I was still holding a grudge, I guess.

Caffeine was long gone and so was her Honda, so maybe she got the driver door open. Or, more likely, she used the passenger-side door and slid across.

Back at the cabin, I did a 7-pass secure erase of the partitions on Caffeine's external backup drive, of her USB drives, and finally the laptop's drive. If it's good enough for the Department of Defense, it's good enough for me.

Caffeine was asleep when I put the stack of equipment back on her bedroom desk in the predawn morning. She was snoring.

For a second I thought about making some noise before I jumped away, but I decided it would be creepier if she just found the computer there when she awoke.

"Missed you yesterday," Mom said Monday morning.

We'd eaten breakfast and I was finally approaching a state of wakefulness. Dad had gone off someplace, but Mom was lingering over her coffee.

I felt my face getting red.

Mom noticed, too, but she ignored it, staring out the window at the heavy icicles. She said, "I don't mean to pry. It's not like I have to drive you around or anything. From what I hear, most teenagers' parents are constantly on the go, either providing transportation or having to buy their kids cars so they can drive themselves around."

I nodded. "True. Jade gets it both ways. Complaints that they have to drive too much, but if she tries to walk, say over to Tara's, they complain about that, too, 'cause someone will, you know, molest her."

Mom raised her eyebrows.

"Uh, so you don't have to worry about either of those problems, right? Because of my jumping. Don't have to drive me. Don't have to worry about me crashing a car. Don't have to worry about me getting into a situation I can't jump away from."

Mom shook her head. "All I wanted to tell you was that we'd appreciate it if you keep us appraised of your whereabouts. You know, leave a voice mail if you go out. Let us know when you expect to be back. Call us if you're going to be late. But you bring up a more serious issue."

Crap. I never know when to leave well enough alone.

Mom said, "I really wish the only things I had to worry about were acting as your chauffeur and the ordinary dangers of a young woman growing up in America. We both know that's not the issue.

"I'm glad you can jump away from danger. But it's a danger in and of itself. You like Joe, right?"

I didn't think I could blush more. I nodded.

"When you jumped in Bangladesh, to help those girls, it was for the best of reasons. I'm glad you helped them."

"This is about Rama. He didn't do anything wrong and they took him because of me."

Mom nodded. "Now put Joe in Rama's place."

Ouch.

"Be careful. Also, let us know when you're out and about, right?"

I thought about the last forty-eight hours and winced. Not so careful. The thought of having to move away had been bad before, but with Joe, now, it was sharply painful.

"Right."

Fifteen minutes before first bell Grant was in his usual "safe" place, sitting on the bench opposite administration. I dropped down beside him.

"How's Tony?"

Grant licked his lips. "So-so. His parents kept after him to tell them why until the psychiatrist did a family session with the three of them. Then she asked Tony's parents to stay away for a week."

"Ah."

"Yeah. Tony's thinking about talking to her about, uh, the video. Well, about it and about his parents in general."

"He's not afraid she'll tell them?"

"Patient confidentiality."

"He is a minor."

"Yeah, well, she's obliged to act in the patient's best interest, right? It was the threat of his parents finding out that drove him to take the pills in the first place, right?"

I nodded, but I couldn't help thinking that the therapist would also be justified in going to the police if she knew the whole story. After all, Dakota and Grant were at risk, as far as Tony knew.

"Uh, Grant. You might want to tell Tony that Caffeine had a computer accident. Someone wiped her laptop, and her backup drives, and her net storage accounts, and her phone."

Grant's mouth dropped open. "You're not bullshitting me, are you?"

"I have it from a very reliable source."

"All the copies of that video?"

"That I don't know. How did you see it, originally?"

"She showed it to each of us on her phone."

"Maybe all the copies, then. On those devices for sure. My source was kind of hard on Caffeine, too. They don't think she'll be bothering you again."

Grant bit his lip and looked like he might cry.

"What's wrong?"

