Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain by Richard Roberts Read Free Book Online Page A

had to go on. I hunkered closer and lowered my voice. “They’re wrong. I had a second episode while we were eating dinner. Just a little tiny one, but if it’s really going to be years that wouldn’t happen.” I might keep this secret from my folks, but there was no way I wasn’t sharing it with my best friends.
    “So what are we looking at?” Claire pressed.
    “Dunno. If they keep happening, maybe days? A week? I’m betting no longer than by summer,” I non-answered. I wished I had a real answer.
    Claire frowned. “Six months would be a long time to wait.”
    “I don’t know. I’m looking forward to six months of random super-science inventions,” Ray countered.
    “That sounds fun for us, but the guessing is going to kill Penny,” Claire told him.
    “I’ve got a distraction right here,” I assured them both. I held up my wrist, letting my shirt cuff fall away from The Machine.
    “I know this thing does more than just move around. We need to find out what.” My co-conspirators grinned.

    I was smart enough to text my Mom before my last class that I’d be sticking around after school to hang out with Claire and Ray. She wouldn’t object. How the two biggest nerds in all of superherodom could worry that their daughter spent too much time playing computer games and not enough outside in the healthy fresh air baffled me.
    It’s pretty safe around the school, which helps. The poor heroes all live south of here, and do a lot of patrolling in South Central, and the rich heroes live just north. Me and Claire were the only kids of openly admitted superheroes in school, but muggers and drug dealers and what all knew this was the most dangerous neighborhood in the city for them. Here, and Chinatown. I couldn’t tell you why Chinatown, I’d just heard my folks say it. Superhero gossip.
    We’re on our own against bullies, unfortunately. I wish it was a surprise to step out the side door onto the recess grounds and see Marcia bee-lining toward Ray with three of her friends watching.
    He was reading while he waited for me, so, of course, she grabbed the book right out of his hands and snarked, “Class is over. Do you ever spend five minutes without your nose in a book?”
    “Please give my book back,” Ray said, quiet and serious. That’s Ray with other people.
    Marcia smirked at him. She was blonder than he was, the perfect LA princess like everybody sees on TV, and taller than him, and cheerleaders are pretty strong. He looked so skinny and helpless, and she looked like what she was, just plain mean.
    Then she glanced at the book itself, and it got worse. With that nasty drawn-out twang her voice has, she laughed. “Oh, please. Look at this, Rachel. It’s not even a book. It’s a catalog for superhero toys! Guess who wants to get his hands on a page full of superheroine figurines?”
    Ray gets really expressionless at times like this, but that just tells you how mad he is. I didn’t want to look at it, but I also wanted to do something. “Stop acting like a harpy and give him his book back!” I snapped at her as I stomped up.
    Like that did any good. “Oh, please, now he needs a girl to rescue him. And it’s the Akk girl, whose superpower is the biggest pair of glasses in the world.” I tried not to wince. My glasses look great! I could have had contacts if I wanted.
    “Here. You can have your pictures of women in spandex back.” Marcia turned around and tossed the book over her shoulder. Ray had to grab twice to catch it.
    He didn’t want to look at me. I had to get control of my breathing and stop trembling. Why would anybody enjoy being mean like that? At least I’d scared her away.
    No, I hadn’t scared her away. That made no sense; I was just another target. Claire had rounded the corner and was walking toward us. Picking on Claire doesn’t make you look good. “I’d like to say a few things about her, but my mother says that swearing isn’t classy for villains or heroines,” she