by S. K Munt
‘Yeah. It’s amazing how many friends my sister can produce when she has cute boys and booze to hand out instead of party bags,’ Hadley snapped, getting up abruptly from her seat and stomping off, leaving Finn hovering over her chair, grasping her can of plain coke and wondering if it was possible to vomit up emotions.
Oh, come on! Finn thought, thinking how unfair it was to be snubbed like a Cling by the cool girls, but also snubbed like a cool girl by a fellow loner. Does she seriously think I’m using Paige too? But we’ve been friends since the third grade, and I don’t even drink!
Finn glanced over at the others, trying to see if anyone else had witnessed her being rejected yet again, but her eyes had fogged over, so she got up, put her coke down and dashed across the backyard, barrelling blindly through the scraggly bush that lined the perimeter of the property while hoping that the Hive girls were too busy fawning over the guy they were now crowding around to see her go. Her hair got snagged on a knot of sagging barbed wire, but she made it through the limp fence without slicing herself open, crossed the fire break, and then emerged on the other side of another line of paperbark trees, which were glowing like ghostly guards in the muted light.
What’s wrong with me? Finn sniffled to contain a sob as she glanced back to make sure that no one had followed her or had made a joke regarding her fleeing. She couldn’t see anything though, but the line of multi-coloured party lights that had been strung from the roof of the patio. Why doesn’t anyone ever want to hang out with me?
By the time she’d gotten to the lip of the quarry, which looked like a yawning black mouth rimmed by sharp, grey teeth, Finn was pressing one hand to her heart, like it and her lungs were knotted muscles that she needed to rub the ache out of. But the tears had rolled clear from her eyes and down her cheeks already, so when a duet of shooting stars soared by overhead, she saw them perfectly, and her gasp of anguish instantly became one of awe. She’d done a lot of stargazing in her short life, but never had she seen two fly past in tandem before, and she knew she might never see it again! Or ever have the chance to make two WISHES at once again!
I wish to be beautiful and powerful! Finn had to bite her lip to keep herself from screaming her wishes to the heavens and when a third blazed by, she closed her eyes, tilted her face up and thought: And I wish to be beloved- like no one else ever has been before!
‘Far out!’ a voice exclaimed then, and Finn jumped, terrified that one of the kids from school had followed her to torment her. But when the voice spoke again it was distinctive for two reasons: because it was unfamiliar, and because it was husky- like he’d been bellowing all night. ‘Did you see that meteor? It was on fire!’ Finn sniffled and tried to pull herself together as she heard the boy hurry closer. ‘Reckon we’d find it, if we went down for a look?’
Finn sneakily side-eyed the boy, trying to work out who it was while she swiped at her wet eyelashes. It was too dark to see much and he was wearing a bulky jacket and a hat, which kept both his face and his figure concealed by shadows, but he was shorter than Finn which indicated that he was younger too. And because she didn’t recognise his voice, she assumed he was one of the cousins.
‘Doubt it…’ Finn sat down on the edge of the quarry, dangling her legs over the side. ‘At the speed that was traveling, I’ll bet it made it halfway across the state.’
‘Damn.’ The boy crouched beside her. ‘Oh well, at least I got to see it. Man! I kept trying to get someone to come out here to watch this with me, but no one was keen, so I thought I was gonna miss out. But then I saw you slip away and thought: Finally!’ Finn watched in surprise as the boy unfolded himself beside her, and then asked brightly: ‘Have you heard all the conspiracy theories about this shower? That the world’s gonna end tonight, but the government’s keeping it quiet so there’s no mass panic?’
‘Um…no.’ Finn sniffled. ‘Who’s saying that?’
‘You know… those people that are into prepping and stuff.’
‘Ah,’ Finn said, nodding, ‘those people...’ She personally thought preppers were nuts, but the boy seemed like he was into it, so she asked conversationally: ‘Why are they so worried?’
‘Well, this shower only started popping up on the radar or whatever a few days ago,’ the boy said, ‘and that’s weird, because they’re usually an annual thing, you know? So, they’re wondering where it’s come from like; did a Supernova explode or what?’
Finn felt a delicious thrill run through her- like the kind she got when she read a really creepy ghost story. ‘Cool,’ she said momentarily seduced by the idea of a world without school, cliques or money, because that would solve pretty much all of her problems. ‘Sounds like something out of a book…’
‘That’s right, you’re a big reader- and a dancer too... yeah?’
