23 A Quiet Stroll

Michael stared, stunned, at his friend and apparently co-owner of this cafe. "Jeremy, you're co-owner of this place?"

"Yep. Talk later? Val and I are on a boss," Jeremy responded distractedly.

Michael walked over to the machine he'd been using as a test machine as he absorbed the new information. Eventually he decided to leave it til he and Jeremy talked later. Satisfied with his gains from the evening, he decided to continue with his earlier decision and indulge a bit. He logged in to the machine and opened up Adventure Eternal, where his mage was waiting.

As he continued on the quests for his character, summoning elemental forces and slaying foes left and right, he was reminded of the tantalizing mission he was working towards. Once that thought occurred to him, he couldn't stay focused on the game. He sighed, shut it down, and pulled out the novel he was almost finished. He wasn't going to get any focus bonuses here, but at least it was quiet. The occasional call to each other for support or rescue from Valeria and Jeremy weren't that distracting. Soon, he lost track of time as he got sucked into the book in his hands.

---

The rest of the book only took him about an hour, at which point he decided to go help Ben with some of the setup tasks he had been working on. This caused Ben to snicker and taunt his cousin. "Look at this, Jeremy, your buddy is doing more work on this launch than you are!"

"Hey, I'm just the money, you're the manager!" the teen called back, not even turning from his screen. Ben scoffed at him and grinned at Michael, showing that this was a normal exchange for the two of them. Michael smiled kept up with his current task - connecting headphones to each of the machines. Soon, everything was ready for the following day's launch.

Seeing that there wasn't much left to do, that Jeremy and Valeria were completely engrossed in their game, and that it was already after 9pm, Michael decided to head home. He asked Ben to use the desk phone, so he could call a taxi, and Ben passed him another 25 dollars as he did so. "For the extra time," he smiled.

"But this wasn't the technical work," Michael replied, a bit uncomfortable.

"Well then, I guess our Business Manager should get off his own butt in the future - and that we should assign you more complex tasks if we get you back!" Ben grinned as he said this.

Seeing his attitude, Michael smiled and nodded enthusiastically. He said goodbye to the three and went outside to catch his cab.

When he arrived at home, the rest of the family was in the living room, watching television. Michael went in to say hello, before heading back downstairs. It was the end of the first week of school, and so much of his life and changed in such a brief period of time - it was a lot to take in. He looked at the time, and it was almost 10pm, so he decided to just get cleaned up, take his slow-release protein supplement, and go to bed.

However, just as he was about to change into his pajamas, he realized he hadn't seen a familiar prompt - his daily routine hadn't been completed! Since he took a taxi tonight, and it was only 15 minutes from the school to the cafe, he was still roughly 20 minutes short. With a sigh, he trudged back upstairs, told his parents he was going for a walk around the neighbourhood, and went outside.

The cool fall night air and the quiet stillness of the suburban sidewalks was immediately quite soothing. Michael's initially begrudging walk quickly transformed into a slow meditative amble. He had just been feeling like he had a lot to process, and here was a perfect opportunity to do so. While he walked, he reflected on all of the events of the week - from his new friends, the new work, his new teachers, to the new resident in his brain. Was it really him from the future that sent this back? Why? What was the reason? What could have gone so poorly that the best solution was "torment my younger self"? Did everyone in the future have phenomenal "go back in time" powers? Was everyone living with an annoying voice in their head telling them when to go to bed and not to eat cake?

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Michael pondered as he took another walk around the block.

---

4:30 AM, September 6th, 2000 CE

Michael woke up, acknowledged the various incremental notifications from the system, stretched, made his bed and made his way to the exercise mat. His arms ached mildly, but it was a dull ache he was getting used to. Considering the day, he changed into some running gear, walked upstairs, down his protein shake and went out for a run. He figured he'd run/walk 30 minutes of the way to school and then back. If he could get to a point where he could run all the way to school and back, he'd be doing quite well. But what he really wanted to do right now was to get faster. Fast enough so he could no longer see the backs of those five. Maybe they'd even be seeing his.

The house was still quiet when he got home. Since it was the weekend, his parents were sleeping in. He made his way upstairs and took a shower, and during that process he decided to ask the system the question he'd been pondering.

"Hey, System?"

>

"I want to get faster. Can we make that a focus?"

>

"I need to be faster, and I need to run further," Michael muttered, his fists unconsciously clenching.

The house was still asleep when he left the bathroom and made his way to the basement. Since the project with his parents hadn't been completely fleshed out yet, he only had homework and the proposal for the cafe. While he wanted to complete the first draft of his English assignment, he knew that it was likely a better idea to finish his Algebra and Chemistry homework first. There was no pressing need for his proposal to the cafe - they'd want to get settled in with the current process, first, so he could leave that a couple of days if need be.

He pulled out his Chemistry books and got to work.

---

Around 8:30, Michael was wrapping up his Chemistry homework, and the smell of fresh-brewed coffee was wafting into his nose. He could also smell bacon. His eyes lit up and he decided to put his Algebra work on hold until after breakfast. He scampered up the steps as quickly as his sore limbs would let him.

"Good Morning, Son!" his father greeted him, chuckling. Flavius and Rowena were sitting at the kitchen table, the weekend newspaper divided between them. "We figured that if the smell of coffee hadn't done it, the smell of bacon probably would."

"Good Morning! What do you mean, if the coffee hadn't done it?" Michael greeted and asked as he poured himself a cup.

"Coffee's been ready for half an hour. We figured either you hadn't woken up yet or you were distracted."

Michael nodded at the response. "Yeah, I was working on my Chemistry homework and I guess I was in the zone." Now that he thought of it, his focus really had improved quite a bit, regardless of if he was using his Enhanced Focus ability or not.

"Chemistry? It's not even nine in the morning. Do you have plans today?" Flavius asked, surprised.

Michael shook his head. "No, but I want to get the first draft of my English assignment done this weekend." He then forked a few pieces of bacon and a couple of fried eggs from the covered pan into a plate and turned towards the stairs back down to the basement. He took a step, hesitated, and turned back to the table before sitting down.

Rowena put down her section of the paper, watching her son eat with a curious gaze. "An English assignment due so soon? They don't expect you to read a book a week, do they?"

Michael shook his head once again, chewing and swallowing before continuing. "No, we've got til the end of the month. But the sooner I can get this done, the sooner I can focus on some other stuff, like our project, and training."

His parents relaxed at this, as if they'd finally solved the problem. "Got it. Well, we support you, you know that. But don't burn yourself out, okay? And make sure you're getting enough sleep. We're already incredibly proud of you."

Michael smiled, nodded and picked up his empty plate. "I know. I love you both. I'm just doing what I want to do. You don't need to worry." He went to the sink, rinsed his plate, put it in the dishwasher, and made his way back to the stairs. He could faintly hear his parents mumbling as he made his way downstairs, which made him sigh, exasperated.

"Wasn't what he wanted to do last week pull all-nighters playing video games? Teenagers sure change their minds quickly..."