After the thrill of the match, my Friday was shaping up to be far more muted.I spent all the next day thinking about ways to get more naps in. After seeing that game and managing it, I had gotten another sixty points. It was a good start and it had helped me a lot with where I was trying to get to. But now is ready. I was going to spend this weekend really nutting down and working on getting those 1,000 points. That would give me Basic Profile 2.

Without that basic profile, I was missing something important, and I was really wondering what the heck it possibly could be. It was all possible that the patch would just do a stupid thing and let me only see numbers for the right side and keep those redacted things there. And then if it was exactly how I thought it was going to be, it would ask me to put 10,000 points into basic profile 3.

Which would unlock one of those two things. Honestly, whoever designed the system was really fucking with me. I didn't mind playing the game but if they were going to play like this?

If I got the outcome, I wanted I would be happy. For me to get 10,000 points that was a staggering number of games. I would have to really take some time and clear my calendar.

Watching a live stream game gave me one point per minute. Playing a game gave me two points per minute. Managing a game gave me three points a minute. All I had to do was convince people to let me manage and I could be done with this in... I had to do some math.

Seven hours or less.

Wasn't going to be able to convince Amir and Stacy to play with me and then grab two more people to be our backups? Yes, however they had jobs. Would it be easier if I streamed something and then got some people to volunteer to come play with me? Probably I wasn't entirely convinced that I would be able to get what I wanted to be done. I could recruit some people for a guild type thing but that went back into how much time did I want to spend on recruiting?

I didn't really want to be recruiting. I could spend my time recruiting. I just didn't want to. Maybe I needed to be more social.

I wondered who exactly was going to be streaming on Twitch at that moment. If I can get somebody streaming on Twitch, then I could look at that and maybe learn some strategies that I hadn't seen yet. I wasn't going to get any points from just listening to white men talking to podcast as much as I wanted that to happen. I could get some information yes, but I couldn't really try a strategy. I needed to try some new strategies.

I needed to be in the frying pan.

Sighing, I checked my to-do list for the day and saw only yoga. It was going to be a good day. No one had cancelled either. I checked the group chat, took a few deep breaths, and got presentable.

After I was done with yoga? I would be able to dive right in. Provided I got my time with the people I wanted to get my time with. Maybe this was the day that I was going to meet Amir's new situationship. I had no idea what you looked like and honestly it was going to be kind of weird that we hadn't seen a photo of her yet. I hadn’t even seen Jills husband, just heard the stories.

So once again I found myself getting ready. I had those classic yoga pants that screamed that I had been to Costco at some point in time in my life. I had the yoga mat which was a gift for my mother. Today was going to be a good day for me to visit her. She always went to dialysis on Fridays and after that she was a little bit low. It

I texted her and she said to drop by. This first time, I had driven with her and stayed the whole time. She could drive herself.

For the first time in a long time, I arrived early. It was a good feeling to be out in nature. Even the walk just felt great. It got me thinking as to how I would be able to bottle that up and sell it. Of course that would never actually happen.

It wasn't a thing that you could bottle up. I was like bottling joy. You couldn't just bottle that up.

You had to experience it. Last night that feeling I got that was incredible. But I could not sell that experience in a can.

I could only figure out a way to get to that point again by playing more games. Even if it was being told that I didn't have to work the rest of my life and I could just slack off and manage esports teams? I was still looking for that feeling. I was still going to be looking to win something.

I wasn’t going to be chasing a high. I was going to be comfortable.

I am the queen of getting comfortable. I had fuzzy slippers. I had a fuzzy bathrobe, and I rarely wore pants at home.

Once I got inside my door? It was bra off time.

But in this day and age? Some people still made comments.

But not a mirror. After I was done setting up my mat, Amir was the first one to join me.

We stared each other down like we were about to have a fight. Honestly, seeing him was a relief.

I quickly explained what has happened with the kids last night and he was overjoyed to hear it as well.

“So, does this mean you're going to spend some time looking at recruiting more are you going to try to join a tier 2 team as a manager or a player?”

“I don't know what's going to happen next. All I know is right now I'm happy. And I think that we can keep this good feeling train going. If we can keep this going? Then maybe this team will move from tier 3 to tier 2 or something. Or maybe somebody in tier 2 will take notice of me and I can do that part-time.”

“I don't think there are a lot of part-time gamer manager positions. It just doesn't sound like something that happened.”

Amir snorted.

“But like what if you needed somebody to manage your stable of professionals and amateurs. I've seen all these little esports academies popping up all around and I just want to see what they're about.”

“I thought you're going to visit your mom today,” he said.

“I am but there's an esports academy that opened up by her dialysis spot.”

“You doing all right? Is she doing all right?”

