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Finney doesn't really know when he first became friends with them.
It just sort of... happened.
Logically it made no sense. Finney had been a school outcast ever since his mother died. The story made its rounds about a crazy mother who chose death over her children and people accepted it; accepted that there was probably something wrong with Finney. Gwen was alright though. She'd had a bustling social life before their mother's death - and for her, the whole thing only seemed to serve to gain her pity-fulled looks from older girls in the school and sympathy from the teachers.
Whilst Finney had started to be called 'faggy', Gwen had more invitations to sleepovers than ever. Whilst Finney was being chased by three guys to see if they could kick his ribs in, Gwen had earnt herself no less than five friendship bracelets.
Finney didn't blame Gwen for getting the opposite treatment to him. He was glad. Seeing his sister getting bullied as he did would probably be his last straw. So, Finney resigned himself to a lonely life of getting beat up three times a week by the idiots at school and twice a week by his father when he was too drunk.
That was right up until he became friends with the paperboy.
–
The Paperboy was a short, blonde kid called Billy Showalter. Billy was the type of kid who never really did much. He went to school, did what he had to pass the class, ate lunch in the library despite having been told off for it a thousand times, and then walked home. He didn't get involved in fights and he wasn't loud enough for the general population of their town to have even heard of him.
The only thing to set him apart from anybody else was that he was the paperboy. Every morning he'd get up at half five in the morning and take his trusty bike and his old golden retrievers down to the office to collect the morning's papers. He went the same route every morning and earnt 2 cents for every paper he dropped off, which meant by the end of each month he had more money than the rest of the boys could dream of.
When Finney met Billy it was cold despite how the sun tried to warm the sky. A week before his father had socked him in the face for playing the TV too loud and the bruising had yet to fade away. The sun did nothing to hide the yellow-green of his cheek and it did even less to hide the slight swelling of his eye.
Billy had winced before asking him why he was standing there, outside the office, waiting to collect papers.
"Buster quit," Finney explained. "And my dad's not back at work yet so I've got to do something to help."
Billy accepted the explanation and Finney thought that was that. They'd done the polite greeting and explanations as to why they were there. They didn't need to talk any more than they already had except Billy just went right on talking to him.
Billy showed him how to toss the papers just right and advised him on which doors to avoid and which doors to be extra nice to because sometimes they'd give you a cookie. Billy even made himself late to do his own route just to make sure Finney knew what to do. Billy had, apparently, done all of the routes before so was well adversed in delivering the papers.
Their friendship was gradual. Every morning they'd greet each other and then at school they'd nod to each other. Eventually, it grew to talking at school and then sitting together for lunch. For the first time in his life, Finney wasn't just a cog in an ever-turning machine. He was someone that mattered.
–
The next boy Finney befriended was Griffin Stagg. Griffin was a different type of quiet to Finney and Billy. Griffin was so quiet that sometimes it was like he wasn't even there. He was tall and gangly and he often times was mistaken for a teacher if someone spotted him from the corner of their eye. Then, when they turned to face him, it was like he'd disappeared altogether. Most people didn't realise he was in their classes and when he did speak up people didn't realise it was him at all. They just had this thought that maybe one of the boys at the back of the class had a voice break. At lunch, Griffin sat at the corner of a table in the centre of the room but it was almost like he was part of the table itself given how nobody noticed he was there half the time.
Finney noticed Griffin though. He could see the way the boy faded into the background and was probably weeks away from deciding to disappear completely.
One day, as Finney was setting down his lunch tray beside Billy's at their table in the corner, Griffin walked past. He was blending in with the lunch crowd, no one around him even acknowledging he was there.
"Griffin," Finney called out.
All of them were surprised. Griffin, because he genuinely didn't realise anyone at the school knew his name, let alone this fluffy-haired nerd that was a quiet fixture in most of his classes. Billy, because in the time he'd known Finney he didn't know him to be the sort to make conversation with anyone let alone someone as quiet as Griffin Stagg. And well, Finney was surprised because as far as he knew he was going to go on with the rest of the school ignoring Griffin.
“Sit with us?” Finney asked because it wasn’t like he could just leave it after calling out like that.
Hesitantly Griffin had sat with them.
It was awkward at first but then Griffin had asked about Finney’s torch spaceship and Finney had rambled on about space for ten minutes and Billy had laughed. Slowly, over the course of the week, the three of them grew closer until they could all confidently say they were friends.
–
The next friend Finney made was the only one he could’ve actually foreseen becoming friends with.
–
Bruce Yamada never went to the same school as Finney. He’d always gone to the rival school across town. In elementary that wasn’t so bad. Elementary students never really have any idea about those sorts of things. In middle school, it was a little worse; the sports teams were rivals and the kids started turning their noses up at each other if they passed each other in town. By the time they got to high school, it was almost treasonous to be friends with someone from the other school. But there Finney was, making a friendship with Bruce Yamada, star baseball player of the rival school.
