“Then I’m afraid we have nothing more to discuss Vance. I’ll pass on to your benefactor that you have refused this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and will take the easy path, remaining a loser the rest of your life. Good day, young man. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.” She looked away as if she were gathering her things together now that the ‘interview’ was over.
Vance’s cauldron was boiling over and he was about to explode. He had never felt so enraged before in his life! His parents had always told him he could be anything he wished to be for as long as he could remember. They always encouraged him, held his hand through tough times, and helped him in every way they could. And here he had just been presented an unreal opportunity and it was just going to slip through his fingers? He recalled just now telling his parents that he wanted them to be proud of him. They brought him here to meet this no-name blonde-headed bitch, knowing he would be offered this chance and he was going to just blow it off?
At that moment, something happened inside the young lad seated across from this beneficent nemesis. Something snapped inside his head and his heart, and firmly clicked into place. Resolve! His heart started racing, pumping blood as though he was running a marathon. It was as if his entire life had boiled down to this one moment of clarity and commitment. He LOVED his parents. They had given him their all for the entirety of his life. They got him here, got him to this precipice, this narrow gateway, and by God he wasn’t going to let them down.
“I’ll DO it!” He stated emphatically. “I’ll take your damn courses. Just tell me what I gotta do.”
She laughed and laughed hard at his puny spunk. “You think you have what it takes boy? You don’t know the half of it yet. But maybe, just maybe there is a spark in you after all. If you want that Harvard education, you’re going to have to earn it. You’re going to have to work your butt off and study like you never have before. We will register you for your summer session classes which will start in just one week. Then you will take the courses we register you for, for all four years of your entire high school regimen, which will include summer sessions between each year. You can’t refuse to take a single course we register you for. There will be no goofing off, not on my watch.”
She continued, “And if you think that it’s going to be a cake walk, listen to this. Not only will you take every class we register you for, but you must earn a grade of 3.6 or higher on each and every course. If you ever receive a report card with a grade below 3.6, then the deal’s off. You will have proven me right and shown the world that you don’t have what it takes, you can’t cut it and that you’re nothing more than a born loser. And believe you me, nothing would please me more!” She said vehemently.
Vance shot to his feet. “Now it’s your turn to listen to me, whoever you are! I don’t have a clue who you are or what it is that you have against me, but I’m gonna prove you wrong! You think calling me a few names will make me cut and run? Well obviously you don’t know me lady. I ain’t no crybaby and I ain’t no quitter and you damn sure don’t know what I’m made of! But I’m about to show you. I’ll take every damn class you throw at me and make the grade, you can bet your life on. So lay it out for me lady and you can go tell my benefactor, whoever he is, that his faith in me has not been misplaced. I’m gonna make him and my parents proud, you can bank on that. But as for you, I’m gonna make you eat your words, lady. And I hope you’re hungry when I do.”
Vance looked the blonde headed bitch directly in the eye. At that instant he observed an unusual reaction in her face. What was it? Disgust? No, she’d already laid that on thick. Fear? No, she looked like she could kill him as easily as talking to him. Recognition? That seemed right. But how? He was one hundred percent certain that he had never seen her before in his life. What was it she saw in him just now?
“Then we’ll just see what you’re made of, won’t we young man?” She slid another paper in front of him. “Just sign this acceptance form at the bottom and by the end of the day, a new bank account will be established on your behalf in the name of your parents and an account administering trustee. $400.00 will be placed into that account for now. $100.00 for each year of your high school. If you somehow miraculously achieve the grade point requirements for all of your course work and graduate with a 3.6 or higher GPA, then $100,000.00 will be placed in that same account as a start towards your Harvard education.”
Vance was stunned to hear what she had just told him. This was for real! He quickly grabbed the pen sitting on the table and signed the document.
“If you ever see me again, Vance, it will be IF you graduate high school having met the requirements laid out for you today. To be perfectly honest, I believe the resolve you just expressed will fizzle out soon enough and you’ll go back to your old habits of screwing around and achieving nothing. It goes against everything within me and my personal beliefs, but I am compelled by your benefactor to say the following words to you, ‘Good Luck young man’.” And she reluctantly offered her hand to shake. He took her hand with unease.
“Now with our business concluded, will you please leave and get out of my sight?”