Sevs swung his legs over the side of the bed into the jeans he wore the day before. He stood up and pulled them on in one motion. He considered the door to his bathroom; unfortunately, he wouldn’t have time to brush his teeth this morning. Throwing open the bedroom door, Sevs hurdled down the stairs, grabbed his bag, and ran outside. He made it down to the end of the street just a bit more than a minute after getting out of bed. Which was lucky because the people were already loading onto the school bus. He joined the end of the short queue.

Once he got on, Sevs grabbed the first empty seat and leaned his head against the window as he caught his breath. Sevs was going to have to find a better way to wake up in time for the bus. He had thought he was disciplined, as he had been getting up for work with Father every day for the past half dozen years. They usually departed at eight, to get breakfast and get there by nine. The school was much worse. School started at seven-thirty, and the bus took a while to get there. Sevs had to get on the bus so much earlier than was reasonable.

His head gently rattled against the cold window as the bus pulled back into traffic. Sevs didn’t really care. It didn’t hurt, but it would prevent him from sleeping. Besides, the condensation on the window felt nice and refreshing. After a few minutes, he had woken up enough and sat upright, pulling his mind together. This was the first Monday of his high school career. Of his school career, actually. The year started last Tuesday. Sevs had gotten his schedule and gone to his classes. For the most part, they were introductory lessons. None of which were even remotely interesting. Not that Sevs expected anything to be interesting. Having done this so many times before, there was pretty much no chance of learning something from the curriculum.

This was the route he and Father had worked out a long time ago. For the last almost decade, he had been going to work with Father and Markus. That had taught him a lot, but Father was worried he was missing out on some pivotal shared experiences. This was less true than Father knew, but Sevs had his own reasons for putting himself through the hell that is high school for what must have been the millionth time.

Sevs had an amazing start to the tutorial so far, honestly. He had picked up new skills. Actually learning how to do things he wasn’t able to do before despite the eons of experience he had. Not even counting the system skills he shouldn’t have been able to access yet. Even with all these benefits, Sevs wasn’t satisfied yet. There was a feeling that he couldn’t quite shake. That if he coasted out the rest of this tutorial run, he would be leaving a lot on the table.

No, he still needed to work out how to deal with people. Sure there were massive improvements. Through Susan’s gym, sports, and work Sevs had made great strides, but it wasn’t enough. No, he needed to go back and do high school; properly. At least, he thought that was what he needed. A good part of this feeling was that he had yet to receive a mandatory quest. He should have gotten the first ones starting a level ago. This made his teeth feel on edge. Was he too far behind? Were there prerequisites that he didn’t have?

The quest assignment system was a bit of a mystery. Maybe not getting a mandatory quest wasn’t a big deal. It could mean that Sevs was on the right track, so the system didn’t see the need to nudge him. Or it could just as easily mean something much worse.

Fear was a good motivator. It just was not Sevs only motivation. Mandatory quests were not usually able to give out skills. However, with his ability to learn skills in the tutorial, he bet that any mandatory rewards would be worthwhile. Yes, greed was almost as good a motivator as fear.

Sevs had chosen the public school right nearby. He could have gone to any private school in the city. Father had even considered moving if it was going to get Sevs somewhere better. Seva had been able to talk Father out of those drastic measures. He had not been able to talk Father out of having Sevs apply and visit many places. Sevs had toured several private schools and even a couple universities. But, for all the same reasons as before, they wouldn’t be useful to him. Mostly he was looking for interaction with teens his age. At University, it would be hard for Sevs to get that peer interaction. Not that he couldn’t do alright. To the others, he would always be much younger. That would be a barrier between them. Maybe those interactions would still be beneficial for Sevs to learn from. However, Sevs had enough of that from work.

No, Sevs had chosen this school for the people in it. It might seem counterproductive to try and improve your social skills with strangers around your age by going to a place where you already had friends. Sevs like to think differently. He was getting a head start. Those friends would help him get a toe hold on the social ladder, and he could work from there. No, it definitely wasn’t cowardliness. Definitely not.

As the bus trundled along, Sevs lost himself in his thoughts. Eventually, they made it to the school. There were still fifteen minutes before the first classes started, barely enough time for Sevs to grab some food from a vending machine and stop by his locker to drop off his bag. He got off the bus as quickly as the slow-moving line of students making their way down the aisle would let him. As soon as his feet hit the asphalt, he shot off.