“Well, everyone knows—at least as of this morning—that Jonathan has been in trouble with the police before. Like a million times. His father has too. In fact, I heard that Jonathan, or his father, maybe, was wanted for armed robbery back in Philadelphia, or maybe manslaughter, which is why the two of them had to move here in the first place.”

“Are you absolutely sure about all this?”

“Absolutely not. But you have to know what people are saying, Jessica.”

“Yeah, of course. Sorry.”

A few freshman girls were standing near Jessica’s locker, and Constanza shooed them away while Jess got her books for study hall. Jessica picked through her locker, feeling the stares of people passing by, trying to decide if she was more behind in trig or physics.

She could still see Jonathan’s empty desk, the final confirmation that he hadn’t made it home that night. Jessica couldn’t believe how things kept getting worse. Everything that could have gone wrong, with the possible exception of being eaten, had.

Jessica Day: darkling magnet, police magnet, shady character.

She grabbed her trig book and slammed the locker closed.

“I heard you two were kissing when the cops showed up,” Constanza said.

“No, we weren’t.”

“What, you were out there just to hold hands?”

“No.” Jessica paused. “Well, actually, we were kind of holding hands.” She rubbed her wrist, which was still sore. Hanging on for dear life required muscles that normally didn’t get much exercise.

“So you and Jonathan are an item?”

Jessica felt her face heat up. “No. I don’t know. Maybe…” She barely knew Jonathan, but she’d never felt a connection with any guy the way she had with him Saturday night. Of course, after the way the night had ended…“Probably not, after what happened,” she finished.

Constanza put her arm around Jess, leading her toward the library.

“Me, I think that the curfew is a stupid law. I think I’m going to write an article about it for the school paper, maybe even the Register. ‘Young lovers busted for holding hands.’”

“Just leave me out of it, please.”

“I wouldn’t use your real name, of course.”

Jessica had to laugh. “Great idea, Constanza. No one will ever figure it out. Just change my name to Jess Shady.”

Constanza smiled. “Not bad. I like it.”

They entered the library as the late bell rang. Ms. Thomas looked up from her computer.

“Good morning,” she said, one eyebrow raised. She looked as if she expected a good session of gossip to animate today’s study period.

“Morning,” Jessica said, then groaned inwardly as she saw the long table. The rest of Constanza’s crew were already settled in, ready to hear the scoop.

She turned to Constanza and said, “I really have to study trig. What with my criminal career, I didn’t get anything done this weekend.”