Parochial (adjective): local; narrow; limited

The quiet gray captions of the morning’s news report ran like a little train along the edges of the screen. With a mug of black coffee warming his hand, the man settled down in front of the TV, only half-interested in the words of the news anchor.

…grew up in one of the highest earning districts, the woman was saying. He also attended the number two ranked private schools in the nation.

The man absent-mindedly nodded, taking a long sip of his coffee. His eyes flicked to the time again, and he shouted up the stairs.

“Hey! It’s already 7am! Wake up before you waste the rest of your Saturday!”

A few muffled stumbles from the upstairs bedroom told him that his son was indeed asleep and wasting away precious time, as he’d expected. Brows furrowing with disappointment, the man walked over to the dining room bookshelf and pulled out several prep books for standardized tests. No breakfast for him, then.

…two majors, nursing and engineering.

At this, the father hummed. Not bad.

His schedule used a time-blocking system that strictly categorized his day into segments, including an hour of study time followed by a five-minute break. It proved immensely effective, with the young man finishing his diploma a full year earlier than the rest of his class.

Now, the news anchor’s voice rang clear in his ears. Had an unseen force granted him a vision of what to do with his son? Time-blocking sounded like the perfect method—

He froze.

The warm mug slipped from his hand and shattered into a volcanic burst of scalding coffee on the ground.

In bold, red letters spanning across the entire top of the screen, were the words: Class valedictorian turns to murder under academic pressure.