E-intelligence: Chapter 2

ChristValle's High School was a prestigious school located in the most developed part of the UK. It was built somewhere in 2006 by an American Billionaire, and ever since, many rich folks take their children there to either give them the finest education or to boost their already high status in society.

Politicians, business gurus, and entrepreneurs - all compete against each other on who donates the largest money to the school, and just like that, the school became the biggest school in the entire of England, possibly in Europe. "Mom, please don't tell me you paid a million bucks for my school fees to go to the biggest school in the whole of Europe?" James interrogated his mom with a distinct skeptic in his voice. "Oh no, I didn't. A rich subscriber donated €2,500,000 to my blog, and I thought, 'what better way to spend the money than sponsoring my naughty son to this school'" she smirked, looking at James' dark blue eyes with pride. "How much did you pay?"

James asked apprehensively. "Don't worry about the money, okay, honey? Just keep making me proud and be the best of the best," Mary replied. Just like that, the conversation ended as they headed over to the office. A woman in her 60s looked at the two new faces in front of her. She then looked into a document in her hands, then back to the little boy on her left. "Straight A(s) for four years straight, huh, that's some unique child you have, Mrs. Smith, you know," she spoke with a fluent English accent. "Yes, he is," James' mom replied with pride, but the woman pretended to not hear what Mary said and replied almost instantly and straightforward,

"Your son is a unique person, but just like any other person that attends this school, the school would give your son an entrance exam to determine whether he is a ChristValle's material. If you like, he can start now or maybe tomorrow. If you like to speed things up, you can do something else, you understand?". James looked up for the first time as he sat down in the office. He wanted to say something, but his mom interjected, "His name is James Smith, and I would like my son to write that entrance examination you said, but I don't understand what you meant by 'you can do something else."

James already knew what was happening here. She might not admit it, but James knew the school's bursar was a corrupt woman. Looking at the way she spoke and acted, he would safely presume that she had done this more than once. Of course, she invented the "entrance examination" scheme to extort money from those rich folks desperately placing their spoiled children in this school. No parents would want their child(ren) to take and fail their "entrance examination" and taint their image. And it worked all the time, at least almost all the time, until she met these two people.

The bursar raised her brows, surprised. She adjusted her glasses and immediately restored her usual strict demeanor. "Okay, we'll arrange that. But you do know that the school has a limited amount of credit for us to take a person here. The exams are known by many people who attempted to take the exams really difficult to even obtain credits from." She spoke like she was reading a script, then looked into James' eyes. "If he fails, we would not be allowed to take such a person to this school for life."

James could feel that the atmosphere was getting tense. But to her disappointment, James did not even flinch. He silently stared back at the woman in glasses with his poker face. But He already knew his mother was annoyed when she placed her hands on the table and fiercely looked at the woman in glasses. "My son would take the entrance exams, and if he passes, I want you to put him in a grade higher than grade 8, and if he fails, we would live in this place and NEVER set our foot here again, by our own will" she smiled, but she was not smiling.

James was not worried that he was going to take the "entrance exam." He had once solved an equation that took three professors in Harvard days to solve, though they never knew who James was. What worried him was that the woman in glasses might make life hard for him in school, considering that she tried and failed to extort money from his mom. After a very uncomfortable ten seconds, the woman in glasses smiled back and said, "Very well, let's prepare the exam for your son" she readjusted her glasses again. "His name is James, please," Mary interjected, smiling, though anger was brewing inside of her. The woman in glasses did not say anything, but she took a document, signed it, and gave the document to Mary to sign, then handed it over to James to sign, then she took the documents back and scanned it to her computer.