Jessica was buried in her physics textbook. The last few nights Jonathan had been helping her with the basics while they were together in the secret hour, and she was really starting to understand the equal and opposite reaction business. Bounding around mostly weightless every night had made the laws of motion much more interesting, and having to run for her own life had given her a very real appreciation of inertia. But all the formulas were still giving her trouble, so she’d decided to get some help from Dess.

It took most of the period for Jessica to get up the nerve to tell Dess what had happened at breakfast.

“So, you know the whole snake pit expedition?”

“Yeah, we’re still working on it. Rex and I are trying to come up with a way to get you out there safely,” Dess said. “Anyway, it sounds like you’re having fun avoiding the baddies.”

“That’s true.” Jessica smiled. The ever present danger made her secret hours with Jonathan much more exciting than regular hanging out would be. “But I’ve got news, Dess. I found out at breakfast that I’m not grounded anymore.”

“Really? That’s great.”

“Yeah, I guess so. It was kind of weird, though. My parents were totally ready to lock me up for good. Then this morning my mom gives me this whole speech about making new friends.”

Dess shrugged. “That happens. My parents do it all the time. Last spring, the first time I got busted with Rex and Melissa for breaking curfew, they said they were going to send me off to psycho camp once school was out.”

“Where?”

“It’s like a summer camp for juvenile delinquents. Run by the state and very jail-like. My dad works on oil rigs, and he’s a big believer in hard work to purify the soul. But a couple of days after the bust they completely changed their minds. Since then they’ve been pretty cool. They’ve even started to like Rex and Melissa.”

“Well, my parents weren’t going to send me away, I don’t think. But it was still weird to see Mom backing off like that.” Jessica sighed, rubbing her hands nervously. “So I guess we should try to do that snake pit thing.”

“The sooner the better,” Dess said. “Once we know what your talent is, we can figure out why the darklings are so scared of you. Constanza’s party is a perfect opportunity.”

“I don’t know,” Jessica said. “Mom didn’t say anything about late night parties.”

Dess leaned closer. “It’s the surest way to get you out there before midnight. We have to untangle ourselves from Rex’s dad and my parents. We might have to fight our way out to the snake pit. With you along, that would get hairy. It’s not that we don’t like you, Jess. But you do attract a bad element.”