Chapter 1

 

“THIS IS GOING TO be the best trip ever,” Amelia says to Melissa and Hil, her friends from Advanced Heroism. “I couldn’t even sleep last night.”

“Me, neither,” Melissa agrees. All three of them have these huge grins on their faces. They look like they’re going to start jumping up and down and squeeing any second.

I yawn, because I didn’t sleep much last night, either, except for me it was less about excitement over this trip and more about completely dreading it. I look over at Riley, who’s sitting next to me on a bench in the parking lot at Heroesworth. The whole first-year class is here, milling around and talking way too excitedly for people who had to be at school at six a.m. We’re all waiting for the buses to come pick us up so we can spend the next five days living in the woods for no reason.

Apparently it’s a tradition. One that everyone spends their whole life looking forward to, or at least everyone except me because for one thing, I’d never even heard of it until a couple weeks ago, and for another, because I think the idea of sharing a cabin with people who hate me sounds like the worst idea ever. I mean, Riley will be there, so not everyone in our cabin will hate me. But that still means there will be four other people I don’t know, and after everything that’s happened this semester—and, okay, this year—I think it’s a pretty safe bet that they won’t be my biggest fans or anything.

“My mom said this trip is where she met her best friends for life,” Melissa says. “They worked together all through Heroesworth, and they’re still super close, even though one of them moved to Europe two years ago. But they Skype all the time.”

Hil nods. “My sister said she hated it at first, but by the end, she was one of the people sobbing when they had to leave. And then she and her cabin mates made their own shirts to commemorate the trip, and they still all wear them on the same day once a month. That’s so going to be us next year.”

“Oh, my God, you guys.” Amelia suddenly grabs their hands. “Can you feel it? This is, like, where our lives begin. We’re going to be Team Glitter forever.”

I roll my eyes at her.

“What?” she snaps, suddenly glaring at me. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were thinking it. Just because you’re not excited doesn’t mean nobody else is. I don’t even know why you’re going on this trip.”

“Because it’s mandatory?” Or at least that’s part of the reason. And it being required seems like a huge red flag to me. The school wouldn’t need to force everyone to go if it wasn’t going to suck.

“You could have gotten out of it.” She turns back to her friends. “He lies about everything, like, all the time.”

Riley gives me a worried look. “She’s right, X. I mean, not about the lying thing, but you could have gotten out of this. You still could.”

I tilt my head at him. “I’m not the one with the broken leg.”

“It’s been six weeks. It’s getting a lot better.” He’s down to only a below-the-knee cast, though he still has to use his crutches. “My doctor said I could go as long as I keep up with my rehab exercises and don’t push myself too hard. And that’s not my point. It’s just… you don’t have to do this.”

“If you don’t want me to go—”

“I didn’t say that.” He glances around at everyone. “But if you didn’t want to be here, I’d understand.”

And let him spend the week forming lifelong bonds with people who aren’t me? I don’t think so. Plus, after what happened at the gala, after the League was shooting at him and Mason ditched him and that rubble fell on him and he broke his leg… I’d just feel better if I was around, watching out for him. “So, what, the only half villain at Heroesworth just mysteriously gets the flu or something on the day he’s supposed to go on a week-long trip with all these people who hate him and nobody’s going to suspect anything?”

“No, but who cares if they do?”

“I do. They’ll think I can’t cut it.” Not to mention the fact that the school doesn’t want me going. I know because the school counselor called me into her office last week to try to dissuade me. She said she just wanted to discuss the trip and how it might affect me, and then went on to list a bunch of reasons why I might not want to go. She hinted pretty strongly that I wouldn’t really be welcome and told me that the other students would probably feel a lot better if I wasn’t around, ruining their precious bonding experience. She implied that it would be a really hostile environment for me. As if I couldn’t guess that already. She did everything but flat out ask me not to go, which makes me think the school wasn’t allowed to ban me from this, since it was pretty obvious they didn’t want me to come.

