“Oh, yeah,” Bethany said. “Everybody was texting about it.”

I sighed. So now I was going to be even more of a freak than I already was. Gwen Frost, the seizure girl. Great. There went any chance I had of finding a date for the sophomore prom, which was coming up in a few days. I might have dumped Drew, but I was still going to the prom, since my mom had found the perfect dress for me.

“What about Paige?” I asked.

“What about her?” I could hear the confusion in Bethany’s voice. “She was just as scared as the rest of us were.”

I wondered about that, especially when I remembered the weird look Paige had given me before I’d picked up her hairbrush, but I didn’t ask Bethany any more questions about Paige. She wouldn’t know the answers, anyway.

I talked to Bethany a few more minutes before Grandma came into my room and said that I needed to get some rest. I told Bethany I’d see her tomorrow and hung up. I spent the rest of the day lazing in bed and reading the comic books I had stashed in my messenger bag. Grandma Frost had stopped at school and picked up my bag on the way home from the hospital. She’d also gotten my homework assignments for the classes I’d missed, but I’d do those later. I figured I deserved to slack off a little.

Grandma made a great dinner of spicy, Southwestern chicken, black bean salsa, and roasted sweet potatoes. For dessert, we had sticky-sweet apple enchiladas sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and topped with vanilla bean ice cream. I didn’t eat much, though. I was too busy thinking about Paige and what might be happening to her.

My mom finally called late that night.

“It’s done,” she said in a weary voice. “I told Paige that I was your mom and got her to talk to me. She told me exactly what you saw with your psychometry, and I arrested her stepdad.”

I let out a tense breath. “So Paige is okay now?”

“She will be,” my mom said. “Paige’s mom is out of town on a business trip, so Paige and her sister are staying with some relatives. I called her mom, and she’s on her way back home right now. She was horrified by what I told her. She had no idea that was going on. Nobody did, except for Paige. Her stepdad threatened to start doing the same thing to her little sister if Paige told anyone what he was doing to her.”

We didn’t say anything for several seconds.

“You did a good thing today, Gwen,” my mom finally said in a gentle voice. “A really good thing. I’m proud of you.”

“For what? Freaking out and screaming my head off?”

“You know what I mean,” my mom said. “You used your psychometry magic to help someone else. That’s why we have our Gypsy gifts in the first place, you know. To help others—and ourselves, if we need to.”