Chapter 4

The beach Finny and I slept on.

After our night on the beach, I woke up, and was surprised to see how gray the sky and morning was. Eventually, the sky gained it's bright colors. Finny woke up at 6:30, and despite my pleading to leave, he went for one more swim. I was worried, because the bike ride back was pretty long, and I had a Trigonometry test that day, which was important to me. Of course I let Finny go in one more time, but I was a little frustrated. On top of that, we lost our money, and rode back to the school with empty stomachs. Luckily I made it there, but barely. I also flunked the test, which is disappointing because I have a chance to be at the top of our class. As we sat in our room that night, Finny wondered why I tried so hard in school. I told him that I wanted to be the head of the class, and he was unimpressed. It was then that I realized that he was scared because, "We would be even" (43). Phineas is good at sports and I'm good at school. This angered me so badly and I looked up and asked him if he would be mad if I was at the top of the class. He replied by saying, "I'd kill myself out of jealous envy" (44). At this point, I was extremely angry and "my brain exploded" (44). I then realized that the two of us are already even because we are both going after the spot of number one. I also realized that he had gone to the beach and stayed on purpose, so that I would fail. He was planning meetings, so that I wouldn't have to study. After realizing this, I tried to act as normal around him as possible. A couple of nights ago I couldn't take it anymore. I asked him way he wanted to ruin my studying. He hadn't realized that I needed to study, and thought it came as easily for me, as sports did for him. He said I could stay home and study while he went to the meeting, but i decided to go. Finny suggested that the two of us jump out of the tree together. As we stood on the limb, I jounced it and, "Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke throught the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud" (52). After this, I jumped off the branch and into the river, which I don't understand why.