Make a wish.

07|Nerves.

May 4, 1976. 1:35 p.m.

"Griffin!" Finney exclaims, stopping abruptly in front of the boy taking the lock off his bike.

Finney tries not to wince at the sight of the padlock that took him time to get to freedom, and he really hopes that padlock doesn't end up on Grabber's front door. Much less Griffin.

"Hello Finney!" Griffin smiles and throws his lock on the basket of his bike next to his backpack.

"By any chance, did you see Robin?"

"I saw it." Gwen replies, startling both children. "Hi, I'm Gwen, Finney's sister. He told me about you, nice to meet you."

Gwen smiles and Griffin smiles sheepishly back, introducing himself as well.

"Where's Robin, Gwen?" Finney asks uneasily.

"He's breaking Moose's face."

Finney feels horrible deja vu at this. The last fight he saw of Robin was when he smashed Moose's face in. That day he last saw him in the school bathrooms and when Finney went to his house to start studying for math, Rodrigo Arellano had told him that he had gone out. Finney waited an hour for him, but his father wanted him home early, so he was forced to leave. That night, around eleven o'clock, his father receives a call from Mari Arellano and Finney's world falls apart.

Finney doesn't want to wait by the window again, crying quietly as he begs for Robin to show up to apologize for standing him up.

But Robin never came back.

And Finney is going to make sure every kid comes home. Even if he doesn't.

Gwen leads them both to the circle of teenagers who were encouraging Robin to continue beating Moose. The fight was already coming to an end, but before Robin could land the last blow that would definitely knock Moose unconscious, Finney pushed his way into the crowd and took Robin's arm.

"Robin! What are you doing?"

Hearing Finney's voice, Robin doesn't dare look at him and just stands up, still with Finney holding onto his arm.

The crowd quickly booed them and some insulted Finney for ruining the fun, but Robin told them to go to hell.

"Robin, you can't be fighting everyone every chance you get." Finney scolds him and drags him away from Moose who was trying to get up off the ground without much luck.

"Moose was talking shit again. It was his fault." Robin grunts, trying to excuse himself, but he knows he's not going to get anywhere.

"I don't care whose fault it was. You're going to get kicked out of school if you keep this up. And you've got sore knuckles again!"

Finney doesn't stop talking, explaining to Robin why he should stop fighting and Robin can only cower in his place, listening intently to everything Finney said.

Griffin can't help but think that Robin is some kind of wild cub that is tamed by his owner without any problem. Finney is obviously the owner.

"Still, that was great, Robin." Gwen says.

Finney frowns to his sister, and Gwen quickly raises her hands in peace.

"Don't encourage him, Gwen. He has to stop doing this."

"I'm sorry..."

With Finney dragging Robin along the way, the four of them start walking towards Suzie's house. Robin and Griffin agreed to walk Gwen to her friend's house. They had nothing else to do anyway. Finney decided to leave Robin's bloody hands a little longer as punishment, because he definitely had bandages and disinfectant in his backpack, but he should learn to stop fighting with every person who breathes near him.