Finn blinked at the boy. She wasn’t a dancer, because her mum couldn’t afford lessons, but next to reading, it was her second favourite thing in the world to do. ‘How did you know that?’
The boy scrunched up his face a little, re-arranging the shadows that still concealed his features before he eventually crowed: ‘Oh… I see how it is!’ He crossed his arms in front of his chest and cocked his head to the side. ‘You don’t remember me, do you?’
Finn squirmed. ‘Should I?’
‘Well, we’ve met like, four times before, you know, Finn Monroe!’ He nudged her with his shoulder, then uncrossed his arms. ‘I’m Reeve, remember? Paige’s favourite-ist cousin, from the Hayes’ side, not the Burnett or Pilkes?’ He pointed over to the pile of concrete pipes, which had been sitting beside the firebreak since the quarry had shut down years before. ‘We played tiggy in those at her party once… and then had a dance-off with Uncle Cal...? You were the best, but we let him win because he wanted it so bad…?’
‘Reeve…’ Finn murmured, having a flash memory of a pale, skinny kid with big ears, freckles- and a loudmouth. ‘Right! You’re the hyper one that Paige calls Ratbag, yeah? Fondly, that is…?’
‘Ha!’ Reeve threw back his head and laughed. ‘Nice. Is that what you girls are saying? That Bailey’s the suave one, Cam is the dangerous one- and I’m the ratbag?’
‘I’m not one of the girls, so I don’t know what they’re saying,’ Finn said, pitying the kid because yes, she was pretty sure that Bailey Burnett, who as from one of the married-in branches of the family, was the one the girls had been trying to inch closer to all night. ‘But to be fair, I don’t know who Bailey and Cam are either so…’
But Reeve shrugged and waved one hand at the void before them. ‘It’s fine. In fact, where we come from, Bailey’s usually the loner, so I’m cool with him getting all the attention tonight.’ He made another face. ‘I could strangle everyone for trying to push me and Michelle together though. She’s pretty, but man, she is cold.’
Finn winced. ‘Shelly rejected you?’
‘Yep.’ Reeve snorted. ‘I don’t care because I wasn’t into her either- but she could have been nicer about it...’
‘Sorry,’ Finn sighed. ‘I’m not surprised though. Shelly is nice but she’s into older guys and you’re what...eleven?’
‘I’ll be thirteen in three weeks,’ Reeve groused, ‘so I’m a year younger than you ninth graders- not a decade.’
‘I don’t turn fourteen for nearly four weeks,’ Finn smiled. ‘So, if it makes you feel better, you’re not quite a year younger than me.’
‘Oh baby!’ Reeve drawled, nudging her with his shoulder again. ‘Is that your way of asking me to make out with you under the stars?’
‘No!’ Finn scoffed, but she got to her feet, unnerved by his proximity now. Reeve seemed fun, and she got the feeling that he was the type who flirted with everybody, so there was no reason for her to take it personally. But if anyone saw them and assumed she was flirting back, she knew she’d never hear the end of what a pathetic, cradle-robbing slut she was, especially if he’d been ear-marked for Shelly by Cara, who prided herself on her match-making skills. ‘I’m here for the star
s, just like you are.’
‘Technically I’m here for the rocks,’ Reeve said, getting to his feet to follow her. ‘The odds of finding a real meteorite are slim, but it’s more likely tonight than any other night, don’t you think?’
‘For sure,’ Finn leapt up onto the closest concrete pipe and grinned to discover that it was easier now, meaning that she must have gotten a little bit taller since she’d last tried. ‘So…rocks, hey?’ She adjusted her top to make sure her sports bra wasn’t showing from beneath. ‘Gonna be a geologist when you grow up or something?’
‘Nah- I’ll be a cattle farmer, like the rest of my family is. I just collect the special ones for fun- like this one I found earlier: here,’ he held the rock out to her, and Finn stooped to take it, marvelling at how smooth it was, and how warm the oddly shaped stone felt in her hand. ‘It’s quartz, and perfectly smooth, see? Looked like glass in the sun...’
