Chapter 7: Rules of the School

The author Jeffrey Zhang has a half eaten sandwich of a peanut and blueberry jelly on a plate in front of him. Another opened can of coke sitting on his writing table.

One of many health problems writers face, besides loneliness, writers block, poverty, and self loathing is diet. Although it's been a while since he's eaten cup ramen, the sugary drinks will probably give him diabetes or a heart attack. heh heh~

Jeffrey Zhang is back to his daily writing schedule

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Returning to 2007

Picture this: There's a reason why Urban Life protagonists aren't middle school students. No transportation, no independence, and unable to work without it being called child labor. What a prosperous age, indeed.

Yet for the young Jeffrey Zhang these are also the hurdles he's having to overcome to even start to get the ball rolling on this second chance at life.

Like many things, Jeffrey Zhang has a sense of direction but not much else. The biggest card he holds in his hand is his time and energy. A fortune in youth and so much of it to squander. ^-^

Jeffrey isn't a leader, he's a loner. Otherwise if he actually had a sizeable amount of friends or even a few close ones he'd already be playing games and passing the time with them. Usually he entertained himself watching others, playing video games alone, and comfort in being alone.

The mark of a true introvert.

However, there were so many things he could now resolve. So many what-ifs and decisions to remake, this life... this life would be different. The life trajectories of others and of his own, he was going to change them.

First however was to get some help and mulling over who he knew he slowly made a list of people that would be helpful for the business he wanted to start.

As Jeffrey is walking to the courtyard for lunch his long-time friend Preston comes up to him.

Preston is a taller Asian kid that's really friendly and more social than the book reading Jeffrey.

"Hey Jeffrey!", Preston greets him.

"How are you doing Preston?", Jeffrey asks back.

They both walk down the slope to the courtyard where the students gather to eat. Large concrete slabs for kids to sit and not much else.

"I'm doing fine. What are you up to today?", Preston says almost as if it was routine.

"Regular classes, History, Science, Math and P.E", Jeffrey tells Preston of the classes.

"How about you?", Jeffrey asks Preston

Preston gives a friendly laugh, "I've got Orchestra, English, Advisory, and Science."

Jeffrey and Preston continue to inquire about classes and the various projects, homework and tests due. Slowly lunch passes away like this. Then Jeffrey asks the question, "Hey Preston, you busy after school?"

Preston responds, "I don't usually just some homework and violin practice."

"Tssch", Jeffrey thinks to himself. "Asians and learning instruments, it's how we learn culture I guess. the quote 'The wealthy study philosophy and art, the rest study technical skills' came to mind."

"Ok, well I have a science project to do and if all goes well we're going to change the world", Jeffrey said to his friend with a confident smile.

Preston looked at his friend, it was strange to hear it coming from him however Jeffrey was one of the weirder kids in school. He did get good grades so maybe he was right?

"Sure, how can I help?", Preston said to his friend.

"Study hard and over winter break let's find some time to meet up", Jeffrey was immediately excited to have a plan. It was time to start making friends at school.

"Ok Jeffrey, I'm busy with a science project. When I finish I'll ask my mom if I can come over.", Preston promised him.

"Thanks Preston, I'm glad to have your support", Jeffrey said to an old friend.

Jeffrey Zhang knew that most do-over protagonists suffer a malady of problems, sudden wealth syndrome, harem issues, loneliness, excessive responsibilities and more.

He knew he would be no different, since one aspect of being young is being stubborn and daring to try. Having dreams and constantly pursuing them even when you're uncertain or risking everything.

When Jeffrey grew older his penchant and appetite for risk decreased, He had so many opportunities and resources, but wasn't willing or knew how to use them.

Why risk being in debt with entrepreneurial pursuits when you could have a stable job? why suffer endless nights and weeks of work and toil when the safe path of being employed by a big company was all laid out for him?

There were no correct answers to these questions that life posed to them. Often times you reacted to what life had in store and bowed to it when you stopped struggling and fighting with it.

Jeffrey knew that he could probably find an adult or his family and make a lot of money. It was the responsible thing to do, safer even. However what type of boring adult protagonist would he be if he did the logical thing? The world that was his past was completely open to him and as an author of his own story, his own fate and destiny, he wanted to share it with people he cared about.

"What a cliche", Jeffrey thought to all the speculation and self-assuredness he formed in his own mind. "A moral protagonist with a good set of friends out to conquer the world", he thought self reflecting on his own decisions and sets of thoughts.

"Yet, what else did he care for?" He was a man of selfishness and greed just like any other American. He cared deeply for his family and that was really all there was to the person known as Jeffrey Zhang.

Jeffrey Zhang finished off the day, turning in writing assignments and essays (Stupid online writing checking software), returning library books, reading the textbook, and doing math problems.

At the end of the day, he met one of the smartest girls he knew, Samantha Watts.

Back in elementary school Maria and Aleena were the first girls he ever interacted with, scary martial artists and good friends with his sister.

Sophie Zahn was one of the few kids he respected, slightly shorter than most, but large in personality.

Finally the Jewish American girl known as Samantha Watts, however at that age ethnicity wasn't really something kids were concerned about.

However Samantha Watts was one of the smartest kids in the whole grade, her test scores were nationally ranked and most importantly of all, she read books.

Jeffrey didn't know what love was at that age, but he knew that he liked hanging out with her. They were close once, good friends even. However, this Jeffrey was much older now and that feeling turned into admiration, a cherished memory and nothing more.

Jeffrey had a sense of morals and plus the years of life experience he had meant that the Jeffrey Zhang, Samantha Watts once knew was gone. Which is just as well because this Samantha Watts didn't know Jeffrey Zhang yet. They were just strangers on the playground and fellow classmates.

However, one day a young Jeffrey Zhang decided to approach Samantha and ask her what she was doing and that was how their friendship blossomed.