It did not take James long to clear out half of the requests. Right after he was done, he sent a mass message to his inbox, apologizing for the delay. Most of the people that inboxed him were worked with James more than once, so James felt bad leaving them hanging like that.
After he finished working, he immediately logged out and ran a script to delete the histories and the related data on Maribel's system. Out of curiosity, he checked his bank account to know how much was there.
"Wow, almost two hundred thousand dollars! I was not even keeping track", James was surprised.
James purely worked online for the love of it, but making money off of it was secondary. It was not too surprising for him at all. Mary, his late mom had always said "You are the Rick in your favourite cartoon".
Right after James confirmed his bank balance, he immediately worked on the video that Angel asked for. Fortunately, he had the habit to back up his files every ten minutes, so it was easy for him to download the project online and resumed where he stopped.
James had thought it was going to take longer to finish considering the hardware capabilities of the MacBook, but he was amazed by its smooth performance. It was not that bad compared to his ASUS laptop. Soon after, he completed the video, right before Maribel came in with dinner.
She had completely forgotten about James, and seeing James still using her computer, she became mad and yanked the MacBook from him. Fortunately, in the last second, James ran another script, restoring the state of the laptop before it was given to him.
"I said one hour, but you did three. No internet for you for additional two weeks." James sighed wearily and slowly walked to the dining. I painfully hope she does not end up like Martha.
He had this nagging feeling that he forgot something, but he shrugged it off immediately.unexpectedly
It was not until Maribel called for Josh, but he did not respond, that James knew why he had that feeling. 'OMG, I almost forgot!" James thought out loud and quickly said his trigger word, snapping Josh to reality. He seemed to be confused, as he looked around like he had dementia. "What happened?"
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
It was Friday, and James class was buzzing with activities. Christmas was arriving, so the class started decorating the class with decorative flashing lights, balloons, and pictures of Santa.
Meanwhile, James was reading a book related to advanced Biology. Biology subject was not really his thing, but he did it anyway to kill time. The English teacher didn't come that day, so naturally, the class performed other activities.
A female student brought her laptop and a portable projector, and someone closed the door and the windows curtain, so the class went dark. Then she connected the projector to her laptop and displayed it on the whiteboard.
Before she started, she stood up and asked anyone who would watch for any teacher that might out of the blue come in, and someone raised his hand to volunteer. He would stand up and peek at the frosted glass section of the door and search for anyone that might come in.
Then the movie started. It was the latest trending movie on the internet, so most of the students were already familiar with it. However, they still chose to watch it together.
Although the movie was engrossing, James was not too captivated by it. His mind dwelled on how he would better his AI program. It was already better, but James being a perfectionist, was not quite satisfied with the result. He wanted it to behave strikingly like a human, and he would not stop until he achieved it successfully.
His mind wandered to Maribel. Two days from now would be her birthday. Angel had already made her birthday gift in form of a video, and Josh had secretly bought her a present. James knew this when he was digging in his memories.
Even with his low EQ, James knew that it was not right to be on the wrong foot with Maribel during her birthday, so he had a plan on how he would clear his name, but that would affect Josh too. If he cleared his name, Josh would be affected, if he didn't do anything, his own reputation would be affected. This was a serious dilemma for James.
He did not even know why he was thinking about Josh's welfare, because he was the one that caused this anyway. Maybe because he didn't want to hurt Maribel, that was the reason for his thinking.
James was still thinking when he had a feeling that someone was walking to the class. He looked at the door and could see a very faint outline of the principal walking in the direction of the class. James had forgotten to turn off his enhanced senses, so he was able to hear her footstep even if it was very inconspicuous.
"Principal is coming guys", James simply said. The girl playing the movie paused the movie and stared at James questionably. "You said the principal was coming", she asked with open eyes. James hurriedly nodded.
"But how did you know that? You are staying far away from the door", one boy who was seated beside Henry said. James could sense that the principal was coming closer to the classroom. "I'm telling you the truth, quickly put away your laptop and projector", James said slightly hastily. He did not want the girl to be implicated.
The girl appeared sceptical, but as the boy who was assigned to check the door, saw the principal on the verge of opening the door, hastily made a sign to hid her laptop. The alarmed girl quickly placed her laptop inside her bag, but she did not have time to put away the projector.