3WW-Taking Liberty, Part 3

If you've been following along, you may have noticed my 3WW experiment.  Each week you're given three words to incorporate into a piece of writing.  I've decided to see if I could tell a story using the words.  So far I'm averaging a post every other week.  Let's see how it goes.

Part one is here.  Read the continuation here.

It wasn't everyday that we got to go on a field trip.  The fact that we were going to the lake made it even better.  Ms. Herrington, our Biology teacher, stood at the front of the bus, trying to talk loudly enough to be heard over the engine. 

Dena and I caught about every other word. 

"Do you think there'll be frogs?" Dena asked me with wide eyes.

I laughed, "We'll be waist high in water, mud, snakes, and broken glass, and you're worried about frogs?"

She shrugged.  "They just give me the creeps."

I heard a muffled snort of laughter beside me and looked over.  Liberty was sitting in a seat by herself. No surprise there.  We made eye contact for a brief moment, but then something steeled in her eyes and she turned back to looking out the window.

I stared after her for a moment longer, then looked out the window at the approaching lake. 

It was a beautiful day, the sheen of the water reflecting the sky.  The type of day that you wish would stay around all year, but always dies away too quickly.

"--right?" Dena said, breaking my reverie by elbowing me in the ribs.

"Huh?"

"She gives you the creeps, too, right?" She said tilting her head in Liberty's direction.

I shrugged, looked again.  I could see by the way she held her head that she was probably listening to us.

"She's ok.  I've never had a problem with her."

Dena lowered her voice, "I heard she's a..." Her voice lifted, hinting at something beyond our small town's mores.

I looked again and laughed. "What? A witch, lesbian, vampire, Democrat?"

Dena squinted her eyes at me and pouted a little. "Now you're just making fun."

The bus lurched to a halt, making a couple of the pot-heads in the back fall out of their seats.  Everyone burst into laughter, and it took Ms. Herrington a few times to get us quieted down.

We all shuffled off the bus and stood around outside, the beautiful day stripping away the blase attitude of even the most apathetic of us.  Voices and excitement grew as we were split into groups, given instructions (which we promptly forgot) and a bag with supplies. 

Dena and I were saddled with Josh, Dena's cousin, and Mitchell, one of the star baseball players.  After about ten minutes of splashing in the water and scaring Dena with shouts of "There's a frog!" we noticed something going on to our right.

James, the quarterback was stripping off his clothes while his group was shouting.

"What's he doing?" Dena asked.

"Probably trying to make us all melt with lust." I said, snorting my derision.

"No...look there's someone in the water!" Mitchell said pointing.

Almost in the middle of the pond, we could see someone floating face down in the water. Not moving.

I recognized the messy dark clothes and hair immediately.

"Oh God," Josh said, "It's Liberty."

So, now I've painted myself into a corner so to speak.  I have no idea where I'll be going from here.  I obviously can't kill Liberty off, though. 

Sorry it ran a bit long today!

If you're still with me, I'd like to do a little bit of self-promotion.  I'm starting a blogfest (first posting date is the 12th, next Tuesday) geared specifically for blogs with 150 followers or less.  If you're interested, check out my page for the Small Packages blogfest and sign up!