16
1:16 A.M.
GROUNDED
The strange thing was, Jessica's dad was a lot more upset than her mom.
Mom had answered the door in her unpacking clothes - she must have still been working on the kitchen. She had talked to the police quietly and thanked them for bringing her daughter home. Never raising her voice, she'd told Jessica to wait in the kitchen while she woke Dad up.
Dad had flipped.
He was still wide-eyed, his hair standing on end from frantically running his hands through it. Mom had repeatedly told him not to wake Beth up, but Jessica couldn't imagine her little sister sleeping through his yelling. What freaked him out the most was the bruise on her face, which she could feel was just starting to show.
There were times, though, when it was good to have an engineer for a mother. Mom had quickly noticed that every bang and bump on Jessica was accompanied by a grass stain. Even the skinned patch on her bare elbow was marked by a circle of green. There was still grass in her hair.
She looked like a ten-year-old after a long summer day.
"So, you really did fall, didn't you, sweetheart?"
Jessica nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak yet. She'd already been such a wimp when the police had come, bawling her eyes out in the back of the car. Jonathan had been totally calm.
She'd messed everything up. Being the world's worst darkling magnet, not hanging on to Jonathan's hand and falling from their jump, looking like this when the cops showed up.
"You look like you rolled down a hill, Jessica."
"Yeah," she managed. "Just playing."
"Just playing," Dad repeated loudly. He started up again every time she said anything, as if he couldn't bear to hear her voice.
"Don." Mom's voice sometimes had an edge with Dad that she never used on Jessica or Beth. He didn't say another word but sat there pulling on his hair.
Jessica took a breath, looking down at her knees. They hurt. The overall ache of her body was dividing up now into individual pains. One of the bumps would hurt for a while, then take a rest while another took over, like a bunch of smaller tag-team wrestlers whaling away on one of the big guys. Right now the bruise on her cheek was throbbing with her heartbeat, making her face feel lopsided and grotesque. She touched it gently.
Mom sprayed some ouchy stuff on a washcloth and rubbed it again.
"Jessica, tell me what happened. When did you leave?"
Jessica swallowed. The last time she'd seen her parents was right after dinner. "Jonathan came by about ten. I thought we were just going for a short walk."
"But the police said you were over by Aerospace around midnight. People can't walk more than a couple of miles an hour."
Jessica sighed. There were other times when having an engineer for a mom could be a pain. Bixby wasn't that big, but Mom worked on the other side of town. Jessica didn't know exactly how many miles away.
She shrugged. "I don't know, it was right after I went to bed."
"That was way before ten, Jessica. Right after dinner," her father said. "I thought it was weird how early you went to bed. Did you know he was coming over?"
"No. He just came by."
"And you just went for a walk with him?"
"He's in my physics class."