"What's wrong with that?", she replied defensively.

Michael shook his head and raised his hands. "Nothing! It's just surprising as it's not a hobby too many people our age have. I think it's awesome."

"Actually, that totally makes sense, considering your princess persona," Jeremy interjected. "Oh wait, that's not right - it should be--"

"Jeremy Ben-David, if you finish that sentence I will end you," Valeria threatened chillingly.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said with a grin. Clearly he wasn't nervous.

Michael decided to ignore the final exchange between the two of them, since the subject was unfamiliar to him. His experiences with the System had made him clearly understand that everyone had their secrets. If he didn't want people prying into his, it was only fair that he left others theirs. He opened the door and entered the library, holding it open behind him for his friends.

They continued their back and forth before being shushed by a student who happened to be in the stacks nearby, at which point their back and forth continued in significantly more hushed tones.

Mr. Maddox was standing at the main desk and saw Michael walking in. "Ah, Mr. Prout. Just in time - I have some students coming in for a.s.sistance shortly. Can you keep an eye on the desk for now, and then get back to the periodicals after final period?"

Michael smiled and nodded. "No problem Mr. Maddox. As for the students - I believe it's my friends here," he said as he indicated the bickering pair behind him, who finally stopped long enough to greet the librarian.

"Ah! Friends of my young a.s.sistant Mr. Prout, are you? Well then - far be it from me to show preferential treatment, but let's go take a look at your work and see where we get, shall we?", Mr. Maddox said, smiling and extending his hand towards one of the long tables.

Michael excused himself and went to stand behind the desk, helping a few students who had started to line up. As soon as there was a lull, he searched through the library's catalogue for any books on chess, and was quite please to find that there were almost a dozen of them. He started to retrieve them in between stints at the desk and had soon ama.s.sed another small pile.

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On his way to retrieve something from his office, Mr. Maddox peered over the side and noticed them. "And what is the subject of our perusal today, Mr. Prout?"

His voice startled Michael out of his scanning of one of the texts, who looked up sheepishly. "Chess, sir," he said apologetically.

"Chess, eh? An excellent subject. A number of fine works have been written on it," the Librarian commented, nodding sagely.

"Do you play, sir?", Michael inquired.

"Heavens no. Why do something so vulgar when you could read about it instead?", the librarian responded as he left, shaking his head in consternation.

Michael gaped at the retreating figure. "Isn't that the opposite of what people normally say?"

---

Since the two boys had Algebra together the next period, the three of them left the library at the same time, bidding farewell to Mr. Maddox with Michael confirmed that he would be back after school despite it being Friday.

Valeria parted with them at the stairs, since the music room was also on the first floor. When Jeremy and Michael got to their cla.s.sroom, they once again saw Ms. Blackice's a.s.sistant Richard at the front. When the young man saw the two, he signaled to Michael to come up to the front. Jeremy snickered and went to his desk.

"I heard from Doctor Blackice that you'll be competing in the Mathematics compet.i.tion before the break?", the red-handed graduate student began. When Michael nodded, he returned the gesture with a satisfied expression. "Not bad. I was a member of the team in my freshman year, too. She wanted me to pa.s.s you these old copies of the material so you could study. Don't let us down!"

Michael accepted them gratefully before realizing what the subst.i.tute teacher had said. "Wait, Ms. Blackice is a doctor?"

Richard smirked. "Several times over. Pretty impressive, right? You mustn't be too bad if she thinks well of you. She's never wrong. Well , almost never."

His face turned gloomy for a brief second before recovering. "Anyway, cla.s.s will start soon. Let me know if you have any questions, I'll be here for the next couple of weeks, as far as I know."

Michael thanked him and went back to his desk. His friend couldn't help but remark as Michael returned.

"A love note? How scandalous!"

This not-too-quiet remark earned him a loud cough and a glare from the man at the front of the cla.s.s. Jeremy quickly blanched and sat up straight, pretending to be fascinated by some imaginary occurence on the field outside the window.

Luckily, the cla.s.s was still otherwise empty so no one else heard his teasing comment. That soon changed, however, as the rest of the students filed in and the bell rang.

"Everyone can leave your books closed for now, as I have a treat for you all - Pop Quiz!"

This announcement produced several audible groans throughout the room as he began to hand out the papers.

---

After cla.s.s, Michael said goodbye to his friend. They wouldn't see each other til Monday so they also wished each other a good weekend. Michael then headed to the Chemistry lab.

On his way, he remembered his English a.s.signment, and between sorting that out and quickly munching down a snack he filed into the room right before the bell rang. He still made it ahead of his teacher, though, who only arrived as the bell was ringing.

Cla.s.s was pretty typical, with a lecture and then some in-cla.s.s work on balancing formulae before receiving their a.s.signments. As they departed, Michael contemplated asking his teacher about nootropics, but decided to hold off on the topic for now. While simple curiosity was probably a good enough reason to bring it up, any discussion of drugs still made the young man skittish, and he couldn't gather his nerve.

He returned to the library where Mr. Maddox was once again behind the desk, though he didn't immediately retreat to his office as Michael would be dealing with periodicals at the start. He simply nodded at his a.s.sistant while he poured over a rather ancient looking tome while he waited for any students who might be checking books out for the weekend.

Michael finally completed the task at around a quarter to five and went to relieve the librarian. As he picked up his book to head to his office, the man turned to his a.s.sistant and peered at him over his gla.s.ses.

"How does Sunday work for you?"

"...Sir?"

"The other task I mentioned. Can you come Sunday? I have some rather rare treatises on Chess that might interest you."

He snorted after saying this and mumbled almost inaudibly. "Game of kings indeed..."

"...I think I should be free, Sir."

"Very good. It won't count towards your credit, but I can let you take a look at some other books as well, depending on the amount of work involved in your task."

"My task, Sir?"

"Never mind. Just come to this address at 11 on Sunday. Don't be late! You can go for today, I'll close up early."

Michael nodded and thanked him as he turned to leave. He wasn't going to complain about leaving early for the weekend, though internally he wondered: "Is he allowed to do that? Are all graduate students this bossy? Richard isn't really like this... I wonder who his supervisor is, anyway?"

---

Michael returned home, walking at a brisk pace and practicing his breathing. He was getting better and better at maintaining the breath cycle while performing strenuous activities, though he still couldn't do it well while running.

He resolved to try it in the morning during the yoga session he had planned to do before his normal workout, though. His reasoning was that the slower pace would allow him to get a better feel for it.

It was only 5:30 by the time Michael got in the door. The house was quiet, and the door had been locked, so he figured that his sisters were probably out playing with their friends. He quickly poured himself a gla.s.s of water and went downstairs to start coding as he was trying to wrap up the project well before the following weekend.

When he got downstairs, he noticed that the work on the bathroom had been completed on schedule. He was quite pleased, and looked forward to the improvements this would make in his daily schedule. At the same time, he received a notice from the System.