The Trials of Renegade X Read Free

husband’s illegitimate love child with a supervillain, and even if the little incident that spawned me happened before she and Gordon met, it’s cutting it pretty close. She could have freaked when Gordon first brought me home six months ago, just out of the blue, no warning. She could have refused to let me stay here or had crazy ideas that I was evil or something. But no. She welcomed me into the family. And even if she misguidedly felt sorry for me for my supervillain upbringing, she never made me feel weird about it.
    And considering that my real mom disowned me for disagreeing with her and showing even the teensiest signs of maybe leaning toward my hero side, Helen gets major points from me for treating me like one of her own kids. Even though we’re not technically related. And even though we might disagree on who I should be allowed to associate with.
    I sigh as I glance at the clock—it’s almost six—and dial Sarah’s number on my cell phone. Sarah’s my sidekick. She’s an ordinary citizen, not a hero or a villain, though she is pretty heroic. She’s all for me getting my H , for obvious reasons. And, also for obvious reasons, she’s on Helen’s list of people that are actually allowed at the house.
    Sarah answers after only two rings. “What’s the emergency?” She must know it’s me.
    “No emergency. Can’t a hero call his sidekick just to chat?”
    I can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “What is it, Renegade?”
    “It’s a nice night for crime fighting.”
    “I thought you said you were busy?”
    “I was.” That was when I thought I was spending the evening with Kat, before Helen chased her off. “I had a change of plans.”
    My door opens. I half expect it to be Helen again, or Gordon, coming to tell me off for earlier. He was too flustered at the time to do much more than stammer. And then I told him that when a bird and a bee love each other very much, or when they meet randomly in a dirty subway bathroom—which is not on our list, by the way—they want to rip each other’s clothes off and do things to each other that birds and bees would never do in real life. And that sometimes when people meet randomly in a dirty subway bathroom, they don’t use protection and end up with an illegitimate love child who then has to explain the facts of life to them sixteen years later. Because if they already knew, they wouldn’t be gaping at him with their mouths hanging open like that.
    Then he stormed out.
    Which is why I expect him to be back for round two, but instead of Gordon, Amelia pokes her head in, her eyes darting right to the bed, as if she expected to catch a second showing. Which, considering that no boys will ever touch her—what with her sparkling personality and all—is probably the closest she’ll ever get to the real thing.
    Amelia’s got dyed black hair, blond eyebrows, and is slightly pudgy. She also wears way too much mauve eye shadow, something that was popular for some reason with all her friends at our old school.
    I glare at her. “You could have knocked.” Just because she has no life of her own and has to live vicariously through mine doesn’t mean she can barge in whenever she wants.
    “Then you would have told me to go away.”
    “ Exactly .”
    “You had a change of plans?” Sarah repeats through the phone. “So I’m your second choice.”
    She makes that sound like it’s a bad thing. As if it’s not an honor to be chosen at all. “We could just hang out. You know, if you think all the evil-doers of the world are taking the night off or whatever.”
    “Your girlfriend bailed on you and you’re lonely, you mean.”
    Okay, maybe there’s some truth to that, but the way she talks, you’d think it was a crime to want to spend time with her. “We can watch a movie. Your pick.”
    She makes kind of a snorting sound. “You said you were busy, so I made plans. With Riley .”
    I make a shooing motion at Amelia, directing her toward the door. I