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Not anymore, he doesn’t, Piper thought.
“He likes to be comfortable,” Jada explained.
“No kidding.” Piper sat on the end of the bed and felt the cushy support of an expensive foam mattress.
Jada, picking at some already tortured black nail polish, gazed with longing at the iPad in the docking station. “Coop is really rich.”
“Rich isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Piper said, which was a total lie.
“I guess.”
“Tell me about the Pius Assassins.”
Jada pushed a long lock of hair behind her ear. “It started a couple of days ago. It’s kind of like a class bonding exercise for all us sophomores.”
“Those nuns get zanier every year.”
“The teachers don’t really like it, but as long as we don’t bring Nerfs on school property there’s nothing they can do about it. Everybody in the sophomore class who wanted to play had to pay, like, five dollars. We have a hundred twenty kids in our class and ninety-two signed up.”
“And the goal is . . .”
“Be the last person standing.”
Piper was starting to get the drift. “Like The Hunger Games.”
“And win the four hundred and sixty dollars.” Jada pulled her curly dark hair into a ponytail behind her head and then released it. “I really need the money because my phone is, like, embarrassing. I never say that to my mom, but she knows, and it makes her feel bad because we can’t afford anything better.” She dipped her chin. “I shouldn’t have told you that. Mom said never to talk about money.”
Piper’s heart went out to her. “So how does the game work?”
“You can’t kill anybody on school property or, like, at a school activity or if they’re at work or from a moving car because kids get hurt that way.”
“Comforting.”
“No kills if you’re on a bus or the El going to or from school, but any other time is okay.”
“I can only imagine how the commuters feel about dodging Nerf bullets. Especially in Chicago. You’re lucky nobody has shot real bullets at you.”
“We’re supposed to be respectful of other people.”
“How’s that working out?” she said, with only a little sarcasm.
Jada’s forehead crumpled. “I’m really sorry about what happened. The thing is, you’re not allowed to go into a person’s house to kill them unless somebody invites you in. And, like, if any of the kids showed up downstairs and said they were one of my friends, one of the bouncers or the servers would probably let them in.”
“You might want to talk to them about that.”
“Mom won’t let me. Since Coop lets us stay here for free, we kind of owe him everything, and Mom doesn’t want to make any waves.”
Free? Piper’s suspicious nature made her wonder if altruism was Coop’s only motive for providing
free lodging. “If this happens again,” she said, “I could seriously hurt you.”
“That was pretty cool. You have really fast reflexes.”
Now that Piper knew she hadn’t broken the kid’s arm, she had to admit she was happy with herself.
Jada was thoughtful. “Maybe we could have a code. You could, like, knock twice fast and once slow at the bottom of the stairs before you come up so I know it’s you. I really need the four hundred and sixty bucks.”
“Help me unload my car, and I’ll think about it.”
