Chapter 153: Texas

(WN is extra buggy today and yesterday.

The summer vacation arcs will be hastened, and I won't get into much details like in the previous one as to catch back up with the Modern Family episodes. Even TBBT doesn't have episodes in the summer, so it's a blank timeframe there.)

[Edward POV]

Inside the jet.

"Take the money, and leave my son alone." I muttered, channeling my inner evil Korean mother in law as I slid a thick envelope towards Pepper.

Wearing a blonde wig, the ugly looking Pepper said meekly while fidgeting, "But mother-in-law-"

"YOU DARE CALL ME YOUR MOTHER IN LAW? I DON'T AGREE TO YOU MARRYING MY PRECIOUS SON BEHIND MY BACK! YOU SCOURGE!" I grabbed the glass full of water and splashed it on Pepper's face.

He flinched and closed his eyes, before he opened it back with bewilderment.

Both of us were silent for a while, before Pepper laughed and said, "That was pretty good. Now it's my turn. I'm going to be a rich CEO. You're my assistant."

"Alright." I muttered as I picked up a glass and stood beside Pepper. He took off his wig and crossed his legs, "Tell that woman to come meet me."

"Sir, it's not a good way to win a woman's heart by forcing her?"

"Forcing her? I'm buying her! Everyone has a price! Like you!" Pepper glanced at me before laughing evilly. "So find out what her price is…and I'll have her!"

I exclaimed, "Hooo" while rubbing my arms, "I got goosebumps."

"Can you guys please stop playing? We're almost there." Renaldo said in exasperation.

"Hey, it's either this or a pole dance show again? Which one do you want me to do?" I asked him jokingly. After I received the call from my dad about us winning the lottery, I was frozen for almost 10 minutes, and missed out on the ending of the sexy dance.

I became absorbed and tilted my head back condescendingly like Boa Hancock and accused everyone around me of being poor until Pepper showed his family inheritance value to me, causing me to snap back to reality.

Renaldo was taken aback, "This one. This one is much better. Next time, I'm going to join you. After all, you're the one who POISONED us by forcing us to watch Korean Soap dramas."

"Boys Over Flowers is good right?" I laughed as the duo nodded in excitement. Of course, they were reluctant to watch an Asian drama at first, especially when there was no broadcast on the TV channel, or was there a convenient platform for them to use.

So I created an algorithm to take the already subbed videos on the internet, remove the ads, increase the quality, and make it so that they could watch the show using an app I called Entertain. It was a test app– like Netflix, that I planned to release after settling the distribution rights with the foreign company later.

"You're still going to buy 49% of Netflix?" Renaldo asked.

"I want to buy the ENTIRE company!" I laughed maniacally as Pepper threw some dollars to rain over me. I calmed down and turned to Renaldo, "But I know it's impossible, so buy as much as we can. We're not lacking money right now."

Pepper was a bit worried, "It's only 120 million. And You have to split it with your dad!"

"Oh no, I'm buying the stocks under my dad's name. It's his share after all. I'm just his financial planner. I have other plans for my half."

Although winning the lottery could create some rift among family members, especially when only my dad's name was on the ticket, my dad didn't care much about the money.

Well, it's hard for him to care when I created almost 30 million on my own in only 3 months, and our family wealth kept increasing as I kept reinvesting the profits.

Even if he wanted to swallow the lottery prize by himself, I wouldn't care much as by my calculations, I would be able to create the same amount before the end of the year.

Pepper's eyes lit up, "Really? Now?"

"Yup. In a week. But, we need to record the 6 songs and finalize the collaboration contract first before I could pull her over to us."

We landed in Texas smoothly.

"Oh… Are you sure we are in Texas? Cause I can't see any cowboy hats or tumbleweeds rolling around. " I asked jokingly.

Pepper laughed while Renaldo rolled his eyes. "The SUV is out front. You'll need to change inside the car. Are you…okay with that?" He hesitated.

"I don't have a problem with that. Just don't take any pictures of me in my bare skin. If you do, I will charge you 10.000 bucks each." I nodded as I listened to the staff members.

The make-up artist breathed in relief as they saw that I wasn't nitpicky, narcissistic or uncontrollable, but only a little bit juvenile, which made me labeled as 'great' in their book.

