Drowning

A CRUSHing Blow

Thursday rolled around pretty quickly and Finley was honestly excited to see Miguel again. Her last visit had been when she had gone with Hawk, and that was over a week ago. Demetri had asked her if she wanted to come work on the volcano again after school, but she told him about Miguel and they then agreed on tomorrow. Miguel had also texted her last night and let her know that he had asked his mom and she told him they had gotten the money. Everything was going great, better than great actually. For the first time since Miguel had fallen, Finley felt like things were looking up. Maybe that was her mistake. Maybe she shouldn't have been so hopeful. Maybe that way she wouldn't have gotten her hopes, dreams, and feelings squashed like a bug.

She was walking down the hallway, as one does. That was it. Heading to math third period as she did every single day. A second sooner or a second later and there never would have been a problem. Then again, there never should have been a problem in the first place. Her head was down, looking at the cover of a comic book that Demetri had given her for Miguel to borrow. Her fault, she'd admit that, she should have been paying more attention. However, they were also idiots for walking on the wrong side of the hallway and causing the collision to occur. Finley went around the corner and immediately collided into someone with enough force that she dropped her books.

"Sorry." Finley dropped to the ground, starting to pick up her books, wanting to gather them before people stepped on them.

"Yeah, you should be." The voice was harsh, but Finley would have recognized it anywhere.

Her head snapped up and she saw Hawk with 3 other cobras. He looked at her for the briefest of moments before his eyes darted away.

Rickenberger's eyes caught on the comic book that had slid across the floor on its shiny cover, and he bent down, picking it up. "Dudes check it out, she's a total nerd."

He stood up and all of the boys glanced at it, chuckles escaping them. Finley slowly rose to her feet, everything back in her hands except for that comic book. Hawk looked at the cover and the thought was instantaneous. Demetri. Finley looked to him for help, waiting for him to take the comic book from them and hand it to her. But when she looked at his face she knew — she knew he wasn't going to help her, not with his friends around. So she held back a sigh and did things her way.

"Can I have it back, please?"

"Oh, well, I mean, since you asked so nicely-" The sarcasm dripped off of Rickenberger's voice. "Actually, ya know what? I think I'm gonna keep it."

The boys around him smirked, and Finley was growing very annoyed with them. She didn't feel like dealing with this right now and that meant her sarcasm was coming out.

"Why? It's not like you can read."

Mikey couldn't stop the snicker that left his mouth and Doug elbowed him in the ribs. "Oh you got jokes do you, nerd?"

"Is nerd seriously the best insult you have?" A smarter person would have recognized that they were facing down 4 Cobra Kais and there was no way this would end well for her, but she just kept talking. "That's like me calling you meathead or dingbat. There's no originality, anyone with eyes can see that's what you are. You might as well be wearing a dunce cap." She went to grab the comic book, but he quickly moved it out of the way and she sighed. "Just give it to me."

"You insult me and still think I should give you what you want?"

"Like I said, not an insult, just a fact." Finley glared at him.

Doug's eyes flashed with anger. "You want your stupid comic back? Fine. It's yours."

He opened the book, his right hand grasping the pages. Finley's eyes widened as she realized he was about to tear up the comic. She made a move towards him, but Hawk had been watching her and he acted before she could. Her back slammed painfully into the locker and her eyes trailed from the hand pressing into her chest up to the face of the boy with the mohawk.