Villainous (BANG BANG, #1)

One

The house was circulating with the smell of fresh brewed coffee when I woke up this morning. Bleh. I still had like two minutes of shut eye left, right? I look over at my alarm clock's vibrant red numbers. Wrong.

Hurriedly, I ran around my room looking for any piece of clothing that would do. A white t-shirt with a pepsi stain and jeans. That'll do. As I thud down the worn stairs, my little brother Theodore slams into me.

"Watch where you're going!" He spits back like I was at fault. I grab a hold of his shoulder before he can go run to his room.

I scrunch my face up in confusion as I throw my black hair in a messy bun. "Why are you just getting home?"

"Kai and I went to this comic fair last night." He stops but I stand there waiting for more so he sighs and continues. "They had The Amazing Spiderman #700 and the all of us guys split the cost."

"You know that stuff isn't real. Why would you spend all your money on something so dumb?"

"But, you would approve if I spent my money on an overpriced camera. You have a stain on your shirt." He pointed out with a chubby finger in the middle of my gasp.

It was so not just "an overpriced camera". After taking photography as my art elective my freshman year, I decided to take it more seriously, so I saved up to buy myself the Canon 5D Mark III. It took amazing stills and the newspaper at school I worked on was always getting compliments now on how professional it looked.

"Good morning sweetheart!" My mom yelled from the kitchen.

While I was too busy to respond as I through my beaten up faux leather satchel and adidas on, she walked to the front door. "School on a Sunday, Charlie?"

"No, we have a meeting for the paper today. Sorry mom can't talk I'm already late." I give a small peck to her rosy cheek that's fanned with fly aways of black hair, just like me.

I rushed out the door of our small white house located in a good, but far from affluent neighbourhood. My dad and mom worked hard to pay off the mortgage. As civil servants they made a little more than minimum wage, even though they were highly educated in their fields.

I gave a quick good morning to Ms. Rachel as she watered her tulips and waved to Old Man Ry as he came out to collect his mail in a short robe.

⚛ ⚛ ⚛

On the way, I stopped by a coffee house and recited the orders I've come to memorize over time.

Dark Roast coffee for Caden, a vanilla bean latte with no foam and two pumps of hazelnut for Emmy, and a regular ice tea for me.

I reach for the drinks almost burning myself, but by the time I reach the school they have grown cool in my grip.

The hall was filled by the sounds of the debate team in a heated discussion in room 127 and I was the recipient of the janitor's dirty looks as I walked across the floor he was mid-way polishing. I let out a murmured sorry and make my way across the expansive hall lined by maroon and gold lockers. Dufferin High. Home of the Comets.

Dufferin was a hard place to go unnoticed in, since all of our families have been in this small town for generations. Unless you were me, Charlie Scott, and spent the majority of your time in the high school's media room. It wasn't so bad being on the bottom of the social ladder, I've never had guy problems or stressed about what to wear to Homecoming.

I walked into a small room, tucked away in a corner by the east wing of the school. We had an old printer that only spurted out black and white ink, if it chose to co-operate. There were three thick, black desktop computers that look just about as old as Old Man Ry. Sometimes, we would be late with the papers, much to the displeasure of the students who couldn't understand how much work it took to run a school paper, because the things took so long to load.