Renaldo nodded and said, "Don't worry, managing your privacy is in my job description."

"Also, I'm quite hungry." I muttered as I patted my stomach.

"Yeah. It's lunch time. We'll grab a bite while we are on the road." Pepper decided. The staff members nodded, and we rushed to the film set in a 3 SUV convoy soon after.

I wanted to try some signature foods while in Texas, but all we could do was to stop by the Hometown Buffet to get some take out.

"How far are we from 5501 Morella Avenue in Valley Village?" I asked the navigator.

"Around 20 minutes. Why?" She replied.

"I want to go there, of course, not now. But if we have time." I replied.

Pepper was confused, "Why? What's there?"

"Oh, it's the house of the mother of my acquaintance. I need to have a good relationship with her to get some blackmail material… I mean, I want to visit her."

"?" Pepper tilted his head in confusion, "Who's your acquaintance?"

"An annoying ass… I mean Theoretical Physicist." I replied dismissively.

…

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

I was holding the reins while sitting on top of the horse as I directed it to walk around the garden in a calm and composed manner. Now, I had returned to my mature Prince appearance and outfit, same as the previous shooting, to continue the filming today.

"Good Job Ed! But can we do another take, from another angle?" Trey shouted through a plastic megaphone.

"Sure. But Jimmy deserves his carrot first." I said as I patted the horse leg.

"Huh?...alright, sure." Trey was confused at first, but she just followed along as she thought the action was among my whim. It wasn't that hard to do, so she just wanted to move it along.

"There Jimmy. Are you happy now?" I talked with the horse. He snorted and looked at me dirtily before munching on the carrot that the staff member gave him.

It seems that my [Animal Affinity] not only made animals feel innate liking to me, but I could also have a surface understanding of what the animals wants or needs. It surprised me at first, and I found out that the bigger the animal was, the better the communication with me and them.

"Great Job Ed. Now, another shot with Taylor sitting together, Princess style." Trey directed.

"Taylor, stop showing that nympho expression! You're supposed to be a pure and innocent princess!" Trey shouted in annoyance at Taylor who had glitter in her eyes.

"Umm…" Taylor looked around her, and realized that everyone had noticed her expression. She blushed and ran towards me, hitting my leg as she unfairly released her embarrassment at me.

"Giddy up." I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into my laps, causing the crowd to murmur in shock.

"ED! USE A STAIR! I CAN'T AFFORD THE MEDICAL BILLS IF YOU GUYS GET HURT!" Pepper shouted in worry.

"Ahh. Sorry!" I shouted back at him with an innocent smile, which made him shake his head.

"And you my princess… I don't think me riding in on a horse was in the original script right?" I asked Taylor as I slowly directed the horse to move. She grinned and said, "I made the agency double the budget for the MV. So she can insert a few more scenes."

"Even a bed scene?" I joked.

"You want to put that in?! I'm not prepared for that yet." Taylor replied with a joking expression. The shooting went well, and we managed to finish all of the scenes before nighttime.

"Wait…Wait wait wait… You already finished all your parts for the duet? I thought we were going to work on it together!!" Taylor said angrily after we finalized the shooting. Trey and Pepper heard the argument and decided not to interfere as it was the matter of the young people.

"We can still do that. If we can make better songs, we can just replace them. The reason I wanted to record it first is…" I explained to her about my plans, and her eyes lit up after she understood it.

"Although, it will be a long and difficult journey for you to get back the rights to your previous songs and albums. Luckily the Fearless album hasn't gone into production yet, so Harvey is confident that she can bring it to our agency."

"So you can make money from it instead of my current one?" Taylor raised one of her eyebrows, but I flicked her forehead and said, "I won't take your money… You know you're special, so why are you still trying to make us fight?"

She smiled and said, "Isn't that what people who didn't see each other for a long time do? We fight because we miss each other?"

"Which TV show did you get that from?"

"Selena's show."

"Ah, you got it from Wizards. Got it."

She cupped her mouth as she tried to laugh modestly, but guffawed anyway.

"So, are we doing 'it' in these costumes tonight? Or should I give this back to the manager?" She asked flirtatiously.

