Chapter 16.

Chapter 16. Midterms (1/7)

Friday, I slept in late and skipped an entire day of school. I’d never slept in and skipped a full day before. Yesterday had only been a half-day I skipped out on. But this was still new to me. Somehow, I had a strange feeling of excitement. This new phenomenon was completely fresh to me. 

It felt like I was free of all my burdens. I didn’t need to work myself to death. I didn’t need to pile all that pressure on myself and drag my feet with it on my back.

High school? What even is that? I’ve never felt this happy before. This sort of freedom was something foreign to me. Knowing what I wanted to do every day for the rest of my life. Not being lost, I had found something early on I could work toward and build upon.

There were butterflies in my stomach.

Writing was the passion I’d found far too late in life. Knowing what my passion was so early on, I wanted to fall to my knees and break down into tears.

The joys of writing freely and unrestrained. In my first life, if I’d known of it, I wouldn’t have struggled as hard as I did to find my path forward in life. I wouldn’t have been burdened with ridiculous debts and taken out any idiotic high-interest loans because I was left with no other choice.

I wouldn’t have had to learn the hard way that university was a place where dreams are killed and reality is forcefully fed down your throat. Ah, screw all those liars who made nothing but empty promises of a good life after graduation. My one happiness never lied at the end of that dead-end road.

My one true love is writing. There can be no room for any other.

Perhaps I’m just a man who has long lost his mind, but I truly don’t need anyone else in my life. Other people only bring me down and hinder the things I enjoy most. That is why I firmly believe I am better off on my own.

In this manner, I continued to skip school. Day after day passed by in a flash. I spent all that free time dedicated to editing and proofreading my work. I’d become so engrossed with fun in my round-the-clock work cycle that I didn’t even notice that midterms began today.

As I’d completely dedicated myself to my craft, my first volume was at long last ready to be published. I’d already set up everything long in advance. I’d finished my keyword research. I’d meticulously crafted the title to be something anyone could easily stumble upon. I came up with the most intrigue-drawing synopsis I could think up. I even put in several hours and made the cover, all on my own, free of charge.

I knew a true professional would pay someone to also edit and proofread their work. But I was a bloody high schooler living off scraps and eating dirt. Where the hell would I scrounge together the money for those absurdly expensive services that would bleed one dry of any possible profit to be had.

Now, the final step, all I had left was to upload the manuscript and click the publish book button.

With great excitement, I clicked the upload button, located the file, and clicked the open button. I patiently waited for the site to do its own thing and process the manuscript.

When it showed that it had processed it successfully I immediately moved to the next page and clicked the button to publish the book.

With that over and done with I slumped back down onto my bed with an abundance of excitement in my heart. With 24-72 hours it would be approved and I would be able to find it listed. I could then post the link to it in the other stories I’d used to build up a small fan base with. From that point on it would serve as my very first form of passive income for the rest of my life. Two long months of hard work was for that very sake. Some spend years making everything perfect and proper. Blindly trying to seek perfection.

I, on the other hand, have no interest in things like perfection. Flawed stories have always been near and dear to my heart. I don’t need a perfect story. I just need one that makes me feel alive and happy.

For me as an author, this is what makes me the happiest.

Creating worlds, observing the inhabitants of those worlds interact from a distance, then letting them run free and wild on their own. Whatever happens, happens. If it turns out to be a flop and everyone hates it, so what? As long as it was fun and enjoyable for me, that’s more than enough.

Some may think it’s selfish, but that is okay. I know that much without them even having to say.

“Haaaaaah.” I let out a long sigh of relief. With this first volume completed, all the strength in my body drained away and I collapsed back on my bed.

With nothing much left to do for the day, I figured I’d go to school today since I’d skipped 6.5 days of school already. Today was Monday and over a week had passed since I stepped foot into my high school.

At the bare minimum, I did my due diligence and called in sick every day to school to avoid extra trouble. I’d changed my voice up to make myself sound like I was my own guardian. Lying was a very handy skill to develop. If only I’d been more adept at it back then. I was still mentally young and honest to a fault in those days. Before, unless I absolutely had to lie and deceive to survive, I wouldn’t do it. It was an absolute last resort survival mechanism. I still had a conscience at the time after all. I’d never considered doing the kinds of things I was doing right now.