And not that I actually want to go to this camp or anything, or have, like, anything to do with it whatsoever, but I couldn’t stay home after all that. I couldn’t be the only person in first year who didn’t go on the trip with everybody. Not while I’m also the only half villain. And maybe I’d also feel like I was missing out on something. I’m sure it’s nothing good and that I’ll hate every minute of it, but at least then when everybody’s talking about it next week I’ll know what they mean.

“And what about you?” I ask Riley. “You could have gotten out of this.”

“I’ve been looking forward to the first-year camping trip for a long time.”

“Yeah, but… why?”

“I know I’ll have to sit out on some of the activities.” He glances down at his leg and lets out a deep breath. “But it’s kind of a rite of passage. I don’t want to miss out on it. And my parents met there.”

“Your parents met at Camp Serenity Trails?” It sounds like a retirement home for horses. Or like an abandoned camp in a horror movie that’s inhabited by ghost children and/or creepy dolls that move from place to place while nobody’s looking. My girlfriend Kat’s going on a similar trip with Vilmore, only the camp they’re going to is called Evergreen Springs, which sounds much more normal and like they won’t be murdered in their sleep.

“My dad told me about how he carved their initials in an old tree. They used to sneak out every night and meet there.”

I make a face. “So, you’re going on this trip to find some old tree where your parents used to go have sex? That’s really gross.”

He scowls. “They didn’t have sex there. I mean, they weren’t doing that.”

“Uh-huh. They didn’t say they were, you mean. How old were you when he told you this story?” Riley’s dad died three and a half years ago, when Riley would have been thirteen. I mean, I don’t know if his dad was the type to sugarcoat this kind of story or not, but there are some things he might have left out if Riley was only, like, ten or something when he told him.

“I don’t know. Eight? Maybe nine? But it doesn’t matter because they weren’t. They’d just met. My dad told me that even though they both went to Heroesworth, they didn’t have any classes together. And then on the first day of camp they ended up sitting across from each other at lunch.”

“That could have happened anywhere.”

“But it happened at camp. And then that night they also ended up sitting next to each other at the campfire ceremony—”

“At the what?”

“The campfire ceremony. It’s—”

“It’s when everybody sits around this big campfire and sings songs,” Amelia says, butting into our conversation. “It’s totally magical. There’s one at the end of the week, too, where everyone watches a slide show of camp memories.”

Ugh. It sounds awful. “Nobody asked you.” And it’s not like she’s been there before, either.

She rolls her eyes at me and then turns back to her friends.

“Anyway,” Riley says, “my dad said he knew she was special the moment he met her. And then when they randomly ended up sitting next to each other at the campfire ceremony, too, he knew it was fate. By the end of the evening, they were holding hands. And afterward, they went for a walk, even though they were supposed to go back to their cabins. They ended up at this tree, and they kissed under the stars.”

“That sounds—”

“So romantic,” Amelia says, interrupting again.

“—really sappy.”

She lets out a wistful sigh. “I wish Zach went to our school.”

Zach’s her boyfriend. He’s also Riley’s brother, and he’s a year younger than us, so he won’t be starting up at Heroesworth until next fall. And I’m pretty sure Zach would agree with me on the sappiness factor, and probably also on the squickiness factor and not wanting to go make out at the same tree his parents did.

Riley smiles a little and shrugs with one shoulder. “Maybe it is kind of sappy. But it’s kind of romantic, too.”

“And what does your mom say happened?”

He grins. “She says she’d had a crush on him all year and sat by him both times on purpose. I don’t know if he ever knew that, though.” His face falls a little. “She only told me that after he died.”

“So you’re going because you want to find their make-out tree?” It’s going to be kind of hard to do that on crutches. Unless the tree is right outside one of the cabins or something.

“Don’t call it that,” Riley says. “But… I don’t know. I just thought I’d come here someday when I was at Heroesworth and see everything he told me about. It obviously meant a lot to him.”

We sit there in silence, absorbing that.

Then some douchebag pretends to trip as he makes his way past our bench. He kicks my backpack and simultaneously elbows me really hard in the shoulder. “Watch it, villain,” he says, practically spitting the words. He sneers at me, like my very existence disgusts him, and then hurries off to find his friends.

