Chapter 146: Overachieving Perfectionists

Aiden shamelessly grinned the moment he saw the dirty-blonde haired youth.

Then, like an old pal he hadn’t seen in years, he enthusiastically greeted with outspread arms;

“Buddy! How’ve you been?!”

Theo and Casper found themselves laughing quietly, their gazes clearly amused.

“God must hate me! He must so fucking hate me!” Flash dragged a palm down his face with an annoyed groan.

Then he let out a deep breath, the very same palm curling into a clenched fist he shook slightly.

“Why do I have to see your ugly mug again, North?!” the youth’s rhetorical inquiry came immediately after.

“Ugly’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” Aiden’s grin widened quite a bit, his next words humorously trolling the youth even further;

“Computer Engineering’s a bit too far out there for a college athlete, don’t you think?”

“Would you look at that? A pot calling the kettle black?” Flash cocked his head backwards in mock offense, arms folded across his chest as he continued with a scoff;

“I don’t ever want to hear that from the punk who started a whole ass beverage business and has an indie game studio with his buddies.”

“Nice to meet you two little shits again, by the way.” Flash angled his head slightly to get a proper view of the youths behind Aiden whom was currently shrugging off his words.

“I’ll have you know, the feeling’s mutual.” Casper gloated in response.

“Hello, Flash.” Theo harmlessly greeted, a relaxed air to him.

However, Aiden’s propensity for trolling the youth seemed to have rubbed off on him quite a bit, hence why he found himself adding without even meaning to;

“Damian says ‘Hi’.”

Aiden and Casper looked to their friend, eyes gleaming with an almost fatherly sense of pride.

Flash’s lips however quirked, and his eyes seemed to twitch in sync.

Then he muttered in resignation a moment after, running a hand through his hair;

“What’d I do to deserve this?”

Before the guys could brandish witty comebacks, a bespectacled babe of a lady arrived with a handbag, pushing past all four whilst muttering under her breath;

“Great. Four idiots lingering at the door on the first day. This isn’t your high school corridor for crying out loud.”

Though all four had picked it up despite her apparent lack of realization that they did, they did find themselves guilty… not that it bothered them all that much.

Flash, especially, behaved like he wasn’t even part of them as he shamelessly followed suit, ignoring the trio as he called out smoothly to the lady;

“Señorita. My apologies.”

As the trio watched him flip into a skirt-chasing womanizer, the lady herself a bit taken aback by his strong approach, all three simply shook their heads in amusement as they made their way in as well.

Perhaps because it was the first day of class, a lot of seats and tables in the mini-auditorium were occupied, students either grouping themselves into cliques or sitting alone.

There was an animated sense of chatter to the air that made the room all that more lively as well.

Flash had already sat next to the bespectacled babe, an intrigued smile on his features as he kept speaking to the lady who now seemed more amused than she was annoyed a few seconds prior.

In fact, she happened to be one of only three ladies in the room at the moment, with the other two conversing with one another, one seated on the chair while the other leaned against the table.

Aiden, Casper and Theo found a spot in the middle as they waited for the first class to begin whilst conversing amidst one another.

Somewhere along the line, more students poured in, a bunch of them moving over to the trio’s row and making small talk with them by asking if they were in the right class.

Before long, they got down to introducing one another, and just like that, they’d already made a good number of acquaintances.

Roughly ten minutes after, a sharp-faced man with a stubby beard whom was dressed in a simple but neat grey shirt and black pants walked into the classroom, not a single pen, laptop or material in his hands.

His head was shaved clean, the lights of the auditorium bouncing off of it, and he had very, very intellectual looking glasses resting on his visage.

He also had a bit of an oppressive air to him, and without waiting for himself to be acknowledged, he simply spoke as he walked onto the elevated platform;

“It goes without saying, that you’re now in college,”

The room lulled to quiescence almost immediately, everyone’s attention razor focused on him.

“For those amongst you who pantsed their way through high school thinking they were geniuses, it’s imperative that you know that such tactics won’t work here,” he continued.

“And for those of you who toiled to get here, congratulations. Your toiling has just begun.” he nonchalantly added as he retrieved a marker from his pockets and moved over to the board.

