Thriving

Busted

The cop raid on the Count's drug den didn't end very well. The Hood had beaten SCPD there and, despite Lance's objections and the dozens of guns trained on him, he plunged a syringe of concentrated vertigo into the Count's neck.

Needless to say, the cops of Starling City had a busy night. Jessica couldn't even get away until mid-afternoon the next day, but that didn't mean she forgot about Amber.

Jessica stormed into the mansion, marching straight to the parlor.  "Amber Penelope Queen!"

"Oh, no." Amber paled at the sound of her full name.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"What's going on?" Oliver asked. He'd seen Jessica angry before, but never like this. And definitely not directed toward Amber.

"Our budding delinquent here hacked into cameras all over the city to track the Count," Jessica explained.

"You did what?" Oliver turned to look at Amber with an expression somewhere between shock, anger, and amazement.

"I'm sorry?" Amber's apology came out more like a question than a statement.

Jessica crossed her arms. "How did you even know what car to track?" She questioned.

Amber looked down at her feet before answering. "I hacked into the SCPD computer system and read the report from the drug deal."

"Oh, my god." Jessica ran a stressed hand through her hair. She couldn't believe that this was happening-- that the responsible, rule-following kid she'd always known was now breaking laws left and right.

"Amber, that is a felony." Oliver scolded.

"Okay, you know what? You're grounded." Jessica stated.

"Yes." Oliver agreed. "And no computers.

"And no phone," Jessica added.

Oliver glanced over at Jessica. "She should probably have her phone."

Jessica couldn't stop the bitter laugh that tumbled past her lips. "If she can hack into half the city on a school computer, just imagine what she could do with her phone."

Oliver paused, completely flabbergasted for the second time in the span of seven minutes. "You did this at school?"

Amber nodded slowly, knowing full well that she stood on very thin ice. "Yeah."

"When?"

"During lunch."

"That's only thirty minutes." Jessica pointed out. "There's no way you could have done all of that so quickly."

What Jessica said got the gears in Oliver's head turning. "Don't school computers have safeguards to keep students from accessing sites they shouldn't?"

Realization dawned on Jessica. "Did you disable the computer's safeguards?" She asked although she was almost certain that she already knew the answer.

"I'm scared to answer that."

Jessica sighed. She'd grown tired of this back and forth and didn't want to find out anything else about what Amber did. "Just go get your laptop."

Both Jessica and Oliver watched Amber get up and leave the parlor. They waited until she was out of earshot to keep talking.

"I'm thinking three weeks," Jessica said. "No electronics."

"She should have her phone," Oliver argued.