Day Twenty-Three

Last night's final count: 38,005. (It shows up as partly today's work in my NaNo chart, because I posted it at 12:30am, but I consider that yesterday.) Today's goal according to the 1667-words-a-day calendar is 38,341, but I'm already well past that, so I changed the goal to an even 40k. If I make that, I'll have Monday complete tonight.

I also posted that cool little counter widget - see it up there on the top right? It takes my word-count data straight from the NaNo database, so if you want to know where I am RIGHT NOW, that will tell you. (Provided you press ctrl F5, because sometimes it's a little reluctant to update.)

“Why do you think he’ll be helpful to me?”

“He was helpful to me,” he said simply, and didn’t elaborate.

I wasn’t convinced. “About what?”

Though I wouldn’t have quite called it a death glare, the look Fin gave me told me I should shut my mouth immediately if not earlier. Wondering what I’d poked my nose into, I faced the seat in front of me and didn’t say another word.

It must have been pretty serious, I thought to myself, to bother Fin so much. I’d been impressed more than once by how calm he was no matter what was going on around him, whether he was pulling me out of the pond after I’d been attacked by crows, or explaining himself to me in the cafeteria after my friends had been so mean to him. The thought of something awful enough to alarm Fin scared me.

I risked a quick sideways glance at him through my hair, but he looked completely calm once again, like nothing had ever happened. I was reminded of a pond when a rock has been dropped in – it ripples, but once it stops, you would never know there had ever been a rock. Of course, you’ll probably also never see the rock again. I had dropped that rock in with my eyes closed, and now I wanted to know what it looked like, but I didn’t dare go searching for it.