When Vance woke up, Sarah scared him half to death.

"Sheeps." he stared at her in shock as she leaned right above him, staring down at him. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Watching you sleep." she said back, blinking just once.

"Why?" his eyebrows knitted together.

Sarah shrugged. "I like you."

"Remove your creepy self off me." Vance shoved her as he sat up. "How long have you been awake?"

Sarah exhaled. "Not sure. I heard your Mom come back."

"So, you've been staring at me for a few hours." he nodded, looking at the clock. "You creep me out, man."

"You creep me out, man." she agreed with him. "I have to get home, Bingo probably didn't sleep without me."

Vance sighed as he leaned back. "Do I have to walk you?"

"No, I just gotta go get him and go babysit." Sarah found her shoes. "You wanna visit Finney and Gwen?"

"Oh my god." Vance shook his head. "Absolutely not."

"Gwen likes you, though." Sarah smiled, tying the blue vans her Dad recently had gotten her. "And Finney....he'll get there. He doesn't hate anyone."

"He hates me." Vance nodded his head. "Every time i'm not looking, he's plotting my death. I can feel it."

"He is not. He's not a violent person." Sarah turned. "Give me a kiss. I have to go."

Vance sat up to kiss her. "Call me if your Dad finds anything out."

"I will." she had to kiss him one more time with a grin. "See ya."

"Bye, Sheeps." he gave a minor wave before falling back on his bed, to likely go to sleep. Sarah snuck out of the house, being quiet enough not to wake up Leslie just down the hallway.

It was already hot, the sun beating down on her as she walked a couple blocks to change her clothes and get Bingo. Usually Terence hated animals, but he'd already be gone by the time Sarah got there. Her fist knocked at the door, not even fully being able to lower her wrist before it swung open. "Hey, Sarah."

"Hey, Finney." she smiled at him. "Having a good morning?"

"Oh, yeah." he opened the door wider for her to walk in. "My Dad left super early so I got up and worked on my rocket. Wanna see it?"

"Yeah." she let Bingo off his leash as they walked to his room in the back, a half built rocket in the middle of it. "Woah, look at you! You did all of this alone?"

"Yup!" his face lit up. "Well, Gwen had to hold it in place for a few minutes."

"So, what's left?" Sarah shrugged. "Where is Gwen?"

"Oh, she left to go to Amy's for the day. I forgot to tell her you were coming over." he lied to her, grabbing his notebook. "Well, all I have left it to build the top and put an astronaut inside. And then to make it fly, of course."

"Oh, of course." she mocked him, but he had no idea. "You have the supplies yet?"

"Not yet." he shook his head. "I have to do a lot of more chores before."

"That's stupid, come on." Sarah waved him over. "We'll go get them right now. I'll tell your Dad it was an early birthday gift."

"Our birthday isn't until January." he gave her a knowing look.

"So an extra early birthday gift." she shrugged her shoulders. "I've gotta get a couple things before having to tutor all those baseball boys, anyways. I can't believe you're not gonna come with me and Vance."

"I don't know high school stuff." Finney defended himself. "Can I walk Bingo?"

"Yup." she got him hooked to the leash, letting Finney hold it as he reached and took her hand with the other. She gave him a questionable look.

Finney shrugged his shoulders. "A car could run us over."

"Very true." Sarah held his hand anyways. "You excited for school?"

"No." he rolled his eyes. "Are you?"

"Yeah." Sarah shrugged. "Why aren't you excited? You love school!"

"Yeah, but then I have to deal with Matty and all those rude guys again." he exhaled with a shake of his head. "They're so annoying."

"That little redhead asshole?" Sarah only knew of that one by face, she didn't know what the other two looked like. Finney nodded. "You threw a pretty good punch at your baseball game. I bet you could take them."

"All three of them?" Finney gave her a look of disbelief. "That hurt so bad!"

"Right?" Sarah agreed as they looked both ways before crossing the street. "I didn't wanna say anything because I didn't want to look weak infront of Vance and Robin, but it was like my hand was going through a meat grinder."

"Gross!" Finney laughed and cringed at the same time. "Sarah, when Gwen gets old enough to not need a babysitter anymore, are you still gonna hang out with us?"

"Duh. Why wouldn't I?" she gave him a wild look as they approached the hardware store.