"I wasn't going to give in to her!" He said it in a rush, a fierce whisper. "But I'd given up. I just knew the video would come out." He looked down at his feet. "It's almost worse thinking there's a chance it won't!"

I sighed. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

"Hope is like that, sometimes."

On my way to biology, between first and second bell, I saw Joe outside the library. I walked up and put my arms around him, burying my face in his chest.

I needed that.

His voice rumbled. "Not a secret any more?"

I tilted my head up and kissed him. "Not."

He grinned. "Okay, then."

"And when were you going to tell us about this?"

Tara was giving me grief at lunch.

Joe was sitting with us ... well, sitting with me. We were shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, and his left arm was around my shoulders.

Jade smirked. "Didn't have to tell me."

I raised my eyebrows. "Did you see something at the meet? We were very careful. Kept ourselves to ourselves."

Jade glanced sideways at Tara. "You were actually pretty chill. But not Joe's eyes, his voice, his face. You can touch someone with more than just your hands." She grinned. "See what I did there?"

I put my hand to my heart. "Touche."

She stuck her tongue out at me.

When I looked back at Joe he was blushing furiously, staring down at his lunch.

I leaned into him and put my hand on his leg.

"Haven't seen Caffeine, today," Tara noted.

I studied my free hand's fingernails.

Tara narrowed her eyes and leaned forward, studying my face. "Or Hector."

Jade was looking at me now, too.

I turned my attention to my lunch. I'd gone traditional, today: sandwich and an apple.

Joe was less red, now. He glanced down at my face, too, and raised his eyebrows.

I looked back. I liked to look at his face, his brown eyes.

He asked, "Did you do something to Caffeine and Hector?"

"I refuse to answer because the response could provide self-incriminating evidence of an illegal act punishable by fines, penalties, or forfeiture." Then I fluttered my eye lashes.

"Jesus," said Jade. "She killed them."

"No." I gave them a small smile. "Not yet."

Joe straightened up and let his arm drop from around my shoulders.

I pouted. "'And they all moved away from me on the Group W bench.'"

He laughed and put his arm back around me.

I kissed his cheek and said, "Until I added, '-and creating a nuisance.' And they all moved back."

Joe had to explain it to Jade and Tara but he stopped me when I started singing the chorus.

Spoilsport.

After school, Joe came with us to Krakatoa. He'd suggested something more intimate and I'd been sorely tempted. But I had schoolwork to catch up on. Between this dating thing, and terrorizing the neighborhood, I was falling behind.

By the time Jade and Tara decided they needed to go, I was more comfortable with my homework situation. I had the final draft of next week's humanities paper done, as well as the first draft of a report due the following week. I was up to date on the math worksheets and had a start on the design for my science fair project: drag coefficients and posture in downhill snowboarding.

"You coming?" Jade asked.

Joe and I were discussing the theoretical top speed a snowboarder could hit using a thirty-eight-degree slope. He actually knew the world record, 125 mph "and a smidge" set by an Australian thirteen years before. We were messing with the values for a board's snow friction and the coefficient of drag for the upright boarder. Both of us had the calculator apps pulled up on our phones and several scribbled pages of equations and graphs.

"You kids better go." I waved Jade and Tara on. "This could get ugly."

Tara swung her backpack on and said, "Too late."

I was punching in the sine of thirty-nine degrees when the phone rang in my hands. It was Tara's number. As I hit the answer button I checked under the table.

"Forget something, Tara?"

"Come downstairs and get in the Hummer."

It was not Tara's voice. I froze, still bent over. It was Marius. I looked past the railing, out the front windows. I could just see the black Hummer's custom wheels across the street.

"Both of you."

I heard a slapping sound and I heard Tara cry out and Jade yell. "Leave her alone!"

"You have two minutes."

He disconnected. I swiveled my head sharply, right and left. Joe and I were the only ones on the balcony.

I stood up and put the phone in my pocket. Joe raised his eyebrows and I hooked his backpack and pulled him by the arm toward the back wall, away from the railing.

"Trust me?" I asked.

"Uh, yes?"