“Most students pass my class, but only few get excellent grades, though that last part’s up to you.” he threw in as the marker squeaked against the white board with the course code, CS 31, in bold.

“I’m Professor Sparkles, and that’s the only introduction we’re doing here today.” the man turned around, clipping his marker.

Then, tucking his hands into his pockets, he settled into a relaxed stance as he finally began the class;

“Welcome to Computer Science 31. Here’s your syllabus, and your first lecture.”

Within a minute, the man had commanded the class, the lecture kicking into full gear.

At the same time, it drove home the point to every student around.

Pacific Heights may have been a public college the rich and wealthy were famously known to attend, but at the same time, it was a high-performing college ranking amongst the top-rated in the country for a reason.

Exactly one hour later, Professor Sparkles was done with the class, and everyone seemed to let out a sigh of relief when he stepped out.

A wave of chatter followed immediately after, the center of everyone’s convo none other than their sharp-faced professor.

“Assignment on the first day? What happened to syllabus week?” Casper droned a bit as he rested his chin atop the desk, its surface that much cooler thanks to the AC in the room being on full-blast.

“Tell me about it.” one of their classmates whom had introduced himself earlier and sat behind them exasperatedly remarked in acknowledgement.

“I heard from my big bro that people hardly ever get over seventy percent in his exams, so we should be glad if we even manage a sixty…” another guy just in front of their row added as he turned around.

“Yo… that’s brutal, man.” Casper replied, only to look to Aiden and Theo, both of whom looked like they’d lit a fire ablaze in their hearts, their gazes reflecting just that.

‘These, freaking, go-getting, overachieving, perfectionists…’ Casper squinted in bemused acceptance, his thoughts continuing;

‘They see a mountain and all they ever want to do is make it move.’

Theo’s had been an almost instinctive reaction that was born from always giving his academics his best.

Aiden’s had come, not just from a now developed drive to surpass yet another hurdle, but also because it was the first time in a while he’d gotten any quest from his system.

–

[Ding!]

[Exclusive Quests Updated!]

⸢Exclusive Quests

› Show Sparkles Who’s Got the Marbles!

└ Earn a grading of over 90% in CS 31 – [2.5 LP]

–

Dismissing the panel a few seconds after, Aiden turned his attention to their blonde-haired buddy whom was currently resting his chin on a propped palm, as did Theo whom was closing his notebook.

“I hate you guys, you know that?” he clicked his tongue at both of them.

“Now I’ll be forced to work my ass off as well.” he explained with a resigned sigh as his elbow lazily slid against the table, resulting in his head being purposely angled in a weirdly interesting way.

Theo merely smiled in response, while Aiden gently patted his buddy on the shoulder with a grin and said;

“Don’t worry. We’ll make notes for you.”

“Did I ever tell you how much I love you~?” Casper switched up like a Chesire cat, a toothy grin forming on his features.

“I’m reporting your ass to Daisy.” Aide called him out, and he immediately punched at his buddy’s shoulder;

“Hey!”

Theo simply chuckled in amusement as the duo engaged in a brotherly bant.

Following that, the trio soon headed out of the mini auditorium to head to their next class.

By the time it was noon, they’d attended all of their introductory classes for the day.

In contrast to Professor Sparkles’ class, they’d all been very chill.

In fact, they ended up only spending twenty to thirty minutes per class… most of which had been spent on introductions and outlining the syllabus.

Now, they had the rest of the day to engage in all the freshmen orientation programs and decide which extra-curricular activity they wanted to pursue in their time at Pacific Heights.

Thank you for reading!

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: On a completely unrelated note, I have never played the original Legend of Zelda games, and neither have I played the recent ones like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

I will say, that I’ve loved watching every single gameplay of the Ocarina of Time Remake I’ve been coming across. And now, I think I understand why it’s the highest rated game of all time.

If I wasn’t so broke half the time, I honestly would’ve just up and gotten a Switch 2 just to play it.

The music especially is a highlight! Man!

So many themes I’ve heard over the years and I’m just finding out recently is from it.

I literally felt like standing near the shore of a beach and just taking in the sights while I listen to them at some point.

I, am so, so impressed.