Chapter 26 - Semester of Misery

Chapter 26: Semester of Misery

Monday was getting back to the misery of school.

Things hadn’t changed much. The weekend of competing had improved my spirits, that didn’t last long though with the current atmosphere at school being slightly depressing.

There was an announcement over the school PA system that a student had attended the Ninjutsu state championship over the weekend, being a great representative of the school, winning his division of the tournament at black belt.

They didn’t give my name in the announcement, so no one associated me with what they were being told.

School itself I could cope with reasonably well, for most of the first semester I had spent long periods by myself, but I had Rory throughout it as an outlet, without him now, I was all by myself.

Even my improving relationship with Greg had gone. He had been teased about losing the fight to someone who wasn’t even a teenager, which had soured his acceptance of me that we had previously had.

It was only Gemma’s statement before the weekend, which made me think that others might finally give me a break and accept me again. A long shot the way that things were progressing, but it was a possibility, that was all I had to hang on too.

I wasn’t sure what I personally could do to improve things for myself, any attempt I made to talk to anyone was ignored, or I was told to get lost.

Swimming was still awkward, the Coach gave me extra swimming to do, and kept on with the disparaging remarks.

I talked to my parents explaining my issues, the one thing I could do was spend money, so instead of having to suffer the problems of travelling on the bus every morning and night, Mom would give me a lift when she could, if she wasn’t available, I got the local limo service to pick me up in a town car.

I used the time productively, since I wasn’t able to socialize with my ex-friends. I spent a lot of time with my dad when he was around rebuilding a Harley, which was progressing nicely.

I also spent a lot of time working with my new company. The stockbroker Phil, was amazed at the companies I requested him to invest in, but they all showed a profit, and the accountant was working on the details on how much money I needed to spend on charities to offset the tax I would pay otherwise.

As this was a limited company, unlike my main trust, the amount of taxes was a much higher percentage. I gave away millions to charities for the trust, but that was because the trust was so large, the trust accountant and Andy sorted that out for me, giving it out to groups and people who needed it in the area we used to live in.

In the new area, the accountant was working with Mr. Nash to find worthy organizations who could use a large contribution to offset the profits we were amassing, to reduce our tax liability.

I had increased the working capital from one million to ten before Christmas, the stockbroker was happier with his larger working capital, but I was wondering if I had moved too fast to help out the local community, the way that I was being treated now.

I talked to Mom and Dad about this, they told me that it was better to feel good about what my money was doing for the community, rather than not do anything.

Weeks passed and things didn’t improve at all. It was starting to get me down, mom and dad could see how depressed I was getting from the ongoing verbal battering.

Then things changed, Rory approached me one day after school, he asked if he could share a lift home. I was wary of his intentions, but any hope for our friendship to be rekindled had to be encouraged.

It was a day when I had hired the town car to take me home, so we got into the back, the driver set off for home as soon as we were buckled in. I was hoping for a conversation, but all was quiet during the journey. Perhaps Rory had just needed a lift, though the bus still hadn’t left, so he could have gone on that.

When we got to the house and out of the car Rory just stood there.

“Jack I was wrong to abandon you like I did, you were right, your age didn’t matter to me until I found out about it. So why should it bother me once I did, you have been a good friend to me, I wasn’t when I found out, will you accept my apology and be my friend again.”

“Rory, that was all I ever wanted, a friend, you my first real friend ever, it killed me when you and Chloe just walked out on me.”

“Your right, that was the wrong thing to do, we should have talked before making a decision, but I was swayed by Chloe’s vehemence against you to stop and think it through.”

“I can understand that, I wish it hadn’t happened, but Chloe was right about one thing, I should have trusted you to understand and told you the truth. Please come in, let’s sit down and I will explain what happened and why I didn’t tell anyone.”

So that was it what we did, mom was pleased to see Rory and me come in together, she left us alone to talk, we went up to my room, I sat on my desk swivel chair, Rory took the bed.

I spent a long time telling Rory all about my early life, starting school early, skipping a year and my ability to learn things so quickly. I also told him that I was wealthy in my own right, it wasn’t my parents money that I spent, but my own from a trust. He already knew about this, but not the extent of my wealth, I would demonstrate it if he wanted me to.

He was a bit skeptical, so I took him to the garage to show him the cars and bikes.

He still thought that they were probably my parents’ cars, until I showed him the registration papers for the Range Rover, alright it was my trust name on them, but it wasn’t in my parents name, I also showed him the valuation that Sam had given me for it, to prove its worth.

Rory’s jaw dropped in astonishment, but he did take me seriously then. I think the reason he understood was I could sell it for a lot of money, but as I hadn’t then he believed me when I said I didn’t have to, as I had more money than that in my trust fund.

We took time over the next few days to reconnect, this time with no lies. I hoped we were building a new stronger friendship which would stand the test of time.