Big City Hero UNOFFICIAL BOOK TWO

Chapter Eight: How to Stalk a Superhero.

Marie Harrison's P.O.V. Friday.

With a frustrated scream, I threw my folder at the ground. "Every! Single! Time! Why? What makes them so special?"

"Well, they're superheroes, they're special by default," Oliver said, picking up the beige folder and it's scattered contents.

If I was in a better mood, I would have been helping him. Knowing me, I'll be scolding myself later for just standing here and watching him clean up my mess, but I was too frustrated to help.

I rolled my eyes, upset that he didn't have a better answer. "Not the superheroes, Oliver! The King City Special. Why are they the only ones allowed to print things about superheroes? Why can't The KC Daily write about them, too? Where is the freedom of speech? Where are our rights?"

Oliver sighed. "This isn't about equality and freedom of speech. This is about you writing and exploiting superheroes. So why not just apply to work at the Special? I'm sure your boss will give you a good reference."

"They won't let me write the pieces I want to!"

"Honestly, it's only because they know your reputation. The Special just sticks to the event, they don't try to pick into the superheroes' personal lives or sensationalize the stories," Oliver explained patiently, tucking the folder under his arm and sticking his sweaty hands into his brown baggy cargo pants' pockets. "We kind of... Do."

"But don't you want to know, say, what Flaming Spark's love life is like? Or what does Smokey do for a living? What about Glitch? What happened to Red? Where's Headphones? Who's this new Black Cobra, and does Flaming Spark approve of him? What about Storm Rider, Tornado, Anti Gravity, and Green Boots?"

Oliver stared at me. He scratched his earth-brown chin and kind of smiled. "I think Miss Marie Harrison is obsessed with superheroes. And, if my journalist skills aren't failing me, a hot crush on Flaming Spark."

Speaking of flaming, my cheeks went blistering red the moment he said that. "I do not!" I snatched my folder out of his overly deodorized armpit. "Flaming Spark is the last person I have a crush on!"

I stomped a few steps away from him and whipped around to face him again. "And for your information, the only reason I want to write about them is to expose their secrets. Not all superheroes are good guys."

"Not all tooth fairies leave behind coins."

I stared at him.

He shrugged. "Some rob you and leave behind a useless crown."

"I am so not in the mood for your puns right now."

I spun on my heel and stalked down the concrete steps of the courthouse. I tried not to scowl when a superhero flew past me. This town was literally littered with supers, it's estimated that nearly one in ten people were supers, and out of that only around a hundred were registered as superheroes.

And every single one of them has a secret. What that secret is, I'm prepared to find out.

Oliver's heavy breathing and tall shadow soon caught up with me. Without glancing at him, I pulled my sunglasses down from their roost in my black hair and over my green eyes. "Come on, Oliver. I have a plan."