1 Chapter 1: Emory Carson
"So the basic and basis of game theory is that you can't have…" Emory zoned the teacher out as he was teaching in class, he was talking on game theory, which was a topic under the subject further mathematics, a subject Emory found interesting most times but right now Emory had no interest in it. Although it was a subject that often proved difficult to most students in his age range and class. Emory had already the topic mastered, in fact he had completed the entire scheme of work and was miles ahead of the class, he had to be.
Emory peered outside through the window, watching the bird that had perched on the other side of the window sill, his seat was beside the window, and he liked his seat location. He looked at the bird and thought to himself about how easygoing the bird must have it, it didn't need to study or wake up early for school or work a part-time job, he envied the pigeon, unlike he who had to constantly study to be at the top of his class to maintain his scholarship, the details of the scholarship never stated that he had to be at the very top of the class, just within the top three but he decided to play it really safe and stay at the very top, he couldn't afford to lose his scholarship plus it was his last year in highschool, it wouldn't be bad to have a flawless record. Emory looked at the clock which was a digital clock but was designed to look like a traditional analog clock, the clock displayed 3:00 pm, which means he had 30 minutes left till the end of the class and the end of school for the day, and that also meant he had 30 minutes to get to his after school job, his shift usually starts at 4:00 pm.
Emory looked back at the pigeon in envy, his part-time job wasn't too difficult, he worked as a cashier at a grocery store it was a job that didn't require too much physical labor, he just had to tend to the register, so why was he reluctant about going to work today? Simple, his boss' daughter. It's a classic story of confession and rejection, but this time the roles were a little bit reversed.
The confessor in this case was his boss' daughter Mr. Ignacio, the owner of the grocery store. She had confessed her feelings to him out of nowhere, but Emory rejected her bluntly. Emory saw no reason why she would be interested in him. It couldn't be appearance, he was just a little above 170cm, and he was decent looking but he didn't consider himself exceptionally handsome, he was very lean and visibly pale despite his mixed complexion, and he didn't change his hair color from his natural black color, so why was she interested in him? he wasn't an outgoing or sporty person too so there really was nothing making sense about the sudden proposal.
Besides she had an expression which someone who was confessing their feelings would definitely not have, it was akin to disgust or irritation. Emory decided to reject her outrightly, which caused the spoiled girl who has seldom known rejection to threaten him and she stormed out swearing to make his job and his life difficult, and knowing her, she probably would.
"You're a lucky creature aren't you, living without a care in the world," Emory said to the pigeon and then let out a huge sigh, the pigeon cocked it's head to the side and flew away.
Thock!
Suddenly Emory felt a little pang of pain on the side of his head. Something had hit him at an incredible speed, he picked up the object and upon inspection, he realized it was a chalk stick.
"Is my class boring you Mr. Carson?" The teacher said
The teacher had thrown the chalk stick at Emory for being absent-minded during his class. Emory felt it was unnecessary to throw a chalk stick at him, he could have just called out to him but Emory couldn't help but commend the teacher's aim and chalk-throwing speed despite the little sting of pain he felt on his head.
The teacher was an old, slender and tall man with unnaturally black hair that didn't fit his age at all, Mr. Kasinski. Mr. Kasinski, Emory's Further mathematics teacher is infamous for his "generosity" when awarding grades, he never gave an A out no matter how hard you try the most you could ever get out of him was a B+, however, he couldn't find any way to drop Samuel's grade no matter how hard he tried, Samuel's answers were always 100% correct so the man had no choice than to give out an A to Emory, ever since Emory could remember the man had an obvious dislike towards him.
"Or perhaps you think are too advanced for this class?" he continued
Oh boy, Emory knew where this was going, this situation has played out countless times.
"No sir, but I do have sufficient knowledge on the topic so I thought it wouldn't be too much to just focus on something else," Emory replied
"Oh really, Since you think yourself superior to the class, you wouldn't mind explaining the prisoners' dilemma for us would you?"
Emory let out a sigh silently and walked forward to the classroom front and began to give his explanation on the subject
"....In summary, the prisoner's dilemma is a game theory scenario where two rational prisoners can either cooperate or defect for their own benefit. The best outcome for both is to cooperate, but the dominant strategy is to defect. This leads to a suboptimal outcome for both prisoners" Emory concluded his explanation
"Correct" Kasinski answered with a frustrated expression on his face. The man probably prays for Emory to fail
"Thank you, sir"
"However, I can't excuse your attitude in class, so detention for you"
"But sir I di–"
"I do not care. Detention and do not be late Mr. Carson" Emory was cut short by kasinski
Emory couldn't afford to get stuck in detention, he had his part-time job. Remember the rejected spoiled brat?, as part of her retaliation for Samuel's rejection, she got her father to place a new rule on employees which states that if you miss a shift, or come in more than 10 minutes late you'd lose your job. Emory couldn't afford that. He had 30 minutes after school's closing time to get to his workplace.
The school bell rang to signal the closing time, it was more of a high-pitched shrill, sounding like something straight out of a horror movie. Emory reluctantly yet hurriedly made his way to the empty classroom used for detention, he couldn't lose his job, but he couldn't ditch detention either, it would reflect on his school records.
The detention class was similar to other classrooms with few exceptions, the class was a bit smaller and it had its own security cameras, talk about overkill. It was meant to be used for final year examinations to supervise and if necessary catch cheating students red-handed, the classroom chairs were also arranged differently and the desks were different too.
Kasinski was at the teacher's desk, an apple in hand and face buried in a newspaper.
"Have a seat, Mr. Carson. Do away with all phones, laptops, iPads, headsets, and all other electronic devices. You will be here for exactly one hour so make yourself at home, and also please no noise disturbances" Kasinski directed without raising his head or breaking focus from his reading.
Emory complied and pulled a chair away from the table and had a seat. Sam couldn't concentrate, he was fidgeting and obviously restless.
"Shit" he cursed under his breath
"Any problem Mr. Carson?" kasinski asked
"No problem sir" Emory answered
"Then stop with all the fidgeting and muttering, as you can observe I am trying to read here"
"Excuse me?" Emory called out to kasinski after a few minutes
"What?" Kasinski answered blankly whilst reading his paper
"May I be allowed to leave early? I have to get to my after school job on time or i will be penalised" Emory decided to test the waters
Kasinski took his eyes off his paper and gave Emory a scanning look as if he was analyzing the poor boy, he was staring intently, and after brief seconds of silence and staring that felt way longer, kasinski broke the silence
"You may leave," he said as he returned to his paper.
Just like that? Emory thought he had been there for only a few minutes, 30 minutes at most. The man was truly strange, but Emory was thankful for it. He wanted to question the man but he just packed his backpack and left the classroom in a rush.
Kasinski peeked at him above the newspaper and scoffed.
Emory was somewhat thankful that he got released early but he was still running late, the time for his shift was already due and the store was at least 20 minutes away. He dashed out of the school gate hoping to get to work and at least try to salvage his job.
Emory hadn't run for more than a few minutes and yet he was already tired and out of breath. He wasn't very athletic or even athletic at all, he had a weak physical constitution so he couldn't do anything too strenuous or he'd be in the hospital before he could count to 20, and to top it all he was also asthmatic, which means he shouldn't be running. Its at times like this that Emory wished he had a bicycle or even knew how to ride a bicycle.
