1 1. A new chance
As I opened my eyes I saw a familiar room, it was the school dormitory. I used to live there till my graduation, and eventually the selectivitat that in my last life I failed. I had no motivation, so my family put me to do menial chores as a secretary in one of its companies.
Even though all that I saw shocked me, it was nothing compared to what I was holding in my hands: Mike's recall stone and Mike's last memento, a mysterious gem, he gave me before he died. The mysterious gem started crumbling as if it has done its propose as the energy inside had disappeared.
It was only after an hour that I accepted reality, I've returned to the past!!!
Afterwards, I opened the pc to look at the date, to my surprise I still had a lot of time to organise my plans for the future as it was Friday night. I realised that I had a year before Earth changes, so that would mean that I still had 6 months till graduation and selectivitat as well as my coming of age. As I was looking more carefully I realised that I still had 1 week to start the second Semester. Which means that this Monday starts the recovery exams of the first semester, were if I don't remember wrong I had 3 subjects to retake: Mathematics, History and Economy.
Even though in my previous life I didn't get good grades, since they (family) forced me to do a job as a secretary; mathematics and economy won't be difficult this time. On the other hand, history will be a huge problem since I ditch it when I ended high school. But if I want to leave my family behind and find Mike, I will need good grades so I could get to the same University as him; as that would be the easiest to approach him without him being weary of me.
It won't be easy!!! It's been a lot of years since I studied seriously.
Nothing I can do if I want to find Mike before Earth starts to change.
The only good side of going back to high school is that I can recall some exams questions before doing the actual exam! So now all I have to do before the end of the day is starting recalling the exams, so I can have an easier time studying for next week exams.
And tomorrow study, study, study!!!
...
So the next two days I locked myself up in the room trying to cram all the knowledge inside my head before the exams.
...
So at the next weekend after the exams I got notified that I passed all of them, which I must say that didn't do great; but much better that the first time I did it, as last time I didn't pass them. Considering that I only studied a few days before the exam and it's been years since I had to study, I think I did great for not failing the subjects.
Considering that is starting the classes for the 2nd semester, I realize that I urgently need a haircut and a change of clothes asap!
For the haircut I will only need scissors thanks to trying to cut costs in my past live. So less money to spend as I'll do my own haircut and I won't go to the hairdresser.
Instead for the change of clothes, I will need money; and the family only gives me the minimum so I don't starve in the weekends when the school cafeteria only opens for breakfast.
The clothes I have now are from 4 years ago and are starting to be small and old. In my past life I didn't get new clothes until I agreed to work for the family in exchange for food and continuing living in the family house. At that time they nearly forced me to agree, unfortunaly the contract they made me sign was for 10 years minimum, so I could not escape until they died in the invasion!!!!
As I look what remains of this month money I see that is more of what I remember. It seems that I was saving the money to go party in bars together with schoolmates as they unfortunaly could not be considered friends. Fortunately I have sufficient to buy inner clothes, 2 trousers and 7 t-shirts in a jumble sale, unfortunaly no brand marks as I would need a lot of money otherwise that I don't have.
So as I go out I print a map to where I have to go, since unfortunately I don't have a phone, and revise the list of what I have to buy:
-Lunch, dinner: a burger would be the cheapest without being hungry.
-2 packs of 4 underwear
-2 packs of 4 socks
-2 trousers
-7 t-shirts
- 1 sweater
And like this I use up all the money I have on hand, and I will need to wait for next week for the monthly allowance for more money. At least I will not look like a beggar starting this semester so the bulling might not go worst, as last time. Well I intent to be a loner this time around and not trying making friends with guys that clearly don't want to be friends with me.
...
Clearly my guess was right, since on Monday I didn't try to pester them to be my friends they ignored me completely. I suppose that starting this semester after the haircut and the change of clothes I was better to look at and they didn't go out of their way to bother me or make me look bad, in the end I guess having a pretty face has its perks.
I suppose that I can confidently say that this month, February, started good and went smoothly.
...
It wasn't until March, until I had the midterms that I noticed that I need study more since even though I passed all the exams I didn't get good marks. On the good side, I was able to save sufficient money for a good sport shoes, thanks to them I would be able to start training to have trained body and not being as skinny as am now.
My priorities for this month was to start studying all subjects I've done till now and put me up to date in my studies so I can have an easier time understanding the new school lessons.
The next priority would be to start training so that so I can have a better starting point when Link descended and we got connected to the rest of the universe.
...
In April started the final exams of the 2nd semester and I must say I did great since the worst mark was a 7 out of 10 in history.
So I started Easter holidays in a very good mood for the first time since I came back. As I would have a week to laze around and the Collin's wouldn't bother me in the school dormitory and I didn't have to bother with school so it was the greatest time ever, except that every day I missed Mike more and more.
The sooner I return his recall stone, the earlier I have the chance to be happy. But in spite of that, the Easter holidays were great lazing around and playing free games in the pc as well as training my body at a better pace. I must say, I really am thankful that the pc is mandatory in school if not I wouldn't have one as I don't even have a mobile phone.
As soon as the Easter holidays ended and the 3rd semester began I was starting to be fit as my training plan started to show results. Even though the training plan was going smoothly, I had other priorities:
-Search for mock exams for the University entrance exam
-Buy summer clothes
This time I had sufficient funds for the clothes and buy a book of mock exams as I had saved up the money of March, April and I also counted the money for May so the book had to wait a week more.
...
At the end of May I had the midterms and I did fantastic as I scored nearly full marks, the best exams ever! One step closer to see Mike again!!!
...
June was quite boring as the final exams were the first week of July, which I did as good as the midterms, so great for me!
...
The second week of July I had the best surprise ever since I returned!
The week started getting the final marks and the graduation certificate, which I already expected, but seeing as the global mark of every subject I had quite the good marks were a reason to celebrate.
And even though that was great, what was fantastic seemed to happen the next day!
...
So the next day as I was lazing around of the final days I had before having to return to the Collin's with my graduation certificate I was looking at Mike's recalling stone while I remembered a story that he told me that was about to happen today:
It started saying that the apocalypse as the people call was actually an opportunity to get connected to the Universe, but to do that there needed to be a period of adaptation to have a chance to survive as a race and as a planet. But even though the major part of the society got to know it in the 1st of January, there were a selected few 10.000 young people that started earlier and he was one of those. Unfortunately, he didn't cherish the opportunity because in only 5 minutes of the real world he lived more than a year to only start again from the beginning again in the real world. Where the only thing that he was able to keep were all the objects he acquired during that period but lost all the cultivation. It was only later that he understood that although the objects were real it was like virtual game, like a preview of what would happen in a more simplified manner, including the cultivation matter. In exchange, it was easier to obtain objects and programs to level up the "Link" (a bracelet to connect in a Universe interface with various options like a futuristic phone with levels of privilege to access and unlock the various applications it includes).
So as I was remembering that story, I was transported there to my surprise, as I didn't have the privilege last time!!!
