Chapter 16

Mat came back home exhausted, even though they finished the classes just before noon. The mask already slipped off on the way home and his mood even worsens after reading a few working emails. He went straight to the shower and after he lazily stripped, he glimpsed in the mirror. His hair was messy and curly than normal and his eyes. His eyes were dark and sunken deeper in his face. He quickly looked away and rather popped a bottle of pills for his headache and swallowed it with a swift motion.

He liked the shower cold and fast because he felt like it shocked him to get moving. The headache also disappeared after the shower and his mood improved significantly. He walked into his room while drying his hair and closed the door with his foot.

The room was baren. Minimalistic. Anti-materialistic. It was just a bed. He sold everything else. It was strange to sell his old toys, all his crafted boats, clothes, and every trinket he got in his room. He wouldn't sell his first ever boat or other stuff so easily, but it was his parents who bought it from him so it was simply just a workaround. He still had his stuff, only in a box in the storage room.

Since his WW was tracked and the government was very carefully watching his parents be the perfect citizens, they were rather cautious to actually take his stuff from his room, but all of them were supporting and in the end, it was just stuff.

"Well then..." he said out loud and turned on the screen which was built in the wall and start reading the emails. First, two were feedback from his boss about his articles. His boss was...blunt, but after reading his attachments with Mat's corrected article, it was not that bad.

"If this would be an English paper...or a History paper, it would get B+..." he said to himself and read the next batch of articles.

"In the Memory of ​ÉloiThibaul! Simple character history, good... Movie reviewers are mostly teenagers? Opinion piece..." he read the descriptions of the articles and looked at the deadline.

"Doable..." but still he had one more e-mail.

It was a response for another job, that refused him.

"Too bad..." he turned the mail and opened a half-written article. In about two hours when he was already writing another one, his parents came home and they soon had dinner. After which he continued writing the articles.

"Mat?" his sister knocked on the door.

"You still working?"

"Yeah sorry, I want to clear my table before the school work starts for real,"

"I just wanted to tell you I got an A because of your lesson of history,"

"Oh, nice, I just got a lot of historically themes articles..." his tone oddly lower as he was not focusing on the conversation. About an hour later he got interrupted by another mail:

School Journalistic club asking for an interview

Hello Mat! My name is Suzan and I am the president of the Journalistic club in your school! I just got the information about you entering our school. Congratulations! You must already know why am I contacting you. Yes. I want to make an interview with you about your lottery. I cannot pay you, but I can let you join my club! Or maybe help you in any way as a favor, we can figure something out.

After reading the message he was unsure what to say. On one hand, it was a free and also socially very big power move. Only a few days in the school and already having an interview? On the other hand, he could take the opportunity to tell everybody in the school everything at once and the favor from a journalist was a nice bonus.

Interview

Hi Suzan. I am for the interview only if we can make a deal about what questions you ask me. I would like to see them and accept them at least a day before the talk. I would also like to see your club page and past articles. I couldn't find any on the school site. I am also counting on the favor.