“Oh, that makes me feel much better. My parents are already pretty upset. If I get brought home by the cops again, I’m toast. Blackened, charred, lever-got-stuck-down toast.”

“We’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Dess said.

“So I’m afraid to ask, but do you guys have a plan yet? To get me out to the snake pit?”

“Just can’t wait, can you?” Dess said, smiling. “We’re still working on that. It’s too bad you can’t go to that party at Rustle’s Bottom.”

Jessica frowned. As much as she liked Constanza, it hadn’t sounded like her kind of party. “Why?”

“The snake pit is the name for the deepest part of the Bottom. You’d be five minutes’ walk away. And I have a feeling this party’s going at least until midnight. Are you sure there’s no way to talk your parents into making an exception to this grounding thing?”

“Very sure.”

“Too bad.” Dess leaned back into her chair. “Well, on to more pleasant subjects.”

“Like what, root canal surgery?”

“No, like trigonometry.”

After school Jessica waited for her father in front. Dad was picking her up until further notice, his theory being that she might end up lost and/or arrested on the way home. As the unemployed member of the family, he had nothing better to do than worry and overreact. Of course, he was going to be late from having to stop off at Bixby Junior High halfway across town. Beth wasn’t about to ride the bus if her crime-lord sister was getting chauffeured.

Crowds of students spilled out of the high school, all of them taking one last look. Jessica was thrilled that everyone was getting another chance to gawk at the new bad girl in town. It might be a while before they could stare at her again. Like tomorrow morning.

She glared back at a couple of freshman boys, and they flinched and ran to their waiting bus. One day into her grounding and public humiliation, Jessica Day had had enough.

She hadn’t asked to be a midnighter, hadn’t tried to get into trouble. As far as she could tell, her big mistake had been not stopping to explain to the darklings that Bixby had a curfew. For the thousandth time that day she replayed in her mind the fantasy where the darklings had caught her and her shredded body was presented to her parents with a final note:

Mom and Dad,

Couldn’t run for life because of curfew.

Dead but ungrounded.

—Jess

She was composing an alternate, much more ironic note when a voice came from behind her.

“Jess?”

She turned around. It was Jonathan.

“You’re…out?” She felt a huge grin growing on her face.

He laughed. “Yeah. Good behavior.”

“I’m sorry. I mean, it’s good to see you.” She took a step forward.

“You too.”