Chapter 9: Leadership
Evening
The sun was going down.
Adam rode his bike home and let out a long sigh.
It wasn't that Duke had refused to help.
Duke had come through, actually. Despite being a little skeptical, he'd arranged for Adam to meet one of the genuinely gifted kids in his grade at Wakefield. The three of them had spent the afternoon together, and Adam had put in real effort — leaning on his acting skills and his knowledge of how the next few decades were going to play out to make himself interesting and relatable. It seemed to have worked. The kid had warmed up considerably by the end, going from politely indifferent to genuinely engaged.
And the system had given him absolutely nothing.
Not a single notification the entire day.
Adam coasted down the empty street, turning it over in his head. "Duke's sharp — his conversation, the way he thinks, it's obvious. He was friendly, open about wanting to stay in touch. So why didn't it work? Is it a gender thing? Does the system only respond to girls?"
He glanced at the panel and snorted quietly. That seemed absurd. But the sample size was too small to rule anything out, and until he had more data points, he couldn't figure out the pattern.
He'd just have to keep going.
His jaw set. One genius who didn't work — fine. He'd find another. He'd find ten more if he had to. He was going to crack this.
That Night
Ding-dong.
Adam got to the door and opened it.
Juno.
"Not happy to see me?" she asked, catching his expression.
"No — yeah, come in." Adam stepped back. He'd been thinking about the 0.005 daily intelligence gain on the ride home, and seeing her now, he felt something close to genuine relief. Whatever complicated thing Juno might or might not be, the numbers didn't lie.
Juno's mouth curved slightly. She'd expected the usual wariness. This was different. Interesting.
"Hi, Juno!" Teddy appeared from the living room, Charlie on her hip, drawing out the greeting with a very obvious look on her face.
Mom Amy was back at work — her nursing shifts ran long and she picked up overtime whenever she could. Dad Bob had gotten an emergency call, which wasn't unusual. Pest control in a neighborhood full of older wooden houses meant being on-call constantly. Gabe was somewhere in the house being unhelpful, as was his nature. That left Teddy as the default person in charge of Charlie, with Adam in a supporting role when needed.
It was honestly not that different from how Adam had grown up in his previous life — working parents, a houseful of kids close in age, the older ones covering for the younger ones, constant low-level bickering wrapped inside genuine warmth. That familiarity was probably a big part of why he'd been able to settle into the Duncan family as well as he had. They were his family now, in every way that mattered.
Which meant Teddy was absolutely going to fish for information about his love life every chance she got.
"Hey, Teddy." Juno's composure didn't shift at all. Teddy's loaded tone landed on her like a stone on still water — no ripple, nothing.
"Teddy, you've got Charlie?" Adam asked.
"Obviously." Teddy sighed with great drama. "Spencer's not coming today anyway. Which means my whole evening is ruined and my first kiss continues to be delayed, thanks to Gabe and his terrible timing yesterday—"
"Yell if you need me."
Adam was already heading toward the basement stairs with Juno.
He felt a little bad for Teddy — Spencer's patience had apparently run out after Gabe torpedoed the mood several times in a row — but he wasn't going to interfere. In the natural order of things, Teddy and Spencer figured it out. He had no reason to get involved.
About an hour into studying, footsteps hit the basement stairs.
"Oh come on."
Emmett stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking at Adam and Juno with a pained expression. "Again? Adam, you cannot be a nerd. You have to rock and roll." He spotted the drum kit in the corner, grabbed a drumstick, and smacked it against the cymbal.
Crash.
"Emmett," Adam said, rolling his neck, "you're making fun of nerds now. In ten years, nerds are going to be running everything and you're going to be asking them for a job."
"That's not true."
"Go to any city and look at who's actually successful," Adam said. "Is it mostly the guys who peaked in their garage band, or the guys who hit the books? Pick one."
Emmett opened his mouth. Closed it. Made a face. "Okay, that's — yeah, fine. That's unfortunately accurate."
"It doesn't have to be one or the other though," Juno said, not looking up from her textbook. "You study and you play music. They're not competing with each other. If anything they help each other." She glanced at Adam. "Actually — what do you do besides music? Football? Basketball? Anything?"
Adam shook his head.
Between keeping up with coursework, his charity work, and managing everything else, there wasn't room for much. And his athletic stats were decent but not exceptional — not strong enough or fast enough to stand out in any competitive sport. He'd never seriously considered going that route.
"That's going to be a problem," Juno said.
"Why?"
"Because good grades are the starting point, not the finish line. When you're applying to a top school, everyone in that pile has good grades. What makes you different from the other five hundred kids with a 4.0? Extracurriculars. Leadership. Something that shows you're not just a good student but a person who actually does things in the world." She looked at him steadily. "If you're not going the sports route, and you're not in Model UN or student government, what's your angle?"
Adam frowned. He thought about Sheldon and Leonard — neither of them had been team captains or club presidents, and they'd both gotten where they needed to go.
"You don't necessarily need it," Juno said, reading him accurately as usual. "But if you skip it, your academic record has to be so exceptional it speaks for itself. We're talking science competition medals. National recognition. Can you do that?"
Adam was quiet for a long moment.
"Talk me through how to prove leadership through music," he said finally.
End of Chapter 9
[Community Goals Ongoing]
500 PS = +1 Extra Chapter
10 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter
Reviews are always appreciated.
P1treon Soulforger (20+advance chapters)