World Domination System

National Competition

Susan’s eyes dulled while her face flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled with her head bowed and her fingers interlocked.

Seeing her reaction, Leonard felt a little guilty, but he had not planned to get a phone anytime soon. After all, the most important person to him was his mother.

If he needed a phone to communicate with her, it would mean that she would also need a phone also.

Their finances couldn’t handle that kind of luxury and, most especially not a brand that was this expensive.

He sighed as he looked at Susan’s already dull expression.

“Although I don’t have the money now, I’ll work hard to pay you back. So let’s see this as if you are giving me a loan.”

As he talked, he tore out a page from his jotting book and started to draft an IOU between them. 

Since she had used her savings for it, it was only appropriate to pay her back, but as the phone itself was probably more expensive than his entire net worth, this was the best solution.

Susan nodded as her eyes regained some light in them again.

“It’s not that expensive, I’m just bad at spending so my savings is only that meagre sum.” She confessed after a while, but Leonard still insisted on him paying her back.

Since she couldn’t change his mind, she gave him the phone back and the receipt of payment while Leonard kept the phone tucked into his bag pack.

After settling that, the both of them went ahead to start discussing their project.

“I don’t think this would get us any recognition. It’s not anything new and would only get a pass,” Leonard analysed as he looked at her proposal.

After everything that happened last night, he had only managed to settle down for an hour to brainstorm for the project.

But he still felt like he had been able to provide a more challenging topic than Susan that had probably not had to do anything since they finished school.

However, Leonard was not someone that would judge people based on their social status or anything and so he didn’t despise her for what she brought forward and instead placed his notebook in the middle and moved Susan’s iPad backwards for more space.

“I thought since you love fashion so much, we should combine fashion and technology together,”

Their project was to create a new technology that would make life easier for teenagers all around the world. It was also not supposed to be something too excessive.

But as they were going to be submitted internationally, Leonard, who knew that he was going to need a scholarship to attend college, didn’t want to take any chances.

Susan read through the document and her eyes widened with surprise.

“Oh my Goodness! How can you be this intelligent?” She asked with delightful surprise.

“This is really going to make a lot of difference for girls and even guys. And it’s not too complicated,” she added as she looked through again.

“Hmmm, that’s what I thought too,”

Susan gushed a bit more about how impressive he was and how it was hard to have come up with something like that in just one week since they made the announcement.

Perhaps, if she knew that he had only used an hour to come up with this, she would have lost her mind from shock.

The both of them discussed for about half an hour, and Leonard left as soon as it was a few minutes before the school bell rang.

Susan watched as he left the library with a little reluctance in her eyes. She didn’t understand why, but there was something about Leonard that pulled her towards him.

Being born into one of the top families, Susan was not the type to put men in her eyes, but somehow, all through the night, all she had thought about was how simply he had said he had no phone.

It had bothered her so much that she went to buy him a phone this early morning from the cash that she had saved up.

Her allowance was large, but her father and his accountants would always keep an eye out on her spending to know if there was money going somewhere from her card that they didn’t know. So she could only manage what she had on her.

Her thoughts were messy and she buried her head into her palm while allowing her brain to process her thoughts.

As for Leonard, even though he had gotten the system after yesterday’s beating, he also didn’t want to take any chances today, which was why he decided to leave alone.

When he got back to the classroom, it was a lot fuller than before. However, the boys from yesterday had yet to arrive, and Leonard went back to his seat without greeting anyone.

“Hey!” Daniel called out as he stood up to sit beside Leonard.

“I didn’t come yesterday and I can already hear that a lot had gone down on the one day I missed school?” Daniel asked him as he used his shoulders to hit Leonard’s shoulders playfully.

Unlike Leonard, Daniel wasn’t a scholarship student. However, his family wasn’t a big family and they had just pooled together all of their resources to send their son here so that he could change the family’s condition.

So he wasn’t from a family that was cool enough to be friends with most of the other kids and he also didn’t want to be a lackey.

Ever since Leonard joined, they both hung out together and developed a friendship that was quite strong.

“If you had been around, perhaps you would have been beaten to death like me,” Leonard teased, bringing out his books from the bag.

Seeing Daniel’s shocked look, he quickly explained all that had happened yesterday to him.

Daniel expressed his shock at hearing what had happened yesterday.

“You don’t look like someone that was beaten,”

“I have covered it all up with my clothes, it’s only normal that it’s not showing.”

Just as Leonard finished talking, Edgar walked into the class with his gang behind him. His eyes were dark and narrowed and the moment he saw Leonard, everyone could see the obvious change in his reaction.

“You still have the strength to come to school today?” He asked with a sneer, hoping to intimidate Leonard.

“If I miss a day, I would only be wasting your parent’s hard-earned money.”

Leonard’s reaction pleased him and he nodded with satisfaction missing the sarcasm there.

“It’s good that you know, as long as you don’t pass your boundaries.”

He went to his seat and Daniel took a deep breath of relief.

“Edgar is just as ruthless as his family, if you can avoid him, please do.” Daniel warned and Leonard nodded in understanding.

The school bell rang just as soon as Susan entered the class, as she paid no attention to Leonard, Edgar that was watching them like a hawk was extremely pleased.

“Good morning class.” Mr Reeves, their classroom teacher and English teacher entered the class.

“Before we start classes today, all students interested in the national mathematics competition should please step out. We would begin the registration now.” He announced.

Daniel and Leonard exchanged a glance as they stood up at the same time. The both of them went to each competition together and even though Daniel only came fifth in their class, he would still be able to come back with reasonable positions.

About two more people stepped out, following Daniel and Leonard.

“Okay, let’s go. You might miss the first period because of this.” Mr. Reeves told them.

Leonard nodded, he was certainly more interested in the competition than in their first period.

Some more students from other classes join and Mr Reeves clap his hands excitedly.

“It’s good to see many of you being interested in participating in this. This year, the competition is going to be tougher and we might even be facing some other students from other continents.”