It started way back in middle school to be honest. Finney had the fastest throw in West Denver and Bruce had the hardest Swing of any fifteen-year-old in Colorado. Naturally, any game that had both Finney and Bruce playing always gathered crowds from all over Denver. After every game, Bruce would flash a smile at Finney.
Bruce would say, “Your arm’s still mint, man.”
And Finney would reply, “So’s yours, dude.”
And that would be that for at least another month until their next game.
Sometimes they saw each other around. Bruce would bike past and Finney would watch as he smiled at girls and they giggled in response. It happened so often, actually, that Finney began to notice that no one really talked to Bruce. At their games the boys would cheer for Bruce, they’d clap him on the back and he’d sit in the middle of them, but no one talked to him. Conversations would pass around him but he was never quite included for longer than a word here or there. In town people would smile pleasantly at him, they’d wave and greet him but no one actually stopped to talk to him.
It hurt Finney to see. It was how people treated his mother before she died. They greeted her like they were the best of friends, but then they turned away the next second. They smiled on the street but their lips pursed when she wasn’t looking. She was respectable enough that they all liked her but different enough that she wasn’t more than acquaintances with anyone. Bruce was just the same - that’s what it was like though, being the only Asian kid in town.
And so it happened that halfway through their freshman year of high school, Finney got called to the front office. He’d been called for during English and he’d shared a look with Griffin as if to say ‘what the fuck?’ before he’d gathered his things and left. He’d found Bruce in the middle of the room with a simple rucksack and a nervous smile.
“Finney Blake?” The receptionist asked.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“Alright, Finney, this is Bruce Yamada, you’re going to help show him around and get him settled today.”
“Sorry Finney, they asked me if I knew anybody here and I just thought of you,” Bruce ruffled his hair and with that charming smile of his, there was no way that Finney could be mad at him.
“That’s fine. Bruce, right?”
Bruce, surprisingly, didn’t mind that he’d been adopted into the loser's table. He joked with Billy as if they’d known each other for years and he talked to Griffin as if everything he said had weight to it. On the weekend Bruce and Finney practised ball together whilst Griffin and Billy acted as their fieldman. After school Billy biked home with Bruce whilst Griffin and Finney walked together.
Their group's friendship was thick and fast and none of them predicted the addition of Pinball Vance Hopper and Robin Arellano the next year.
Pinball Vance and Robin were known for being the toughest kids in their area. Pinball was two years older than anyone else in their year because he kept getting held back for the sheer amount of fights he got into. Robin, on the other hand, could take down boys twice his height and wasn’t afraid to beat the shit out of anyone that dared to comment on his accent. Neither of them were people you’d suspect of hanging around people like Finney Blake or Griffin Stagg or Bill Showalter.
Maybe they’d hang out with Bruce but that’s only because Bruce had a charm about him that meant everybody wanted to be his friend.
Their friendship started like this. Finney was on his way home from baseball practice when Logan and Saul Holden cornered him. Finney barely had a chance to recognise who had grabbed him before Logan had punched him in the jaw. Saul swept a leg under him so his head smacked heavily onto the concrete. Blood pooled underneath him as they kicked him over, and over, and over again. Finney didn't know why people seemed to like kicking the crap out of him but it seemed as if it was a favoured pass time of every bully in Denver. Then, as if sent by the grace of God, Robin Arellano showed up. For a second Finney feared that he'd somehow pissed off one of the toughest kids in school enough for him to personally hand out a beat down.
But, oh miracle of miracles, Robin Arellano sneered, not at Finney but at the Holden brothers. Before Finney could even question what was happening Robin had kicked both of the brothers in a place that no man should ever be kicked. After making sure they wouldn't get back up Robin offered Finney a hand.
"I hate idiots who fight for no reason, you good kid?"
Finney didn't want to point out that he was at least 3 inches taller than Robin and so, given that they were the same age, calling him ‘kid’ was kind of redundant.
"I'm good."
Robin eyed him for a second.
"You're in Miss Smith’s fifth period right?"
"Yeah?"
"You smart?"
"I guess," Finney stumbled out.
"You help me understand what the shit she means with all the numbers and letters and shit I'll stop them from beating you."
It wasn't an offer. Robin said it as a matter of fact. It was going to happen because it was going to happen. Finney could either say no and get a new bully or he could say yes and get no bullies. It was a no-brainer really.
The friendship between them grew thicker and faster than any other.
Every time that someone even looked at Finney funny Robin was there to set them straight. Thanks to Finney Robins grades were finally at a passing level. Finney told Robin about his dad and Robin told Finney about how people treated him when they heard his accent, about why he needed to become a fighter before he became another statistic. They were close in a way neither of them would ever become with the other boys, but that was their business.
