It was a bright sunny Saturday in Canada, and inside his room, James completed all the requests in his inbox. He checked all of his earnings in his bank account. "$13,400, not bad," he said and closed his eyes. He just dared himself to stay up for twenty-four hours and code all day, which he completed four minutes ago.
Now that James thought of it, his stomach growled loudly, and he just realized he had not eaten. "Oh my, I gotta get lunch." James stood up from his chair and felt oily and grossed. He hasn't bathed in a whole day, so he quickly removed his cloth and threw it on the basket bin nearby.
When he stared outside the window, he covered his eyes in pain. "Too bright!" Because James was staring at the screen for more than a day, his vision has become blurry, so he blinked repeatedly to clear his vision.
Then there was a knock on the door. Maribel walked into his room without waiting for a reply with a stern expression on her face. "James, I thought we agreed for you not to stay up all night. Explain yourself."
James looked at her and bow his head in embarrassment. "I'm really sorry mom. I did not know that time passed so quickly when I was co—uh gaming, I'm sorry mom." James could not tell Maribel that he was working overnight, so he used gaming as an excuse.
Maribel, on seeing James like that, sighed. She could not help but forgive him. "Alright, don't worry okay, but next time, if I catch you staying up in the night, I will punish you, you hear?" Maribel scolded with a gentle voice. James nodded and smiled, and it infected Maribel too.
"Alright, here is your breakfast, and lunch. Eat up, and oh, there is a birthday party at my friend's place. If you like, you can come over." James looked up to Maribel. "Did you say, a birthday party? Who is the celebrant?"
"It is my friend's daughter. She is turning twelve today. So, are you coming?" Maribel asked again. James bowed his head and pondered. He initially did not want to go, as he had already made plans himself, but he does not want to disappoint Maribel, so he begrudgingly agreed.
Maribel smiled and turned to leave, before saying "Dress up, it's in an hour time". James opened his mouth in agitation. 'One hour? I thought it was tomorrow or next week. Why today?' he was depressed.
But again, he could not afford to disappoint Maribel, so he went to the bathroom to take a bath. In about ten minutes later, he was fully dressed, with a tank top and jeans. After looking at the mirror and confirming he was party-ready, he headed to his study desk connected his smartphone to his laptop and plugged it in power before leaving his room and closing the door behind him.
When he arrived at the sitting room, he saw the rest of the family, apart from his foster father, already prepared. Maribel was putting a bow on Angel's head, and Josh was playing a game on his console, with the same dress code as James.
"Oh James, you are done. Alright, let's go" Maribel said and prompted James and the rest to go to the car. After Maribel made sure the alarm system was active, locked the door and proceeded to the car. Josh ran to her mom and whispered something to his mom, but James had an acute hearing, so he was able to hear what Josh was saying.
"Mom, why is James coming to the party, and why did you invite him?" Josh said and took a quick glance at James in disgust. "Josh, you have to be nice to James, I do not want to hear another word about this okay?" Maribel scolded him and opened the car door. Josh grunted and entered the front seat of the car, and continued gaming on his device. Maribel started the engine and drove off to the venue.
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"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to Jasmine…" the crowd sang for the celebrant, who was grinning from ear to ear and tears on her face. "Hip hip hip, hooray!!"
Meanwhile, James sat on the far end of the garden using his smartphone to improve on the AI that he was creating. He had already fixed the AI's function that could not retrieve info on the web, and now, the artificial intelligence project can now tell the time, the weather, and even tell him jokes, although, it was a bit cringe at the moment, he was making progress.
Right now, he was running multiple passes on the algorithm he created yesterday. He spent all his time and effort writing the algorithm. The algorithm purpose was to 'humanize' the AI so it acts like a human, in such that it talks like a person, emulate emotions, and make facial expressions like a human. This has never been done before, ever, and so it had not been easy for him.
"Hi!" a redhead boy smiles and sat at the table. Unknown to the boy, James had tuned out all distractions and was laser-focused on his screen, so he was not able to hear what the boy said. He was about to make a breakthrough in AI technology. "Alright you take this collection of compiled data and transfer it on this block. This should work, right?" James mumbled as he ran the AI.
The redhead boy, seeing James ignoring him, repeated his greeting again, this time, louder. "Hi!" James was startled by the voice, so he dropped his smartphone on the grass on the floor. James quickly picked up his phone and making sure that he was still on his current screen, turned and glared at the boy that distracted him.
"Oh, I'm really sorry for startling you, I didn't know you were doing something. What game are you playing?" the boy asked as he proceeded to sit on the seat opposite James.
James could not be angry at such a nice lad, so he dropped his anger and smiled weakly. "Yeah, I—I was not playing a game," James said. The boy raised his eyebrow. "You weren't? Wow, I wonder what could have taken so much of your attention apart from gaming" the young boy said and brought his smartphone and launched the Call of Duty game.
"Here is the game I play a lot. It's my favourite. Try it, it's fun" he said and handed his smartphone to James. James wanted to decline gently, but as he saw the boy's eagerness, he sighed and collected the phone.
"Wait, I haven't asked for your name" the boy widened his eye and asked. "James" James simply said and began playing the game.