Heron Lake Plateau awaiting your mistake

He'd been laying low since his encounter with Finley, partly through his own choice and also because his one ally (Niamh) had been disinterested in him following the sudden encounter. If this was what it felt like to be back among his family, Screech wondered if he'd be better off cutting ties and chasing after his friend Redshank - the other boy seemed to have a good idea when he'd booked it for the coast. Alas, Screech wasn't ready to do that. He didn't want to lose, and most of all, he was adamant that the Blackthorn kids (plus his own sister) didn't win, in the sense that they'd be driving him out. This was his plateau and one day they'd see that.

But he was tired of hiding. Most of all, he was tired of being treated like a lesser being because of events outside of his own control; he wanted to have his say, speak his piece, and be given the chance the thought he deserved. The fact that his stepmom more or less had given up on him had been a sharp blow to his ego, one that he wouldn't let slide even if he had wanted to. Perhaps it had been the final nail in the coffin of his relationship with the Blackthorns — they had never been family, he told himself as he paced the plateau and followed the curve of the lake — so it wasn't Finley's ear he wanted.

It was @Raven that he sought out. Despite the way he felt about her (halfway between skin shiverring denial about what had happened and a deep, greedy need for a mother which was weirdly oedipal in its own right), Screech needed to see her and to clear the air. They could talk, or they could sit in awkward silence, but he needed to be there - so he was hunting for her scent and found a path, but as soon as he did the boy's pace slowed to a nervous crawl.