As Gene enters his room, Finny assaults him with an incessant stream of questions, criticizing his outfit. Although he behaves the same as he always has, Gene cannot help but notice the large white cast on his leg and the crutches he must use to get around the Devon School's campus. Since Finny has been handicapped by his broken leg after his fall out of the tree, Gene's feelings of inferiority begin to disappear again and the old fears he experienced during the summer fade. Each time he is captivated by Finny's words and nearly taken in as he had been during the summer, he only has to gaze at the white cast around Phineas' leg to know that he is superior. Finny has become dependent on Gene to help him to get around and asks him to hand him his crutches when he can't reach them and Gene makes Finny's bed before they go to sleep. He does decide that he will start saying his prayers again since Finny is back, and the two pray together in silence for three minutes. Finny continues talking on and on as Gene falls asleep.
The following morning Brinker Hadley barges into their room and asks Gene excitedly if he is still planning to enlist in the army. Finny is bothered at hearing this news and Gene, feeling guilty about not being around to help his friend, behaves as if the whole idea had been a joke on his part. He declares jokingly that he wouldn't enlist with Brinker if he were General MacArthur's son or Elliott Roosevelt or other heroes of their time. Finny joins in and the two friends laugh the whole idea aside while Brinker is insulted. Gene's dreams of casting Devon aside and beginning a new life as a soldier suddenly disappear as a result of Finny's return, despite the fact that he had felt so strongly about enlisting the previous day. Gene's sudden loyalty for his friend holds him back. "So the war swept over like a wave at the seashore, gathering power and size as it bore on us, overwhelming in its rush, seemingly inescapable, and then at the last moment eluded by a word from Phineas; I had simply ducked, that was all, and the wave's concentrated power had hurtled harmlessly overhead." Chapter 8, pg. 101 Although the war's presence had loomed so closely to him, it is again pushed away due to his reunion with Finny.
The two walk around Devon's campus after that morning's church service and Finny tries to readjust to his surroundings, rejoicing in the beauty of the landscape around him, much as Leper had done while skiing. Only Gene sees the danger in the icy paths outside and the potential hazard it would be if his friend happened to slip and fall again. He also thinks about how Finny will never be able to have the same graceful walk that he had before falling from the tree. Phineas suddenly suggests that the two skip class on this first day. As he had during the summer, in spite of his dedication to school, Gene agrees and they go off to visit Finny's favorite place - the gymnasium. There Finny walks past his awards in the trophy case without a second glance. Arriving at the locker room, he asks Gene what sports he had signed up for and hears that he hadn't signed up for any because there won't be trips for the teams due to the war. Finny disgustedly states that the war is a fictitious plot created by adults to keep everyone else under control and obedient to the rules of society, just as he says the Depression had been a fictitious plot as well. Gene nearly believes this outrageous story until he gazes again at the white cast on Phineas' leg. When he tries to assert that the war is real, Finny ignores him. In an attempt to shatter Finny's fantasy world, Gene asks why Finny is so much more special than everyone else and knows that the war is a fake. He responds bitterly, "Because I've suffered." The two do not forget this shared moment, since it reveals a darker side of Finny that Gene had not seen before.
Changing the subject, Finny urges Gene to do thirty pull-ups for him. He does this easily, much to both their surprise. Phineas says that since he cannot be a participant in the 1944 Olympics, Gene will have to do it in his place, and he will be Gene's trainer. A new equal partnership begins between the two boys as Gene helps Finny to study his academics and Finny helps Gene with his athletic training. Both make great progress. During the summer their friendship had been dominated by Finny's desire to go out and play, break all the rules, and avoid studying as much as possible. With much of the campus absorbed in the war during this winter, the two escape together under each other's wing. Gene learns much from Finny and is driven to excel at his athletics and academics both. In a way, since he had already been strong in academics before, and since Finny is now removed from sports because of his bad leg, Gene gains the most from this renewed friendship, for he becomes superior in both areas. He also recognizes the war's presence as much as Finny denies it. "But one day after our chaplain, Mr. Carhart, had become very moved by his own sermon in chapel about God in the Foxholes, I came away thinking that if Finny's opinion of the war was unreal, Mr. Carhart's was at least as unreal. But of course I didn't believe him." Chapter 8, pp. 110-11 Gene becomes more secure and grounded than those around him and progresses, whereas Finny resists changing his innocent way of thinking.
While Gene is outside running laps around Mr. Ludsbury the Headmaster's house, Finny watches him devotedly and offers words of advice about knowing his body and himself. Gene's old fears of athletics have disappeared as much as his old fears about Phineas. As he ponders this, Ludsbury approaches them and, hearing that they are preparing for the 1944 Olympics, reminds them to think of the war effort first and foremost to which Finny bluntly replies, "No." During the summer he had always been beloved for his manipulation of adults. Now he is direct and honest in his language. Ludsbury, flustered, stumbles off and Finny insists that Ludsbury just doesn't know that the war is a fake and clings to his imagination. Even Gene starts to believe this too, for a fleeting moment.
