Charlotte groaned loudly as she heard her phone make that annoying buzzing sound on her night stand. It can't possibly be seven in the morning already. It just can't. Charlotte thought as she laid sprawled under her soft covers. All of her body was in pain. It almost hurt to think, but she forced herself to throw back her covers and get out of bed. She reluctantly picked up her Pear Phone off of the nightstand to find that she had thirteen text messages from Jasper asking where was she last night and if she had watched the news yet. Charlotte found herself groaning for the second time that morning before throwing her phone on her bed.
Jasper was probably going to tell her about what an amazing job that Captain Man and Kid Danger did last night, but Charlotte already knew because she was Kid Danger. She couldn't tell him that though. She made an oath, so she was just going to have to pretend to be just as obsessed with the dynamic duo as he was. Just as she was thinking about how tedious keeping the oath was, someone slammed open the door to her room. Charlotte jumped and screamed slightly before raising her Wiz Watch up to the intruder. She relaxed and put her wrist down when she recognized that the intruder was just Jasper and not some criminal.
"Jasper, what are you doing here?! I literally just got up." Charlotte practically shouted at him. Jasper grimaced at her tone, but he quickly got over it as he remembered the reason why he rushed over to her house.
"Charlotte, have you heard the news?! Captain Man and Kid Danger put that dangerous gang that was smuggling organs into jail last night!" Charlotte nodded slightly while stretching her sore biceps and knuckles.
"You don't say?" Charlotte mumbled under her breath. Jasper, who apparently had super hearing, looked at her confused.
"I mean… How do you think that they do it? They're constantly fighting bad guys." Charlotte said, pretending to be impressed while grabbing an outfit from her dresser drawer.
"Now that you've told me this oh so important news, you can get out. I have to change." Jasper frowned, slightly disappointed with her response. He was about to leave when he turned back toward her for one last question.
"Can I have some of those pancakes your mom made?" Jasper asked eagerly. Charlotte rolled her eyes. Charlotte swore sometimes that Jasper just came over for her mother's cooking.
"Yeah, sure. You better leave me some this time, Jasper!" Before she could even finish her sentence, Jasper was already racing downstairs to the kitchen. Charlotte laughed slightly to herself before going into her closet to change. She threw on a pair of dark wash blue jeans, a long, long sleeved, light purple, t-shirt with the words Boss on it in Silver glitter, and her favorite pair of heeled black combat boots. She went into her bathroom to brush her hair and teeth before heading into the kitchen downstairs. As she walked into the kitchen's entrance, she noticed Jasper talking to a short, chocolate skinned woman with bouncy curls in a stylish designer outfit and heels. The woman turned around and smiled.
"Good Morning, sweetie! Jasper, here, was just telling me about how Captain Man and Kid Danger broke down and arrested that organ trafficking gang last night." Charlotte's mother, Rose, said.
"Morning, Mom. Yeah, he told me too." Charlotte said as she grabbed a white, porcelain plate and put her pancakes on it. She stole the powdered sugar and syrup from the kitchen's white and gray marble island before sitting across from Jasper on the glass table in the house's eating kitchen. Charlotte's mother was a famous interior designer, so the kitchen and the rest of the house looked like it came straight from an IKEA magazine. The walls were painted a soft blue-gray color with a multicolored backsplash between the marble counters and the dark wooden cabinets. All of their appliances were modern and updated with Rose's favorite being the touch screen fridge. Even though Charlotte mother just made the pancakes, the kitchen was spotless with nothing out of place besides the single plate of steaming hot pancakes sitting on the island.
"You got home pretty late from work last night. Do I need to talk to your boss? What's his name? Richard? Ray?" Rose said holding her floral, R Anthropology coffee mug to her chest. Charlotte grimaced, thinking about exactly how terrible that would go.
"Please don't, Mom. It's fine. We had an emergency shipment last night, so I had to stay back." Charlotte said in between scarfing down her pancakes.
"Honestly, Charlotte, I don't know why you still have that job. I'm telling you that you need to take that internship at my Interior Design company. You would be a great asset to the team, and you could even work with one of my social media managers. I'd pay you, and it would look great on your college resume. But, no, you're too stubborn to work with your mother at her company. You would rather work at a dump that's barely a step above being a junk yard, that has unreasonable hours, that always gets you home late, and that pays you only slightly above minimum wage." Rose said to her daughter in a tone that managed to be both condescending and sarcastic at the same time.
Charlotte put her hands over her face. She loved her mother. She really did, but Charlotte wished that she wouldn't question every single decision she made. Because her mother had managed to start her own successful business, she was constantly trying to shove Interior Design and Art down her throat. No matter how hard Rose tried, Charlotte had never cared about furniture and designing. Charlotte couldn't draw if her life depended on it, even though her mother had forced her to take a countless amount of Art classes.
"Can I be an intern at your company, Ms. Rose?" Jasper said while putting his dish in the dishwasher. Rose and Charlotte both giggled, and Jasper frowned, slightly offended.
"When you learn how to coordinate your outfits, I'll let you join my company." Rose said before taking a sip of her coffee. Jasper's cheeks flushed, and he went to go grab his backpack from the eating kitchen's hardwood floor. Charlotte resisted the urge to laugh at her best friend's expense. Instead, she decided to respond to her mother's original comment.