Electricity burns beneath my skin, but I keep it in check. We haven’t even left the school yet—I can’t afford to go all electric already. Something I’m pretty sure would get me banned from this.

Riley shoots me a nervous look. “X—”

“Don’t say it, Perkins.”

“Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, really sure? Because—”

“Yes. I’m going, okay?”

“But you—” He stops himself, swallowing down whatever protest he was going to make. “Okay. If you’re sure.”

“I am,” I tell him, even though a flicker of doubt spreads through my chest and I feel anything but sure.

 

 

As soon as we get to camp, I regret coming here. Not because of anything in particular, but the second the buses drive away, the reality of what I’ve just signed up for hits me, and I get this horrible panicky feeling that I’ve made a huge mistake.

Five days. Stuck with the entire first-year class out in the woods, where Riley and Amelia will be the only people who’ll protest if anyone decides to murder me.

Great.

I hoist my backpack onto my shoulders, then grab Riley’s for him.

He glances around the camp, at the main buildings in the center and the trails that lead off to various cabins, which we can barely see from here. A look of dismay settles on his face, like maybe he’s not so sure about this, either. “I didn’t realize everything would be so far apart.”

“At least Cabin B’s the closest one.” That’s what the school told Riley, anyway. Now that we’re here, I’m realizing “closest” might be a pretty relative term.

And even though we’re in the closest cabin, we’re also the last to arrive. We’re probably the last to arrive out of anyone at any of the cabins, and at one point Riley tries to tell me to go on ahead, as if I’d abandon him and as if I’d actually be in any hurry to meet our new cabin mates, especially alone.

We can hear some guys talking and laughing inside as we approach the cabin, but as soon as I step through the door, the room goes silent. All four of them give me the worst looks ever. I can’t tell if they seem more angry or disgusted that I’m going to be sharing a room with them.

I ignore them while I hold the door open for Riley, though I can feel them staring at me.

Then one of them swears, breaking the silence.

“They let him come to this?” another one says, not even pretending to whisper or anything, like I’m not even in the room, or more like they don’t care.

I exchange a look with Riley. His forehead wrinkles with concern, possibly like he’s doing the math and wondering how I’m going to survive a week of this when it’s already going so great.

And even though I’m wondering the same thing—and also if Gordon would hate me forever for making him drive three hours down here to pick me up after only the first few minutes—I stride into the room like I didn’t hear anything and move to set our stuff down on the two remaining empty beds.

One of our cabin mates gets in my way. “Uh-uh,” he says, jerking his thumb toward the door. “Go somewhere else.”

He’s a little bigger than me, but not by much, and he seems way too sure of himself for someone who must know about my lightning. Which means he either hates me enough to take the risk, or he thinks his superpower is a match for mine.

“Huh,” I say, setting our stuff down on the beds anyway. “I could have sworn I requested the douchebag-free cabin. I guess there wasn’t one.”

He glares at me.

Riley comes over and sits down on his bed. His face looks pained, though I can’t tell if it’s from having to walk this far on the trail with his crutches, or if it’s because he’s worried I’m going to get myself killed.

One of the other guys comes to stand next to his friend. He folds his arms as he looks me over. “So, the administration thinks it’s okay to stick us with a spy for the Truth?”

“My dad’s going to be pissed,” the first one says. “The dean’s never going to hear the end of it.”

“Mine, too. It’s bad enough they let a villain on this trip. Can’t they keep him away from everybody else?”

I clench my jaw. My hands are balled into fists, though there’s no way I could take these guys in a physical fight. Not when there’s four of them. Electricity twitches along my spine, but I take a deep breath, trying to stay calm. These guys are trying to get to me—I don’t need them to know how much it’s working.

“He’s not a spy,” Riley says, rolling his eyes at how ridiculous they’re being.

“Either way,” the first one says, “he’s a villain. I don’t understand how the school can let someone like him even go to Heroesworth. We’re supposed to be learning how to stop villains. We’re not supposed to be training them.”

