OVERRIDE

Chapter 7 The Weird, Weird, Truth about Charlie

"So, would you have any idea?" I asked Jordan at school the next day. "Charlie seems like he's nine or something, but he acts like he's two."

"Gosh, I've got no clue." said Jordan, shutting his locker. I admired his biceps as he did so. They were gorgeous.

I guessed he had caught me or something because he smirked, and said "so, you see something you like?"

I immediately snapped my attention back to his face. "Sorry." I said, blushing. "I was uh, just thinking about something."

"About how ratchet my arm looks?"

"Rachet? No, your arm doesn't look rachet, just...intimidating, is all."

"Are you scared of my arm?" Jordan snickered.

"Oh, hush." I said, playfully shoving him in the stomach...which I've got to say, was a hard as a rock...but anyways. Jordan's cheeks got red, then he went silent.

"You okay?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, um, yeah. Take Charlie to the pediatrician. I'll meet you there after school."

"Oh, okay." I responded, nodding. "I guess I'll see you later, then."

Jordan gave the usual head tilt, smiled, then walked to his class.

I headed in the opposite direction, over to the library, where I usually spent fifth period art. Our art room was destroyed in  fire two years ago, and of course we didn't have any money to rebuild  it, so classes were usually held in the library.

"Hey, Taylor." I said as I sat down next to one of my classmates. She smiled and began fitting her canvas on the art easel. I set my bag down and walked to the back of the room to grab a canvas.

"Lia, can you grab me some red watercolor?" yelled Taylor, causing the people studying at the other end of the library to go "Shhh!"

"Yeah." I called back, trying not to be as loud. I grabbed my canvas, watercolor set, a few brushes, and a red watercolor pallet for Taylor. I sat down next to her then felt my phone  vibrate.

"Thanks." said Taylor, grabbing the red pallet. She wet her paintbrush then dipped it in the red. "So I heard about your newest addition to the Coleman siblings."

"Yes, Charlie?" I asked.

Taylor nodded. "I hear he's a male!"

"Yes."

"Gosh, you're so lucky to have a brother to protect you, you know how rare it is nowadays? All our boys want to join the army and help interrogate-"

"Taylor, he's like, five."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

We sat there in silence, watercoloring our canvases.

"Have you checked for any microchips?" Asked Taylor a few minutes later.

"Chips?"

"You know, like any life support chips or identification chips or is his case...chips that reverse the aging process?"

Do those even exist?

"Yes, Taylor, I know what microchips are. Why would Charlie have a reverse-age one? It's not like he's seventy..."

Usually, so I've heard, older people with deathly illnesses use those chips. They're pretty hard to obtain in the first place.

Taylor looked at me and raised her blonde eyebrows.

"Wait a minute." I said. I stood up and grabbed my backpack.

"Where are you going?" Asked Taylor.

"Just tell Mr. Simon that I've got a family emergency." I said, walking out the library doors. Immediately, I found my way out of campus, and took a taxi straight to our apartment.

I rushed inside and flung my bag against the kitchen table. I ran into my room, where Charlie was sleeping peacefully in a crib that I got from one of the neighbors. I carefully lifted him out  o  bed, and woke him up. He gave a small yawn, and just laid in my arms, staring at me.

I moved his fuzzy hair away from the back of his ear and felt around. Bingo. There was a chip. I ran into the bathroom and grabbed my chip-reading light (that I used when I administered  healing chips to the girls when they get sick or injured) and shined it behind his ear. The purple light showed the contents of a chip and I read its code. I ran to the kitchen next to grab my microchip-decoder, and flipped to the MEDICAL section of the book. I read the fifty possible numbers that the chip could be, and found it. I turned to the corresponding page and saw the microchips that I was looking for.

The page read: Age-Reversing microchips with code numbers 1863927 to 1863999.

I knew it. This was an age reversing chip. Charlie was older than he looked.

I grabbed my tweezers and carefully removed the chip from behind his ear, drawing some blood meanwhile. Charlie began to cry, so I yanked the rest of the chip out, and quickly threw a towel on top of him, because within seconds, he was gonna be a man.

Exactly two seconds later, his arms began to grow long and skinny. His legs grew the same way as well, and his head "matured". He had a defined jaw line, dimples, and tan skin.

Thank God I gave him that towel.

"Oh my GOD." He cried, wrapping the towel around himself.

"Ch...Charlie?!" I cried. I personally never had seen how an age- reversing chip worked, and I was a bit freaked out about the whole situation.

"Is that my name?" he asked, scratching his head. "I've been a baby for seventeen years now. Sheesh."

"You're seventeen?" I asked, still dumbfounded.

"Yep."

"Wow!" I cried. I burst into hysterics.

"Sorry, is there a problem miss? Besides the fact that the only thing covering me is a whimpy towel?"

"I've...I've just never come across an age-reversing microchip before. This is just so...bizarre!"

"Well, hello, miss, sorry to scare the crap out of you."

"Yeah." I said, still shocked. "Welcome to the family."