Saving Finnly Cage

Chapter 7- Ring for Assistance

Last night the football game had been 'interesting', which was the word I used to describe it when my dad had asked.

If I was being completely honest with myself, the game had been pretty awesome. Of course, we beat the Otters, and because of that everyone in Palm Beach could sleep easy. I had done all of the interviews I needed to finish before the first issue of the newspaper came out, and I actually realized for the first time since I had moved back to California, that maybe I could get use to this.

That is, until the she devil came along and poured her fucking slushie drink on me.

I'm normally not an angry person, but after that I wanted to beat her to a pulp.

I didn't tell my dad any of this though. He thought everything was back to normal and all was well in the little world of 'Finnly Cage'.

And I didn't want to ruin that for him. He had been so worried that I had settled in alright and that I was ok with Anna and Kim living with us, I couldn't bear telling him that my social life kind of sucked right now.

My dad wasn't stupid or completely oblivious, so I knew he'd figure out everything sooner or later. But for now, he was happier than ever.

"Finn! Anna! We're leaving in two minutes!" my dad called up the stairs, his voice bellowing so loudly that I jumped in surprise.

I slip my feet into my sandals and mentally debated on whether to bring a hat or not before stuffing everything into my bag.

My dad thought a trip to the public beach would be good family bonding time. Although I was getting more comfortable around Kim, the idea of a whole day at the beach with my "family" kind of upset me. My dad use to take my brother and I every weekend to go surfing and my mom would come a long and sit on the beach and laugh as we repeatedly tumbled into the waves.

It was a good time.

Yeah yeah yeah, I continue tieing everything back to my old life, but I wasn't completely ready to let go of it quite yet.

I flew down the stairs as I heard the car engine start, Anna quickly in tow. We piled into the car and turned the air conditioning on before my dad drove out of the neighborhood and toward the beach.

When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the beach wasn't too busy. It was incredibly hot for late September weather, with a roaring temperature of 90 degrees, so it slightly troubled me that no one was around.

"I wonder why it's not that busy" I said to Anna

"Hey, that means more ocean for us right?" Anna laughed, setting out her beach towel under one of the palm trees.

I laughed in response and set my stuff down next to hers, sliding off my cover up.

"Oh Finnly, you know how to surf, right?" Kim asked, as she unfolded her beach chair.

I nodded, "Yeah, I mean I haven't been surfing since last summer, but I can" I said, shrugging.

Surfing and photography. Those were basically the only two things that you could say I excel at. My mother usually took me back to the coastline of California during spring break and the summer so I could continue surfing. In all seriousness It was incredibly important to me, because although I wasn't as good as I had been before I moved, I was still able to hold onto something from my past.

"You're very good at it Finn; how about you show Anna how to do it?" My Dad suggested hopefully, sitting down next to Kim.

"That would be amazing!" Anna said, jumping up excitedly, "I've always wanted to know how to surf!"