Mark departed the basement, leaving Damien to continue his work alone. As he watched Mark's figure ascend the stairs, Damien returned his focus to the sound chip he was studying with a magnifying glass.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps caught his attention and he turned to see Donna making her way down the stairs.
"What brings you down here?" Damien inquired, setting down his tools on the work desk.
"I wanted to see what you've been up to down here," Donna replied, leaning in to get a better look at the table. "You've never shown any interest in my work before. What's changed?"
Damien couldn't help but feel skeptical of Donna's sudden interest, especially since she used to mock his interest in electronics. Seeing that her attempt at pretending was futile, Donna dropped the facade and revealed her true intentions.
"Okay, I'm here because I'm worried," she confessed. "Worried about all of this. Mark, Michael, and Alex making so much money and dropping out of school. And now you and Grayson following in their footsteps."
Donna had been disappointed when her oldest son chose not to pursue higher education, and even more so when her second son dropped out of high school to.
The only reason she hadn't argued with Grayson about not going to college was because he was in his father's custody.
And with the amount of money Mark was making from his game project and investments, it was hard for her to argue against him dropping out as well.
But that didn't stop her from worrying about the future and what her sons would do with all that money. She couldn't even imagine the kind of things they would spend it on at such a young age.
Mark had made an incredible amount of money, surpassing any earnings she had ever made in her entire life. Nearly half a million dollars had accumulated in her son's bank account, all thanks to her management.
Despite this, she couldn't shake off her worries about what would happen once she handed over the money to him.
The thought of having this kind of wealth at such a young age made her imagination run wild, picturing all the extravagant things her son and his friends could spend it on.
Donna's anxiety was evident, and Damien could understand why. He reached out and gently placed his hand on her shoulder, surprising her with the sudden intimate contact.
As their eyes met, Damien spoke in a soothing voice, trying to reassure her.
"I know what you're worried about, and I want you to know that you're not alone.
Oliver, David, and I have discussed the situation extensively, and we are fully aware of the possible consequences if things don't work out the way we hope."
"Alright, can you please remove your hand now?" Donna deadpanned, not appreciating Damien's touch.
"Sorry about that," Damien apologized as he quickly let go of Donna's shoulder.
"This still doesn't change how I feel about the whole situation," Donna admitted, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. "But you're right, life is full of risks. I just hope that your plan, whatever it may be, works if things go downhill."
"Well, between you and me, there's not much secrecy. We just don't want the boys finding out," Damien revealed.
"What? Do you think I'm so overprotective that I need to know every detail of my sons' lives?" Donna scoffed. "It's enough for me to know that you're taking this seriously, unlike your usual carefree attitude."
"Wait, is that what this is all about? Me not holding their hands every step of the way?" Damien questioned, surprised by Donna's reasoning.
Donna gave Damien a puzzled look before shaking her head and walking away. Leaving Damien alone as he ponder things over he couldn't help but feel like his ex always looked down on him, even though that wasn't the case.
Donna fully grasped the crucial role that Damien played as a father figure to her sons. However, her main concern was that he often seemed to leave them to fend for themselves. Despite this, she knew that Damien was always there to provide genuine help whenever the boys needed it.
It was all thanks to Damien's insistence on giving Mark the opportunity to take the GED and a year to prove himself that Donna even considered the idea. She was initially hesitant to let Mark take a year off from school, but his results from the Game studio proved that Damien was right.
As Donna lay in bed, she couldn't help but smile wryly at the craziness of the three men in her life. Perhaps it was she who was crazy for allowing them to take such risks.
The next morning at the William Residence, everyone woke up early as usual. However, Duke had woken up even earlier and was already sitting in the living room, typing away on his computer.
Lines of code appeared on the screen as he tirelessly worked on creating a Search Engine.
As his father, Oliver, walked into the room, Duke thought to himself that it was no surprise that he was already awake. Oliver leaned over his shoulder to take a look at what his son was working on at such an early hour.
