Charles (Chubs) Meriwether

"'The Darkest Minds tend to hide behind the most unlikely faces.'"

Chubs Carrington Meriwether IV is a Blue and one of Ruby's biggest allies.

Early On
Chubs was a survivor of IAAN (Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration), and inheirited telekinesis abilities. His parents hid him in his grandparents' cabin, and they communitcated through posting book reports online, since anything else would be tracked.

Unluckily, the PSFs got to Chubs, and took him to Caledonia. In Caledonia he met Liam Stewart and Suzume (Zu) Kimura. He was threre for around a year, but then when Liam staged a massive breakout in Caledonia that got most killed, Chubs was one of the few that escaped.

He went with Liam and Zu after they escaped, and together they acquired a minivan they called Black Betty. Since then they had been on the run, constantly avoiding Skip Tracers and PSFs that are trying to get them back in the camps.

The Darkest Minds
We meet Chubs when Ruby reveals herself in the back of their minivan. He voted for Ruby to be thrown out to go find a bus or simply just turn her back over to the Children's League. But when Liam sees she's running from the League, he has her drive the car instead. When Chubs votes to kick Ruby out, Liam and Zu overrule him anyway.

But anyway, Chubs helped patch her up anytime she got hurt, showing that he wasn't a complete jerk. When Ruby figures out the way to find East River, they cheer and embrace each other, and since then Chubs wasn't too mean to her, and they grew a kind, good-humored relationship.

Chubs was the only one not fooled by Clancy's act at East River, and he was angry at everyone else by being so blind and not seeing it. He was the one to save Ruby from Clancy when he was holding her in the Warehouse, and then pretty much carried her along with him since she was stiffened from Clancy's ability. When they were delivering Jack's letter to his dad, Chubs is shot in the shoulder. This results in Ruby using her panic button to call in the Children's League and save Chubs.

Never Fade
We see Chubs again in Never Fade when Ruby, Vida, and Jude are looking for Liam, and they come across his house. Chubs is also there, and we find out that he had been keeping tabs on her, Zu, and Liam, and throwing skip tracer's off their paths. He saves them from some PSFs by pretending to be a skip tracer (he technically is one) and locking Ruby up and telling the PSFs that she's a Green and he has her.

Chubs helps the three of them on their hunt for Liam, and they all come across the fake East River that Liam is at. Chubs takes care of him while Ruby and Vida are forced to fight a Red that they call Twitch (Mason). When Ruby exposes Knox, they go get some medicine for Liam and save him.

Chubs and Liam once thought about ditiching the others and going off on their own, but once they find Zu and get stranded at the demolished HQ after it was bombed, the plan fails to take place.

In the Afterlight
Chubs, with the others, is stranded at Los Angelos, but when Ruby finds a way out he goes with the others to the Ranch, another League HQ. When Cate Connor arrives there, she immediately leaves to go find the agents that they left, due to their plans to sell off all the kids, but Cate doesn't believe them. The Ranch is very empty and is described as unclean and deprived of valuable material. Chubs and Liam help out to clean the place up and get more food and such for the place, and they do their fair share of work.

Chubs volunteers to go on a mission to find Lillian Gray, the first lady of the USA and President Gray's wife. Him and Vida go on the mission, and supposedly grow a relationship together during the mission. They return successfully, with a messed up Lillian due to what Clancy did to her. Chubs helps Ruby revive her, and bring her back to her right mind. Later in the book, things get serious and official between Chubs and Vida.

Personality
Chubs has a rude, unwelcoming personality, especially to people he first meets. For instance, he was extremely cold to Ruby at first, and didn't trust her. He suspected she was hiding something. And he didn't trust Vida at first either, since she was a part of the League. But after he gets to know and love people, he proves to be a loving and trustworthy friend, who can get angry and mouth off any time things so poorly. Like when Clancy infiltrated both Ruby and Liam's minds, he yelled at him and exposed him for the brat he was. Also, when Senator Cruz, after the camps were freed, declared that anyone who decided to keep their psionic ability had to go to another form of camp, he told her off and made it so that psi would be treated equally.

Looks
Chubs has dark skin and black hair and brown eyes. He is described as narrow and thin, with long limbs and a narrow nose. He wear glasses with sliver rims, but yet his vision is still poor. His nickname Chubs came from the way he was overweight when he first arrived at Caledonia, but due to his restricted diet and long days out in the Garden, he became skinnier and more fit.

Ruby Daly
Ruby met Chubs when she revealed herself in their minivan, and he immediately voted her to leave and give her up to the Children's League. He didn't trust her at all, and believed that she was hiding something from them. Even when she managed to get them out of a run-in with some PSFs, he still voted nay when they took a vote. Luckily, Zu and Liam both voted yes and Ruby stayed.

Chubs and Ruby grew closer when Ruby cracked the EDO code to East River, and found out it was at Lake Prince, Virginia. They then cheered and embraced each other in excitement, and then left with the others. Since then Chubs was a little bit kinder to her, and they became friends. When Ruby revealed her true Orange abilities, Chubs didn't vote no for her this time but then encouraged that she stayed, even when Ruby tried to leave. Chubs was the only mind Ruby didn't manage to pry into, and Chubs claimed his head was a "steel-trap." Chubs and Ruby both bonded at East River, due to the fact that they didn't make friends as easily as Liam and Zu, but Chubs got angry when Ruby forgot to ask Clancy if Chubs could use his computer.

Ruby was panicked when Chubs got shot, which resulted in Ruby calling the Children's League in to save him. She embraced him when she found him at Liam's house in the second book, completely OK and alive. Ruby and Chubs grew a good humored and strong friendship.

Liam Stewart
Liam and Chubs were both held at the same rehabilitation camp, called Caledonia. Liam, Chubs, and their deceased friend Jack all staged a massive breakout, getting hundreds of kids killed and a few escaped. Jack included was killed, which Liam came to later be haunted by. Afterwards, Liam, Zu, and Chubs all got together and since then were on the road together. Liam and Chubs have a good humored, fun relationship. Sometimes they fall into arguments, but in the end they always have each other's backs.

Suzume (Zu)
Chubs and Zu were on the road together after the breakout at Caledonia, and Chubs cared for Zu like a little sister. But unlike Liam, who lied and kept things from Zu to keep her innocent, Chubs was blunt and straight-up, and never kept things from Zu. He disapproved of Liam teaching her math, due to the fact he never believed that things would go back to normal. When Zu decided to leave with her cousin, he became infinetly worried, and said to her that she thought they were replacable. But Zu told him that she would miss him and that she loved him. Chubs was overjoyed, just like everyone else when Zu began speaking again.

Vida
At first Chubs was wary of Vida, and didn't trust her since she was a member of the Children's League. They exchanged insults, but eventually they became good humored teasing. Vida often teased him for being able to sew. When Vida and Chubs went on a mission together to find Lillian Gray, the first lady who had information on IAAN, they developed a romantic relationship. Later on, it became serious and official that they were in love.

Abilities
Chubs is a Blue, meaning that he has telekinesis abilites and can move things without touching them. Chubs never really used his abilities, since he thought that if he ceased to use them they would eventually go away. But they never did, and eventually he began to use them more often. He claimed that Jack taught him how to use his abilities, and Chubs became very powerful with them.

(In the movie Chubs is a Green because the directors wanted all of the abilites, except Red, to be present in the main group)