Free The Liberation of Gabriel King by K. L. Going Page B

apparently Frita didn’t intend on following it.
    “No one’s going to tell me what I can or can’t do,” Frita said as we walked to the catfish pond. “We’ll just march right up to that tree and climb to the top before anyone can stop us. It’s only fair. Ain’t their tree to…”
    Frita stopped mid-sentence. We’d reached the pond, and there in a clump, just like I’d suspected, was a whole group of sixth-graders. Smack in the middle of them were Duke Evans and Frankie Carmen.
    Soon as I saw them, my whole body tightened up like a dishcloth that was being wrung tight. Duke and Frankie were real close to us, standing on the opposite side of the cypress tree, chewing on candy cigarettes and talking to some girls. Any minute now they’d turn around and see us.
    “Let’s go home,” I whispered, but Frita shook her head.
    “No way,” she said. “We got just as much right to be here as them, and I want to go swimming. They’re not going to scare me.” She started forward, but I pulled her back again.
    “What if Duke wants to fight? You punched him in the nose, remember?”
    Frita made a face. “I can whup Duke Evans and Frankie Carmen both,” she said, “and they know it. Now, come on.”
    Frita was right about one thing. She
could
whup Duke and Frankie both and they probably wouldn’t risk getting walloped in front of girls, but I bet they could think up something else to do. I stared at them, then up at the rope swing hanging off the high branch. I was so nervous, I could feel the waterworks gearing up, but I choked them down and Frita grabbed my hand.
    “You can do it,” she whispered. The look in her eyes said she believed it even if I didn’t.
    “You sure?” I asked.
    “I’m sure,” she told me.
    I swallowed hard and let her pull me toward the tree.
    My heart was pounding fast and my throat felt full, like I couldn’t breathe, but Frita held tight and neither Duke nor Frankie turned around to notice us. Frita slipped off her sandals and shorts, real silent, and I took off my T-shirt and sneakers extra fast and left them next to Frita’s stuff. Then we climbed up the tree, quick and quiet as we could.
    The bark was rough against my toes, but it was easy to get my footing. I kept looking down at the ground below, and the higher we climbed, the more certain I was that there was no way I’d survive. But I couldn’t turn around now. Frita and I sat down on the tree limb facing each other, gathering our courage. For a minute we were completely silent. I watched her face and listened to the sound of my heartbeat.
Thump, thump, thump, thump
.
    Then they saw us.
    “Hey, look!”
    Duke was pointing up, and my heart sunk. I looked at Frita, real panicky, but she kept her eyes locked on mine.
    “You can do it,” she said. “I got faith…”
    Down below, the rest of the kids were laughing and pointing too.
    “It’s Gabe and Frita up in a tree.”
    “K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”
    “Too scared to jump? You’ve got to stand up first, you know.”
    They were right under us, laughing and whistling and calling out. I closed my eyes because this was
real
trouble.
    “You stuck? Want us to call your mommies?”
    “Better call Gabe’s pop,” I heard Duke say. “He always calls his pop. My Pop could take all three of them.”
    That’s when Frita stood up. She scowled something fierce. “Gabe,” she said, “I’m going.”
    For one minute I thought she meant she was going home—like maybe we’d climb down that tree and walk right past those hecklers—but I should have known better. Frita stood up and looked at me one last time, then she leaned out, grabbed that rope, and swung right off the tree branch.
    Even though she was my best friend and I knew what she was going to do, for a minute she was like someone I’d never met. Someone incredible.
    Frita landed with a huge splash, and that was just aboutenough for me. I wanted to climb down right then, and I would have except for Duke.
    “You’ll