03 - How did you do that?

Since I had already showered and put on the clothes I was going to wear to school, I waited a little longer in my room while I continued to work on my computer.

This was a parallel world, something I had heard from God himself, but I was still surprised to see that many of the songs that had been successful in my previous world didn't even exist in this one.

Since I didn't listen to music while walking, I hadn't noticed this before, but now I was surprised to see Noah's playlist and realize that I didn't know any of these bands.

I liked rock in my previous world, from heavy rock to indie rock, I knew a huge amount of music off the top of my head, with the lyrics perfectly memorized.

Would this be a good idea to make money?' I began to think. Considering my current appearance, it might be a bit difficult to get gigs in nearby bars to make a quick buck, but I could learn to sing while playing guitar and put it on MeTube to make some long-term money and spread my music.

Following the path of music was the dream of many people, but most lacked individuality.

Luckily for me, I had so many ideas of bands from my previous world that I could take ideas from several of them to have "originality" in this world, as well as a huge repertoire of lyrics that had already been successful that I could use to be successful in this world.

Of course, since I didn't have time to develop this because I had to go to school, I just decided to look for singing lessons on the Internet and practice them in the spare moments I had until I got home.

After a few minutes, I saw that it was time to wake Ethan up, so before I did, I made my bed and organized my things.

This was one of the things that little Ethan used to argue about with old Noah, but he just ignored it, thinking it was his little brother's annoyance, but I knew that an organized environment was a great ally for someone with ADHD.

When everything was in order, I woke Ethan up.

"Come on, big boy, it's time to wake up." I said in a calm voice beside him.

He was a little confused at first, not understanding what was going on, until he figured it out and woke up quite easily.

Although I could see that he wasn't fully awake, he just went to the bathroom on autopilot, not even noticing the difference in my hair.

Seeing that he woke up without any problems, I also left the room and went to the kitchen with my backpack.

As soon as I arrived in the kitchen, I saw Olivia touching up her makeup in front of a small mirror, while my new mother was making some eggs for breakfast.

"Good morning..." I said, not really knowing how to deal with these two.

Honestly, they were the two most difficult people in the house to deal with, both my mother with her perfectionism and Olivia with her self-centeredness, and it got even worse when she went to high school, as she joined the popular group while I was one of the outcasts, which drove us even further apart, as she probably felt that I was a better person than her.

"Oh my God! Noah, what happened to you?" She screamed in terror as she ran up to me and looked at my freshly cut hair.

For a woman like her, such a rebellious haircut was as scary as a horror movie, but I had already imagined this would happen.

Little did she know that I was still itching to bleach that hair, just like my hair in my previous world, but I would leave that for later.

At my mother's call, Olivia also looked in my direction, curious, which made her raise her eyebrow slightly as she nodded, probably liking my new cut much more than our mother.

Considering that the average person's stat is 10 points, I, who had gone from 3 to 5 charisma points, had taken a big step forward in looking visibly nicer, which Olivia clearly noticed.

At least if she liked it, it meant that this cut wasn't something weird in this world, as I had feared.

Now looking at the distraught woman in front of me, I sighed as I replied. "I just felt like cutting it, my long hair was too much work to take care of and it was too ugly, so I cut it myself."

Hearing that I'd cut my own hair, the two women had different reactions, with Olivia surprised that I'd managed to get a good cut on my own, and my mother shocked that I'd used my head as a guinea pig to cut my hair for the first time.

"Are you crazy? What could have happened to you? Did you cut yourself somewhere?" she said as she started looking for a cut on me.

At this point my patience was wearing thin, I wasn't used to dealing with someone who demanded so much of me, I only got to this point because of the old Noah, so I took a deep breath and answered trying to keep calm.

"Mom, calm down. I didn't hurt myself, my hair is fine, nothing bad happened, you know? There's nothing to worry about, I watched a lot of videos before you did this to me. Now calm down, okay?" I said in a serious voice as I put my hands on her shoulders and spoke in a calm tone.

When she heard me talking like that and holding her shoulders like that, she calmed down surprisingly.

"I think it's okay..." She said a little confused as she went back to cooking.

-------- Lauren Commentary --------

Sitting on the sofa with a lost expression on her face, Lauren didn't quite know how to react.

"I was so worried about Noah, but the way he talked to me..." She paused. "I don't think I've ever seen my son speak with such confidence...he looked me in the eye!"

When Lauren realized that Noah had looked her in the eye while talking to her, she was shocked.

"Even though I was worried about him, just seeing the confidence he showed made me so proud, and the reassurance he gave me, like everything was under control when he cut his hair, really convinced me!" She said excitedly.

For someone like her who was a perfectionist, the feeling of security was very important, and the security that Noah gave her in that moment was enough for the perfectionism to switch off for a few minutes and just make her happy.

Looking at the camera with a little embarrassment, Lauren said in a low voice. "I didn't say anything to him, but the more I looked at him over breakfast, the more I thought the haircut suited him and made him look much more stylish. I just couldn't say it and let it be understood that I approved of such a rebellious style..."

