February 26th 2010.
The first week was hell. They made him perform all kinds of tests and Dr. Veronica Sanders – the best physical therapist of the resort – was a demoness. Jay was certain she had an S&M streak, the woman was a freak and he wasn't talking about her figure, although he had to admit she was attractive.
Late twenties, 5"9, fiery red hair and green ocean eyes.
She donned a white shirt and a dark red skirt that reached her knees underneath her white blouse, as well as black stockings. She was probably every teenager's wet dream, and she was aware of it.
Jay glanced at the woman who was reviewing his progress. He was sure that the training he was undergoing would allow him to reduce his rehab time considerably, she was pushing him past his limits.
Veronica sensed his gaze but ignored him. Once she was done with her assessment, she took off her glasses.
"Well, you've held on longer than I thought you could. Congratulations on passing your first week, you've reached a mile stone." she stated, her eyes never leaving the documents.
Jay felt his mouth twitch. "Ah well, it's all thanks to your... care." he said, and he could've swore he saw a smile crossing her lips for a second.
Veronica got up from her seat and asked for Larry, who had been waiting outside, to come in.
"You can start him up on the treadmill, set the speed at 3km/h for one hour, do it twice a day. Don't forget to hook him up to the electrodes and don't let him go over the limit. Keep using the adjustable steps, 20 sets, every morning, 20 after lunch and 20 at night. Start him on weights too, but small ones, nothing above 5kg. No more than 15 sets and do it twice a day. Do that for one week and double everything for the next. I'll be overseas for the next two weeks so you arrange his schedule, report to me once I'm back." she said.
"Yes, Dr. Sanders." Larry nodded and waited for Jay to get up, but the latter remained seated.
"Larry, please wait outside for a second, I'd like to have a talk with Dr. Sanders." he said.
Larry glanced at Jay, then at the woman before leaving and closing the door behind him.
Veronica sat back at her desk, not paying the teenager any heed.
When she realized he wasn't budging, she wearily asked "Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Aslan?"
"Have I offended you in any way?" Jay straightforwardly asked.
Veronica stopped what she was doing and looked up at the teenager in front of her for the first time since he had walked in.
"Why would you-" she started but was cut off midway.
"If I have, then I apologize." he said, then got up from his chair and walked slowly towards her.
He put his palms face down on her desk and stared straight into her eyes.
"However, if I haven't and the reason you've been ignoring me and have deliberately intensified my training is because of some personal matter you're struggling with, I hope you'll quickly get that settled and stop venting your feelings out on one of your patients, doctor, because that's unethical. The only reason I'm letting this slide without notifying your superiors is because you haven't really done any harm yet and I did benefit from the training." having said that he made for the door, rending the redhead completely speechless.
When he was about to cross the threshold, he stopped and turned back.
"Is it because of the eyes?" he asked.
"Sorry?" Veronica puzzlingly inquired after snapping out of her daze.
Jay smiled and turned back. "So it's the mole." he chuckled and left, closing the door behind him.
Leaving the beautiful doctor frozen in place.
***
March 15th 2010.
Almost a month of rehab and it was doing him good.
"Stats."
[Showing host's current status]
Jay Aslan - Male - 15 Years Old
Level 1. Exp 0/10.
– Attributes –
Appearance: 14
Intelligence: 15
Charm: 9
Strength: 5 (-3)
Agility: 5 (-3)
Health: 5 (-3)
– Skills –
[Prime]
Singing: 25/50
Acting: 16/50
Piano: 15/50
[Sub]
English: 5/5
Korean: 4/5
Swedish: 4/5
French: 4/5
Russian: 3/5
Chinese (Mandarin): 1/5
Spanish: 2/5
Attribute Points: 0
Skill Points: 0
Overall Evaluation: In poor health and shape, you can do better!
He still hadn't received any missions from the system but his stats had changed. His appearance, charm, strength, agility and health had all went up, while his negative status had reduced.
He looked better now, but was still as skinny as ever. If he had looked like a starving wanderer before, he now looked like a recovering anorexic.
One good point was that his cheeks were no longer sunken in, and as he had suspected there were dimples on each side of his cheeks. He reckoned that was why his appearance and charm had gone up.
He had started learning Chinese mandarin and Spanish. The first one was a completely new experience and honestly he didn't think he'd be very proficient without the system's help. Spanish though was much easier; first it had a set alphabet, second it shared similarities with French and third, well he had the system.
He had started singing again, and his voice was just as good as the one he had had before, if not better. His acting still sucked though – he hoped the system could help with that, as long as he kept at it, he should be okay – and his piano skills were rusty – he had tried himself on the one in the resort's lounge.
He couldn't find a guitar so no way to get the skill, he hoped his predecessor had one at home, otherwise he'd have to buy one. He missed his calluses.
His phone buzzed and he took it out. His mother had insisted he got one so that she could call and text him everyday (which she did, too bad FaceTime didn't exist yet) and Lou had furiously nodded in approval.
Helen had gotten him the latest iPhone available... the 3GS.
Jay couldn't help but smile wryly, how he missed his smartwatch.
He checked the text message and involuntarily broke into a grin.
[From: PAYPAL.
Dear Mr. Aslan, your bank account ##### ##### ######## ## has successfully been linked to your PayPal account.
Thank you for your trust,
PayPal.]
Jay exited the text app and opened the PayPal one. He immediately wired 2100$ from his bank account to his PayPal account and received a notification that he would have to wait 24h for the transaction to be verified and accepted.
When he was done he sprawled on his bed and laughed.
He had asked his mom if she could lend him 100$ before leaving, and she had chuckled and shoved a credit card and bank account information into his hands.
"I set this up earlier for you, there's 4000$ inside. What? Did you think we would send you to Switzerland without anything?" she had giggled at his stunned face and cautioned that he use it wisely since that'd be all he would get considering his stay, meals and accommodations were all accounted and paid for, courtesy of Henri Escoval – that he had still yet to meet, by the way.
Jay was thankful for the man, he knew that although his family was rich, it wasn't to the point were they could afford getting him the kind of Junior Suite he was staying in; not for 6 months at least.
He had checked in on February 19th and would check out on August 25th, which meant he would stay 187 days here. At 650 CHF the night, that was a total of 121,550 CHF grand total, or roughly 125,350$.
Even for them, that would've been much. But Henri Escoval had happily footed the bill. Jay thought he should prepare a gift to thank the guy; whatever his motive was, he had done him a solid.
He glanced at the calendar on his nightstand and closed his eyes. Two more days.
In two days, on March 17th 2010, he would make his first move.