"I don't know. You're getting old." he shrugged as she gave an offended look. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, but you guys are still my friends." Sarah defended the matter. "You think i'm too old to hang out with you?"

"Psh, no." Finney shook his head. "But, what if you get a bunch of friends and wanna hang out with them instead?"

"I'll still make time to hang out with you." she wasn't sure where all this was coming from but started to worry as he kept bringing it up. "What's on your mind?"

"Robin told me that you didn't get into your school." he gave her a side glance but avoided eye contact completely. "And I think you're a liar."

"A liar?" she gapped with a laugh.

"Yeah, a real liar!" he tried to be really serious, but she clearly couldn't take him that way because of her laugher. "I'm serious! Sarah, i'm serious."

"I wanted to stay here." she shrugged her shoulders. "I'll go there another time."

"When?" Finney rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you lied to Robin. And he hates liars. He's gonna find out, and then he's gonna kick your ass."

"Finney, I had to carry Robin out of his house. I really don't think he can kick my ass." she told him with an honest look, using her free hand to open up the door as he walked in with Bingo first, pulling her to go along with them. "Plus, he's not gonna find out. Because you're not gonna tell him."

"I'm not?" he tired to seem tough but one look and he sighed. "I'm not."

"We'll go together when you're old enough." Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "Let this year pass and then me, you, and Gwen will go. Sound fun?"

"What about Vance Hopper?" the way he said his name was in bitterness, Sarah tried not to laugh.

"We'll probably break up when he gets sick of me." Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "I think he just think i'm cute."

"What?" Finney gave her a crazy look as he found what he needed. "I thought y'all were in love?"

"He use to think I was a little boy." Sarah exhaled with a roll of her eyes. "Remember middle school? We had a class together and he told me he actually thought I was a little boy that moved away."

"Well, you do look different. You never looked like a boy, though." he defended Vance without realizing it. "So, you think that if you still looked like that he wouldn't like you?"

"Nu-uh, I know he wouldn't." Sarah shook her head. "But, couldn't say I blame him. I don't think anyone liked me back then, let alone Vance Hopper."

Finney did. He gave a hesitant look. "I can tell that Vance really likes you. Not just because he thinks you're cute. I don't think you need to worry, Sarah. He'd probably have liked you if he got to know you back then. If he does break up with you....i'll send Robin after him to set his hair on fire."

"He's already tried." Sarah had to snort as they walked toward the counter. "Thanks Finney."

"You know." he shrugged his shoulders, setting the few things they needed on the counter. "Finney the Matchmaker."

"Finney the Matchmaker." Sarah confirmed.

"Hey, kids." the cash registers voice was painfully familiar, it struck something in Sarah. She didn't know what it was or where she'd heard it. She stared at him, but nothing was familiar at all. He had gentle eyes, looking at the pair. "Is this all?"

"That's all." Sarah smiled as she pulled out her wallet.

"You two doing something special?" he asked them, going rather slow as he scanned them.

"We're building a rocket." Finney smiled. "A little one."

"A rocket?" he gasped. "How cool is that!"

Finney and Sarah both gave a grin at the goofy tone of his voice, side eying each other. Sarah paid as Finney took the bag. "Thanks!"

"See you soon, kids!" he waved to them as they both waved over their shoulders, Bingo following them as Finney gripped his lesh tighter.

"I'm glad we got to hang out." Finney smiled to Sarah as he took her hand again.

"Aw, me too." Sarah smiled as they tried to leave, but Bingo yanked on Finneys arm and was smelling at the tire on a truck. "Bingo, let's go!"

He started to bark up a storm, sniffing and scratching at the truck. Sarah panicked his toenails would scratch it. "Bingo, no! No!"

He barked loudly, Finney gave a worried look. "Whats wrong with him?"

"Don't know." Sarah lifted Bingo with a huff. "Let's get out of here."

But, dogs had better senses then humans did. Sarah and Finney didn't catch the scent of Billy Showalter on something in the back of the truck. Only Bingo did, he just had no way of telling them.

•

kylie speaks

have i projected my younger self
onto finney bc i use to have a thing for my babysitter who was named sarah and she had a mean bf that i hoped she'd leave me for even though i was eight and she was sixteen? yes. yes, i absolutely do.