3 You always hate ginger

Thankfully, everything was fine, and soon they reached the school. Seeing the old ground and building again after such a long time brought him nostalgia. But it also brought up bad memories. One might think that Aric had some kind of bad childhood, but it was nothing like that.

In fact, it was the opposite. He was the villain in the story. He wasn't some kind of bully, but he was definitely an asshole. He would taunt people with his then-so-called friends. Later in his life, when he looked back, he felt ashamed of what he did and too embarrassed to even bring this up or say sorry to the ones he taunted and made fun of.

Now that he was back, and a future introvert, he would be the same as before and get away from people. He was a mature mind in a child's body (well, not technically a child, but Aric sure did think so), so he better be mature about it.

As Aric reached the class, Ishan went on about the food and Pokémon. All Aric could think was, "Dude, just shut up!"

After Aric sat at his table, Ishan sat nearby him, and he continued with his blabbermouth, which had now elevated to other topics, and Aric almost got a headache. He had forgotten how incredibly blabbermouth and annoying he himself was.

Thankfully, the bell rang after some time, and the teacher came to teach them. It had been so long that he had almost forgotten the names of the teachers. The class started, and since it was a maths class, Aric didn't even bother to listen to what the teacher was talking about. This was too easy for him.

Now that he had some peace, he looked around to see if there were any changes from what he remembered, but there was none that came to his attention from his old memories. After eye-balling people around a bit, he gave up and decided to just enjoy his time and chalk out his future plan.

The COVID hit, the stock market, the world. With his future knowledge, he could easily invest a small amount of money in companies that would boom and bloom in the future. The only thing he would have to do was to convince his parents to invest since he couldn't earn money by himself. His age in India wouldn't allow him to work legally since there was a law prohibiting children under the age of 18 from working, as it was seen as child labor.

The classes went on, and he even went to break with his other 'friends'. Aric was mostly silent and just listened to the 'friends' around while thinking of the future constantly.

"Alright, boys and girls. Your summer vacation of 1 month starts now, and take down your homework."

The word "homework" sent a sad murmur through the whole class, but it brought a smile to Aric's face. He didn't care about the homework; even if he didn't complete it, nothing would happen to him. In this one month of free time, he would easily chalk out his future plan and act accordingly.

Each teacher of each subject continued giving them homework, but it still never bothered Aric. Only the subject of social science gave him a bit of an uncomfortable feeling, but he was fine at the end, and was glad that school finally ended.

Soon, he was back at his own home and was glad to be with his mother and father again. It was a hot summer afternoon at the end of June, so his father was at home instead of being in the farm. After coming back and cleaning himself, he actually started hanging around his mom in the kitchen to help her or talk to her.

His mother felt her son was acting very weirdly today, but deep down, she was glad that her son was spending time with her instead of watching cartoons on TV.

"You are making palak paneer?"

"Yes."

"Thank you. But please don't use too much ginger. I hate it."

"You always hate ginger. Without ginger, the food will taste very bad."

Aric and his mother had a long talk about the food, and though it looked like banter, it was not. It was just a way for Aric to make his 'mostly silent' mother talk to him because he wanted to hear her speak and work as normal. Seeing his mother, Aric knew that he would have to save her before cancer attacks them both.

And for that, they needed to change the whole diet, environment, and many other things. When he and his mother were sick, he had heard how some European countries would be better suited for his mother since the doctor said the current environment wasn't helping. The doctor even said that in Switzerland, after paying a huge amount of money, one might get a cure for cancer because the research there would prioritize a single patient and find the exact cure after long trial and error, but not long enough to let the patient die.

Basically, it was some advanced medical treatment that would allow her and Aric to move beyond cancer and live a normal life. But living in Switzerland and even paying for the treatment would not be possible, but he needed to find a way to cure himself and his mother in the fastest way possible, and that was his main goal at the moment.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were nothing less than joy for Aric. He had once dreamed of a life like this in his previous life, but now he finally got it again. All he needed to do now was get enough money to live his life and also save his whole family from crumbling.

After having a sumptuous dinner, he was in his old bed again. Normally, at his age, his sleep should have come quite early, but his anxiety was far off the roof for him to sleep at the time, and he was just thinking of random things when he noticed that there was something wrong with him.