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.”
Constanza smiled. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Jess Shady. Sounds like you had fun. But don’t worry. You get your studying done and I’ll work on setting the record straight.”
“Thanks, Constanza. I really appreciate it. But, um, which record are you going to use?”
“How about a medium one? Hand holding but no kissing? And no previous criminal record?”
“Well, thanks, I guess. Try not to make me sound too evil, though? I could be living here in Bixby for a while.”
“Not a problem, Jess. A little drama wins more friends than boring. Which is not to say that you were… boring.”
“Thanks.”
“In fact, what are you doing this Friday?”
“Being grounded.”
“That’s too bad. Some friends of mine, of the senior persuasion, are having a party out at Rustle’s Bottom.”
“Rustle’s what?” Jessica said.
“It’s a dried-out lake bed. A good place to park a keg, you know? It’s over in Broken Arrow County, officially outside the dreaded curfew zone. I’m not sure if Jessica Day would have wanted to come, but Jess Shady would have a great time.”
“Sorry. Both of us are grounded until October.”
“Too bad. Anyway, see you at lunch.” Constanza hugged her. “And don’t worry, this story’s only prime-time news for a week, tops.”
She swept back to the long table, and Jessica sank into the corner chair, grateful that Constanza would be filling in for her on the gossip circuit. At least someone was on her side.
Jess realized that Dess was in her usual place across the table.
“Oh, good. I was hoping you’d be here.”
“I wouldn’t miss my favorite period,” Dess said.
“What, the tutor-Jessica-in-trig period?” Jessica asked hopefully.
Dess smiled. “Today, any tutoring will cost you.”
Jessica groaned. “Not you too.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t want to hear how you got busted. Your lame criminal record is uninteresting to me. All I want to know is, did you fly?”
Jess glanced at the long table. Constanza had them all spellbound.
She turned back to Dess and nodded.
“Isn’t it excellent?” Dess said.
A tiny and unexpected stab of annoyance went through Jessica. Almost jealousy. But of course Jonathan had taken at least one of the other midnighters flying. How else would he know how it worked? Still, flying had felt like a private thing between the two of them.
“Yeah. It’s great.”
“I thought you’d like it. That’s why I told Jonathan where you lived.”
Jessica nodded and smiled at Dess. “I’m glad you did.”
“Someone had to.”
“You’re sort of not taking sides in this Rex and Jonathan thing, are you?”
Dess sighed. “It’s kind of pointless, really. Rex is okay. I wouldn’t know half what I do without him. But he gets this seer-knows-best attitude sometimes. And Jonathan’s great, but he can be all ‘Freebird’, not that I blame him. The thing between them goes back to the beginning, more than two years ago.”
“So all four of you have never worked together?”
“For about two weeks. When Jonathan arrived, he was just starting to discover his power, his dream come true, when Rex and Melissa show up. Rex, of course, wants to spend every night checking out lore.”
Jessica nodded. It must have been a lot easier for Rex to get out to his precious lore sites with Jonathan’s help. It still would be.
“But Melissa and Jonathan never got along,” Dess added. “She’s never even flown with him.”
“Really?”
“She couldn’t stand it. She has this thing about… holding hands.”
Jessica blinked. She’d been jealous of Dess a moment ago, but now she couldn’t help feeling sorry for Melissa. Flying with Jonathan was the best part of midnight.
“So Melissa gets left out of all these trips to the badlands, Jonathan gets tired of being Rex’s personal flying chauffeur, and all hell breaks loose.”
Jessica swallowed. “I guess I can see where there might be a personality conflict or two there.”
“Everything’s been messed up since then, really.” Dess looked down at the floor. “Well, maybe it’s always been messed up.”
“So, Dess, why didn’t you tell me about Jonathan if Rex wasn’t going to?”
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Rex. The mere thought of Jonathan makes him all snitty.”
“You could have called me.”
Dess shrugged, smiled. “I wanted it to be a surprise, maybe.”
Jessica peered through the dark glasses and into Dess’s eyes and realized she was telling the truth. However weird she might seem, Dess had always been honest with her. She’d tried to make it clear from the beginning that things were going to be different here in Bixby. Of course, Dess had never been able to just come out and explain everything, but that wasn’t exactly her fault. Things had always been too complicated for that.
Jessica smiled. Even though Saturday night had wound up horribly, she was glad that Dess had told Jonathan about her.
“I guess it was pretty surprising. And yeah, excellent.” Jessica sighed. “Until a load of darklings showed up, courtesy of me. And five minutes after we gave them the slip, the police were there. He probably thinks I’m a walking disaster.”
“Don’t worry too much about Jonathan, Jess. We’ve all been in the back of Clancy St. Claire’s car. It goes with the territory.”
“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.