So, just so we're clear: Finnmanada pairing, and Finnby friendship. We clear? Good. Enjoy.

Helpful Advice

"Okay, so why are we here?" Philby asked, swirling his spoon in his mint ice cream and observing the stuff as it slowly began to melt. Finn had asked him to meet at the Frozen Marble under mysterious pretences.

"Well ... I need your help," Finn admitted, keeping his eyes trained on his concoction.

Philby raised an eyebrow. "I kind of guessed that," he remarked, "but with what?"

Finn fiddled with his spoon, twirling it around in his fingers. "It's, um ... it's ... Amanda," he mumbled.

This time both of Philby's eyebrows shot up. "You're asking me ... for girl advice? What about Maybeck, Mr. Womanizer Extraordinaire?"

Finn shrugged and pondered. "I dunno ... Maybeck seems like he tries too hard. You've got all the girls wanting to crawl all over you, but it looks like you don't even care."

It was true. Girls were constantly vying for Philby's attention, some more forcefully than others. His smarts, humour, adorable accent and quirky good looks seemed to enthral the opposite gender, and they certainly let him know. The same was not true, however, for the guys in Philby's grade: they were jealous of him, and wished he'd take himself off the market so that they could have a chance. This annoyed Philby, because he already considered himself as "off the market" anyways: he wasn't interested in a relationship. He had been too busy even beforehand, and then the Keeper stuff had started. But that didn't mean he couldn't do some backseat driving for a friend in need.

He shrugged, smirking. "True enough. But really, why do you need help with Amanda? She likes you, Finn. She really does."

Finn's eyes widened. "Really? You think?"

"I know. She'd do anything for you. So ..." Philby rolled his eyes, "can you tell me the actual problem now? It'll be a lot easier for me to help you if I can get some specifics."

Finn sighed. "Well, there's this dance coming up and ..."

Philby smacked the table, startling both Finn and the people occupying the surrounding booths. "Finn, of course she's going to say yes!"

Finn nodded slowly before saying, "Okay, but ... see, I don't want to just ask her. I want it to be ... special, like, memorable and stuff."

He stared intently at Philby as the latter tipped back in his chair and tapped his chin, nodding, "Hmm ... I see what you mean there ..."

Finn tried his best to wait patiently, though his friend sat there, deep in thought, for at least five or six straight minutes. Giving up, Finn's eyes glazed over and he began drumming his fingers on the fake-marble tabletop, but he snapped out of his daze when Philby asked abruptly, "You're good at art, right?"

"Huh?"

"Like, drawing and stuff?"

"Um, not really, I mean, I sketch sometimes but ..."

Philby nodded his head sharply. "Then it's simple," he said. "Use the Napoleon Dynamite approach."

"The what-now?"

Philby sighed, frustrated. "Look, I've been thinking of all the books I've read and movies I've seen dealing with the subject, and Napoleon Dynamite, despite being a pretty dumb movie in general, did have a pretty neat way to ask a girl out."

Finn opted to take a bite of his ice cream then, the first, actually, that either of them had had. Through his mouthful, he asked thickly, "And that was ...?"

"Napoleon drew a portrait of the girl, Trisha, and attached a note asking her to the dance," Philby explained.

"Hm. I like that. It's pretty cool ..." Finn stopped suddenly. "Wait a minute. The guy in the movie, didn't he end up getting stood up?" he added apprehensively.

"Well ... yeah, but the girl he asked was a jerk anyway, and he didn't even know her to start with. You know Amanda wouldn't do that." He paused, "You know, you're really lucky to have these circumstances- I mean, it's good that she's a DHI. With all this stuff going on, I couldn't keep a girlfriend if I wanted to... which I don't," he tacked on hastefully.

"Hmm ..." mumbled Finn, already planning out the drawing and the note he would attach. Pastels would be too messy...

Philby deduced that he wouldn't be getting much more out of Finn. "Are we done here?" he asked, standing up and putting on his backpack.

"Yeah, sure," replied Finn, picking up the remnants of his ice cream so that he could throw them out.

As Philby neared the exit door, he heard Finn call him.

"Hey, Philby?"

He turned slightly. "Yeah?"

"Thanks a lot," Finn grinned.

"Hey," Philby chuckled. "What are friends for?"

There you have it, guys. Okay, I'd like concrit here if you could, because when I wrote it and re-read it ... I thought that the first part, at least, read like a tennis match. I have a hard time with dialogue and action really, because I keep wanting to insert purple-prose and centric, and then it gets all laggy and slow ...

Anyways: This could be a two-to-four chapter ficlet. Would you guys like to see:
-Amanda's reaction to Finn's drawing
-Finn panicking just before the dance, asking Philby this time for kissing advice
-The actual dance?

Happy reading and reviewing!
DHF out.