Someone Else

Chapter 19

Damien comes over to my room to study and I begrudgingly let him in. I had already finished studying for the final exams a few days ago but he begged me to give him some advice.

Not surprisingly, he's the type to wait until the last few days to study; the whole student council was like that.

"Where are your notes?" I asked him, looking at his textbooks.

"What notes?"

Unbelievable. "You mean to tell me that the entire year, you did not take any notes at all?"

He nods and I flick his forehead. "I'll be back, just read the chapters that you'll be tested on."

"I don't know which ones those are." He admitted.

Sweet Jesus and Mary, I'm going to kill him. Luckily for him, Ash is a junior too and Ash actually gave half an effort in class. "Just stay here and wait."

I go to Ash's room and go in. This dumbass never locks his door.

I take his schoolbag and bring it over to my room. "I present your salvation."

"That's Ash's, I'm not using that." He said immediately.

Impressive how he recognized that upon seeing it but didn't know which textbook he was using this year.

"My God, just shut up." I mumbled, taking out Ash's notebooks. Accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, and operations. "Read the chapters marked with red in this while I save your ass."

He pouts and reads his sworn enemy's books while I scan every page in the notebooks that will be on the finals. I print them out and start making some flashcards.

"Okay, I'm done." Damien said after an hour.

"Great, now read these notes and memorize all of these flashcards." I told him.

I take their textbooks and mark Damien's according to Ash's and put everything back. I run over to return his stuff and come back to see Damien actually concentrating on doing something. That boy has an extremely short attention span.

It will take about five hours to memorize all that s**t then 2 hours for me to drill him. I can't believe I'm going to be here for a whole ass 7 hours helping him study. My exam is tomorrow morning, I might as well revise too though I doubt I'll need it.

I bring him some snacks and drinks and I play PUBG on my phone.

"I think I got it." He said after three hours.

"If you're sure you've memorized the flashcards then memorize all the notes now."

He nods and goes back to studying. I decide to look over my own notes.

We finish around 2 am and I make us some cup noodles. "Thank you, for helping me. I've never studied like that before." He said.

"I don't doubt it."

"Hey! I'm trying to be nice!"

I laugh, patting his shoulder. "At least now your GPA will go from 3.0 to 3.4."

"Really? That much?"

"It's the final exam, it takes up a large percentage of your grade! So you better nail this." I said exasperatedly. This guy is like a third grader just realizing how school works.

We sit on my couch and watch a movie while we eat. "Didn't you say you had an exam today?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Don't you need to sleep?" He asked earnestly. He can be so cute when he shows that he cares for people other than himself.

I hide my smile. "I don't ever sleep before a morning exam. Sleeping makes me drowsy, if I'm drowsy in an exam room I might misinterpret a question or use the wrong formula." I explained.

"Engineering is that difficult?"

Did he think it was like his major? "I have it easier than most, I got everything done early and memorized every lesson right after class."

"And that helps?"

It's like talking to a three year old. Cute but highly irritating. "Of course it helps! Not everyone has the patience for it, or the passion but it's always worked best for me."

"You're really smart but your upbringing is exactly like mine. How do you do it?"

Oh, Damien. If only I could tell you the truth. "I just realized what is important and what is not. You know, just because you're going to inherit the business, doesn't mean you can keep it."

His eyebrows furrow. "What does that mean?"

"The people who really run a company are the investors. And if you loose all your investors you will have to sell to your rivals. It's all politics. Investors pull their money out for any number of reasons. Like if sales are going down, a similar company is more promising or if they simply don't like the heir of this company."

He nods along to what I'm saying, which is the hard truth. I'm sure his father never told him just how vulnerable his position is, since it would mean the all powerful façade he made would be shattered. Running a company isn't as easy as signing a few papers and bossing people around.

"I don't know why I never knew that." He said, frowning.

"You have to graduate, okay? And senior year, I advise you strongly to take a political science class."

He nods. "Yeah, I definitely will be doing that. Thank you. What can I do for you?"

"What? You don't have to do anything for me." I said, blushing.

"No seriously, for helping me today when you have enough to do already. What do you want and I'll get it for you."

I think for a while. I know what I will ask for but I don't know for who yet. "On the student council, there are only guys. I want to see some women on the council and I want to see more diversity. Maybe you can add 3 more female members that are different majors?"

"The entire council will have to all come to an agreement about who to add and to sway the school board, you'll need at least 2000 signatures for each new member."

I nod. "That's okay. I'll look for candidates right now."

"You have to join though. That's my condition. Everyone will agree with you, even the school board." He said.

"No, I don't belong on the student council. Not me in baggy clothes and messy hair eating Doritos at the round table."

He laughs and takes my hand. "You will be better than all of us combined. You actually give a s**t about people and the school. Come on now, Lia. What do you say?"

"Damien, I can't! Who would sign for me anyways?"

"You don't need to do that, I'll go to the school board myself. So do we have a deal?" He holds out his hand like he's the voodoo man and I'm prince Naveen.

I hesitate. The plan was never for me to get a seat... "Alright. I agree. But I won't dress up for council meetings."

"I would never ask you to."

After he goes home I text Steph for a while to ask how she's doing with the finals looming over us.

It seems she's got her act together and actually started to apply herself in school. I guess the boost in grades gave her a boost in confidence and she tells me about Mason who's still talking to her.

Brad has moved on probably and I don't know what the hell is up with Clary, not that I care.

Everyone is moving on in their lives and I'm moving on too. This life is hectic, unlike my last one which was quite literally a slow burn.

The exams tomorrow will make or break by freshman year. I will definitely do well.

I wonder what Matt and Gio are doing. And Maria and Lorenzo too! They text me sometimes which is nice.

In this world where people are genuinely nice and caring and parents love their children unconditionally.