38 Nerds Get Paid!

Once again, the System seemed to hit that perfect balance of filling Michael with both excitement and dread. "System, I don't even have access to that kind of gym equipment right now. Do I really need to spend more money?"

>

"..."

As Michael had this internal monologue, the Tesserarius and Centurion Densus began walking them through the striking drills, moving about and correcting people's stances as they went. Michael didn't have a ton of experience at it, but he did his best, and maintained his focus and kept his breathing up as he had during the rest of the day's exercise. He exhaled with every strike, breathing in as he adjusted focusing more on making sure the movements were correct instead of fast. This led to a nod from the Centurion, though it was just in passing and might just have been Michael's imagination.

Soon, class ended, and the students made their way back to the changing rooms, arms sore and backs aching for those who were unused to the process - Michael included.

---

He confirmed with his two friends that he'd be heading over after he finished his shift at the library, then parted ways with them as the two went straight to the cafe for another evening of high adventure. Michael wondered when they actually worked on their homework. His shift passed pretty quickly as he shelved and then finished scanning the textbooks before putting everything back and looking up some books on the subjects of his new mission. He found several on the basic combat style and a few on the lifts he'd have to perform that he hadn't yet added to his collection. He spent the rest of his session helping students and scanning the books whenever he had a chance.

At 5pm, he bid farewell to Mr. Maddox and made the quick trip from the school to the cafe. Ben was once again behind the counter, and Jeremy and Valeria were at their usual spots, but there were now a number of other people milling about. Some of them Michael recognised from school, and others seemed to be somewhere between the age of the two owners, but must attend one of the other schools in the area as they weren't faces Michael had seen before.

"Ah, Michael! There you are. Hey Jer, time for our meeting. Becca, do you mind manning the front?", Ben greeted Michael before calling out to his cousin and addressing a woman who had just come out from the back into the main area carrying a flat of bottles for one of the vending machines. She looked to be around Ben's age, if not a little bit older, with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and olive skin. Michael was immediately smitten.

"Michael, this is my older sister Rebecca. She just got back into town yesterday and is going to be helping out at the cafe for the next while. Becca, this is Jer's friend Michael, the technical wunderkind I was telling you about," Ben continued his greeting.

The woman in question smiled and replied as she set down the flat of drinks. "It is very nice to meet you, Michael. I hope Benjamin and Jeremiah haven't been giving you too much trouble."

Her voice was warm and soothing like a hot cup of tea, with just a slight trace of an accent that Michael couldn't place making her all the more entrancing. He blushed furiously and mumbled something unintelligible while staring intently at his shoes, which made Ben grin widely. "What was that, Michael? I didn't quite catch it," he teased, clearly enjoying himself.

His sister rolled her eyes at her younger brother's antics. "Go have your meeting. I'm leaving in about an hour, so don't waste time. It was nice to meet you, Michael."

The young man quickly approaching the shade of a tomato followed the two owners to the back of the room as he stumbled over an awkward reply.

"Meet niceing you, too... I mean... Computers."

---

Michael followed the two violently snickering cousins up a couple of flights of stairs into a large open plan apartment. The exposed brick, angular furniture and massive pieces of abstract art hanging on the wall looked like something right out of a design magazine. A massive grand piano with a plush fur rug flowing out from underneath it sat right in front of a wall composed entirely of glass, opening out onto a large terrace lined with high brick walls and lush bushes. A lap pool ran the length of the terrace on one side, with several lounge chairs and a hot tub on the other. Michael gaped at the awe-inspiring sight in front of him.

"Who lives here?", he exclaimed. Ben chuckled and beamed. "I do! Well, Rebecca and I do at the moment. Pretty swanky, huh? Take a seat," he said, pointing to one of the black leather couches in the living room area as he went into the kitchen area and opened the fridge.

"Water? How about you, Jer?", he asked, not waiting for an answer as he pulled out a couple of plastic bottles of water and a beer for himself.

Jeremy plopped himself down on a couch facing Michael's as he sighed in satisfaction. "Yeah, the renos worked out really well! It took all summer, but it was totally worth it, I think! Of course, Ben can't take credit for the design in here - that was all Becca."

"Hey! That's not true. I picked the piano. And that painting over there," his cousin retorted as he sat down on a chair in between the two high schoolers, setting the drinks on the coffee table in between them all. There was already a leather folio on the table, which he promptly flipped open, exposing the proposal Michael had given Jeremy.

Michael was still in a bit of shock as he took in his surroundings. He reached out tentatively for the bottle of water and took a sip while he collected his thoughts, before he asked the most immediate question on his mind. "Ben, I don't mean to be rude, but are you like... super rich?"

The older cousin chuckled at the question. "I mean, I've done okay in a couple of businesses before, but I can't hold a candle to Young Master Jeremiah over here."

The younger cousin rolled his eyes and scowled at his business partner as he said, "You know I hate that, Ben. That's got nothing to do with me. If the cafe does well then I'll at least have something I've earned for myself."

"Sure, sure. Must be soooo hard being first in line, my poor dear cousin," he replied with mock sincerity. Michael could tell from his voice that there was no malice involved here and it was just a matter of cousins teasing each other, which he could certainly appreciate. The aspect of normalcy helped to calm him down a bit, and he took the initiative to pull over the copy of his proposal and look it over once more. He then took on the most professional posture he could muster and spoke.

"Since we're meeting, I assume you've both had a chance to review my proposal and discuss it amongst yourselves?"

Ben grinned at the young entrepreneur before assuming his own professional stance, though in a slightly less serious manner. "Yes, my partner and I have reviewed the proposal. We did have some questions about timelines, and whether the project would conflict with any other responsibilities. I have it on good authority that the primary resource on the project is a massive nerd who also works at the school library and also does extra homework whenever possible."

Michael's face fell and this response and his friend immediately came to his defence. "Don't be a jerk, Ben. He's just teasing, Michael. We like the proposal and think it would definitely help in the long run. We haven't had any issues yet, of course, but we're naturally concerned about security and ease of administration in the future. Besides, the less work I have to do maintaining the computers, the more time I can spend playing on them! Though he's right - you are a huge nerd. That's totally cool, though, since we are, too!"

Michael smiled at his friend's encouragement while the older cousin rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he apologised. "I'm sorry, Michael. I didn't mean it. You were just so serious and I couldn't help it. I mean, it's good to take your work seriously, but it's okay to relax a bit too, you know? The reason Jer and I decided to do this thing was because it would be a good mix of fun and profit, after all. If you're gonna be a more permanent fixture around here, you're gonna have to match our vibe!"

Michael shook his head, "Nah, it's okay. I am a huge nerd. But nerds get paid!" He said, grinning. The three of them laughed and drank their drinks as they hashed out more of the details.