Monday, September 2nd, 2010
Andrew woke up early in the morning. Summer break was officially over, and today marked his first day at Mater Dei High School.
He had his usual breakfast, sticking strictly to his nutrition plan. Then he packed his lunch and snacks into tupperware containers, just like he had done for years.
The cafeteria food usually didn't meet the requirements he needed to keep his macros on track. Though, being that Mater Dei was a renowned private school, he figured they might offer more varied and higher-quality options... albeit probably expensive ones.
Still, money wasn't something he worried about. Thanks to his YouTube channel and Flappy Bird earnings, he had more money in his account than most teenagers, even those attending private schools.
He said goodbye to his family at the door. Cam and Mitchell were particularly excited. They showered him with advice, hugs, and warnings that alternated between funny and affectionate.
Andrew listened to them with a patient smile. He didn't think it was that big of a deal. He was a bit nervous, sure, but the truth was that he wasn't walking into this first day as a complete stranger.
He had spent the entire summer training with his new teammates. His performance at Dana Hills hadn't just earned him the starting position, it had also earned him the respect of his teammates.
He could already call Victor, Nick, Thomas, and several others friends. The group had welcomed him with open arms after seeing his level of play, and during the post-tournament practices, their bond had only grown stronger.
The official season hadn't started yet, but they already had their first scrimmage lined up: it would be on Friday the 6th, this very weekend.
Their opponent would be Nathaniel Narbonne High School, a strong team from another section.
Narbonne belonged to the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District), while Mater Dei competed in the prestigious Southern Section.
Although LAUSD was considered a less competitive section than the Southern, home to many of the state and national elite teams, that didn't mean Narbonne would be an easy opponent.
In fact, they were two-time regional champions in their section (2008–2009 and 2009–2010). A rising powerhouse that had dominated their district, though they hadn't yet made a mark at the state level.
Andrew had done his homework on their opponent and watched videos, both on his own and with the Mater Dei staff. Bruce and Rick had already been preparing for the game with great care, taking it very seriously.
Narbonne's style was physical and defense-focused, with strong tactical discipline.
Before heading to school, Andrew received a flurry of messages wishing him luck on his first day. Jay, Gloria, Claire, Phil, and Haley had all taken the time to write him something.
Even Manny had sent him a strange poem, as was typical of him:
"May the sun not eclipse your shadow,
May the hallways not silence your name.
Today you don't walk to class, Andrew,
You walk the legend of a man."
Andrew didn't know whether to laugh or feel flattered, but he replied: Thanks, poet. Good luck on your first day too, try not to break too many hearts.
He was reading and replying to those messages as he got into the car, when his phone started ringing.
It was a call from Pippa.
He answered right away.
It was a short but warm call. They wished each other luck and said goodbye, as Andrew was already running a bit late.
As he drove toward Mater Dei, Linkin Park playing softly in the background, Andrew was deep in thought.
Things with Pippa were… fine, or at least that's what he could say. It had been over twenty days since that moment. He wasn't sure whether to call it a fight or just an awkward situation, but it had been intense.
All because of that afternoon at the beach with Monica and Rachel, right after the Dana Hills tournament. And to make matters worse, he later received that handcrafted Joker figure from Willa, worth over five hundred dollars.
It was understandable that Pippa reacted the way she did. Andrew hadn't cheated on her, not even close, but he got why it made her uncomfortable.
If the roles were reversed, if Pippa had spent an entire day at the beach with two guys she'd just met, one of them smiling beside her in photos, he probably would've felt bothered too. Even if they were also with Haley, Leonard, and Howard, from the outside, it didn't exactly look innocent.
And then there was Willa… a whole other matter.
Even though their bond was rooted in geeky things like Dungeons & Dragons, videogames and classic movies, his relationship with Willa felt different.
Leonard and Howard had noticed too. That's why they had made that half-joking, half-serious comment about how Willa seemed to have a different kind of interest in him.
The point was that, while to Andrew these interactions were genuine and without any hidden meaning, to Pippa, and to many others, they could easily look like something else.
With Monica and Rachel, the situation had naturally cooled off. They lived in New York, thousands of miles away. There was no need to unfriend them on Facebook, even Pippa admitted that would've been too much, so the matter faded with distance.
Willa was different.