Things had been normal. Sometimes I'm surprised at what I could get used to. I got used to her going to dialysis three times a week and I even started showing up from time to time.

She didn't live that far away so I saw her weekly but this change? It was big for her. Before the dialysis she was not doing well. Now she felt more like her lively self.

Mom still needed to go three times a week. She was sitting there, hooked up to the machine for about two to four hours.

This meant that she really couldn't go anywhere. My mother, who loved to travel to the Caribbean, was now kind of stuck where she was and unable to go anywhere.

Sure, she had her friends, but she couldn't go back to Trinidad without a bunch of help.

“Amir, I've been thinking about what it would take to get her on a vacation now. I think I just need to get away this winter.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

I can see Stacy coming up from a block away. She was waving so we waved back.

“Getting your mom to Carnivale or something. That would mean the world to her. But it seems like a lot,” he said.

“I can do it,” I said. “I saw a pamphlet at the dialysis center about this.”

I just haven't taken the time to take it down.

I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to look like.

“You’re going to go on a cruise? Pencil me in,” he said.

“Do you want to ask your new boo about if she wants to go also?” I said.

“It’s a little early for that, but that makes sense. What do you guys call it? Cuffing season?”

“You know damn well what it is. So where is she?”

“She has work today,” he said. “But she will join us Monday morning.”

I began to stretch as Stacey arrived.

“Stacey! We’re going to have a special guest-”

“Monday, I know,” she said, unfurling her mat. “Are we playing tonight?”

“Well, yes, but-” I sputtered.

“Mr. Mean wants to file a stupid ass motion. I don’t know if you checked your phone but…”

Amir brought his phone up. He opened his phone and scrolled to check his texts. I turned to face her, raising a single eyebrow.

“That is a stupid ass motion.”

“That’s your client.”

“You guys are calling your client Mr. Mean?” I said.

Stacey looked like she wanted to say something. Amir held up a hand.

“I’m about to fire this guy for what he is doing,” Amir said. “I don’t understand how his business makes money. But I’m more than happy to take his money as I bill him to sort out his affairs.”

“You should know this. He has a stake in one of those esports academies,” Stacey said. “That’s what holding a lot of this up. She wants him to sell it. He doesn’t want to give her whatever half would be.”

“I don’t even know what an esports academy business plan would look like,” I said.

“It’s like a license to print money,” Stacey said.

“That can not be true,” I said. “I would like to see the books.”

“She wants to see the books!” Amir said. “Told you.”

“We’ll talk to him,” Stacey said.

That was about when yoga drill instructor Jill arrived, and we got into it.

That day at the dialysis center, I grabbed one of the brochures and it looked like there was a cruise that she could go on. Now I just needed to find the crews that would get her to the Caribbean to the right islands that she wanted to, so you go see her family. It was going to be difficult, but I could make it happen.

My mom, ever the fighter sat in her chair and played with her iPad.

“How are the kids this year? I feel like you guys are doing a lot of new stuff that I don't even know what's going on. But times are so different than when I was back in school.”

It was true. She had gone to school in Trinidad back in the day.

“It's just kids that want to learn about business mom. Same thing every year. I get older, they stay the same age.”

She smiled.

“My dear, you're not dating a student again, are you?” she said.

“Mom, I never dated a student. I dated somebody who was in grad school with me at the same time. And that was ages ago. That has not happened before or since. It would be unethical to the extreme for me to date a student.”

“Maybe a nice little rich one. Let your mother retire.”

“Mom, you're already retired. Your only job is to come here and do this. You can do whatever the heck you want so long as you come to get your dialysis.”

“Let your mother retire in style.”

I let that hang there. The sparse accommodations of the medical building reminded me that she was here because she had to be.

“Oh, my darling daughter. If only going to bring it home someone so that this Christmas won't be just a handful of people.”

She had been on Me about finding a husband for way too long and now had given up. I was considering getting a cat just to abuse her. Getting a cat, however, was a big responsibility. It meant that I wouldn't be able to travel. I liked to travel in between semesters.

Mom wanted to take some vacations.

"Mom, I got this brochure here about going on a cruise. If I can find the right one, I'll set us up. Does that sound good to you?"

She was a bit absorbed in her tablet. It kind of made me want to leave early.

"Mom?"

"Oh, yes?" She said, looking over it. "I thought you would never ask."

"I said do you want to go in a cruise if we can get one that has a dialysis machine on it. I got this brochure here and it might be good for both of us to get out of Jersey when the weather turns. Maybe a few weeks in a ship heading towards better weather?"

She didn't say anything, but I could see her smile.

I'd say it enough by not having kids and living above my means. I think I can explore a little bit for her and me later. If nothing else, it would be a fitting end to my season.