“And they don’t even let us use him for our own training purposes.” The second guy kicks at the floor, really put out by that fact. Then he brightens a little, like he just got a really good idea. “Hey, Noah, you want to test out your power?”

He says that to one of the other two guys in the room, and they both come over, so now all four of them are standing in front of me.

“Sure do,” the one who must be Noah says. He’s got this really creepy, overly eager look on his face, like whatever his power is, he doesn’t get to use it enough.

Did I say I regretted coming here before? Because I’m really regretting it now. I don’t know what this guy’s power is—what any of them are—but I can already tell I’m not going to like it. Adrenaline rushes through my veins, making it really hard to keep control over my lightning. Though maybe I should just zap these guys, get kicked out, and get it over with. Except then Riley would still be stuck here with them for the rest of the week. Not that I think they’d hurt him—at least, not with an already-broken leg—but I’m also not a hundred percent sure. And even if they didn’t physically hurt him, they could still make his life a living hell. They could still—

A horrible sound like a buzz saw made out of nails-on-a-chalkboard fills my head, interrupting that thought. It takes me by complete surprise, and I gasp.

Our cabin mates all smile. Especially Noah.

The sound gets louder and louder. I cover my ears, but it doesn’t do anything to stop it, because somehow it’s coming from inside my head. I think if it doesn’t stop, my ears are going to bleed, or maybe I’m going to go insane.

I think I hear Riley shouting at them to leave me alone.

Then all of a sudden it ends. Noah’s out of breath, and his face is a little red from the strain, like that was all he could manage. I guess he really doesn’t get to practice it that much.

I let go of my ears. I’m crouched down, almost doubled over in front of the bed. I stand up.

“His power only works on villains,” the first guy says. “Guess it works on half villains, too. Nice job, man.” He reaches over and high fives Noah.

“Thanks, Aiden. I was just getting started.” He says that, but he looks pretty worn out, and I notice he doesn’t try it again.

The fourth guy, who so far hasn’t said anything, sneers at me. “Looks like being a half villain’s just as bad as being the real thing.”

Riley hobbles over on his crutches to stand next to me. “Leave him alone.” Then, to me, “Are you okay, X?”

I nod, even though I’m not sure. Even though it’s taking everything I have not to go completely electric right now. And maybe I should just let it happen, because they attacked me first, but I can tell from their eager expressions that that’s exactly what they want me to do. They want to see the half villain completely lose it, and I can’t give them the satisfaction.

“It’s not even a fraction of what he deserves,” Noah tells Riley.

“I don’t know why you’d be friends with him,” the second guy says. “He hates heroes. He said so on TV.”

I think he means the launch video Grandpa made for the Truth, the one where he played a recording of me without my permission. And that’s so not what I said.

“Maybe you hate heroes, too.” Aiden narrows his eyes at Riley. “Weren’t you at the gala? Didn’t I see you on the news?”

“I—”

“He was,” the fourth guy cuts in, before Riley has a chance to answer. “The two of them were attacking the League together. That’s why the League was shooting at them. That’s why he broke his leg. That’s what you get for being friends with a—”

“Shut up.” Lightning crackles across my arms. I don’t care about holding it back anymore.

Riley moves a step away from me, though it’s not really far enough to be out of range.

The guys all look really pleased with themselves. Aiden flashes me a superior grin. “It just goes to show that even villain lovers get what’s coming to them.”

I take a step toward him. I’m this close to blasting this guy, but he doesn’t seem scared, and now I’m really wondering what his power is. Should I be expecting an energy ray to the chest, or does he think Noah’s going to take me down with his villain-only sound projection? “Back off,” I tell Aiden.

“The school really shouldn’t have let you come to this,” he says, right as he holds up his hands and blasts me.

I suddenly feel cold all over, like I just fell into a pool of ice water or a snow bank or something. My lightning disappears, all my energy going to fight off the cold instead.

As soon as my electricity’s gone, Aiden shoves me really hard, so that I stumble backwards and crash into the bed. “Well,” he says, “looks like it’s going to be a really fun week.”