Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee Page B

but I don’t think they’ll let me anywhere near the technical stuff. Probably just boring work, like filing or getting coffee, but a job’s a job, and I bet any college will look at Monroe Industries and be impressed, right? That’s if I get it, though.”
    â€œI bet you will,” Bells says.
    â€œThanks.”
    Jess types a response, fingers flying through the projected mini-keyboard, to let them know when she’s available after school this week for an interview. By the end of lunch, she has an official message from M that says they want to fill the position as soon as possible and suggesting that, if she can’t come into the office today, they can do a video interview.
    Jess high-fives Emma and Bells and confirms for five o’clock.
    Jess gets home from school just as her mother returns from picking up Brendan from the college campus downtown.
    â€œDad home today?” Jess asks. “I wanna use his office for a backdrop. I have a job interview via holo, and I need it to look really professional.”
    â€œYeah, he’s out doing—” Mom casts a furtive look to see if any neighbors are listening in. “—the work, you know.”
    â€œRight,” Jess says as she goes inside. “I’m sure helping old ladies cross the street is a great purpose. Maybe one day the Mischiefs will show up again. I hope they do. Dad has been so weird about finding hero stuff to do.”
    They’re lucky they live in Andover, where the biggest thing to worry about is Master Mischief stealing all the oranges again or Mistress Mischief turning all the street signs upside down. The Mischiefs aren’t A-class villains; they have C-class powers, just like her parents. They’ve never harmed anyone, not like Dynamite, the cruel and heinous villain in New Bright City. Dynamite was responsible for that awful explosion in that shopping center. If Captain Orion hadn’t been there, the bomb could have destroyed half the region.
    But without the Mischiefs to stir up trouble, there isn’t much for a superhero to do: no switcheroos at the art museum, no thefts from local factories, no industrial supplies gone missing, not even strange robots playing pranks on people.
    The Mischiefs are just gone, without warning, or notice, and that’s strange for a couple known for their loud and dramatic stunts. Since they’ve disappeared, Smasher and Shockwave have no hero work to do, and Li Hua and Victor Tran have had to adapt.
    Jess’ dad has been acting really weird. He goes out of his way to do good deeds, until the mayor asked him to stop helping people cross the street. Jess’ mom, on the other hand, really happy about having extra time to work on her novel, has adapted very well to the lack of hero work. She’s even put in actual hours at her real estate “job.”
    It’s not Jess’ problem. But she does wish Dad would listen to Mom about maybe doing more at his “job,” or picking up a hobby.
    Jess, heart hammering, bounds up the stairs, two at a time. She drops her backpack and rushes back downstairs to the study. With a desk on one wall and a whole shelf of trophies, it’s a trophy room as much as an office, and Jess loves it, loves her parents’ personalities reflected on the walls and the knickknacks on the shelves, how it’s a mix of her mother’s love of bright colors and her father’s fastidious organization. She chuckles at all the static projections from the Gazette, holos of her parents as Smasher and Shockwave saving the day, and repositions the one of her mother lifting a car. That accidentally activates the news-holo clip. Jess takes a moment to watch her mother set the car aside and retrieve an injured cat. Wilton Lysander steps into the frame; his image flickers on the edge of the projection. “And Smasher once again shows that big muscles also come with a big heart—”
    Jess switches it