I made it back home in one piece. Sure, it took six hours instead of the four that it should have taken, but learning to drive a car on your own is not as easy as it might seem. Thank God for the internet. It also helped that I was able to shift the car into R2 and drive that way all the way home. I lost count of how many cars I would have hit if I’d tried to drive home in reality.
By the time I reached my house, my crash course in driving had improved my skill significantly, and I felt comfortable behind the wheel of Seb’s truck. I’d chosen Seb’s truck for three reasons. First, it was a much older car than Daniels’ late model Mercedes and didn’t have a built in GPS system that could be tracked. Second, it was much bigger than Daniel’s and could easily hold my bike and all the money. Third, it had a full tank of gas and I didn’t want to stop anywhere and fill up. Most gas stations had video cameras and I didn’t want there to be any proof that I’d been away. As it happened, the gas tank had been reading empty for the last fifty miles before I finally parked in front of the house.
I left the car in R1 and headed inside to put away my gear. It still amazed me that I’d become so much stronger with the field that keeping a car in R1 or R2 for the day wouldn’t exhaust me. Hiding the cash in the house took a long time, as I hadn’t found any other dead spaces and I had to use R3 to store it all, bundle by bundle, in between the walls.
With all the cash from my trip hidden away, I drove Seb’s truck to the University’s main parking lot. I parked the truck and, still in R1, let myself into the parking administration offices to ‘borrow’ a Professor Parking pass and car sticker. Dad had one on his car and I knew that some professor would leave their cars in the lot for weeks at a time. Hopefully, I’d find a better place to stash the car soon.
With the cash and the car all taken care of, I biked over to Eva’s house and snuck into her room. She was still asleep, and I quietly shifted back to reality and slipped into the blow-up bed that we’d set up for me yesterday. I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.
My absence had gone completely unnoticed by everyone and with the end of Spring Break on Monday, life returned to normal with school in the morning and Kung Fu most nights. The final quarterly reports before the end of the Stock-Picking Competition came out a few weeks later and Eva, James and I made two more big trades that cemented our lead over everyone else. We won the top three spots in the competition. Mr. Chandler and the representative from O’Donnell and Sons Financial Services presented us with our cash prizes and Mr. O’Donnell himself called James to offer him a summer internship with their company. Not only had James won first place, but his returns beat those of O’Donnell and Sons by a very wide margin. By making trades throughout the year, and not just when the quarterly reports came in, James had pulled ahead of me and beaten my earnings by 2.3%. Slow and steady did win the race. Eva had come in slightly behind me.
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Overall, I’d managed to almost double the money that dad and I had invested, and I intended to continue growing those investments. However, going forward, I’d be focusing less on doing my own research and more on looking into the stock picks of the best of the best when it came to insider trading. I was going to take a trip back to Raleigh this summer and see what companies the Governor and his fellow Senators were up betting on.
Just before final exams started, Mark stopped by the house.
“Hi Abby. I thought you could use a study break.”, he said when I opened the door and let him in.
“I can always use a study break.”, I replied earnestly. The only class that I didn’t have to study for was economics. As he’s promised, Mr. Chandler was allowing us to drop our lowest test score and mine were all high enough that I could afford to drop the final test. Like usual, the studying was getting to me. I couldn’t wait for high school to be over and done with.
“What brings you by Mark?”, I asked.
“Can’t I just be here to say hi?”
“No. You would have called to say hi and you’ve never just stopped by before. You’re one of those ‘I’ve got to have a reason to go somewhere’ type of people. It’s the geology nerd in you. You’re social awkward and have few, if any, social skills. Are you sure that you weren’t home schooled?” As I talked, I walked him into the kitchen and we sat down.
“Ouch. Maybe if you weren’t so tough on me, I’d want to stop by and say hi.”, he suggested.
“Maybe, but I doubt it.”
“You might be right about me having a reason to be here.”, he said a bit sheepishly.
“Aha!”, I exclaimed triumphantly.
“Yeah, Grandpa Jake asked me to stop by with some papers to sign.”, he said as he pulled out said papers.
“Papers for what?”, I asked.
“Four things actually. One is a form for your father to sign that says that you can travel with me on McKenzie Resources business this summer. Another is your employment agreement with your pay information and your duties. That one both you and your father need to sign. The third set of papers is for your permission to release your gemstones to be cut by one of the best gemcutters in the world. A properly cut gemstone can make a huge difference in the final auction price. Grandpa Jake is playing Christie’s and Sotheby’s off against each other to get you the best deal on the auction commission. For items as expensive as yours, they generally take a commission of 13.5-14% and he’s trying to get them to lower it and claim the rest as a charitable donation.”, Mark explained.
“Wow. That’s great. I’ll need to call him later and thank him for all his help. You certainly know how pile up the reasons for showing up. What the fourth set of papers for?”
“You’re right. Four reasons for showing up is too much. I’ll save the last one for next time.”, as he stood up as he said this started for the door.
“If I have to chase you down, I’ll make it hurt.”, I told him, and he laughed and came back to the table.
“Nothing important, just some paperwork for you to sign to start your foundation.”, he said nonchalantly.
I grabbed the papers from him and looked them over. I couldn’t believe it. Once these were signed, I’d officially be in charge of the Hannah Foundation, a registered charitable operating foundation with the purpose of combating the effects of human trafficking.
The Hannah Foundation was about to become a reality.
The End of Book 1