*Ringggggg~*
The bell for lunch rang, meaning today is halfway done. I got up and tried to escape the classroom before I got forced to line up by the teacher.
'I made it out, now to the bathroom.' I sped down the halls trying to blend in with the other lines of kids heading to the cafeteria.
'I'll have to thank Rick later for this.' I made a deal with Rick at the start of the school year, he still eats a crap ton, but I bring him candy bars and he will pay me for them since the lunch food does not hold him over whatsoever. Sooo, I had him explain to all of his acquaintances that I will always have snacks that they can also buy while I'm hiding in the bathroom.
Now each snack costs me about 1.6 EMC, but charging them 25 cents for one is the best trade off for both of us since I can get the candy bars for free by loading each one at the gas stations and small markets near the school in my TT. Not to mention I can buy a loaf of bread for about 90 cents and make back more EMC than I spent.
I looked up at the EMC value counter while handing a Snickers bar to a kid. 16,381.4 EMC, I could have a little more if I didn't offer Rick as many sandwiches back when we were younger.
"Next." I say as I shove the kid out of the stall, I just started the underground snack trade yesterday but they still don't seem to understand that they need to be quick when trading.
"Two Snickers and a can of coke." I see Harry walk in giving me a weird look. "I didn't believe it when Rick said you were selling extra snacks in the bathroom."
"Well I have to make money somehow, I'm not rich like either you or Rick, and the earlier I start saving money the better I'll be when I'm on my own. Also that's 75 cents." I say handing over the 2 candy bars and drink.
"You say that but are losing money selling them cheaply." *Gasp* He leaned in and whispered "You're not stealing them, are you?"
"No, it's all legal." I almost spat in his face as I shoved him away, "Now there are more people I am selling too so scram." He walked away chuckling a little, I'm worried about him as we are only 8 yet here he is acting like an adult with that chuckling.
Half an hour later I'm about 14 dollars richer and sitting back down at my desk/table listening to our teacher drone on about the multiplication table again. I look over and see Peter nodding his head as if he was the one who taught the teacher, while Rick who is on the opposite side of me is trying to stare a hole in the chart as if doing so will imbed the numbers into his mind. I'm half glad that I already know this, but the bad thing that comes with this is the teacher thinking I'm a genius like Peter, I can fake it but doing so will bite me in the but later in life, at least in highschool. I don't plan to go to college afterwards as that'll be a waste of time and resources that I could use to get EMC.
As the teacher went on about the multiplication table, I discreetly pulled out the calculator that we all had, no fancy graphing calculators but I just needed a basic math one. I looked back at the Tome of Knowledge at 50,332,242 EMC, the cheapest thing I can get that gives me the most EMC is a loaf of bread. Each loaf gets me 72 EMC, now I can collect other items but none compare to a loaf of bread. Typing the Tome of Knowledge's price into the calculator, divided by a loaf of bread, got me 16.8 million loafs. I was stunned for a short bit, I knew it would take a lot but never this much. Hell, even buying the bread will cost me around 15 million dollars.
"Why do you have such a large number on the calculator?" I hear whispered next to my ear.
"Ah. Peter, what the hell?" I look at Peter leaning over to see what I'm doing, "Just playing with numbers and randomly typing in numbers you know. I'm just bored." I state trying to move the conversation elsewhere.
"Oh, I'm bored too since I learned about multiplication last year with my uncle Ben when we visited the library in town."
'Show off' "Oh really? That's so cool." I try to say with a little bit of interest to maybe get him to dive into that subject and I can tune him out.
"Hey I was there with you too." A voice chimed in behind me, I looked over my shoulder and saw Gwen staring at Peter and back to me. "Don't listen to him only, I was the one who pointed out we needed to know this information." She said, smirking.
'I'm surrounded by these high achievers.' *Thud* I look back over and see Rick holding his head muttering that it hurts. 'At Least I know me and him will be normal to a degree.'
"If yall are done talking, the rest of the class is trying to learn." The teacher said to us after Gwen got done talking to Peter about sharing the whole story when talking.
"Yes Ma'am." x 3
~~~
*Ringggggg~*
"Alright everyone, school is over, line up and we will go outside and wait for the buses or your parents to pick you up."
Listening to the teacher we all lined up, even I couldn't escape as if I did the school would search for the missing kid, don't ask how I know this.
I looked back at Rick, "Can I hang out with you today before I head back to the Orphanage?"
"Sure! I ask my dad every day before school and he agrees." Rick said beaming, as his only friend, who's known him and kept him from starving multiple times throughout our orphanage life, I have the benefit of coming over and not having to worry about the KingPin getting rid of an 8 year old.
~~~
I can add the conversions I have been doing for the EMC value if anyone is interested. Have a great weekend y'all
Side note, next release might not be on Monday as I was just told about coming in for a 12 hour night shift on the weekend but will try to push for the publish if I can type fast enough. Thus the shorter chapter, will make it up later.