Pre- (Ivy League) School

Chapter 1
David's Mind

Chapter Description: David's prelude

    David was driving to school, contemplating the events of the last few months. Everything he could think of led him back to Emily. She was the familiar company in every advanced class and constant presence, that overshadowed him at every juncture. Everything he did, she one upped him in, academics, sports, even popularity with the opposite sex. Being as competitive as he was, this continued to eat away at him, and led to him taking the drastic action that he was now driving towards.

As seniors entering their last semester of High School, they had applied to colleges a few months prior, and had received all of their replies. David had only applied to one school, against the wishes of his parents and his school advisors. He was too proud to settle for anything but the very best.  It was Harvard or nothing. He knew that he had the test scores and the transcript to outshine almost every other applicant. So he compiled his perfect SAT and ACT score, his transcript, and prepared to write his personal essay.

According to the response he received from the university, he seemed obsessed with competition and striving to be the best. Usually, these are desired characteristics of a Harvard applicant, but it had apparently become very apparent in his writing that he had an unhealthy preoccupation with being the best, at all costs. Typically, a rejection letter doesn’t tell the applicant why they had been rejected, but his did.

His pride shattered and life derailed, no longer having a path forward, his mental state began to come apart. He did not tell anyone that he was rejected, and continued outwardly as if nothing was the matter. Towards the end of the fall semester and through winter break, he began to spend more time completely secluded from others, tinkering and planning. His parents and those close to him, assuming that he had just been taken with an idea and left him to it.

He heard through the grapevine what he already knew was coming, that Emily had been accepted into Harvard, as well as many other Ivy League schools. This only strengthened his resolve to finally get the upper hand on Emily, who he had realized, had done nothing to harm him beyond simply outperforming him at every step. In the back seat of his car, he had something that would finally help him surpass Emily, though this device would pull Emily much further back than it would push David forward.

It was 1pm, just after their lunch ended, when David pulled into the school parking lot. He had made a device to perfectly replicate the voice of his father and had informed the school that he would be out sick today.  All the secretary had said was he should come in with a doctors note tomorrow, which if all went to plan, would be forgotten about.

He pulled into the familiar parking lot, retrieved the item from his backseat, and walked towards the front doors, ready to being his self anointed genius swan song.