Linda was amused by her son's serious expression.
"Alright, alright, Mom will write you a note. Black and white, signed and everything."
She shook her head with a smile and picked up her pen.
"You can take as much as you can get—the better you do, the better. If you manage to earn that hundred grand, Mom will be even happier."
"But if you don't get a single penny, don't blame your mother for laughing at you, kiddo."
Ethan carefully folded up the note Linda had written and took it back to his room for safekeeping.
Happily humming a tune, he walked to the bathroom to take a shower.
A few minutes later, he walked out of the bathroom wearing a towel and headed back to his room. He noticed his phone lighting up and picked it up to see messages in their group chat.
Ashley's message was the first to pop up. [@everyone are you guys going to the library to study tomorrow?] followed by a cute cat emoji.
Sarah replied instantly. [Yes! @Ethan @Jack are you two going?!]
Jack posted a running emoji. [On my way to Ethan's house right now, gonna ask him if he's down when I get there]
Sarah replied with an "OK" gesture. [Cool, I'll keep reviewing then!]
Ashley sent a rubber duck emoji. [Alright, I'm out! This lady's gonna go take a bath and get changed~]
The four of them had been tight since freshman year of high school, all the way through senior year. They were genuinely good friends—some of the few real ones Ethan had made during high school.
Occasionally, Ethan and Jack would hit the library with Sarah and Ashley to study. Otherwise, with their tendency to screw around, forget about getting into a decent university—they'd be lucky to make it into community college.
As for why Ethan's grades were better than Jack's? Simple—while Ethan also liked to mess around, he actually paid attention when it was time to study.
That's how, in his previous life, he'd managed to get into a decent state university. Pretty solid, all things considered.
But Jack... well, he just spent all his time goofing off. Lucky for him, he eventually scraped into a lower-tier four-year school.
Later, when they hit senior year, study time became tight, and they had relatively little time to hang out on weekends. Most of the time, they'd meet up at the library.
Ethan towel-dried his hair, his fingers flying quickly across the screen. [Yeah I'm down, but I can only do tomorrow afternoon! Jack and I are setting up a stand tomorrow morning, wanna come help?]
He posted a working dog emoji throwing a brick.
Just as he was about to turn on his computer.
Jack pushed the door open, holding a half-eaten apple in his hand.
"Yo Ethan, check the group chat! The girls are asking if we wanna hit the library tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I'll go tomorrow afternoon. Already replied."
Ethan didn't look up, his eyes still glued to the screen. "Quit munching on that apple and go cut your dad some watermelon. There's a cold one in the fridge. I'm about to give you some practice problems to work through."
Before he'd even finished speaking, his fingers were already flying across the keyboard, typing away rapidly. The Word document quickly filled with lines of physics problems—using the digital format to give Jack questions saved time and effort.
Jack walked toward the kitchen while still munching on his apple.
He muttered under his breath, "Man, usually I cut watermelon and bring it to you and you don't even touch it, but the one day I don't prepare it, suddenly you want some. You're really something else."
It didn't take long.
Ethan had already typed out five or six physics problems on the computer.
Jack came back in with a fruit plate filled with peeled watermelon cut into bite-sized chunks.
The bright red flesh glistened with juice. "Dude, your watermelon looks bomb. I'm gonna tell my mom to buy one tomorrow."
As he spoke, he set the plate down on the empty desk.
"Don't act so surprised. Eat some if you want."
"But first, do these physics problems."
Ethan picked up a piece of watermelon and popped it in his mouth. The crisp "crunch" sounded particularly fresh in the quiet room. The seedless flesh was sweet and juicy—the taste was perfect. He loved this variety of watermelon. He could easily demolish more than half of one by himself.
"Damn!"
"This many problems? You're killing me, dude."
Jack sat down in front of the computer with a look of despair on his face, staring at the physics problems on the screen.
He was completely numb.
He already hated physics to begin with.
Watching those mechanical formulas and circuit diagrams twist and warp in front of his eyes, like monsters from a nightmare.
And now he had to do this many physics problems all at once? This was even more torturous than taking an actual exam.
But there was no way around it. Time waits for no one. The problems Ethan was giving him now were all the types that would show up on the SATs in 22 days.
He wanted Jack to practice and memorize all the medium-difficulty questions, and then at least be familiar with some of the harder ones, so when he got into the exam room, he could just write them down.
It wasn't impossible to hit a top 50 school or even an Ivy League—it all depended on how well he could write his essays. English composition could be completely memorized and replicated.
"..."
"Just push through it, man. There's still 22 days until the SATs. Show me the same determination you have when you're playing video games or starting fights, and then get into a school in New York with me."
Ethan was comfortably munching on watermelon, his fingertips scrolling across his phone screen as he chatted with Diana on messaging app.
The chat window popped up with Diana's message.
[I just heard from Ashley that you guys are going to the library tomorrow to review!]
Ethan quickly typed out a reply.
[Yup! Going to the library tomorrow afternoon. Gonna set up a stand tomorrow morning to earn your startup capital!]
The other end of the screen immediately sent a laughing emoji covering its mouth.
[So this is how you're funding your "company launch plan"! How long is that gonna take~]
Ethan raised his eyebrows at the message, his fingertips tapping out a smiley face on the screen.
[You don't get it! Setting up the stand is just the first step in a long journey]
[The most important milestone is within a month after the SATs end, so just wait and see! I'm gonna give you a massive surprise]
After sending the message, he stuffed another piece of cold watermelon into his mouth.
His eyes were full of determination about his future plans.
...
"Damn it."
"Ethan, this problem you gave me is way too hard."
"I can't do it. I understand every formula individually, but when you put them together with all these words, I'm completely lost!"
Jack scratched his hair in frustration. The scratch paper in front of him was densely filled with calculation attempts, but he couldn't find a breakthrough. Some problems he couldn't do at all, and some he'd managed to get through one or two parts. He'd already spent nearly an hour on these questions.
"Don't stress."
"I'll break down the solution steps and walk you through them one by one."
"You need to memorize these question types, along with how to use the formulas and how to write out complete solution steps. You gotta remember all of this."
With that, Ethan grabbed some scratch paper, pulled out a red pen from his pencil case, and began carefully explaining the problem-solving steps to Jack...
After nearly an hour of explanation.
Jack's brain was basically fried.
Those dense knowledge points were like a tidal wave bursting through a dam, waves upon waves crashing against the levees of his thinking, pushing him to his absolute limit.
He looked completely wilted, waving his hand weakly. "Dude, no more. I gotta take this slow. I can only absorb so much knowledge in one day. If we go any further, my brain's gonna run out of storage space and crash."
"..."
"Crash? Your 'memory card' is trash, man! When are you gonna upgrade to a T-class 'solid-state drive'?"
Ethan played along with his joke.
Then continued, "Alright, let's call it for tonight! That's all for today anyway. I gotta get up early tomorrow to make lemon tea!"
Jack: "..."
"You really treat your best bro like a workhorse!"
"Man, screw this."
"What else?"
"Quit whining and get to work!"
There are 15 advance chapters ahead in my Patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
patreon.com/B_A_3439