Chapter-26: End of Holidays(6)

[Jim's House]

"Whaaat? You son of a bi...," Haley started shouting at the two fools standing in front of her, nearly cursing them but stopped as she saw Gia standing there looking at her with an innocent expression. She knew Gia was also involved, but who would get angry at a little cutie like her? So, Luke and Jim were getting bombarded by her anger while they were in Jim's room, as Jim wanted to talk in his room.

"Bird!" exclaimed Gia, making everyone puzzled as she jumped.

"Huh," was all that Haley and the other two could exclaim. Everyone was confused about what Gia meant.

"Son of a Bird, is that what you wanted to say, Haley? Hehehe, I am so intelligent," praised Gia herself as she deciphered the word as to what Haley wanted to say.

"Yes, Gia, that's what I wanted to say," quickly said Haley with some panic because she nearly made a little girl learn a curse word. She then told Gia, "But, as I am an adult, only I can say it. Okay, Gia?" so Gia wouldn't say those words out loud in front of anyone.

"But why? Is it a bad word?" asked Gia with a tilted head, looking like a confused little cat.

"Because this is only used to yell loudly at someone, and only adults use it, okay? Just don't use it," said Haley again, getting a nod from Gia.

While Jim and Luke, who thought they were free, suddenly saw her turn to them with an upset face. They stood straight, realizing she was genuinely upset because of her phone almost getting confiscated and, in a way, even she got pranked too.

"You two are now going to tell my mom about this, or I am going to complain to Ava about it, and Luke, I will handle you myself," warned Haley with a stern expression.

"Okay, okay. We are sorry. What can we do to make you less angry?" said Jim as he winked at Luke, signaling him to play along and escape any punishment. Luke gave Jim a grateful look as they both tried to defuse Haley's anger.

Jim thinking for some time, thought of the AI his family and friends are using that he made, so he offered it to her, "Well, I can give you Ai that both Alex and Luke have, quite a good one. You can ask Luke," presented Jim the AI to Haley as even without this incident he was going to give it to her.

To make someone your friend, you got to show them you trust them and give a little care. Haley is someone who's now part of his small friend's circle, even though he'll admit she's the only one his age right now.

Thinking about the somewhat depressing topic of not having friends right now, Jim decided to make up his mind to at least make one friend when school starts. Just then, he heard Haley asking him a question about the novel.

"Anyways, what happened to the novel? Did you post it?" asked Haley, as she was eager to know how it was doing. She wasn't that angry anymore, but she just wanted to vent, and choosing them for it, with the added bonus of getting that cool AI, was a plus for her.

"Well, I did post it online but not as a whole. Last night after getting reviews from everyone, I uploaded it on the website because my following in it is already quite big, and many people are liking it, asking for the next chapters to be released," Jim proudly shared, happy to see his work getting recognition.

"So, did Ms. Olivia get the publication deal for your novel?" asked Haley, remembering the day when Aunt Olivia mentioned her friend's book publication might help them.

"Oh, about that, I had to enter my novel in an online competition for the amateur writers' books section, and getting into the top 5 will help me land a good publication deal. My aunt's friend wanted to help, but her company is having some internal trouble due to some board members, and they rejected her suggestion on my book, saying I was far too young, clearly opposing her," said Jimmy, clearing Haley's doubt and feeling a little down that it all got delayed. But, he was now able to gauge the response of people to his book from this competition, giving him a little more motivation to follow this road.

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After telling her about the incident with his novel and how he has to now get publishers from the website, they all went to Haley's house and told Claire about the prank. Luke got the punishment as he has to clean his and his sister's room for a week for making his parents worried.

Jim had a little talk with her. She told him that he shouldn't share these pranks with Luke because he might unknowingly pull them on someone for whom it could be harmful. It made Jim realize that Luke is more of a naive child who might get into trouble, so he promised Claire to be careful from now on. Claire nodded, but confusion still present on her face as to whether he truly agreed or not. As an adult, she couldn't ask him again, and having already nodded to his statement, she refrained from asking again.

He went to Haley and Alex's room to talk about the club he wanted to create in school with Haley. They delved into the details, and Haley suggested some names from her class that they could try to recruit or potential members they could consider after assessing them. Haley's supportive attitude came from Jim showing her the script for YouTube videos or short films, and she believes they will gain popularity. Hence, she was ready to put in the effort for it.

The next day was the start of school for all the kids having holidays, and Jim had to begin this new chapter of his life and adjust to the school. Feeling the anticipation of attending as a kid who is not a loner was refreshing for him, but created anticipation also.

Everything is going well, except for the slow progress of his own novel. If it were the story he used from his previous life, he might have taken the risk of confidently approaching publishing studios. However, since this was his own book, the fear of it failing, though not high, still lingered. So, he wanted to approach it like a regular author.

