The Technique

Chapter 18: Assigned

"I hate to say this, but you need to come. You need to put that on your calendar, mom," I said through the phone. 

From what I could hear at the other end, mom was doing a lot of paperwork again. Maybe, she was printing those and that. "Okay, okay, I will try." 

"No, don't try." I walked down the stairs to Mike's room. "You will come. Please make sure. I think this event is something important. And you need to take part of it." 

"Okay, I will." From her voice, I could sense she was super busy. But I didn't care since she was used to multitasking. 

"By the way, mom, have you been looking for dad?" 

Suddenly, she became quiet. I knew she halted doing her work. "Ah yeah." The sound of paper and machine turned down. "Nathan, I am looking for your dad now. But even though I found him, I'll never call him or anything unless you---" 

"Yes, I know, mom. I'm always keeping that in mind. I will be the top 1," I responded. "Thank you." 

I caught Mike and Kylie's change of expression while eating chips. They were in a 'what?' mode. 

"Okay, mom. I'm hanging up." When the call ended, I looked at my friends and raised a brow. 

"Nathan, clear this up. If you're not the top 1, you're never going to see your dad? Really?" Kylie asked. 

"Yea, that's what she actually said when she took me here. Why?" I asked. 

"No way, I think that's too much. She could've at least let you know who your dad is even though you're not the top 1. You know, if she truly loves you, she would give what you want unconditionally." Kylie rolled her eyes. 

I could sense she was getting into an argument again. 

"I agree," Mike said, still eating. 

I never actually thought of it like what they thought it was. I was pretty sure that mom was doing it to motivate me. And I had never complained like that before. So far, those prerequisites mom gave me had been very helpful because I got good grades that helped me enter this school. 

"Guys, I think you don't understand," I said. 

They stared at my mouth, waiting for my next words. We stayed silent for a while. And while we were in a solid pause, I couldn't help myself to look out the window and fathom out what they had just said. 

"Nathan, trust me." Kylie drank water from her bottle. "If you look at the bigger picture, you'd realize that she's pressuring you. And if I'm about to ask people, they surely would feel the same way I do." 

Mike turned away from his phone and looked at me. "Buddy, you have to ask your mom the assurance of seeing your father. Top 1 or not." 

I got baffled about what they were talking about. I felt like everyone knew about what I should do, but I, myself couldn't understand a bit. "Okay, so what should I do?" 

Mike looked up at Kylie, and Kylie looked at the ceiling. "If she finds your dad, make her send a picture of him," Kylie proposed. 

"Do you think it's a good idea? I mean, what if she never gives me," I said. 

"She will if she loves you so much," Kylie said. 

We all paused after that when some knocks on the door broke the silence. I had an initial thought that it was Greg, so I initiated to open the door in case something happened. "Mr. David?" I said. 

His hair was messy as if he had been skydiving a second ago, though his suit was looking good. He was carrying some papers. "Mr. Bruce, luckily, I found you here." He might have noticed me being distracted by his hair. "Oh, sorry, I haven't had the chance to comb my hair." 

I smiled and shook my head. "No, it's fine. Were you looking for me?" 

"Yes." He looked at Kylie and Mike behind me and examined the whole room. I got a little embarrassed when I realized that his eyes might have caught Mike's underwear hanging near the window. But he just smiled back at me. "I am organizing student's papers, and my secretary is up for something today, so I thought it would be nice if it's you who would be my aide. Would you mind?" 

I looked back at my friends and back at him. "No, sir, but why me?" 

"If you don't know, it is one of the top students' tasks here," he said. 

My mouth grew a little wide. "Oh, sorry. What about Greg and Stella?" 

"They're doing other tasks now." He looked at my friends again. "Can I borrow your friend for a bit?" 

Kylie and Mike just nodded. 

I followed him until we reached his cold office. A stack of papers everywhere surprised me. I guessed there were thousands of them. They covered most of his trophies. He began to give me directions on what should I do and put them in the trash. We never spoke for the first hour, and I felt like it was the most boring task that had ever been given to me. I wondered where Greg and Stella were working now. I decluttered the dossiers until I reached the monitoring room. I only had a quick look at it since I didn't want to get Mr. David's attention. 

He appeared from somewhere while adjusting his glasses. It seemed like he had combed his hair already. "Mr. Bruce, I need to give this to the director. Answer keys losing is pretty ordinary here, so I have to make sure to make some copies. I'll be back quickly. Are you good here alone?" 

"Yes, sir." I nodded. I watched him as he walked out the office door. I was still a little uncomfortable about him calling me Mr. Bruce since we were like friends when we were talking back at the party. It was like a huge transition for me, this formality and everything. But the answer keys he was talking about caught me off guard. Answer keys losing? Was that because of Greg? 

I turned around to finally have a better look at the monitoring room. I dropped the papers aside and looked around the TVs on the wall. There were twelve big TVs, and each of them covered eight areas. I looked at them one by one and was fascinated that most students were staying in the cafeteria. There were fewer people in the library. Some athletes were playing on the field. The field looked much smaller in the camera. 

Suddenly, I felt the urge to look for the power button. I was sure Greg had familiarized himself with these buttons. I tried to search for it and thought that it might be the red one. But someone caught the edge of my eye. 

In one of the cameras, Stella was flipping her hair, and she looked like she was talking to someone. I tried to have a closer look and realized that she was talking to Greg. Greg wasn't talking at all. A second later, he stopped walking until Stella was out of the screen. He turned around and looked up at the camera as if he was looking exactly at me. He pulled his hoodie down and smirked. 

I stepped back and thought that he was playing around or something because he probably knew I was here. I took a closer look and saw that he was still smirking. Then, he strolled forward until he was out of the screen. I tried to search for him at other cameras when someone opened the office door.