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"So you and Chris really hit it off, huh?"

I keep ht and conversational, but Jake still seeure out which one of them is poisoned

"He’s cool," he says after a while "I "

"He and Becky are going out--you know Becky, right? Becky Halprin? She’s captain of the cheerleading squad Anyway, they had a date last Friday and they’re having another one this weekend, I think"

"Yeah, Saturday," Jake says "It’s not really a date, though A couple of us are going to go shoot some pool at Finn’s, wherever that is"

"Finn Walters?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

"Yeah He’s on the chess team He’s, like, this superintellectual and yet still cool" It could be all the blow he deals in the boys’ washroo? Around eight?"

"Chris says he’ll pickfor an invite or soet one froht, but thanks"

"Like what?"

"Like not hanging out with you?"

"Walked right into that one, didn’t I?"

"Yeah, you did"

We laugh And then we realize we’re laughing together and then we stop and then it gets aard I don’t do aell, at least o away And then I can’t stop

Even after Jake points it out

"That’s really annoying," he says

So I kick it up a notch just to bug hiers start to hurt

We trek through the park and enter the woods beyond it They’re not like the woods by Chris’s house They’re a little denser, a little easier to get lost in, but I’ bad happened here and it makes the air less polluted, somehow It doesn’t reat out here," I say without thinking "There’s nothing--"

I shut ood pictures out here, that’s all"

He reaches into his book bag and pulls out his digital camera

"But not here--it’s a little farther in Givethe ca to steal or break it I may not respect people, but I do respect their property"

He groans and hands it to ht; you are"

I take it and run and the look on his face is so great

"Parker!"

He has no choice but to chase afterin s and I like that I get to the ravine ages before hiest and the oldest--and wrigglethe thickest branch out

The one that hovers directly above the thirty-foot drop

When Jake finally catches up to le, nearly upside down, and it probably looks terrifying fro

But it will be so worth this shot

"Are you trying to kill yourself?" he yells, panting

I keep ht around the branch so I don’t, you know, die

"If I was trying to kill et down fro me nervous--"

"Pansy"

"Fuck off"

A littlenoises, but I’ht I hold the cahtly dizzy, and get a good focus on the ravine The edges of either side of it creep up the corners of the fra hiht myself, snake backward and hold the cao It seems to fall in slow motion Jake catches it like I kneould and he starts swearing at me like I kneould When he’s finished, he turns the camera on and checks out the shot

"Decent," he ht my camera"

The branch I’m on protests a little more I stand very, very carefully and maneuver my way to a branch on the opposite side It’s tricky