‘Suave,’ Finn said, tracing the tip of one of her fingers around its rounded edge before handing it back. ‘It’s kind of shaped like a heart, hey? An uneven heart, but a heart all the same.’
‘You keep it,’ he said. ‘I have millions just like it from all the times I’ve visited Paige.’ He leaned on his elbows against the pipe and lifted an eyebrow in a suggestive salute as she shrugged and pocketed the stone, slipping it under her phone. ‘And hey, maybe next time we meet, you’ll remember me as the ratbag who gave you his wonky stone heart, hmm?’
Finn chuckled, thinking that she’d remember him for sure fondly even- for distracting her from her misery. ‘Deal,’ she said softly, then pointed to another star as it burned a path through the sky. ‘There’s another! Stunning, isn’t it?’
‘Prettiest thing I’ve ever seen...’ Reeve said softly, and when Finn looked down at him, she saw that his teeth were bared at her in a wolfish grin, gleaming in the moonlight. ‘Hey! Wanna hear another conspiracy theory?’ He nodded out at the darkness. ‘See those lights all the way out there? Behind the creek in that valley...?’
‘Sure,’ Finn said, not really having to look to know what he was talking about because there was only one set of lights visible between them and the silhouette of the mountains. ‘What about them?’
‘Well rumour has it that they’re building an asylum out there!’
But Finn laughed. ‘Sorry to burst your bubble, but though that is a construction site, it’s for a fancy spa- not a nuthouse.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Because I live on the Peninsula, so I’ve heard a lot of the farmers whining about having their land bought out in the valley behind it.’ She paused. ‘Besides, the billionaire doing it, Amory Laidlaw, is the same guy dating Cara’s older sister, Miriam, so Cara brags about it all the time.’
‘That brat’s sister is dating a billionaire?’ Reeve’s eyebrows shot up. ‘How’d she manage that?!’
‘They met when she was on schoolies last year and staying in some fancy hotel. And I’m not surprised she snagged him, because she’s perfect,’ Finn said wistfully. ‘Like, in every way. I’d say I want to be like her one day, but she’s studying to be an architect and that’s not my thing so...’
‘So, what are you gonna be instead?’
Finn sat down on the edge of the pipe. ‘Beats me. Maybe a writer?’ Finn shrugged. ‘It’s not something I’ve given much thought.’
‘How come?’
‘Because Finn’s a dreamer, not a doer…’ a third voice drawled then, and Finn looked over her shoulder and stiffened when she saw a tall, pale figure emerge from the fire break: Shelly. ‘She’ll try every path going before she follows one all the way through.’
‘Gee, thanks Shelly,’ Finn said, sliding off the edge of the pipe before leaning over it, using it like a barricade. ‘Nice to know you still think about me... even if it is to write me off as being flighty...’
‘What are you on about?’ Shelly slurred. Her hair and complexion were so pale that she glowed in the darkness as brightly as the paperbark trees behind her did. Like the silvery ribbons on Cara’s rejected present; however, her hair had lost a lot of its curl and its shine by then and looked as listless as Finn’s probably did. ‘We hang out every day...’
‘You tolerate me every day,’ Finn pointed out. ‘That’s not quite the same as hanging out with me, is it? Or listening when we talk?’
‘Well, if you listened to me, you’d know I go by Michelle now, not Shelly... wouldn’t you?’ Michelle demanded. Her features were all small, delicate and slightly upturned enough for her to qualify as being a beauty, but only when she smiled. For when her face was at rest or pursed in anger, like it was then, her pale, over-arched brows and sharp features gave her a haughty look that was off-putting, reminding Finn too much of Shelly’s mother, who was the kind of woman who terrorised P&C meetings and grounded her children for getting B’s on report cards.
‘Um…’ Reeve stepped back, ‘should I go or…?’
‘No,’ Finn snapped, just as Michelle exclaimed: ‘Yes!’ And Reeve looked from Michelle to her, before taking a tentative step in Finn’s direction, which was encouraging enough to make Finn say: ‘If Shelly doesn’t want to be around you, then it’s Shelly that needs to leave,’ Finn knew that her attitude wasn’t going to help preserve their threadbare friendship, but she couldn’t stand for Shelly treating Reeve the way Cara treated Finn- like a Cling. Besides, if Michelle wrote Finn off for standing up for herself for the first time in two years, then she’d only prove what a Cara she’d become, since she’d stopped being Shelly. ‘Maybe you’re okay with people feeling lonely at parties but-’
‘It’s not my fault that you felt lonely at a party that you weren’t even invited to!’ Michelle released the words like she’d been holding them in all night, and so they ricocheted off the quarry walls like bullets. ‘Just like it’s not my fault that no one likes you, okay?’