-------- Comment ends --------

Seeing how calm my mother became after I reassured her, the one who was most shocked was Olivia, who had never seen my mother act like that towards her.

I could tell by the look on her face that she couldn't believe I had handled my mother so easily.

When I sat down at the table, she quickly approached me and asked in a low voice.

"How did you do that?"

Knowing what she meant, I pretended not to know as I grabbed some of the eggs to eat, since the toast I'd had with my father almost two hours ago didn't satisfy me. "What do you mean?"

Olivia asked, looking at me incredulously. "How did you get her to accept your hair so easily? I was sure she was going to freak out about you for at least another 30 minutes."

Looking away from my eggs and at her, I just smiled slightly as I answered. "Magic."

Hearing my answer, Olivia was surprised for a few seconds until she realized I was joking with her and huffed as she went back to doing her makeup.

I didn't mind and went back to eating.

-------- Olivia Commentary --------

Instead of the anger she was showing Noah at that moment, Olivia had a slightly surprised expression on her face as she sat on the sofa and looked into the camera.

"Noah's different today, he's able to talk to me normally..." She said. "It's been so long since he talked to me, for a second I felt like my big brother had come back."

-------- Commentary Ends --------

When Ethan came downstairs and saw my hair, his shock was as great as my mother's, but unlike her, who was shocked and concerned, Ethan just got excited when he saw my hair and asked me to make it like mine.

When I heard his request, I saw my mom looking at us worriedly.

I knew helicopter mom mode was kicking in, so I tried to make up for it.

"How about after school? When we get there, I can cut your hair with our mom's help." I told him calmly, with concise information and a set time, which was essential for someone with ADHD.

Just as Olivia was shocked at how I reassured my mother, my mother was shocked at how easily Ethan accepted this and sat down to breakfast.

She probably imagined that Ethan would have trouble accepting that I couldn't do it now and would keep asking for it, but seeing how he took it all in his stride, she didn't understand why.

Fortunately, she didn't complain about me cutting his hair after she heard me say that she would be there when I did it.

It's good that cutting Ethan's hair can help me level up my skill faster.

When we'd all finished eating, my mom took us to school, dropping Ethan off at his school first and then Olivia and I at ours.

Knowing what I was going to face at school, my mood had already taken a turn for the worse.

I'd always had trouble learning my subjects, so my grades had always been low.

The only reason I liked going to school before was because I was away from my dad and my friends.

Now at Noah's school, not only does he not have many friends, but his friends are clumsy people who don't know how to talk properly, they only talk about subjects that I don't really care about, and to make matters worse, the 'bullies' at this school still pick on him.

I hope those kids don't come and bother me because I'm not going to listen quietly. I thought sulkily as I walked into the school, leaving Olivia behind while she went to talk to her friends, and made my way to my first classroom.

And to start the day off right, I have to start studying math... how great... I mentally sighed as I walked into the classroom and sat down in my usual spot, the last chair in the last row, since my height would block the view of the other students if I sat in front of anyone.

[Buff Acquired!

Math Classroom

Effect: +50% bonus when learning math related content.

Duration: While in the classroom].

When I saw this buff that appeared out of nowhere, I was shocked.

Since I had no one to talk to, I decided to pick up the math book and try to learn something.

Just looking at those complicated formulas made my head hurt, but I was surprised that it didn't seem as difficult as I had imagined.

In just a few minutes, I was able to study and fully understand the content explained in that chapter of the book, which caused a notification to appear in front of me.

[Intermediate Math Lv 1 (+18 levels)

Effect: +19% easier to understand and apply intermediate math concepts].

As soon as I learned this new skill, the speed at which I could learn became much faster.

What I used to have to read five times to understand, I was now able to understand after reading only four times!

Before I knew it, classes had started and I was still focused on studying the math textbook, which used to seem like torture but was now quite interesting as I understood the applications of these formulas.

Despite my large size, I was usually quite unnoticeable in class, as I hardly disturbed the class or tried to participate, but because of my new haircut and the 2 charisma points I received today, I think my appearance stood out a little more than usual, and the teacher asked me.

"Black, can you tell me the result of the calculation on the board?" The teacher asked me, trying to draw my attention away from the manga he probably thought I was reading.

Looking at the question on the board, if I relied on my previous knowledge to answer it, I would probably have a hard time, but fortunately it was part of what I had just learned in the book, so I thought for a few seconds and answered.

"The result of X is 16, teacher." I said in a confident and slightly disinterested voice, because learning from my book was much more interesting than answering the teacher.

Hearing my answer so quickly, I could hear some mocking laughter around me, but when the teacher confirmed that I was right, everyone fell silent.

With an intelligence of 9, where the average for a normal person is 10, which meant I was slightly below average, I probably wasn't the dumbest person in the room, but I was still in the bottom half, so it was really surprising to them that I got this question right.

Ignoring their comments, I went back to studying my math book until a new message popped up.

[+1 INT]