Even though her schedule was increasingly busy with her professional life, she still lived nearby.
They still watched movies, attended nerdy gatherings, and at all of them, he and Willa talked a lot. Maybe not as often as before, but it was still happening.
And Andrew understood that wasn't exactly normal.
At least not by traditional relationship standards.
Of all his friends who had girlfriends, none of them maintained close female friendships the way he did.
Kevin, who was dating Sophie, didn't have a female "best friend." Reggie, who had been seeing a girl for three months, didn't either.
Sure, at social gatherings, they could get along with Haley or Cana, and be friendly with other girls in the group, but there wasn't that one-on-one bond, that level of closeness.
He did have that with Willa. Andrew wasn't doing anything wrong. He wasn't crossing any lines. But he knew that from the outside, it wasn't that easy to interpret.
The only way those kinds of friendships truly worked without misunderstandings was if your girlfriend was also friends with the girl in question.
A kind of friendship triangle where everyone knew each other, everyone shared time together, and there were no gray areas or tension.
Like what they had in Friends: Joey with Monica. Or Chandler with Rachel.
He knew he needed to be more careful in the future when it came to female friendships. At this point, he couldn't just cut Willa off. They had been friends for over a year. He wasn't going to erase her from his life that easily.
He stopped thinking about it. He turned at an intersection, and as he kept driving, he shifted his thoughts to a different topic.
Money. That was a clearer field.
Right now, he was doing fine. More than fine, actually. He had savings that exceeded $100,000.
When he bought the Camaro, he'd dropped below six figures, but months had passed since then, and now his balance was back over the hundred-thousand mark.
It was a real fortune for any teenager, and yet, he knew that financial freedom had an expiration date.
When he got to college with a full scholarship to play football, he'd have to stop monetizing his image.
The NCAA rules were clear, and archaic.
College athletes couldn't profit from their name, image, or status as players.
No sponsorships.
No monetized YouTube channel.
Nothing that could be seen as "compensation" for being a public figure in sports.
And even if Andrew said: 'Well, I'll just keep uploading videos without naming my college, without using logos, or saying I'm a quarterback…' the truth was, people would recognize him anyway.
He'd be on ESPN.
Playing in stadiums that held 50,000 or more. People would know who he was.
And even if he wasn't trying to profit directly from that, the NCAA could still say he was exploiting his image as a college athlete, and that would be enough for a suspension.
It was insane, considering the amount of money college football generated.
In 2009 alone, it was estimated that NCAA football brought in over $2 billion per year in Division I FBS alone.
That included revenue from:
TV rights.
Ticket sales.
Sponsorships and commercial deals.
Merchandising.
Private donations (boosters).
Bowl games.
Television rights were one of the biggest revenue sources. ESPN, CBS, FOX, NBC and others paid hundreds of millions to broadcast games.
Teams like Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama would fill stadiums with over 80,000 spectators per game. A single packed stadium could bring in millions just from ticket sales.
And even with all of that, players weren't allowed to accept a protein shake sponsorship.
They couldn't even keep their previous income if they continued producing content under their name.
They had to disappear from the economic map.
Andrew thought the whole thing was complete bullshit, and that was coming from someone who didn't even love money.
The players were the ones who filled the stadiums, took the hits, provided the entertainment… and they couldn't even accept a free pair of sponsored cleats without risking suspension.
But since he came from the future, he knew this would eventually change. Around 2021, finally, college athletes were allowed to start monetizing their name, image, and likeness (NIL).
A historic, though long overdue, victory.
Andrew, however, wouldn't live through that era. His college years would begin in 2012, during a time when the NCAA's rules were still just as strict, and just as unfair.
The worst part was that it wasn't even about colleges paying the players a salary. That was still off the table.
In 2021, the NCAA had simply said: "Now you can profit from your own image."
That was it.
No extra money from the universities.
No formal contracts.
No real recognition for the sacrifice of competing at an almost professional level.
So, when Andrew started college, he would have to stop monetizing his videos and accepting sponsorships. He didn't want to risk getting sanctioned, losing his scholarship, or worse, being expelled.
"Damn thieves," Andrew muttered with a scowl.
All because of that façade of "amateurism." Meanwhile, stadiums were packed and hundreds of millions of dollars were changing hands.
