16

1:16 A.M.

GROUNDED

The strange thing was, Jessica's dad was a lot more upset than her mom.

Mom had answered the door in her unpacking clothes - she must have still been working on the kitchen. She had talked to the police quietly and thanked them for bringing her daughter home. Never raising her voice, she'd told Jessica to wait in the kitchen while she woke Dad up.

Dad had flipped.

He was still wide-eyed, his hair standing on end from frantically running his hands through it. Mom had repeatedly told him not to wake Beth up, but Jessica couldn't imagine her little sister sleeping through his yelling. What freaked him out the most was the bruise on her face, which she could feel was just starting to show.

There were times, though, when it was good to have an engineer for a mother. Mom had quickly noticed that every bang and bump on Jessica was accompanied by a grass stain. Even the skinned patch on her bare elbow was marked by a circle of green. There was still grass in her hair.

She looked like a ten-year-old after a long summer day.

"So, you really did fall, didn't you, sweetheart?"

Jessica nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak yet. She'd already been such a wimp when the police had come, bawling her eyes out in the back of the car. Jonathan had been totally calm.

She'd messed everything up. Being the world's worst darkling magnet, not hanging on to Jonathan's hand and falling from their jump, looking like this when the cops showed up.

"You look like you rolled down a hill, Jessica."

"Yeah," she managed. "Just playing."

"Just playing," Dad repeated loudly. He started up again every time she said anything, as if he couldn't bear to hear her voice.

"Don." Mom's voice sometimes had an edge with Dad that she never used on Jessica or Beth. He didn't say another word but sat there pulling on his hair.

Jessica took a breath, looking down at her knees. They hurt. The overall ache of her body was dividing up now into individual pains. One of the bumps would hurt for a while, then take a rest while another took over, like a bunch of smaller tag-team wrestlers whaling away on one of the big guys. Right now the bruise on her cheek was throbbing with her heartbeat, making her face feel lopsided and grotesque. She touched it gently.

Mom sprayed some ouchy stuff on a washcloth and rubbed it again.

"Jessica, tell me what happened. When did you leave?"

Jessica swallowed. The last time she'd seen her parents was right after dinner. "Jonathan came by about ten. I thought we were just going for a short walk."

"But the police said you were over by Aerospace around midnight. People can't walk more than a couple of miles an hour."

Jessica sighed. There were other times when having an engineer for a mom could be a pain. Bixby wasn't that big, but Mom worked on the other side of town. Jessica didn't know exactly how many miles away.

She shrugged. "I don't know, it was right after I went to bed."

"That was way before ten, Jessica. Right after dinner," her father said. "I thought it was weird how early you went to bed. Did you know he was coming over?"

"No. He just came by."

"And you just went for a walk with him?"

"He's in my physics class."

"The police said he's a year older than you," Mom said.

"My advanced physics class."

That shut her up. But Dad was going again.

"Why did you go to bed so early?"

"I was tired from working today."

"Were you really at the museum all day? Or with him?"

"I was at the museum. He wasn't there."

He nodded. "Doing a whole day's worth of homework in the first week of school? Can we see this homework?"

She swallowed. There was nothing to show them. She'd taken a few notes but had solemnly promised Rex never to show them to anyone. When had she started lying to her parents? When the world had stopped making sense, maybe.

"I was doing research."

"On what?"

"On the possible connection between the tool-making techniques of Solutrean Stone Age culture in southern Spain and certain pre-Clovis spear points found in Cactus Hill, Virginia," she blurted.

Dad's mouth dropped open.

Jessica blinked, surprised at her own words. Apparently some of her crash diet of midnighter lore had managed to stick in her head. She remembered Rex showing her the long case of gradually evolving spear points and the gap in the middle where everything had changed at once.

"There was a technological leap in New World spear points around twelve thousand years ago," she said with quiet focus. At least talking about this stuff didn't make her want to cry. It made her feel in control. "An improved meridian groove and a sharper edge. Some people think that the advanced technique somehow came over from Europe."

"It's okay, honey. We believe you," Mom said, patting her hand. "You're sure Jonathan didn't take you anywhere in a car?"

"I'm positive. We just wound up walking much farther than I thought we would. Really."

"You know this boy's been in trouble with the police before."

Jessica shook her head. "I didn't know that."

"Well, you do now. And you are never going to leave this house again without telling us, okay?"

"Okay."

"And you're not going anywhere except school for the next month," Dad added.

Mom looked unhappy with this for a split second, but she nodded.

"I'd like to go to bed now," Jessica said.

"Okay, sweetie."

Mom led her back to her bedroom and kissed her good night.

"I'm just glad you're okay. It's dangerous out there, Jessica."

"I know."