Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Revamped Chapter Five: Charlie Roberts & His Police Scanner

"Coal, wake up already!"

I groaned loudly and curled deeper into my blankets. I recognized the voice and honestly, I couldn't care less what it wanted. "Good gold, man! Get a life!"

"You get a life and get a move on!" It yelled. It even went as far as to grab something and smack my back as hard as it could. "Come on! Stupid 'Ben and Jerry' already left for school and we're going to be late!"

I laughed at his new nickname for my brother, but remembered I was supposed to be mad at him for waking me up. I threw my blankets off and scowled. "O-kay. Happy, mother?" It, in fact, was not my mother. It so happened to be my best friend of forever, also known as Charlie Roberts.

Charlie. How do I introduce you to this guy? In the looks department, we couldn't be anymore different if you tried. I'm tall, he's short. He's got curly brown hair and I've got blonde hair. He's pretty cool. I'd say a solid 10/10 best friend. Cares more about school than I do and has a pretty intense dislike for my brother. He can't handle spicy food and is adamant tomatoes are a vegetable due to the fact that he's never seen tomato ice cream. He's pretty chill except when it comes to two things: Star Wars and supers.

Like a good best friend, I've watched the whole Star Wars franchise at least once, but I still don't understand it and, honestly, I only paid enough attention just so I can irritate him by messing up all my references to it on purpose.

"About time, sleeping beauty," Char said. He cracked a grin at my scowl and slipped his backpack off. "Dude, do I have some crazy stuff to fill you in on."

"What? Your mom had to call the fire department again? That's hardly news, buddy. That happens at least once a week."

He blinked. "No. Mom's banned from the kitchen." He shook his head, realizing that the topic was quickly being lost. But we could never stay on one subject for long. "At exactly 1:54 A.M. last night—"

"1:54 in the morning?!" I shouted in surprise. I sat on the edge of my bed and shook my head. "What were you doing up at that hour?"

Charlie put a foot on my chair and took a notebook out of his backpack. "Did you know that most superhero activity happens at night? That's when most of the villains come out and when the younger supers are active. It's not confirmed, but I'm pretty sure that there are at least a few supers who are still teenagers and I think they get the night shift because they have to be in school in the day."

"I think you have insomnia."

The irritation on Charlie's face was enough to make me laugh and get out of bed. Charlie was an open book. Anyone could read what he was thinking a mile away just with one look at his face.

"Coal, I'm trying to be serious here!" Charlie said. "At 1:54 A.M., the police scanner goes off—"

I turned around from my dresser drawers and gave him a blank look. "Your mom grounded you indefinitely from using your police scanner."

Charlie's eye twitched. "Yes, mom grounded me from using that police scanner, but she never said anything about using my computer to hack—I mean to use a police scanning app."

"Char, did you hack into the police department's computers? Again?"

"The first time was an accident!" He huffed loudly. "At exactly 1:54 A.M.," he said, not answering my question. "The scanner goes off with a report that there was a home invasion not three blocks from here and there was already a super responding to the call. But you would not believe who it was." Charlie didn't wait for me to guess. "It was Headphones."