Now I just needed to figure out when the finals were so I could schedule those. Not my college finals, no.

The esports finals. The important ones.

I spent the weekend grinding for points. I was getting close. I wanted to save up as much as I could. Four hours at a time seemed to be enough for me and my back was aching at the end of that.

Yoga was paying dividends. I upped the amount of walking around.

Monday, Esther was in my office. She was just there tapping her knee as we went over the most recent patch notes. The actual patch notes not the thing that I'd been saddled with.

"You're thinking about last game huh? You did pretty great."

I wanted to open things up. I had seen her grades. Because she was using me as her advisor, I was able to pull up her record. She had taken Calc 2 and Linear Algebra over the summer between her senior year of high school and her freshman year here. I saw that she was taking Chemistry this semester.

I couldn’t look at her high school transcript, but I expected there would be a lot of A's.

"It was a good game. But I’m here for something else. They said I needed an advisor, so I thought of an adult that I trusted and-" she said.

"You thought of me? Thanks."

"Actually, I thought about my math professor Dr. Forest, but he's too busy," she said, smiling.

The man was a legend. He had moved up from the computer science department to the head of math over time. Unlike me, he consistently got good scores on his rate my professor profile. Not that I checked things or not.

People liked me.

Students just forgot to review me.

I had a large wooden desk on it, there was an award from the Ridgewood Rotarians.

Esther picked it up and looked at it.

"For small business excellence? This looks like uh…"

"You can do a lot of stuff here. You can learn everything that I teach you. But then you have to go outside and practice it."

Esther gulped.

"I think that's why I wanted to talk to you. I was on this path because my parents and they don't care what my degree is as long as it says medical doctor. But since I'm here to save money in part and to see if I can get a scholarship or a grant..."

She wasn't in my room to get a grant or a scholarship. I didn't have that money yet. Maybe next season.

Was I saying season when I meant to say semester? I guess I was.

“I don't have any scholarship for grant money but based on your grades you shouldn't have a problem getting into medical school. But your major is business and publishing?"

She set the glass award down. I noted that she did it ever so slightly as if she was afraid it would break.

"That is cubic zirconium. Or at least the glass equivalent. Honestly, I'd be happy if you broke it because it would switch things up a little bit."

I finally got a bit of a smile.

"You want to work in publishing? Or is that just a placeholder until you figure out what you really want to do. I thought that you were undeclared?"

She just stared at me blankly. Honestly, it didn't matter to a four-year school what your associate’s degree was in. If she was heading to a public four-year College? She could just transfer all those credits in, and they will take it all, especially in New Jersey.

"Medical school is not going to care what your degree is in. Last time I checked the average age for medical school students is still 22 or 23? I see that you went through calculus. It looks like you're trying to speedrun College here."

"Maybe any percentage run," she said.

"Har har."

"But seriously. I know your parents are pressuring you to get a degree in engineering or science or become a lawyer," I said, carefully examining her face. "But it's up to you what you do with that. They can't take your tests for you."

"I wanted to talk to you about something else though," she said. "I just don't know if you're the right person for this?"

We were interrupted by Gladys, the admin for my department.

"Oh, hello girls" she said. "Esther, so good to see you again. I need a word with Professor Thomas."

I carefully raise my eyebrows to Esther as if asking her to continue. It was Monday after all. The administration intended to put things out on Mondays that we had to scramble fix.

"They're probably going to ask me to pick up another fall 2 class or something," I said.

"You're not far from the truth. Please come see the team after this," Gladys said to me.

"I can leave if this is a problem" Esther said. She was packing up to leave.

Gladys smiled. As much as I loved her, she had this job since before was born and had barely learned anything since then.

“She left her book here. The poor dear,” Gladys said.

She picked it up and handed it to me. The book was a manga with a lot of ladies in princess garb. I wasn’t familiar with the “Reborn as a level 99 Villainess in a Yuri novel” I flipped over the first page and thankfully it wasn’t too graphic. I tucked it away for later review.I got bored after Monday’s class and cracked open the manga. It was damn good.

There was a brilliant moment in the book. The villainess was trying to convince the princess to change sides to avoid an arranged marriage to a prince.

“To steal from the crown? They’re gluttons over their victories. What do you need? They’re so proud of themselves, so fat and satisfied,” the villainess said.

“Why would I go anywhere with you?” the princess replied.

The villainess brought the princess in close enough for a kiss. The page even shows several flowers around the two. This had to be selling like hot cakes. I was getting hot and bothered just reading it.

“You want to fight these bastards, don’t you?” the villainess replied.

I kept reading until I had to get to my second class. If she was writing stuff like this, I could see her doing well.

I was going to have to get my own copy. For research purposes.