Stricken, Finn recoiled, while Michelle shrank back, looking as shocked as Finn felt. Oh my God! Who IS she now?!
‘I didn’t m-mean that Finny…’ Michelle mumbled quickly, stumbling closer with her hand outstretched, like she was grasping to pluck her words back out of the air between them. ‘I just meant that sometimes, you make being your friend so hard, you know...?’
Finn hadn’t known that, and her heart petrified like the stone in her pocket to hear it- especially in front of Reeve, who looked mortified on all of their behalf’s. But before she could react, the air lit up to the left of her like someone had pressed skip back on the night, forcing the sun to pop back up over the Western horizon before a BOOM sound filled the air; one that was followed by a burst of energy so violent that the force of it sent Finn hurtling into Reeve’s side so hard that it half knocked the wind out of her. Reeve caught her, slowing her inertia before they could hit the ground, but the ground began to shake before they could find their footing. Gasping, Finn disentangled herself before ducking into a crouch then steadied Reeve so he could do the same while Shelly squealed.
‘Oh my god!’ Shelly pitched forward awkwardly in her long skirt, then pushed up onto her elbows: ‘Is this an earthquake?!’
‘No- you probably just caused an avalanche with your screeching!’ Reeve stabbed his index finger in the air and pointed southwest. ‘That whole shelf is coming down- look!’
Finn twisted around and then yelped and immediately began to rise back up to her feet when she saw that Reeve was right, and a section of the quarry almost a hundred metres wide had started sliding down to the inky darkness below, churning up a cloud of dust thick enough to resemble smoke. She could hear multiple voices yelling and screaming from Paige’s place too, but before she could move, another bolide whizzed in their direction and exploded against the crumbling quarry wall in a shower of sparks, and though Finn was sure, that one had been even louder, her ears were still ringing too much from the first crash to be certain.
‘Reeve wait!’ she grabbed the boy’s shoulders and forcefully twisted him so that he was looking up into the s
ky instead of behind them- at the hundreds of tiny fireballs that had perforated the blackness and were now blazing a path in their direction. ‘It wasn’t an avalanche- it’s a meteorite strike! And there’s more coming, see?! They must be too big to burn up in the atmosphere!’
‘Whoa!’ Michelle got to her knees. ‘I need to take a photo of-’
‘For what?!’ Reeve demanded, as Michelle fussed with her phone, oblivious to the danger they were in. ‘A news story that says: Idiot teenagers killed taking selfie with fireball?!’
‘Hey…!’ Michelle’s forehead creased and she looked up at Finn, who was dragging Reeve by the sleeve with one hand, while beckoning to Michelle to follow with the other. ‘My phone’s dead!’
‘We’ve got bigger issues!’ Finn’s voice pitched with hysteria when she saw that her limbs were being flecked with particles of ash that actually burned. ‘Like finding shelter!’
‘It shouldn’t be flat though! I had half a battery a minute ago-’ but Shelly screamed a bloodcurdling scream then, and when Finn spun back to look, felt every cell in her body pixelate when she saw what Michelle had seen: a fireball twice the size of the midday sun soaring their way and roaring like a dragon.
Oh my god… Finn felt as though her very soul had lifted from her body, leaving her entire being burning with a fatal case of pins and needles. What is that thing?!
For a few seconds, the night was brighter than any day had ever been before, and Finn could see every part of the countryside before her, illuminated but without contrast; the hulking mass of the Peninsula to the far right, the metallic sheen of Reliance Creek in the valley behind it, every rocky hill she’d pedalled over on the way there and finally, the quarry below, which had been cut with precision into steps in some places but was crumbly and uneven in others. Finn dragged her horrified gaze back up to the swelling meteor, wondering if it was the last thing she was ever going to see, but it was like looking directly into a welder’s flame, so she cried out a beat later and shielded her eyes, twisting and curling up as much as she could as she felt its radiant heat melting her.
