Chapter 3
Piper
Ray Campbell. Ray Campbell. Ray freaking Campbell.
I’m walking in circles around my room, trying to avoid tripping over an empty bowl, a mug half-full of decaffeinated tea, and about a dozen books scattered around.
I obsessively repeat the name of the guy who’s just replaced Quill as my arch-nemesis.
Well, not really. Not anywhere close, in fact.
But the only thing I feel toward Ray is hate.
Whereas with Quill, things are a lot more confusing.
I hate him, but at the same time, I dream about him.
Seeing him fills me with loathing… but also, the kind of core-clenching heat that has me squeezing my thighs so hard it feels like they’ll turn to jelly.
It’s all the more pathetic because I’m convinced, without the shadow of a doubt, that he isn’t suffering from any of my confusion. He just hates my guts, pure and simple. For whatever reason.
It’s a lot easier to get revenge on Ray Campbell than it is to make sense of everything that Quill makes me feel. Even though I don’t even know how to begin to get revenge.
I can’t beat him up, that’s for sure. Ray may be nowhere near as tall as Quill, nor as strong, but I know that I could never take him physically. Not even if I spent a year bodybuilding at the gym. Which I don’t have any intention of doing anyway.
No, the only way I can take him is in a battle of wits. Ray is astoundingly stupid. I may not be the smartest girl at Astley High—that honor goes to Cass Henley—but I’m lightyears ahead of him in the thinking department.
But right now, I’m thinking so hard it feels like my brain hurts, and I’m coming up blank.
Beating him in a test won’t do it—I always beat him, and he doesn’t care. What does Ray care about?
Nothing, except eating, working out, and being a part of whatever stupid frat club or fake secret society they’ve got going on at Devil Tower.
A number of the guys in high school are a part of that club, and they never breathe a word about it to anyone.
They act like it’s some big special secret.
Even Quill Nelson attends, not that I care, though I may have followed him on one or two occasions, out of pure curiosity.
I’ve seen him walk into Devil Tower after school, and on the weekends, dressed in camo pants and boots, though always with the same black hoodie, slipped under a leather jacket on colder days.
None of the guys in high school are particularly discreet about the fact that they regularly go to Devil Tower dressed in some strange kind of uniform.
But even though Dad works at Devil, he’s never told me a thing about what those kids are all up to.
No matter how much I’ve tried to needle it out of him.
It’s nothing but curiosity, pure and simple. There’s something exciting about imagining that there might be a mystery in quiet, boring, snobby Astley. The kind of mystery Nancy Drew might investigate.
Even though deep down, I’m sure it’s nothing but a stupid boy’s club.
But what if there was something there? Something I could uncover and destroy Ray Campbell with?
Though, in that case, I’d also be destroying a number of other guys at school. Including Quill.
I don’t particularly want to anger the boy who already looks like he’d decapitate me without a second of hesitation if I so much as blinked wrong.
I cross figuring out the secret behind their frat boy club from my list. My revenge needs to be personal.
What would bother an asshole like Ray Campbell more than anything else in the world?
Easy: getting humiliated.
That’s what would piss off most of the people in Astley. This town runs on reputation and self-importance. Humiliation is the perfect antidote to that.
Depantsing him is the first thought that runs through my mind, but it’s a little too on-the-nose. Plus, physical. I’m pretty sure I’d be the one walking away humiliated after such an interaction.
No, I need to hit him where it really hurts. His reputation, or even better, his family’s reputation.
They’re perfectly respectable and well-to-do. His mother stays at home to boss the cleaning lady around, unless she’s at the nail or hair salon, or out shopping for some elaborate charity gala that I’m pretty sure never actually benefits anyone in need. Meanwhile, Ray’s father works at Devil.
Devil.
That company again.
Surely that must be my solution, no? Everything and everyone in this town connects back to Devil. There must be something hiding in that big, ugly tower that I can lord over Ray Campbell.
Just as I reach that conclusion, the front door opens. I hurry down the steps and greet Dad with a bright, cheery hello that I’m far from feeling.