"I really like what I do, Mom. My boss is really cool, and it looks great on my resume that I've had a job for so long. Anyway, Jasper and I have to get to school. I'll see you when you get home." Charlotte said calmly while walking towards the front door, taking her backpack off of a hook. Jasper followed closely behind still embarrassed.
"Have a good day, Charlotte! You too, Jasper!" Rose shouted as they were leaving.
"Have a good day, Ms. Rose!" Jasper said before closing the front door behind him. They walked out of Charlotte's driveway and onto the sidewalk in silence, but Jasper quickly got over his previous embarrassment to start babbling about the upcoming Bucket Convention. Jasper was really excited for the event, since his Bucket Podcast had been discovered by the host of the Bucket Convention, and he was invited as a special guest this year. Jasper was going on and on about all of the different discussions that his panel was going to do. Charlotte listened to him to the best her ability, but he was talking about buckets for God's sake. Her mind naturally wandered off, and she started to think about her job as Kid Danger. Even though she hated to admit it, her mother was right about one thing. She was constantly coming home late, and Charlotte was barely getting any sleep these days. She was lucky if she could get a good five hours. Her job took up the mass majority of her life. Charlotte only really got to hang out with Jasper during school and in the mornings. She had to bail on him constantly because of her Kid Danger schedule, and any free time outside of that was usually spent studying, so Charlotte could keep her grades up. At work at Junk-N-Stuff, Charlotte was basically doing the job of three people. She had to run the store, do the research, and help fight the bad guys. Charlotte enjoyed going out into the field with Ray, but she felt more at home when she was in the chair in front of the computer screen in the Man Cave.
Charlotte and Jasper arrived at the school in practically no time, and when they get there, they both split up with the promise to see each other later at lunch. Charlotte was looking down at her phone on her way to grab her Psychology textbook when someone accidently ran into her. Because she was already so sore from her fight last night, she landed harshly on her bottom on the floor, her phone sliding out of her hand. She moaned as her body screamed in a painful protest of the constant abuse Charlotte put it through.
"Watch where you're-" Charlotte started to say angrily, but she stopped when she looked up and saw the gorgeous boy standing before her. He had white baseball cap on his head with hints of dirty blonde hair peeking out of it, breath-taking dark brown eyes, long eyelashes, and a sheepish smile on his face. Charlotte couldn't help but to drink him in. He was towering over her in his gray hoodie, black jeans, and black Sk8-Hi Vans.
"Sorry, I didn't see you there." He said quietly. He looked around the unusually empty hallway, anxiously, before offering his hand to help her up. Charlotte didn't know him, but she doubted that he was the quiet kind of guy. His presence practically yelled at Charlotte.
"It's fine. Just watch where you're going next time." Charlotte said, taking his hand and pulling herself up. (There was no way that she was going to be able to get herself off of the floor with her muscles feeling like jelly.) As she took it, she felt sparks travel throughout her body and down her spine, and she quickly let go in shock. He nodded in response and fixed his dark blue backpack strap before trying to leave. Charlotte instinctively grabbed his sleeve.
"Wait! What's your name?" She said curiously. Charlotte couldn't explain it, but some part of her was drawn to him. She had to at least know his name. She couldn't let a guy like this just pass her by. The boy stopped in his tracks and looked down at the hand that was holding onto his sleeve. He stared at her cautiously as if the simple question was a trap. In fact, Charlotte watched his dark eyes glance around the hallway again nervously.
"Why do you want to know?" He almost whispered. Charlotte raised an eyebrow at him.
What's with this guy? Why is he acting so paranoid? She thought to herself.
"I've just never seen you before, and I'm Student Council President. I know everyone." Charlotte said quickly. The guy stared at her again, but this time with an intensity that shook Charlotte in her core. It felt like he was seeing right into her soul.
"Henry." He said simply before pulling his cap over his face to the point where his eyes weren't visible anymore and pulling his hoodie over his head. He then briskly walked away and into the nearest crowd of students. Charlotte watched with a newfound interest as the boy, Henry apparently, tried to find a way to disappear out of her life just as quickly as he had appeared. Unfortunately for him, there was no way in hell that Charlotte was going to let that happen. She hadn't noticed him before, but she had seen him then. She was determined to keep Henry in her sights now. There was an unexplainable connection between them, and Charlotte needed to know more about the invisible boy in the gray hoodie.
Author's Note: I know what you guys are thinking: "Lizlen, what about The Choices We Make?! Are you quitting?" No, I'm not quitting, and I'll have the update for that on Monday. This and like two other things kinda came to me in my chlorine coma from Swim Practice. I've had a hectic week since school (for me) just started Monday, so that's why I haven't been updating like I used to. This month is really busy, so my updates will probably be weekly, but after this month, I'll go back to updating every two days or so. ALSO, I want to thank wstrnplsr105 for everything since they're both my inspiration and my soundboard. (Love you!)
P.S.: Watch out for other stuff coming your way soon! (The best work comes out of chlorine comas, lol.)