"Oh my God, are you crazy!" Jalissa hollered when Vanessa finally showed up at the apartment.

"Shhh!" She said while entering. "Is your mother home?"

"No! And you're lucky, too. What were you doing with Scotty?"

"He rode me up the hill to my house."

Jalissa gasped. "You really went home? At night?"

"I wasn't scared." She hung up her coat and then eyed her cousin. "Do you know about my mother?"

"Know what?" The younger girl seemed to be ...