It seems to take him quite as much effort to return my greeting cheerfully. A pang of worry, mixed with guilt, goes to my chest as I see the bone-dead look in his eyes, that he wears sometimes after a long shift at Devil, and that always seems coupled with the stench of bleach on his clothes.
“Not much time tonight, Pumpkin, I’m afraid,” he says apologetically. “Have to be back at Devil in an hour. But I wanted to check in on you. There’s been another murder, and Officer Jones thinks there might be a serial killer in town. You need to be very careful. No walking alone after dark.”
“I never walk alone after dark,” I say, rolling my eyes at Dad’s overprotectiveness. “I have no friends, remember?”
Dad looks reassured by that, and I roll my eyes again. Luckily, he switches subjects.
“You didn’t by any chance make dinner, did you?” he asks hopefully.
“Oh.” My face falls and the guilty feeling intensifies in my chest. “No, sorry. I didn’t realize it was going to be one of those double-shift days. I’ll go ask Mom if—”
“No, no, let’s not bother Mom,” smiles Dad, and my guilt is edged with angry frustration, as I think of Mom lying in bed as she always does, while Dad works himself sick for us.
“I’d love nothing more than a cereal dinner with my favorite girl.
Anyway, it wasn’t supposed to be a double-shift. Things are just very busy these days.”
Something flickers in his eyes that I can’t quite understand, and a lump rises in my throat. I really hate these kinds of days when Dad comes home exhausted, depressed, and smelling of bleach.
What the hell do they have him doing over at Devil Tower?
The suspicion that twists in my stomach is vanquished by my own trouble, and even though I know this isn’t the time or place for that, I can’t help but bring it up as we sit down, each of us bearing a bowl filled to the brim with cocoa puffs.
“Daddy,” I say in my sweetest, most cajoling voice, and he groans.
“No, Pumpkin, you can’t have a pony,” he jokes.
“Aww. I was so sure you’d changed your mind,” I answer back playfully. Then I take a spoonful of cereal, racking my brain for an opener. “So, uhm, actually. This is about a kid in my class. His name is Ray Campbell. Does that ring any bells?”
He blinks at me. “Should it?” Then his mouth spreads into a small smile. “Don’t tell me you have a boyfriend, Pumpkin?”
“Ew!” I choke on a mouthful of cereal. “Gross! Dad! Me and Ray Campbell? Definitely not!”
He thumps me on the back as I gag out the food that’s gone down the wrong pipe. “Relax, Piper. So what’s this about?”
“There’s a guy named Campbell who works at Devil Tower,” I wheeze. “Right?”
“Uhm…” He frowns, thinking. “Yeah, I think so. Why?”
“Is there anything… off about him?”
Dad’s frown deepens. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t know him at all, really. He works down in the science department.”
“The science department?” I echo. “I didn’t realize there was a science department at Devil.”
“There are departments for everything,” he assures me. “The founders have their fingers in pretty much every pie there is. They’re investing a lot in this science project they’ve got going on.”
“What kind of a science project?”
“No idea. Some sort of experiment that—hey. Why are you so curious anyway?”
“I’m not curious at all,” I lie. “I just… well, I want to know about Campbell, that’s all.”
“Why?” Dad stares at me quizzically.
“We-e-ell… maybe I want to, uhm…” I clear my throat uncomfortably. “I guess you’re right, Dad, in a way. Ray’s not my boyfriend, but maybe, well… I have a little crush on him.” I try not to show disgust as I say the words. “I just want to know about his family. That’s all.”
For once, I don’t convince my naive dad. “Yeah, right, Piper. You’ve got something up your sleeve, don’t you?”
“What! Me?” My innocent tone seems to have Dad even more convinced that I’m up to no good.
“Don’t go looking for trouble,” he warns as he stands up and puts his bowl in the sink. “Especially not with that serial killer on the loose. And, most important of all, stay away from Devil Tower.”
It only occurs to me much later on how strange Dad’s reaction is. Why the hell is he more worried about me going to Devil Tower than about a serial killer?
Does that mean there is something strange going on at Devil?