The money Andrew had already earned was safe. The NCAA couldn't sanction him for financial activities that took place before entering college.
Andrew had earned that money from his YouTube channel as a minor, without being affiliated with any university. He didn't use the image of any school or his status as a college athlete.
Legally, in the U.S., a minor can earn income (from YouTube, acting, etc.) as long as it's regulated by parents or legal guardians.
In his case, his father, who was a lawyer, had made sure everything was properly legalized. Mitch never left loose ends, and he was already aware of how strict the NCAA could be.
So Andrew was completely clean. Take that, greedy bastards.
Even so, the reality was that during his college years, he wouldn't be able to generate new income.
He would have to live off his savings. And that wasn't bad at all, over $100,000 to stretch across three or four years, especially considering his scholarship would cover housing, food, and tuition.
Plus, he still had two more years before college, where he could keep making money.
But he didn't like the idea of spending three or four years without producing a single dollar.
Capitalist mindset? Maybe.
So he was considering two options.
Option 1: Revive his gaming channel.
His first YouTube channel had over 150,000 subscribers. He had created it before the sports one. He had pushed it to the side because it was incredibly hard to juggle two channels, an active social life, disciplined training, games, and good grades in school.
Monetizing that channel wouldn't be straightforward. First, he'd have to grow it again. Keeping it alive in college might be tough, but not impossible.
Option 2: Create something "new", like he did with Flappy Bird.
In his past life, that game went viral in 2013. With his time-travel advantage, Andrew recreated it before 2010, even before the original creator. He made thousands of dollars off that move.
But now, what if he went further?
What if he created a more ambitious game that hadn't launched yet?
Or an app?
Or even a social media platform?
He had ideas. Thanks to his memories from the past, he knew about things that, as of now, didn't yet exist. And while he didn't remember every detail perfectly, he had enough of an edge to stay ahead.
But he also knew he couldn't do it alone.
He had programmed Flappy Bird using what he'd learned in school and self-study. He wasn't a programming genius.
Flappy Bird could be considered simple, if he wanted to build something bigger, he'd need help. And he already had two friends in mind.
Plus, creating a successful app or video game had one major advantage over YouTube: once it was done and released, it could generate passive income.
With YouTube, you had to constantly make new content. It was, essentially, a job.
But with a viral app or popular game, once the initial work was done, the rest was just occasional maintenance, updates, and collecting the revenue.
Still, he wasn't entirely sure. It would take time, and his schedule was already packed.
He also had Bitcoin.
And a lot of it.
He had started mining a while ago, fully aware of how valuable it would become in the future.
Mining at that time was as easy as just leaving your computer on.
Andrew already had over a thousand Bitcoins. He knew that, in the future, that amount would be worth millions.
It would be insane to sell BTC during his college years, even just a few, when each coin might only be worth a couple of dollars, or maybe just over a hundred.
Still, he would plan ahead.
He had two full years to properly organize his finances, create something new, and make sure his current money would last, without touching his Bitcoins.
At that moment, his Camaro rolled through the entrance of the Mater Dei parking lot. Andrew knew the place well.
But today was different. Today, the campus was packed.
Cars everywhere. Students getting out with backpacks, uniforms, folders.
Groups laughing, others running late. Teachers giving directions to the more lost-looking kids.
The atmosphere was unmistakably academic.
Many students turned their heads in surprise at the sight of the spotless yellow Camaro turning into the main lot.
Some whispered excitedly to their friends, "It's the Transformers one, dude!"
Andrew parked in his usual spot. He turned off the engine, grabbed his backpack, and muttered as he opened the door, "Let's do this."
He shut the door firmly, and for a brief second, caught his reflection in the tinted window.
He couldn't help but make a face at what he saw.
He was wearing the Mater Dei uniform, something that, unlike public schools, demanded a polished appearance.
Gone were the days of athletic wear, loose T-shirts, or oversized hoodies.
Now he wore a crisp white shirt with the school crest embroidered on the left pocket, dark gray dress pants, a black belt, and polished black shoes. Over the shirt, a maroon blazer with gold trim and the school emblem on the chest.
He even had on a burgundy tie. He looked neat, almost elegant.
'Hard choices require strong wills,' Andrew thought, shaking his head.
Maybe he was being a little dramatic. He slung his backpack over one shoulder, turned around, and started walking.
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