"Well…" I looked at her up and down, "Keep it. DEFINITELY keep it"

She chuckled with a blush on her face, but suddenly, her dad appeared from behind. Taylor and I were startled at first, but her dad's next sentence made our brain freeze.

"It's your first time in Texas right? It would be impolite if I didn't offer you my room for the night. You can stay at my house with your manager. I have already talked to him, and he agreed." Scoot said decisively.

"No! WE-...Umm…" Taylor stammered as we had already made plans to spend the night together, but all of it turned to dust after her dad's intervention.

I could clearly sense that Scoot had an ulterior motive hidden in his invitation. It could be to prevent Taylor and I from staying in a hotel room together, or to make sure that we would connect with each other emotionally first before doing anything else…however late that may be.

I was not surprised though, her house was gigantic.

"Damn." I murmured as I entered the house. Taylor giggled and said, "I don't know if mom made dinner today. I'll go check."

"Wait. Let me come with you." I grabbed her hand and followed her to the kitchen as I wanted to see how luxurious it was. The house was several times bigger than Jay's 6 room and 6 bathroom house – which was downplayed in size in the TV series.

There wasn't any food, so I offered to make some simple snacks for all of us with Taylor enthusiastically offering to help me in the kitchen.

I made a twice baked potato, and while I was putting the potato in the oven for the first baking, she muttered coquettishly, "Now we wait for it to soften, weird, cause I have no problem with the opposite.."

I raised my brows at her and said in a faux-admonishing manner, "Really? Innuendo? While your father is in the living room?"

"Well we have no other place. In fact, we should squeeze in a quick one here, cause I don't think he'll let me be around your room tonight." She muttered, depressed.

I chuckled a bit and patted her head, "Wow, You're shorter than me now."

She snorted and said, "Short? Hard to imagine someone actually calling me that."

"Maybe Yao Ming, a basketball player from China, could do it."

"Huh?" She was confused, but I just shrugged the matter away. "Now take out my meat, (Her meat) from the package, (literally out of the package) and we're going to smash next, (The potato). And that's how you do innuendo."

"You need to win at everything don't you?" She said in fake-dissatisfaction as she grabbed the meat and angrily ripped the wrapper around it. "Oh, the plastic broke."

She muttered honestly, but then she saw me smirking and giggling as I melted the butter with cream, "Ahh, I WIN!" She exclaimed and laughed out loud.

Trying to control my laugh, I said, "Damn it…I want to do something about the cream, but you totally take away my ideas." It was true. An innocent attack has a higher damage value for me rather than a planned one.

It only took a short time for me to finish cooking. Like Taylor expected, her dad was 'patrolling' the hallway at night, so we couldn't get a chance to stay in together.

So I just slept and woke up at 4 am to try my luck, but Taylor had truly fallen asleep by that time, so I didn't want to bother her. Instead, I opened my laptop to develop the group chat apps.

3 days passed by very quickly as Taylor and I enjoyed each other's company. Whether it was shooting the MV, or recording the duets. Our relationship progressed further, but for some reason, we still haven't decided as to whether we wanted to be an official couple yet, mainly because of her hesitation about her career as well as my own insecurities. Also added a bit more context and reasons for them not going all the way.

Scoot arranged for me to experience living in olden age Texas by bringing me to an old-timey saloon while riding a horse. I of course recorded the entire thing on video and posted it on my Instagram spread amongst several posts and stories. It got half a million likes on average, and went viral on all social media platforms.

I also posted some videos I recorded during the Love Story MV shooting, which created an explosive reaction from the fanshippers. But, I hid the fact that Taylor and I had finished recording our duets as we didn't want to alert her entertainment agency.

"So, Taylor and I will leave first. You guys will wait for the next flight. Do you have any objections to that?" I asked the staff members and Pepper in a polite manner.

"None. Enjoy yourselves." Pepper was being considerate as he knew what Taylor and I had in mind. I smiled as I waved at the staff before entering the private jet. I tried to make them leave first and we took the next flight, but Pepper insisted as he didn't want me to stay behind without an adequate security detail.

"Hmm…So…Is this your first time?" Taylor asked coquettishly as she fired up the pole dancing stage.

"Second if we count the- I mean, first!" I quickly changed my words as she glared at me. I enjoyed her performance as we were alone and managed to 'get some fun activity in' on the private plane. As we landed in LA, our whereabouts were leaked by a certain interested party, causing a mayhem of paparazzi photography after we got out of the airport.

