Chapter 25– Welcome to Caltech
Jake sat in the passenger seat of his mom's car, watching palm trees roll by as they neared the Caltech campus. Dressed casually—jeans, clean hoodie, backpack slung over one shoulder—he looked more like a kid on a field trip than a college student.
But that's exactly what he was.
And not just any student.
He was the youngest person to ever attend Caltech.
Ten years old. IQ 250. Fully enrolled.
Judith, meanwhile, was gripping the steering wheel like she was about to drop him off at his first day of kindergarten.
"You sure you're okay?" she asked, for what felt like the twentieth time.
"Still sure," Jake replied.
"I packed you snacks."
"Mom, I'm not five."
"You're not twenty either," she snapped. "And trail mix is brain food."
Jake smirked, then looked out the window again as the buildings of Caltech came into view. Sleek. Modern. Intimidating to most.
To him? It was the playground of the future.
---
They parked, checked in at the administration office, and met with one of Jake's program advisors—who still kept glancing at him like he couldn't quite believe this wasn't a prank.
"Everything's in order," the advisor said with a polite smile. "But… just to say it out loud—Mr. Harper is officially the youngest student to ever enroll at Caltech."
Judith's eyebrows raised slightly. "Even younger than Doogie Howser?"
The advisor blinked. "That's a fictional character."
Jake grinned. "But I'm not."
---
An Unusual Schedule for an Unusual Student
Jake's class load was heavy but designed to challenge him across multiple disciplines:
Intro to Theoretical Physics
Discrete Mathematics
Computer Science: System Architecture
Philosophy of Logic
Behavioral Economics
Modern History & Political Theory
While most ten-year-olds were mastering cursive, Jake was sitting in lectures surrounded by grad students and postdocs, engaging in full academic discourse.
Judith insisted on sitting in the back of his first two classes, notebook in hand, occasionally scribbling comments and giving professors looks when they spoke too fast.
At one point, Jake leaned over and whispered, "You taking the class or grading it?"
She didn't even look up. "Just making sure my genius doesn't get lost in the crowd."
---
By the end of the day, even Judith had to admit it—Jake belonged there.
He wasn't just fitting in.
He was already standing out.
Jake walked into his second day at Caltech expecting more stares or curious whispers.
What he didn't expect was a welcoming committee.
A group of girls—probably around eighteen or nineteen—were gathered near the lecture hall entrance. The moment they saw him, they lit up with amusement and curiosity.
"There he is!" one said, nudging her friend. "The genius baby."
Jake blinked. Here we go.
"You're Jake, right?" another asked, smiling brightly. "The ten-year-old wonder?"
He grinned. "Technically I'm closer to eleven."
They laughed.
"He's so cute," one of them said, crouching slightly to his height. "Do you have a girlfriend yet, or are you still focused on juice boxes?"
Jake crossed his arms and played along. "I'm weighing my options."
"Ooooh," one teased. "A heartbreaker already!"
"Watch out, ladies," another added with a smirk. "He's got brains and confidence."
They weren't being mean. Just playful. Teasing in the way older girls tease a precocious kid who clearly knows how to hold his own.
Jake gave them a charming smile and shrugged. "I'm just trying to survive midterms."
They laughed again and waved him off as the professor arrived.
He walked into class with a bounce in his step.
---
Later That Night – Sherman Oaks
Back at his mom's house, Jake was back in his element. He sat at the family desktop, eyes scanning lines of code, tweaking the latest FaceWorld update.
Live Status Threads.
Quick posts. Real-time updates. Instant engagement.
He hit "Deploy" and refreshed the dashboard.
Within ten minutes, user activity spiked.
Within an hour, the site had added over 50,000 new users.
Jake optimized the backend, balanced the server load, and leaned back in his chair as the site stabilized.
By morning?
FaceWorld had passed 750,000 users.
Jake Harper—ten years old, Caltech's youngest student, and now founder of a viral social platform—leaned back in his chair, a little smug, a lot satisfied.
And in the other room, Judith muttered to herself while loading the dishwasher, completely unaware her son had just taken another step toward reshaping the internet.