"Why are you up so early?" Oliver asked, curious about Duke's project. He tried to understand the code on the screen, but it just looked like a jumble of random letters and numbers to him. There were even some symbols that he had never seen before.
"I found it hard to stay asleep, and I really wanted to start working on this. " Duke replied, fully engrossed in his work. His determination to create something innovative and impactful kept him up all night.
Oliver gazed at Duke and made the decision to leave his son to his work. He made his way to the backyard to do some morning exercise. Meanwhile, inside the house, Ashley and Jennifer shared a bedroom upstairs. Jennifer woke up to find Ji-woo nestled between her arms.
As they lay in the same bed, Jennifer checked the time on their newly purchased digital clock that faintly glowed, revealing it was four-thirty in the morning. On the other side of the room, Ashley also woke up, rubbing her eyes gently. She turned on the night lamp and whispered to her sister, not wanting to disturb Ji-woo, "Is she still asleep?"
"Yeah, should we wake her up?" Jennifer asked as she tried to free herself from Ji-woo's sleeping hold. As they both sat up on the bed, Ashley considered her sister's words before nodding, having come to a decision.
"If she's going to be staying with us for a long time, she should get accustomed to our morning routine early on. Don't you think?" Ashley explained, with Jennifer agreeing but still feeling hesitant.
After all, Ji-woo had already been through a lot with her family situation and traveling all the way here in search of a better life. Jennifer didn't want to make things even more difficult for her.
She was acutely aware that Ji-woo had been in the States for two weeks now, facing challenges without any support.
Ashley noticed the hesitation in her sister's eyes as she glanced at Ji-woo sleeping peacefully in her bed. With a sigh, she got up from her own bed and walked over to Jennifer's side.
Gently, Ashley stirred Ji-woo from her slumber with a soft voice. "Good morning, sleepyhead. It's time to wake up," she whispered. Ji-woo, who had been in a deep sleep, slowly opened her eyes to Ashley's emerald gaze.
Bewildered, Ji-woo raised herself up, trying to make sense of her surroundings in the dimly lit room. "What time is it?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.
"It's four thirty-six in the morning. Time to get up," Ashley replied. Ji-woo was surprised at how early it was. She had only ever been woken up this early when visiting her maternal grandparents in the rural village.
"Okay, let's get dressed and head downstairs. We have to do our morning exercise with everyone else and then prepare for work by six. I'll lend you one of my tracksuits to wear for now," Ashley said, opening her closet and pulling out two tracksuits.
"Do you all always do morning exercise?" Ji-woo inquired, sitting up on the bed next to Jennifer.
"Yeah, it used to just be my brother Duke and father, but eventually my mother and second younger brother joined in. It's now become a family activity that we do together," Jennifer explained as Ashley handed Ji-woo one of her tracksuits.
"Don't worry about keeping up. We'll go at your pace," Ashley assured Ji-woo as she handed her the gray tracksuit.The three girls than made their way downstairs towards the backyard, where they found the rest of the family already working up a sweat.
Duke had taken a break from his work on the Search Engine to join in the morning exercise, which mainly consisted of upper body training and some light leg exercises on Fridays.Watching this scene, Ji-woo's expression was one of surprise seeing the rest of William family out and about m, already working up a sweat so early.
On Fridays, the focus of their workout was mainly on the upper body, with a few lighter exercises for their legs. Ji-woo's expression showed surprise as she watched this scene unfold. While exercise was not unheard of in her family, the idea of doing it all together was something she had never considered.
"Hey, you'll be joining us for work today. Just to see what we usually do," said Jennifer, starting her warm-up stretches. Martha noticed the three girls emerging from the house and greeted them warmly.
"It's about time you girls showed up," Martha chuckled, as she did squats with a small 5-pound weight. Oliver and Duke also greeted them and began their own side exercises, working up a sweat.
The three girls returned the greetings and Ashley and Jennifer guided Ji-woo through some warm-up exercises before diving into the more intense upper body workout. By 5:20 a.m., everyone was sweating and took turns showering, with the ladies going first.