It turned into a major news event, with people pointing fingers at us with every possible accusation they could make. Such as, carbon footprint, being a bad example as a public figure, moral degeneration, and many more.

It was quickly shut down by the fans as they saw my videos and stories on my Instagram. A small counterattack was made by the fans, which thoroughly discredited the tabloids sites that tried to ruin my reputation.

"Why is this happening?" Taylor asked with annoyance as we got back in the SUV.

"Oh. Simple. They're testing my Instagram apps influence, and using me as the main lab rat. I guess a few parties are already showing interest in it." I replied in a casual manner before smirking evilly. "Too bad for them, I'm not going to let them have a piece of the cake that easily."

Oh, a quick side note, before I left the state, I made sure to finish my side quest and went to visit Sheldon's mother – Mary Cooper. Then, I emailed the pictures from my visit to Sheldon, Leonard, and also Penny, causing an uproar in the 2311 North Los Robles Avenue.

[General POV]

"AHHH!!" Sheldon screamed in shock after he opened up the email from Edward.

"What happened?!" Leonard rushed from the kitchen to get to Sheldon, "Did you watch a jumpscare video again? I told you not to watch anything with the tagline, 'Can you believe this?' and check the comments first."

Anxious, Sheldon turned to Leonard with a pitiful face and heavy breathing, "It's not that. I…was violated."

"What?" Penny, who was sitting on the couch, scrunched her face in confusion and walked towards Sheldon. She then cupped her mouth as she stifled her laugh as she saw the pictures on the screen.

It was a naked Sheldon in his baby years, and Sheldon tried hard to prevent Penny and Leonard from seeing it.

"How did he know where my mother lives? Did you tell him Leonard?" Sheldon asked anxiously.

"How is that possible? I don't even know where your mother lives." Leonard lied. He was the one who told Edward the exact address.

"AHHHHH!" Sheldon yelled a second time as Leonard scrolled down the email.

"What what?" Penny wanted to understand his reaction now. It was a picture of Edward with a notebook, which made Sheldon's face turn pale.

"Wait. Is that…Mertens conjecture? Did you try to prove that M(n) is always bounded by the square root of n? That's an amateur mistake." Leonard said haughtily. As Sheldon was always commenting on his work before, he wanted to enact his revenge for the longest time, but couldn't as his roommate was smarter than him.

"I was young, and naive. Oh how I wish I could rectify my mistakes." Sheldon sighed.

"Wait. How young?" Penny asked.

"I tried that when I was 5 years old." Sheldon answered, which made Penny's face turn sour.

"He graded my papers Leonard! Make him stop!" Sheldon begged as he saw that Edward took out a red marker and made an F minus mark on his theorem.

"Well it is a fair mark." Leonard backed Edward up. "The theory was disproved in 1995. You should've known better."

Sheldon breathed heavily, and almost had a panic attack that night. It was then he decided to put Edward's name inside his 'mortal enemies' list, at number 64, directly beneath Penny who was numbered 63.

…

[Edward POV]

"He vowed to get revenge? Let him try!" I muttered as I received an email from Leonard.

"Can you not check your messages during your therapy session?" Dr Linda muttered in exasperation as I was being elusive again.

"Ah, sorry. Where were we?" I placed my phone in my pocket as I tried to act like I cared. "Oh wait. Times up."

"No, don't pretend like you just realized the time. I know you've been counting the minutes. So don't worry about the time. Your dad decided to add on an extra 2 hours for the session today. So you don't have to worry about not getting enough time." Linda said with a smirk.

I froze, and then scratched my forehead in frustration as I faced the doctor. I looked at her unkindly, "What do you want to know?"

I decided to just throw her a bone so that we could end the session sooner. I was incredibly busy after all as I wanted to finish up on my album preparation.

"Let's begin with…Your mother." She muttered.

"Well…Your mama is so-"

"And I'm not talking about the yo mama joke this time, so you can avoid the detour." Dr Linda interjected quickly before I could call her mother fat a second time, or insinuate that she was so slutty that she would charge 1 dollar for a 'session' and have 100 bucks by the end of the night.