, Finn mattered. Or more importantly, Finn made it matter and insisted he come along every time I came here. Lot of good he'd do though, being the lanky preteen he was, but I didn't have the heart to tell him no.