18 Chapter 18 Suspension

Sunlight streamed through the lone window of a separate room in a house, illuminating a figure peacefully sleeping until a white figure climbed on top of them and began licking them.

"Mike, stop, stop, Mike, I'm awake already!" says the now-awake figure to their companion and roommate. "Good morning, Mike, did you sleep well?" The figure briefly converses with their companion while patting their strange head.

"roof ooof," Mike barks in agreement with his owner. "I slept very well too last night."

I rise, preparing for a new day. As I head towards the Cooper's house, something catches my attention—the motorcycle belonging to George, covered with a cloth beside the garage. I approach it, uncovering it, and come face to face with a 1980 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, which George boasted about to me how amazing he was in his adolescence with this bike. I confess, Harley-Davidson knows how to make motorcycles—the chromed details of the engine and exhaust, the all-black paint with the silver Harley-Davidson emblem on the tank, a chromed 1600cc engine, truly beautiful.

Last night, when I received the system's Advanced Engineering reward, the system didn't specify what Advanced Engineering was. As everyone knows, there are various branches of engineering, such as software engineering, automotive engineering, civil engineering, and many others.

As soon as I laid eyes on this motorcycle, the engine and body specifications appeared in my head, and I knew almost everything about this vehicle.

A thought occurred to me—this bike has been sitting for years, right? What if I talk to Big George and convince him to help me fix it? Then, he might probably let me take it for a ride.

With these thoughts in mind, I cover the bike back up to prevent dust accumulation and head to my uncle's house for breakfast and to talk to George.

Entering the kitchen, I see Sheldon and Missy eating cereal at the table, while George reads a newspaper and drinks coffee leaning on the counter.

I greet, "Hey, Big Guy, how are you?" giving a pat on Big George's shoulder. "I need to talk to you about something that came to my mind," I say to him as he takes a sip of his coffee and looks at me, saying,

"I need to talk to you about something first. The Director, along with the teachers and the parents of the students you hurt yesterday, decided your punishment. They decided that you will be suspended for a period of 5 months with at-home class supervision, and I was assigned to supervise you." Big George tells me, "I don't know what they think—5 months is a long time for you to be out of school. Although personally, I think you wouldn't miss much studying outside of school or at home," he says quickly and adds, "you are one of the few people I know who are extremely intelligent and don't make me want to strangle them every moment," he says, glancing sideways at Sheldon, who was eating cereal.

I laugh and say, "That's good for me anyway; I really don't intend to stay in school for long. I think college is a more suitable place for me, and I'll have much more freedom."

Soon, another voice chimes in. "Wise decision, Connor. I really have similar thoughts since high school doesn't intellectually challenge me enough," Sheldon says, playing with the cereals without looking in our direction.

I then say, "I was thinking of majoring in Engineering at MIT and also considering getting a Ph.D. in Engineering and Mathematics at MIT. I was already looking to see if I could send letters to these colleges to see if I could be accepted soon."

Sheldon, who still had no prejudice about Engineering, said, "MIT is good. I also heard they ranked first in theoretical physics among colleges, with Stanford in second and Harvard in third place. Maybe I'll go there too, then we can go together," says Little Sheldon, imagining himself in the Sea of Knowledge that college would be.

I am stunned because, as we know, in the original series, there was a period when Sheldon went to Germany to study. In "Young Sheldon," due to the family's financial difficulties, they couldn't afford Sheldon's studies in Germany, but Sheldon was sponsored by Dr. Linkletter to go to Germany to study.

With this mention of Little Sheldon studying at MIT, it could trigger a wonderful butterfly effect because I'll have contact with the characters in the plot much earlier than I thought I would, as Howard Wolowitz studied Engineering at MIT. Even if we go now, to college, and Howard enters shortly afterward, I'll still have some interaction.

Then Big George exclaims, "That would be a wonderful thing when it happens. You have my full support!" George says excitedly about our conversation, thinking that two geniuses were born in his family because, to him, George Jr. was a lost case, and Missy had not yet shown her potential.

"That would indeed be great," I say to them. "But as soon as the opportunity arises, I'll grab it. For now, we'll have to use this time to convince Mary and Connie to let Sheldon and me go to college, which will be quite difficult to happen, but with persistence, I still think it's possible," I say to them while taking a sip of coffee.

"Now, another matter, George, that bike in the garage—we could take a day to see what's wrong with it. I believe it shouldn't be too difficult to fix with you and me working on it."

"Wait, you know how to work on cars and bikes too? Because I didn't know that," he shakes his head in confusion.

"George, come on, I'm a genius with an IQ of 160. I may not be as good as Little Sheldon, but my accomplishments won't be irrelevant in the future. Fixing an engine and identifying the problem isn't a big deal, to say the least," I say to George calmly, looking him in the eye.

"Well, we can try. If we can fix it, I'll take you guys fishing with it—me, you, and Missy," he says.

"Hey, who said I want to go fishing?" Missy exclaims, who until then had been silent, listening to the conversation.

"Missy, it's an agreement I made with George to take you fishing with us. Trust me, you'll like it. I'll make it a very fun fishing trip," I say to Missy, with a face that made it clear that I wouldn't accept a no as an answer.

"Fine," says Missy, clearly with an indignant tone, not understanding how fishing could be fun.

"Connor, you're right; I'm clearly smarter than him. I could also help, but I have other more important things to do at the moment," says Little Sheldon, exuding arrogance.

"Okay, Sheldon, but who asked you to join?" I ask with a mischievous smile.

Seeing his brother's face frozen in front of him, incredulous with Connor's response, Missy starts laughing hysterically.

"HAHAHAHAHA, look at his dumb face, Dad, he didn't expect that response, HAHAHAHA," says Missy, as she rolls on the floor, holding her belly from laughing so hard.

Soon, George says with laughter, "HaHa, this time he got you good, Sheldon," obviously laughing at the situation.

Then Little Sheldon's face turns red with embarrassment, and he runs off yelling, "MOM, MOM, CONNOR IS INTIMIDATING ME, HIT HIM!! MOOOMYYYY," amid laughter and conversation, breakfast ends, and I head to the backyard to exercise.

End of Chapter -