How To Ruin A City

Chapter One

Catalina

I was thoroughly confused when a song I hadn't heard since 2012 started playing in the cafeteria as I sat down on a bench. I glanced over at a group of kids dancing and quickly looked away,  secondhand embarrassment setting in.

A glare graced my face today. To be fair, who isn't pissed off at school? I didn't even get to sit at a table for lunch and the only thing I found edible in the cafeteria was a smoothie. How filling.

I sipped on the smoothie only to immediately choke on the bland and watered down taste. I opened the lid and spit the drink back into the cup, hoping nobody saw me. Some redhead did as he walked passed. He gave me a disgusted look and kept walking.

After a short trip to the trash can, I returned to the bench to find my spot taken. My eye twitched as I grabbed my backpack and decided to head to my next class.

The door was locked, of course. I sank to the floor and wondered what games I could play on my phone that didn't require service. This hellzone rarely ever had spots you could get service.

I sighed and let my head hit the wall. With nothing to do, I decided it was time to plot. Last night I made an interesting discovery. I had cryokinesis.

Yeah, I know. It's cool.

To my knowledge, it was the only superpower I had. Hopefully I'd develop more.

Back to the plotting.

"How the hell does one become a supervillain?" I muttered under my breath. Calling myself a villain was kind of cheesy and stupid. Who self identifies as a villain that isn't a freak?

I mean, I doubt vigilante would be the correct term to label me as either. I planned on robbing a lot of different places.

Ooo! I want to cause havoc at an amusement park. Also known as not paying for their six dollar water bottles and cutting to the front of the line.

My classes went by uneventful. I didn't talk to anybody and I sat in general confusion before giving up on paying attention, then eventually snuck on my phone. It was October, so that meant costumes shops were finally open. I grinned to myself, knowing what I'd be doing after school.

When the bell rang, I practically ran out of the prison called Iron High School. Honestly, the name was duller than a butter knife.

I walked to the costume shop about three blocks away. I had forty dollars in my backpack, which I was originally planning to use for lunch money. I had an unofficial job as a house cleaner. I cleaned my neighbor's once a week.

I think I did a pretty good job since it was always spotless when I left. It's not like cleaning up a house the size of a shoebox is difficult, but I needed a better paying job. Robbing the concession stand at a movie theatre sounded like the perfect way to make some quick cash to me.

Maybe I could start a college savings account. Then again, if things went well, maybe I wouldn't even have to go to college. I could make a career as a professional criminal.

Wow. My priorities are pretty bad, aren't they? I'm getting a bit ahead of myself anyway.

I was instantly attracted to the scarier costume when I got to Spirit Halloween, but I forced myself to go look at the superhero/villain themed section.

It wasn't a surprise to find that I couldn't find anything that wasn't spandex and I refused to wear spandex. Imagine getting a wedgie while fighting someone. Talk about uncomfortable.

I really hoped I wouldn't have to fight somebody, but then again, maybe bantering with some lame hero would be fun. Maybe. Getting my ass kicked, which was likely since I'm a weakling with noodle arms incapable of doing a push-up, didn't sound so fun, on the other hand.