Chapter-8: Entering the Ranking

It's been two days since Jim entered the most released novel section, and because of that, his novel got a good reception. Now that he was on the list, he suddenly got a large number of people reading his novel, and many liked it—well, can't forget the trolls. But one thing is good: now he is making progress in the writing skill. It's very slow; in these days after he made it to beginner, he just got to 1.25% to the intermediate.

His mom and his sister now have a hobby of reading the novel he has written.

Well, his mom didn't directly say it, but he has to give the novel to his mom before he releases it. She didn't force him, but she said, and I quote, 'My dear son, you don't have the experience of dating a girl and spending time with a girl that is more than a friend, and you do the research from other stories. So I will read it first to make sure you don't write something that will ruin the story.'

Well, in all honesty, what she said was true. As this guy or the current me, who has the knowledge of my previous life, knows that he was more like a loner—not introvert but a loner because of the environment and those he made friends with moved away from that school. Any person serious about their study would, but he endured it for his mom and sister to get a safe living place and mostly his family's own house so that the suffering of that time will bring relief now as they have a permanent roof over their heads. Now, he has a few friends from this school as he was acquainted with them when he entered one month before holidays.

Anyways, as he was saying, he had a talk with his mother and 'the expert' of the house Gia, who also chimed in to get the novel stories out of him.

[1 day ago]: Conversation

We were sitting on the sofa watching T.V. when suddenly, his mom asked him, "Hey, Jim, where are you getting the content to write in the novel?"

"Well, Mom, there are many movies, dramas, and also online series. I just break some moments of them and try to create a moment in the story that will look wholesome and cute at the same time with those broken wholesome story parts," he explained, trying to come up with a good excuse—or we shouldn't say it's an excuse as he is adding his parts to it too.

"Okay, while I know you have a really good talent to do that, I will read the draft before you release them, so that you don't have to be nervous for the chapter to go bad or something," she said. He wanted to explain that he knows it will go well, but the chapter he himself is writing and creating might actually not be up to standards, so he agreed.

"I will also add my friends to the chat group that I will create where they can give a review of your story," she said as she started doing just that.

"But, Mom, will they be interested in this?" he asked and instantly got a reply.

"Oh, don't worry. I know those bi... ahm.. I know those girls, they will like it," she said, and he was pretty sure that unconsciously the 'B' word nearly came out of her mouth, but yeah, that's a confirmation that women and girls talk like the boys talk when among their close people, mostly best friends.

Just then, a blur entered the room, shouting, "Mommy, me too! I also want to bebiew Jimmy's story," blur said, who he now knows is Gia.

And she took out her little mobile that has basic functions, which she is given for emergencies, and stared at mom.

Jim watched as Gia waited for mom and stared at her until mom asked, "What?"

"Add me; I will also rebiew Jimmy's story," she said with a serious face that looked cute. While also making a mistake saying review.

"Well, if you want to, but my little sweetheart, you don't even read it," mom said, aware that Gia might cry if she didn't, as she likes this story very much, and him being the writer added to that fact.

Gia immediately replied with, "But I do read it; you can ask Jimmy," and with that, he was confused as he never saw her read it, but suddenly he thought she might be thinking she only has to listen to give a review, so she replied with that. But, he still nodded not to make her upset. Gia nodded her head and said,

"Every night, I sleep; I ask Jimmy to 'read' it for me, but I never gave briview to him," she said as she again mispronounced the word.

Well, even though it's cute and mom not wanting to get out of the moment, she still stopped herself and started to tell Gia about her mispronunciation which shifted the conversation and started another which is about the word review, as Gia is a child, so these mistakes in pronunciation happen, and mom might make it a learning session for her, as she had done it with him many times when he was a kid or her first test subject for these classes.

He went out of living room and checked his mobile, where he saw he was already quite popular with 30 comments already, and the ranking was going up, but he was still in the thousands as there were many novels.

Most reviews were about how they liked it because it's a fresh breeze in these fantasy, action, fighting types of novels.

The novel was already in the 4789 positions in the ranking as it was making its way upwards. Most of the people who liked to read it were high school kids as well as ladies, as he saw the number of them in the comment sections of the chapter were quite large.

He also entered a contest for family and friends related novels that was going on with a $10,000 reward for the 1st place, $2,000 for the 2nd place, and $500 for the 3rd one. He aimed for the top, even though there were more popular novels than mine. They started long ago, and to participate in it, the novel should be new, created this month, which luckily he did.

He got a notification that he entered a group and saw that his mother didn't tell anyone that he was the writer and just asked for a review so they don't favor him and don't give honest opinions.

In this group were a total of three of his mom's friends. The first one was her business partner, Jennifer; then was her junior from college, Olivia, 36 years old, a cute-looking woman that is also a business lady who had made of herself in the industry with the clothing brand she has. And lastly is Mia, 40 years old, a dentist and a single mother with her daughter Emma. Mia met his mother during Ava's career as a beautician in her beauty parlor, and she also supported her when she was trying to find a house to buy and even managed to get a discount for us on this house as she vouched for our family being descent which was what buying in this community required. They both are on their trip to Emma's grandmother's house so, he didn't see them here these days, and they might stay there for a while.

As soon as Jim was added, they started chatting on to why this group was made and why were he, Emma, and even Gia was added, and mom explained that one of her friends is writing a novel and she wanted a review on the chapters before he/she posted it online. That got them interested and tried to ask her, Gia tried to tell but was stopped by mom, but he knows that they will get it out from her with some candies as she trusts them fully.

As it was happening, he was feeling a little bored, so he informed his mom he was going outside to take a walk, and Gia, as she saw him going out feeling bored, also followed him while taking his hands.