The Kids Aren't Alright

Chapter 26: Finn

"Becca," Clancey says. He looks far more baffled by her appearance than mine, and a little apprehensive, too. "What are you doing here?"

She strides over to my side. "I'm with Finn."

"Seriously? He's your choice of company?"

"A better choice than most."

I'm expecting Clancey to look angry or offended by this, but all he does is smile. There's a gap between his front teeth that I hadn't noticied before. "More target practice, then."

"Actually, I think you're done practicing for the day." Becca sticks her hand out. "Give me the BB gun. I won't ask again."

"Ooh, I'm scared now."

"I'm not joking. Give me the gun or I'll take it from you myself."

"This piece cost me twenty bucks. I had to save up for an entire summer to buy it. What makes you think that I'm just going to give it to you?"

Becca shrugs. "Because otherwise I'll just do this."

And she walks over and takes the gun out of his hand.

I don't know how it happened. I couldn't try to explain it if I tried. It all happened so fast that I don't think any of us were expecting it— Clancey included. Somehow, in one moment, Clancey was still pointing the gun at my head, and the next moment Becca was holding it instead. There wasn't a fight. There wasn't a struggle. She just walked up and took the gun, as if she could already see Clancey's reaction and knew exactly how to sidestep it.

"Don't worry; you'll get it back," Becca says. Clancey's shocked expression turns hopeful— until Becca swings the BB gun like a baseball bat, shattering the plastic casing against a tree.

Becca drops the broken pieces on the ground and kicks them back towards their owner. "Just not in one piece."

The ensuing silence is louder than anything I've ever heard. Clancey looks too livid to speak; Eric and Sean too surprised. Becca just stands there, smiling and patient, waiting for the three boys to get their voices back.

Clancey is the first one to break the silence. "Fuck you," he says. He doesn't shout, but the raw anger in his voice is powerful enough to make me flinch. "That cost me twenty dollars, bitch."

"Really? That's the best insult you can think of?" Becca feigns a yawn. "You'd think that all that silence would have given you some time to think of a proper comeback."

"I'll— I'll kill you."

"You can try, but I doubt that you'll get very far."

"Are you threatening me?" Clancey blusters.

"A threat implies that I am not going to make good on what I just said. So no, I am not threatening you. I am telling you, in advance, that you are going to be incredibly sorry if you ever try to hurt me, or Finn, again."

I feel myself stand up a little straighter after she says this; because I've got to say, it feels pretty damn cool to have someone as badass as Becca Fisher on my side.

Becca lifts her face up to the treetops. "Looks like rain."

As if on cue, there's a rumble of thunder in the distance.

Clancey sways like he's about to take a step forward, but then he thinks better of it and stays where he is. "You have some nerve talking to me like that, Fisher."

"Maybe. Maybe not." Becca smiles thinly. "Do you even know why I was sent to this summer camp?"

He snarls wordlessly.