Chapter 023

Just as Mr. Joshua sat down about to take his early morning cofee, the door to his office swung open, revealing his P.A Cleao, who rushed in with elation.

 "Sir! Sir! we have news concerning the mysterious Investor!"

 Mr. Joshua was about to chastize Cleo for her rudeness. However after he learnt it was related to the mysterious Investor, he wasn't bothered to do so anymore.

 "Did you manage to discover his real identity?!" Mr. Joshua stood up, barely concealing his joy and expectations.

 "Apart from knowing that he works with Spring Gold investment brokerage house, his real identity is still a mystery"

 "However, we just recieved news that the mysterious Investor engaged in a 20 million dollars investment transaction in the futures market"

 "What product did he buy? Crude Oil? Diamond?"

 "No. He bought a 20 million worth of Speedo Sneakers Arcane Lift 2 sneakers futures"

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 School went perfectly normal. To Oscar's relief, there wasn't any trouble from Laura or Henry.

Very soon, it was the end of school hours. Since he had nowhere to go, Oscar decided to do some basketball practice.

 "Huh? What's going on?" Oscar noticed an anomaly when he arrived at the medium sized basketball court.

 Everybody on the team had ugly frowns on their countenances, while the Basketball Coach (Lio) did his utmost cheering them up.

 When Jonas noticed Oscar's arrival, he waved at him.

 "What happened? why is everyone looking so moody?" Oscar could barely contain his curiosity.

 "We were chosen for the SBC event" Jonas said with a tight frown.

 "SBC? What's that? An acronym?" "Seriously? you don't know what the SBC is? are you even a basketballer?" Jonas stared at Oscar like he was looking at an idiot.

 "The SBC is the acronym for the State Basketball Championship. It is a state level basketball event" Jonas explained.

 "Is that why ya'all are looking like you just ate dog shit? what's the big deal?" Oscar rolled his eyes, thinking they were overreacting.

"Tch. What an Idiot" Russ who overheard their conversation, snickered with contempt.

 "What's your deal dude? Wiy did you have to interfere?" Oscar sharply shot back.

 "Heh, you think you are something just because you rode on Goldie's car yesterday?" Russ clicked his tongue.

 "At Least that's a feat you can never achieve in your life. Honestly, you need to learn from me" Oscar stuck out his chest with pride.

 "Since when did freeloading become an achievement. Sorry but, I won't stoop that low for a lady" Russ replied self righteously.

 But in truth, he was inwardly green with envy.

 Right from when he began as a fresher, he'd always had his eyes on Goldie. He even revealed himself to be Karol G's brother to the whole campus, just so he could impress Goldie.

 Yet the latter remained completely impassive. 

 Russ was even starting to weigh the possibility of her being a lesbian.

 Untill these past days. Not only did Goldie talk to Oscar more often..

Not only that, she even gave him a ride in her car!!

 The hatred Russ had for Oscar was planet level. He felt the latter was a shameless street ruffian who stole his most prized jewel.

 "Mooching is a skill only the smart can learn. Daft people like you will find it hard to understand" Oscar refuted.

 "Tch.. Bastard!" Russ was speechless.

 If he refuted Oscar's claims, it would prove that he was indeed daft.

 However, he couldn't agree either, that would be a total embarrassment.

 Clap. Clap.

 Lio's claps managed to break the icy atmosphere.

 "You boys should quit whining amongs yourselves. Our major concern is the SBC"

 "Coach, I Don't get why everybody seems so afraid of the SBC" Oscar scrunched his nose, puzzled.

 "The SBC is kind of like the Primere league in Fifa, except on a much smaller scale" Lio started.

 "Each Basketball team in the state would compete amongst themselves round. Winning a game gives two points. The top 3 basketball teams with the most points gets to win!"

"If it was just this, we wouldn't be reacting this strongly. However, we made a bet with an opposing team. If we join the SBC and fail to make it to the top three, we fail. The stakes of the bet is that the losing basketball team gets to disband-

 "Such a thing existed?" Oscar was shocked.

 "So, there would be no practice today. Gather here tomorrow to hear my final choice"

 Following Lio's instructions, everybody began dispersing the court.

 "You're free tomorrow night?" Jonas asked Oscar as they made their way out of the court.

 "Is anything interesting happening?"

 "Well, my sister would be celebrating her birthday. I invited many from Campus. I saw it as impartiality if I didn't do so with you, since we're friends"

 "Dude! you have a sister?" Oscar stared at him strangely.

 Didn't the news claim that Alan Hawkins only had a single son?

 "Nicolette is actually my mum's niece. But she's like a sister to me, haha" Jonas explained.

 "Plus, I heard she's attending an Entertainment Academy"

"There's going to be a lot of beauties. Are you sure you nt to miss it?" Jonas tempted.

 "What time is it?"

 "Six pm. I'll send you my home address"

 At that moment, a black limo pulled over and the windshield rolled down revealing Goldie's smiling face.

 "Get in!"

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 At a conference room. Ten men and women in formal business attire sat around a mohagany table.

 These were the upper management of Lolica, and Mr Joshua sat at the head table.

 "I am sure you all have seen the massive progress we've been making?" he cleared his throat.

 "For years, Lolica has struggled to stay relevant in the market. But today, we are the number one toy brand in the country. All these was made possible thanks to that mysterious Investor"

 "I doubt that" a red haired lean man objected.

 He was the son of one of Lolica's three founders and controlled twenty percent of it's shares.

 Perhaps in the whole conference room, he was the only one capable of cutting Mr. Joshua up in his speech"

"When it comes to originality, we far outstrip Adios. However, their only edge is that they build on our ideas to create even better versions. That's just an expensive way of plagiarism"

 "That's why I believe the younger audienbe must've realized this, and started purciasing our brand"

 "I don't think that's it" another major share holder refuted.

 And so the whole conference room plunged into a words sparring match. For every hypothesis someone brought, two more would counter it.

 This went on for twenty minutes until finally, Mr. Joshua couldn't take it any longer.

 "I didn't call for this conference so you all can verbally spar amongst yourself. I just wanted to inform you all about the decision I've made!"

 Those at the upper management fell silent, waiting for Mr. Joshua to explain what his 'decision' was.

 "I have decided to invest in Arcane Lift 2 Sneakers futures market"

 The Shareholder with 20% shares wanted to refute but Mr. Joshua held up his hand.

"This is my decision. I won't change it no matter the bibkering you send my way. Thank you"