A man in a striking blue suit was walking with the fiery red Principal of Chain High in the hallway. As usual with these kinds of meetings, they greeted each other first with small talk.
“How has your life been?” the Principal asked.
“Good. Everything’s been good.” the man replied.
Despite how neutral that conversation was, they both knew that there was hidden tension between those words. They were playing a mental battle to see which party would concede first. After all, this was considered to be an official talk between the school and Atlas Incorporated. The principal wanted more funding and rewards, the Atlas company wanted more results and talented students. Both don’t want to give away their resources to the other party without conceding more ground.
It was a vicious battle of tug of war between them, but if anyone were to see them talk to each other, they would see nothing but a cordial conversation between two adults.
The man was a lawyer representative for Atlas Incorporated, making sure that they got talented recruits for their company. It was no secret that they were planning an expansion into the world, and that took immense human resources. They needed new and fresh talent to replenish their workforce that was relocated outside the country to establish the company on new grounds. Right now, they were both short on money and workers. But, money can always be replenished easily, but workers were hard to come by.
That was why he was sent to this school to try and get the Principal to give them more allocations for internships. Of course, the Principal didn’t want to give more spots to the Atlas company. After all, they weren’t the only group that wanted to recruit new and talented students. Ideally, the Principal could give out as many students as she wanted, but there were only a limited number of honor students and scholars enrolled in the school. And those companies did not like to settle for less; they wanted the best. That was where the problem lay. Everyone wanted the best students, but there was only one best student.
That’s why it was such a fierce battle between the principal and the Atlas lawyer.
The Atlas lawyer heard that one of the bigshots of the company decided to recruit a student from this school. He even heard that the student, believe it or not, refused the personal tutelage of the bigshot. That was surprising. Usually, a rejection like that would deter any more invitations because of the bigshot’s pride, but it seemed that the student was far more valuable than they thought.
He was one of the people tasked to make sure that the student, Patrick Patterson, had a positive outlook on the company. He was supposed to make this a secret, so he didn’t mention this to the principal. Officially, his visit to this school was to strengthen the relationship of the company with the school, but unofficially, he was the eyes and ears of the company.
Whenever Patrick Patterson had a problem, he was the one tasked to solve it. Of course, he needed to find this person first.
“It was a pleasure talking with you,” the principal said as she held out her hand.
The Atlas lawyer shook her hand. “No, it was mine. Oh, do you mind if I stroll through the school for a while?”
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“No. Not at all. If you find a talented honor student not interned at another company, then by all means, please recruit them if you like.” The principal knew exactly the reason why the lawyer wanted to explore the classrooms.
The lawyer simply bowed to her as a thank you. As she turned around and left, he went the other way.
For now, his mission was to locate Patrick while making sure not to be in contact with him. But just as he was about to walk towards the stairway down, he suddenly heard something. It was low, but he could feel the vibrations in his ears of someone singing. That was weird. A student shouldn’t be able to produce that kind of molecular vibrations.
He was an accomplished lawyer. He was on the Fame route. He could sense the disturbance in reality when another person was making some waves on the Fame route. This one felt very similar to that. It might have been subtle and weak, but it was still present. He only saw this phenomenon when from amateur Fame dreamers and above. At most, it would have been believable for a college student to do this, but for a high school student, it was nothing less than impressive.
At most, the best and most talented high school student should be nothing more than an ASPIRANT. They should just be stepping into the realm of Dreamers, just starting their dreams and aspirations, hence the name. In this stage, people learned what their dreams were and how they could achieve them. This was the stage where Dreamers enhanced their skills.
But what these vibrations told the lawyer was that a high school student was just one step away from becoming a VISIONARY. That was the realm above Aspirant. Usually, students only achieve this step in their college days. How was a senior high school student doing this? He needed to know. He wanted to see for himself if he was uncovering a diamond in a rough or a hoax.
His steps got faster and faster as he rushed to whatever classroom this vibration was coming from. As he got closer and closer, the vibrations got stronger, and so did the Fame fabric of the universe get stronger. Because he was a professional, his natural defenses allowed him to ignore the emotional control that the vibrations created.
As he finally reached the classroom, he looked into the window and saw a redheaded kid slowly put down the microphone and bow to the audience. He was late, but he knew that he was looking at a diamond in the rough.
As Grammo took a seat, the lawyer took out a monocle from his chest pocket. When he looked at Grammo through the monocle, the lawyer saw something that took his breath away.
Usually, a Dreamer in the Fame route would glow a bright blue. A weaker Dreamer would emit a dimmer hue of blue, but it was still blue nonetheless. Those in the Power route would glow red, and those in the Money route would glow yellow.
But then, he saw something incredible. Most of Grammo’s aura was red! This meant that he was on the Power route! But that’s impossible, the lawyer thought. That would mean that Grammo had a Red Power Teqx.
If so, then how was he able to evoke the Fame fabric of the universe if he was on the Power route? He should be making waves on the Power fabric of the universe, not the Fame one. Transferring from one fabric to another was not just as simple as jumping. It would be like trying to see with your elbow. It didn’t make sense, right?
And if he concentrated even more, he could see a tiny blue line on the very edge of Grammo’s aura. If he looked closely, he would see that the blue aura was trying to overwhelm and conquer the rest of the red aura! Somehow, through sheer power of will or some other unexplained phenomenon, Grammo was converting himself into the Fame route! He just about lost his mind when he saw that.
If he also saw the thin, almost invisible black aura around Patty, then he would probably faint.
“I’m sorry. You’re expelled,” the professor said.
KNOCK KNOCK
Everyone looked at the door, curious to see who wanted to come in. They didn’t have to wait long as the lawyer opened the door without waiting for a response. The professor frowned when he saw this.
“Excuse me, who are you?” asked the professor.
The lawyer fixed his blue tie and patted his blue suit. “I am a designated lawyer from Atlas Incorporation tasked to survey Chain High School.”
The rest of the class went crazy when they heard that. They knew about Atlas Inc. Most of them went to the festival the other day, and they all tried their best to be recruited in their internship program. It was unfortunate that they weren’t up to their standards. The question then popped up in their heads, what was the Atlas company doing here?
“And what does a lawyer from Atlas need here?” the professor asked, clearly annoyed at the lawyer.
“I am here to formally ask one of your students to become one of our outstanding scholars,” the lawyer announced.
This was a tremendous honor for any student lucky enough to be an outstanding scholar for one of the biggest companies in the nation. But who was talented enough to be chosen by Atlas Incorporated? Even if these were his students, the professor didn’t know anyone who fit the descriptions of Atlas’ strict standards. The closest one was Griff Sunverk, but he was absent today.
“Who?”
The lawyer pointed at Grammo.