Initially, he had thought of posting the entire book at once. However, after a discussion with his Aunt Olivia and Mom, and considering the ongoing contest with the chapter-wise uploading format, he decided to release the chapters gradually.

Part 1 of his book was divided into 63 chapters, roughly totaling 327 pages. In comparison, part 2 consisted of 49 chapters, equivalent to 341 pages, and part 3 had 68 chapters, amounting to 411 pages. Considering the physical copy release, he decided to focus on part 1 for the time being.

On the first day, even though the book was good, the number of readers was limited. Despite Jim's growing popularity, his novel was perceived as a casual read. Many readers hadn't yet realized that his new novel was quite different from his previous work. However, those who did recognize the distinction were all praises for it.

Despite its quality, Jim's novel failed to secure a spot even in the top 10000, given the current low reader count. In a competition with nearly 100,000 participants, the title of amateur writer was typically given to those who have a reasonably substantial following. As a result, the category had a smaller number of writers participating, but the works presented were exceptional across the board.

As night fell, Jim's family gathered in the living room, eagerly waiting to see the ranking of his novel. Opening the website, they opted to search through the ranking list of all novels through scrolling rather than directly checking the novel main page. Despite their search efforts, the novel was not even in the top 1000. They thought it might be close to the top 10000 as the works of many authors were good, but couldn't find it.

Jim's heart sank upon seeing the ranking, and he began frantically searching for it. His mother, however, stepped in to calm him down.

"Jim, everyone has read your novel, and we know it's good. Just wait and open the novel directly to see what happened. We might have missed it during our scrolling," Ava reassured her son, trying to encourage him. In reality, she too felt a sense of panic, but to calm her son down, she maintained her composure.

Jim opened his novel, and as he viewed its first page, something strange caught his attention. It was in the top 30,000, and the ranking remained steady at that position. Perplexed, he checked the comments and reviews to understand what was happening. Despite having thousands of comments in chapters and over a hundred reviews, the novel's progress seemed unusual.

One of the top writers, ranked in the top 200, had given a 1-star review to his novel, criticizing it as average with numerous plot holes. Jim suspected it was fake, an attempt to demotivate his novel's ranking. He showed it to his mom, feeling like he had lost a battle he wanted to participate in with his own talent, not even getting halfway through it. He knew how much stupid fans of celebrities can damage someone innocent's life, and his work was now experiencing the same because of some untalented and scared bastard. He was in a shock as he sat there.

Ava, who understood what happened, cursed, "This moth...," then she remembered Gia sitting with her, and she mumbled the rest, "er fucker," as she looked super angry. She turned to Jimmy and took his mobile to read the review while cursing in between, not too loud for Gia to hear but loud enough that Jimmy could understand the mumbling.

Jimmy could use his own money that he is making from the game and publish the book, but he wanted to do it like other writers do. He wanted his work, something that he himself created and put effort into, something that has the essence of his life in it, to become popular in the normal way. This would prove that he is a genuine writer, not someone who merely recreates stories from his previous life's memories. Those were essentially copies, even with all the edits and changes he made. The essence of those stories came from other writers, but this novel was truly his own. Now, someone was trying to ruin it for him.

He had invested so much thought and emotion into the novel. While creating it, he was thrilled to see where it would go, but now all of it seemed jeopardized due to someone's scheme.

Even though his mom was upset, she didn't want Gia, who looked sad seeing her brother upset and mother angry, and Jim, who was feeling down, to miss the first day of school tomorrow. So, she sent them to their room, assuring them that she and her friends would think of a solution, while all the ladies cursed the generations of the writer who was ruining Jim's novel's rating and ranking.

Gia and Jim went to their room, and Ava called her friend for suggestions on what to do about it. While Jim was feeling down lying on his bed, someone entered his room. At first, he didn't reply, but suddenly someone approached his bed and climbed up. He looked to the side, finding Gia with her bunny pillow in her arms, looking at him like a little cute rabbit.

"Brother, are you still sad? I will sleep with you, and tomorrow we will go and beat the bad guy," Gia said to Jimmy in a soft and consoling tone. Jim's heart nearly melted, realizing that he has a family now, and he can share his problems with them. Still feeling a bit down, Jim felt a bit better. He scooped Gia in his arms, and they both slowly drifted to sleep while Gia was sharing her master plans to make the guy who made her Mama angry and Jim sad cry.

A little bit later, the door opened as Ava peeked inside, seeing both brother and sister sleeping together, and felt happy. She and the others hadn't found a solution yet, but they were determined to make the person who tried to undermine her baby's work suffer in the same way he tried. Her loyal customers and her friend Olivia's connections could make it happen. Mia even offered to involve her patients who usually visited her clinic as a small favor, especially considering she often provided discounts to her loyal customers during dental checkups.

This is how the night in Jim's house passed—a little sad, a little angry, but mostly showcasing the strong bond between brother and sister, making it easier to get through.