Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Chapter Twenty-Six: Building Tension and Bowties.

Coal's P.O.V.:

I planned to sulk. And if that didn't get my parent's attention then I was going to have to sneak out. See, I'm only going to this dance for two reasons:

1: City Sweeper is supposedly going to make her move there.

2: Molly.

Okay, scratch that last reason, let's just forget that I ever said that, agreed?

I woke up this morning, or actually, afternoon to find my window spray painted with another warning from City Sweeper. I huffed loudly to myself and tried scraping it off or something. She just had to use red paint. Doesn't she know how mad mom would be if she saw this? Her attempts at being dramatic are so lame.

At this rate, I would much rather she stop delaying and just act already. She has the time to spray paint our windows, leave threatening notes but she doesn't have time to kill us yet? What's with that? Just get the show on the road already.

"You okay up there, Coal?"

I looked behind me to find our older neighbor, Mr. Crabs, walking his dog down on the sidewalk. I tried to keep a straight face as I responded, "I'm fine, Mr. Crabs. Just hanging out on the roof trying to clean my window."

Mr. Crabs chuckled and mumbled to himself as he continued walking his dog.

Back to business: I had literally tried everything, but nothing was making the red paint come off. I sighed and leaned back for a second forgetting where I was. Running my fingers through my bed hair, I frowned at my reflection.

That didn't look exactly like me. And I thought reflections copied my movements not move of their own free will? The reflection slid my window open and gave me a straight face.

"What are you doing, Coal?" Ben asked, cocking an eyebrow at my precarious situation.

"Cleaning up the death threat from City Sweeper. Apparently, she's going to strike tonight."

"You got one too, huh?"

I nodded my head and clambered back into my room. I fell to the floor in a painful heap. "Well, that was a suave entrance," I grumbled to myself as I got to my feet. "What did she say on yours?"

"Oh, you know, the usual: You're going down tonight, enjoy it while you can. City Sweeper seriously needs to get some new material," Ben said, closing my window and reading what was on the glass. He sighed loudly and ran his fingers through his darker brown hair, a habit I suspect he got from me. "Mom is going to be so mad."

"Well... It's not our fault."

Ben cocked an eyebrow at me. "And that matters whether it was our fault or not? Anyway, how are you going to get to the dance?"

I sat on my bed and shrugged. "No idea. Oh, I know I'll just turn invisible since that's a new power of mine oh wait I can't." I gave him a 'duh' look and went back to staring at the ceiling. "Any suggestions?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but the sound that seemed to come out of his mouth was a sound I didn't know he was capable of producing. I gave him a strange look. I didn't realize that when he sang, he sounded like Taylor Swift.

I watched with much enthusiasm as his face turned beet red. "I hate it when Beats changes my ringtones," he grumbled, pulling his phone out of his back pocket and answering it. "Beats, did you seriously change my ringtone again?"

Unfortunately, I didn't hear much else as I started laughing much harder than I've laughed in a long time. That was hilarious. It was one of those things you kind of had to be there to see for it to be truly funny. Eventually, when it became apparent that Betty was going to have a detailed conversation with my brother about what they were going to wear, I kicked him out of my room and stumbled downstairs.