–
Pinball's friendship was a little different. You see, you don't get a name like Pinball Vance for no reason.
Vance Hopper was known for growing up with no parents around. His mother was the type of woman people always spoke of frequently but never actually invited to their house. She wasn't good enough for their dinner parties (which were never actually that fancy, to begin with) and she wasn’t good enough for them to do more than a tight-lipped smile when they saw her at the supermarket.
Vance's father was a deadbeat that was rumoured to be in jail or in California living the high life. The only real thing anybody knew about the man was that he arrived in town one morning and was gone by the end of the week, only leaving behind a teenage Jessica Hopper, who had lost all her respectability in a one-week romance.
Vance had been an alright kid at the start of it all. He’d gone to the same pre-K as everyone else and had done just fine for the first two years of elementary, and then fucking Tommy J Tucker had said loudly,
“My mummy says your mummy’s a dirty girl who sleeps with boys for money!”
Vance had his first suspension that day as well as his first broken finger bone. Tommy Tucker moved schools one year later due to repeated bullying.
From then on Vance stopped trying. He pushed anyone that he thought looked at him funny and he beat anyone that even thought of his mother. He stopped paying attention in class when he heard Julie Sanders say that studying was for teachers’ pets because the last thing he ever wanted was to belong to someone else.
He had to repeat his last year of middle school because of his ‘behaviour’. It was all bullshit to him. The only thing keeping him sane at that point was his namesake.
Pinball. Vance Pinball. Pinball Vance. When he was eight his mother had taken him down to the corner store and given him a couple of coins. She pointed him to the pinball machine in the corner and told him to calm the fuck down. Vance stood at that machine for hours because it was the only thing he was good at.
He wasn’t good at being nice. He wasn’t good at school. He’d always been terrible at sports. But, this? This he could do. So he went there after school. Every week in the summer. He threatened kids for coins and he was the fucking best at Pinball. When kids started calling him Pinball he took the name with pride, because fuck yes, he was Pinball Vance Hopper, the toughest kid in Denver and the one true champion of Pinball.
So why would a kid like Pinball Vance be friends with a kid like Finney Blake?
Finney had been at the corner store buying chocolate for Gwen when he heard a commotion from the corner. Vance stood there, next to the Pinball machine, like always. His aggressive swears and shouts could be heard throughout the whole store as he shook the arcade machine.
Like he had a sixth sense, he whipped around and narrowed his eyes at Finney.
“The fuck are you looking at Shrimp?” Vance spat at the younger boy.
“Nothing,” Finney managed to respond.
“What? You think you can do better than me at this game? You think you’re better than me?”
“No, never.”
Finney couldn’t help but think that he had just royally fucked up, he’d managed to make Pinball Vance mad at him. Not even Robin could keep Finney safe from Vance if Vance chose to kill him. It wasn’t like anything would stop him. Everyone knew that Pinball Vance was as familiar with the inside of a police car as he was with his own home.
“I’ll show you,” Vance glared, “I’ll fucking beat my high score right now.”
If Finney was a dumber man he would’ve laughed. Vance had gotten his last high score two summers ago and ever since had been trying to beat it. He never even got within a hundred points of doing so. Many people had mentioned it to him and many had been forced to watch him try to attempt to beat his high score. Many people had also broken their noses and had been beaten so bad that their own mothers didn’t recognise them.
“Watch, shrimp.”
So Finney dutifully stood next to Vance Hopper and watched him play pinball as he waited for the inevitable pummeling he’d have earnt just for existing.
Except Vance did it. He beat his high score. This was the moment he’d been waiting for for two years and the only person here to see it was some kid. But maybe, maybe that’s what made it different.
“Shrimp, what’s your name?” Vance spat.
“Finney Blake?”
“Finney Blake…” Vance thought it over, “You lucky?”
“What?”
“Are you fucking lucky? I’ve been trying that for two years and not once have I come close, and now some shrimp’s here and it works.”
Finney stepped back slightly as Vance narrowed his eyes at him. Vance didn’t let him get far though.
“I needed a good luck charm,” Vance smiled viciously, “Welcome to the beginning of your pathetic little life, Finney Blake.”
–
Somehow they all meshed together. Griffin and Billy would volunteer to be fieldmen for Bruce and Finney. Finney helped Robin study and eventually ended up helping Vance a bit too (although those study sessions only lasted for twenty minutes at most before Vance started looking too murderous). Bruce taught Griffin how to be seen when he didn’t want to. Robin spent most of his time telling them how to curse in Spanish and he seemingly formed a bond with Vance as they both agreed that Finney needed to be protected.
They were an odd group, that was definite.
In no world did a paperboy, a loner, a ladies man, a fighter and a criminal all join together due to their linked friendship with somebody like Finney Blake. But here they were, friends with closer bonds than anyone else they knew.