While thinking about such thoughts I suddenly remembered a certain phrase. To lie, cheat, and steal.

I still had limits as to what I was willing to do. Cheating on tests was one thing. I myself had done it before. But stealing... that was something a bit too far for someone like me. 

Though now that I thought about it… when I was a child and my mother was still alive… there was a time where I’d stolen some things.

Toys from a store. 

I’d done it… not once… or twice… but enough that I didn’t know the exact number. However, one day my mother caught me red-handed at home and had me empty my stuffed pockets. She beat my ass silly and threatened to have me go back to the store to apologize. After that, I never stole another thing again in my life.

It was presently 8:30 AM so I was still able to make it on time for school if I left now.

I rolled to the edge of my bed and picked up some clothes I had on the ground. I changed into them then quickly departed.

I arrived at the classroom right as the clock struck nine. Safe, albeit, just barely.

I took my seat in the far back corner. Rosa didn’t spare me a single glance. She didn’t open her mouth or spare me a single word.

It seemed that breaking my promise to help her study for the midterms had successfully created a rift in our relationship as I’d hoped.

I was probably dead to her.

Somehow I was relieved that her unhealthy obsession with me was over.

Forcefully putting distance between us was the right call. Her gaze was too heavy for me to shoulder like that every single day.

Before the test began, I took out a single piece of loose-leaf I’d use as scrap paper for the exam. As that was allowed there wasn’t any problem with that.

Once the test began, I didn’t hold back. I didn’t write my answers down on the test paper. Rather, I quickly went through the entire test and rapidly wrote out every answer on the scrap paper I’d taken out, in a short ten minutes I was finished. If someone had this single piece of scrap paper, they would easily get a perfect score.

At the top of the scrap paper, I wrote down a note. I folded it a few times then casually flung it to my side without looking while the teacher was distracted clearing up the confusion a student had about one of the questions on the midterm.

This was a one-time thing.

I had nothing against cheating after all.

Whether she used it was up to her.

The note I’d written said ‘Copy whatever you want. You can get any score you want with this. Use your own discretion. This is a one-time thing. If you still want me to help you study for the midterms in the following days, I can. If you never want to talk again, that’s fine too. PS. Sorry.’

If this was university, this sort of simple cheating method wouldn’t work out as easily as it does in high school. In university, there would be two or more versions of the exam and even midterms may take place in a large examination room with multiple eyes keeping an eye out for cheating. However, I knew for a fact, based on past experience in this high school, they didn’t use multiple versions for the midterm and only a single teacher was watching. Though even for high school, the final exams were still done in the gym, with multiple eyes observing, and there were also two versions of the exam with the questions scrambled, similar to university. It would alternate between versions from one student to the next. 

That didn’t mean there weren’t ways to cheat even in that situation though. In fact, I’d found many ways, it really wasn’t hard at all to cheat and not be caught despite the system they had in place. Even with that being the case, I typically only prepared methods to cheat as insurance. Rarely did I actually end up needing to make use of these methods. They were prepared more to keep peace of mind than anything else. They allowed you to remain calm and not panic when you were under extreme pressure to perform. That was why I approved of things like cheating.

Just because you make preparations to cheat, doesn’t mean you will actually end up cheating. That is something I feel should be better understood. It’s like engineering where you intentionally put in fail safes. Cheating shouldn’t be overly relied on, but it should be something in place to fall back on in the event something goes horribly wrong. This way, you can avoid a catastrophic failure where the entire system collapses on itself.

That aside though, I myself have no excuse to cheat when this midterm is so bloody easy.

I started leisurely filling out the answers. I made sure to do things slightly differently in writing out my solution when compared to what I wrote out on the piece of scrap paper. This was naturally to avoid raising Mr. Oz’s suspicion that there was any funny business going on.

I completed 75% of the test and stopped. Time was up. Everyone passed their papers forward and we moved on with class. There would be one midterm every day from today onward until all subjects were completed.

With this midterm complete, we were given a ten-minute break. I just went to sleep. I’d spent all night working on putting the finishing touches on the first volume of my story after all. Thanks to that I was pretty tired.