I didn't include the description for the main protagonist, Mallory, because it was a bit longer, but I'll share it below along with a back and forth he has with his father about combating police brutality and racial profiling:
“Huh, what?” Mallory said as he jumped up, confused. He then noticed his alarm going off, the clock on his nightstand flashing 6:30. He sighed as he slammed the button to turn it off, and then pulled himself from bed. He was wearing a pair of black Batman boxers and a tan Firefly t-shirt, wrinkled from his tossing and turning, hanging loose on his thin, scrawny frame. He stood at nearly six feet and three inches, but he had been underweight his entire life, leaving him looking awkward and lanky.
As he walked through his messy room, he ignored the comic books, textbooks, drawings, pens, markers, and protein bar wrappers strewn about. His father had asked him repeatedly to clean the pigsty up, but he had been so busy with his new internship that he had let it get a bit out of hand. He slipped on a pair of black-framed glasses and headed down the hall to the bathroom, relieving himself and then looking into the mirror as he washed his hands. His dark hair cascaded down over his bony shoulders, framing his pale, zit-covered face. He looked into the reflection of his deep brown eyes behind his glasses, hiding a mind with a wealth of knowledge not common among other sixteen-year-olds.
“You’re gonna do it today,” he said confidently to his reflection. He smiled. “You’re gonna ask Selena out. And if she says no, it won’t be the end of the world. She is under no obligation to say yes, but I gotta have hope. I just have to—” Suddenly there was a knock on the bathroom door.
“Are you talking to yourself again, Mal?”
“Of course, Pops!” he replied with a laugh. “It’s the only way I can have any intelligent conversation around here!”
“Baha!” Nathaniel laughed from the other side of the door as he walked away. “You little shit!”
Soon Mallory had showered, brushed his teeth, combed his hair, and dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a black Nightwish shirt. He pocketed his wallet, keys, and smartphone and slipped his black messenger bag over his shoulder, which contained a laptop, a tablet, and other accessories. Most of his things he had purchased himself with funds gathered from various tech-related odd-jobs around town, from computer repair to web design to light coding, which he had been researching independently since he was eleven.
He headed out into the kitchen, where his father was finishing up a breakfast skillet dish made of potatoes, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. It was, of course, a vegan meal, part of a cruelty-free diet they had adopted the previous year.
“Smells good, Pops,” Mallory said as he sat down, placing his bag on the floor next to his chair.
“Reserve judgment until you taste it,” Nathaniel added with a laugh. “I added that new seasoning from Herbal Emmington.”
The father and son sat and ate their meal together, both looking similar in many ways. They were almost the same height and their eyes and hair color were nearly identical, though Nathaniel’s was short and slicked back and he sported a short beard. He also had decent muscle mass compared to his son, wrapped nicely in a dark suit and tie with a badge clipped to his belt.
“You’re more formal than usual,” Mallory pointed out through a mouthful of food. “Another day in court?”
“Yeah, I have to testify for the prosecutor in a case I was working on,” he replied.
“Another corrupt officer?”
“Yep,” the father confirmed. “The last few years have really brought a lot of the problems we had in the police force to the surface. As we pull back the veil to try and make the right changes for a brighter and safer future, some officers still cling to the old ways and find themselves on the wrong side of the new laws. It’s never easy having to take down a fellow badge, but it’s a necessary step to heal the damage caused by years of enabling police brutality and racial profiling.”
“I’m glad you’re one of the good ones, Pops,” the son said with a smile. “Though you shouldn’t feel guilty about going after them. If they are trying to revive the hateful, bigoted ways of the past, they dishonor the badge and thus are not worthy of it to begin with.”
“An astute observation, Mallory,” Nathaniel replied, grinning. “I’m proud of the man you’re becoming. I only wish your mother could be here to see it. Our little boy, astounding people with his incredible mind. I wish I could go back to when you won your first Science Fair all those years ago and tell her that one day you’d be accepted as an intern at Qaarn Labs. Even then, that facility was known as state-of-the-art.”
“Stop, you’re gonna make me cry,” the boy said with a chuckle. The two joked around as they finished breakfast and cleaned up. Then they were out the door. They slipped into Nathaniel’s black Prius, which he had purchased to replace his old Jeep the year before as part of their move to a healthier lifestyle for both themselves and the environment. They drove for a few minutes and then pulled up next to Holladay Park, a large wooded plot adorned with statues and sculptures along cement walking paths. Two fellow teenagers sitting on a bench waved when they noticed the vehicle.
