“He even faked his documents,” I repeated, disregarding my amusement. My dad and I were having a serious conversation here. I should just focus on the reason my brother would go through all this trouble.
“Did he tell you he transferred to Corner Stone?” Dad asked.
“Nope. I would have told you. His last email came a month ago. He mentioned nothing about transferring schools or repeating his junior year again in Corner Stone.” My brother was sort of a knack and had skipped a grade after we got separated, making him a year advanced compared to me. He must be fond of junior high. I wondered what exactly entranced him about it.
Dad went on, “His put his note in the junior’s box, and there had been no transfers made by the upcoming seniors. Every one of them enrolled again this year. Supposedly, he’s going to be a senior this year if he didn’t purposely put his note in the junior’s box…”
And trolled us all. Happy holidays, Pearce family!
“He must still look almost the same right now. You know, only older?” I said, unsure. I could understand that teenage years were confusing. Most of the time, I was also confused. But doing it like this was kind of pushing it too far.
Wait.
What if we asked Mom? But I refrained from suggesting it. Finn would surely end up in trouble if my mom would hear about it. I had to talk to him first. Finn must have his reasons for doing this, and my mom could be quite scary.
She was the opposite of Dad. While my dad was the lively one in the house, Mom was the opposite. She was so silent, keeping everything to herself. And before I could fully understand her reasons, she kissed me goodbye and headed out of our door, carrying a big red suitcase in one hand and my sickly twin brother in the other.
Just like that, she became a distant memory. A figure. Like saying, I had a mom, but I couldn’t point out what food she liked or what was her favorite color.
My phone beeped.
“Is that Finn?” Dad instantly asked.
“Nope. Just a friend,” I quickly replied. It was actually my mom. I sent her a quick, safe email a while ago, asking if she had any recent pictures with Finn. Her response email: Ask your brother
She must be busy.
“I looked at all the pictures the office had provided. There was no one with the same features as Finn. Well, not from what I’d seen,” Dad told me.
“Pictures can be tricky. He must have changed his looks as well. But he’d surely be a senior this year if he hadn’t played a prank or anything and was actually telling the truth about transferring to Corner Stone?”
“Yes, technically. I was actually wondering if you could ask him about it.”
“Sure. I can do that.” It wouldn’t be that hard to ask Finn when, why, and what. But if he had gone through all the trouble of using fake documents to enter Corner Stone High School, for some unknown reason, I was almost certain that Finn wouldn’t answer such questions. “Give me a moment, Dad. I’ll send him an email.”
Failure notice.
“Any response?”
“Dad, I think he deactivated his email account.” I swallowed. It turned out that Finn had shut me off as well. Even me, Finn? Why? I did nothing for you to get mad at me. Well, I always ate more than half of the cake on our birthdays when we were kids, but that was it.
“Dad, it’s okay. We’ll know where he is,” I encouraged him. “It can’t be that bad.”
Dad seemed immovable, helpless. “I’m a terrible father to him, and even to you. I’m sorry for everything, Fiona.”
“Oh, come on, Dad. You’re not that bad,” I comforted him.
“How could I not recognize him? I should have tried to talk to him more, or maybe talk to your mother about it. But since he was shoving me away, I thought he was doing fine with your mom. And your mom said that he was fine and that I shouldn’t bother myself about him. I believed he didn’t need my attention anymore,” he reasoned out.
Um, Dad... duh?
“Dad, come on, every child needs his parent’s attention, even if we shove you guys away,” I told him.
He didn’t answer.
“You should know that,” I pressed on, feeling a bit surprised he was uninformed about the matter. He remained silent, completely clueless. “Don’t you miss Finn at all?”
“I do. Don’t misunderstand me, because I do. It’s just that he’s with your mom. I thought he’d be okay,” he explained. That was Dad’s weak point—never crossing the line separating what was his and what was hers. My parents were both complicated.
“Fine, I’ll help you find Finn and you straighten this mess. You in?” I offered, thinking that this was the best way to fix things between my sensitive brother and my stubborn dad.
“But, how? It’s not like you can even see him. You can’t even wait for him outside our school. They have their own dormitory,” Dad said.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I muttered, taken aback. Here I was sounding all up and spirited, when the fact that talking to Finn in Corner Stone seemed to be an almost impossible task. With his email deactivated, how could I ever get in touch with Finn? But if we wouldn’t find a way, then we’d never be able to fix their mess.
“I appreciate your thoughts, Fiona. I’ll see what I can do about your brother,” Dad finally said, pushing back his chair and standing up.
Since our usual means of communication—Finn’s email address—wasn’t working, the only option I had to see my brother was to go to their school. Sure, I could visit my father’s office every once in a while, but I couldn’t stay there for no reason. Even if he was the headmaster, it still sounded off to see his daughter running around the halls.
A daughter was highly conspicuous.
It wasn’t like I could just go there and carry a huge banner saying: FINN, FIONA HERE. WHERE ARE YOU? That sounded stupid. Even if I were Finn, I wouldn’t respond to such a thing. More so, knowing Finn and his crazy antics, he’d probably hide away again, activate his email address for a minute, and shoot me an email, telling me to stop this madness.
Not as if I would run around their halls one time, Finn would bump into me suddenly, and then we’d talk after. Chances were, at least I had to be in the same place as him for some time to find out where and who he was. What could I possibly do to help?
“Dad, wait,” I said. My last thought was insane, but it was the only thing I could offer.
“Did you think of something? His cell phone number. How could I forget? Do you have it?” he asked, turning his head to me. “Maybe we can call him.”
“I already tried calling his phone, but the call didn’t go through. But you know, Dad, since we’re twins, I think I’ll recognize him when I see him,” I said, with due conviction, “instantly.”
“You’re close to him, after all,” he said.
“So I’m thinking that in order for me to see him, I have to be where he is for a while,” I carefully said to him, hoping that what I was telling him wasn’t that absurd.
“And?”
“So then, I think the only way for this to happen is for me to transfer to your school for a short while,” I said, holding my breath while waiting for his answer.
It surprised Dad at first, of course. The twitching of his eyebrows soon followed his astonishment. After all, why would something like this come out of his daughter’s mouth? It wasn’t making any sense, and I was certain that he wouldn’t let me. Corner Stone High School wasn’t like any other high schools.
But then, he had to. It was our only chance at figuring out what Finn was up to and how he was doing. Dad certainly had no choice but to let his daughter transfer to Corner Stone High School. He must. He could definitely pull a string here and there.
Well, Corner Stone was that same high school that Paige and I were fond of talking about—the one whose students we fantasized in our dreams. After all, it was a prestigious private school. The only problem was, it was actually an exclusive school... for boys.
FINDING FINN JOURNAL NO. 2
I can’t believe my brother has gone AWOL!
Hello! Hello! Just a curious question. Would you actually cut your hair and enroll in an all boys school to find your missing brother? Hmmm.
Like the chapters and subscribe if you're loving the story. See you in the next chapter!
Thank you.
Comments (0)
See all