Once everyone was clean and had breakfast, they drove to the Star Horizon Office Building together. Ashley and Jennifer took the opportunity to explain their family business to their friend.
Technically, Ji-woo wasn't an employee yet since they needed to arrange a work visa for her first. However, Oliver was familiar with the process and it was no trouble. Ji-woo had also completed two years at Cambridge University, just like Ashley and Jennifer, making her eligible for a master's degree. Which made things things a little easier on his part.
As they arrived at the office building, back in Manhattan Alex was speaking on the phone with Michael and Mark. "RAM capacity is the main issue, then?" Alex's tone was worried as he stood in the apartment, telephone to his ear. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought about this type of problem earlier.
But after some thought, Alex could compress and optimize the RAM space to only 2GB. However, that would still be too large for any computer in their era to handle. It was a frustrating setback, as it meant that the release of the game would have to be delayed indefinitely.
"Hey, are you still on the line, Mark?" Alex's voice came through the phone, as he rubbed his tired eyes. "Yeah, I'm here," came the defeated response from Mark.
"Good job catching this issue. We'll just need to put the project on hold for now." Mark listening knew what was coming next as soon as he heard Alex's words. "You and your team will have to switch to another project. Let's discuss this tomorrow, with you and the rest of your team."
Michael, who was also on the call, couldn't help but sigh at the situation. He knew how much hard work Mark and his team had put into DOOM and sympathized with their disappointment.
As the silence on the call stretched on, Alex decided to offer some words of encouragement. "Look, this isn't anyone's fault. These things happen. We just need to pick ourselves up and keep moving forward, no matter what obstacles come our way. And if we need to, we can all work together to tackle any challenges that arise. So, let's not dwell on this setback, okay?"
Michael and Mark both felt a bit better after hearing Alex's words. It was hard to believe that he was only 12 years old, yet he was able to speak so maturely and offer such motivation. "Wow, where did you learn to give such an inspiring pep talk?" Michael joked.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Stay busy until then." With that, the impromptu phone meeting ended. As Alex hung up, as his cousin Harry walked into the room with a smile. "That was a great speech you gave there. Mind giving me some tips?" he asked with a playful grin.
"Hey, were you listening to my phone call this whole time?" Alex asked his cousin. "Not on purpose," Harry replied with a shrug, telling the truth.
Alex decided to drop the subject and the two of them left the apartment together. They went to Helena and Daniel's place for breakfast as usual before heading out for work.
Today, Alex didn't have any plans working on Mortal Kombat for today, but was instead focused on casting the main series protagonists for Friends. Later, he and Harry would meet with different writing teams to discuss ideas for Alex's television series projects.
They also had to check on the filming progress for Jigsaw, making Alex scheduled packed for the day having no time Mortal Kombat development.
However, this didn't mean that things at his end were put on hold. Fred Hudson, his second-in-command, would be taking over while he was unavailable for the day. Alex sat in the passenger seat of Daniel's car as they made their way to the Fire Foxx production studio.
Jennifer Aniston, who had just arrived for her audition as Rachel Green, immediately recognized David Schwimmer waiting outside and going over his lines.
Jennifer hesitated to approach him as he seemed focused on his preparation.
Eventually, she decided not to disturb him and focused on her own preparation. As a relatively unknown name in the entertainment industry, she couldn't afford to be lazy.
Finding a seat, she took out her script and practiced her lines several times, trying to fully embody the character she would be portraying.
Inside the waiting hall, everyone else was doing the same, readying themselves for the audition that would start in half an hour.
As time pass for the audition to strat drew close. Alex, along with Marta Fran Kauffman, David Crane accompanied by another woman. Soon entered the waiting hall which grabbed the attention of all the actors and actress inside the room.
They all knew that it was nearly time for the audition to begin. Alex as he walked quickly noticed both Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer in the waiting hall.
A smile couldn't help but, creepy up on his face as with this two, as long as there wasn't any big issues with their acting capabilities. Especially, at this period in the two's career than everything was nearly set for one of the greatest sitcom to make it's debut.
Only this time much earlier which brought its own risk.