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"Aren’t you afraid of snakes?" asked Ronald

"And alligators?" asked Jamal

"Yep," I said matter-of-factly, and then jumped into the water with all irls swi around, including Ja hih, and he was being really good-natured about it I had a feeling he must have had a bossy ot offended no matter what she said I liked hi ood additions to our little coot out and sat down next to the guys "We need to get going The et so cleaned up, too," said Ronald, eyeing it warily

I looked down and noticed it looked a little raggedy "I probably shouldn’t have gone swiit hurt

"I’ll get you fixed up Just go to the clinic, and I’ll be right there," said LaShay She reached up and s "Don’t touch!" She say, a group of kids following behind her

I rolled my eyes and pulledat the kids getting out of the water, every one of theed looks but said nothing I was glad they were seeing it; I wanted theood kind and not the vicious kind

When Peter and I were ready, the four of us walked together through the trees, headed towards the clinic Ronald finally spoke

"So … we noticed that the kids in the pool were all … you know …"

"Missing body parts?" I suggested

"Yeah I wouldn’t have put it quite so bluntly, but yeah"

"Canner victio," said Peter

"Wow That’s auys did that? Why?"

"Because it was the right thing to do," I said

"But didn’t that put you in danger?" asked Ronald

"Yes, it did," said Peter

"They took Celia, one of the Creek girls, and she escaped But she told us as going on, so we could hardly just ignore it and do nothing," I explained

"Everyone else does," said Ronald softly

"Well, we’re not everyone else," said Peter, his voice filled with pride

"Can I ask you a question?" said Ja mean, but it seemed funny to ask permission now We’d already had the ahy-are-all-these-kids--lio after those guys … what did Trip say? Was he for it or against it?"

I sighed I knew this wasn’t just about the canner ed his ed it for him?"

"Kowi, probably They’re old friends He trusts hi to let us stay?" asked Ronald

"I don’t knoant to think, yes, but you never knoith these guys They have a lot of people to take care of and worry about" Even though I was pretty sure Koas going to let theet their hopes up yet

Nobody said anything after that, all of us wondering about Ronald’s and Jamal’s fates

We arrived at the clinic and Winky was there to fix ing bandages on the hurt kids’ ar Ja at her but she obviously wasn’t interested I shook ether and compare notes on how to deal with difficult crushes

We left the clinic a half hour later to go to the dinnerwith all the people orked there Everything was riding on this moment, but I didn’t let myself think about the what-ifs and the whys I just needed to get through tonight and the next couple days so I could go after Bodo Nothing was going to stop that fro

Everyone but us was already there Torches were lit and the food was out I walked the tcoave the I left out the part that one of the hunks ofsince it hadn’t killed any of us, they’d be fine eating it too Maybe for fun later I’d tell theht be easy to freak out when it cas that slithered

We ate in subdued silence, watching the others talking and joking around This was a no-big-deal thing for the, and I totally felt for theed Ronald "Don’t worry about it I’ to be okay"

Ronald shook his head slowly "I’m not so sure about that He would have sent e could stay if that was his decision That would have been the nice thing to do"

I hadn’t considered that, but I brushed off uy about stuff like this He would have wanted to announce it"

Ronald stopped eating and looked at me "You sure?"

"Yeah I think" I was suddenly evenlike I’d just vouched for an affirmative answer froht thing, I wasn’t sureand theirs would always o, Ronnie," said Jae anything"