Chapter 3

Kevin Chen stepped forward, his face pale. "Mark, come on, man. Just let him go. What's the big deal?"

Mark barely glanced at Kevin. "Stay out of this, Chen. This is between me and Thompson."

He turned back to Alex, a smirk playing on his lips. "An apology, Thompson. Or maybe you need some incentive."

Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick wallet. He fumbled for a moment, then extracted a crisp hundred-dollar bill.

He held it up. "Here. One hundred bucks. All you have to do is admit you're a failure. Admit you peaked in high school. And then congratulate me on Stanford. Publicly."

Brittany giggled, a high, unpleasant sound. "Yeah, Alex. Take the money. It's probably more than you'll make all year."

The crowd egged them on. "Do it, Thompson!" "Take the hundred!"

Alex looked at the money, then at Mark's expectant face.

"You really don't want to do this, Mark," Alex said, his voice low. It wasn't a threat, more like a statement of fact. A warning.

Mark laughed. "Oh, I think I do. I really, really do." He waved his Stanford acceptance letter, a thick, creamy envelope with the prestigious university crest. "See this, Thompson? This is real success."

Brittany chimed in, flourishing her own letter. "USC, baby! Top film school! What have you got, Alex? A big fat nothing?"

Other students joined in, showing off their Ivy League keychains, their state university pennants, their expensive college-branded jackets. A sea of logos and boasts.

Alex felt the weight of the medallion in his pocket. It was cool to the touch, made of an alloy he knew was still experimental, still classified.

He sighed, a small sound lost in the noise. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the medallion. It was small, unassuming, almost plain. A dark, metallic disc with a subtle, intricate design etched into its surface, a design only a handful of people in the country would recognize.

He held it up briefly, not flaunting it, just showing it.

"This," Alex said, his voice cutting through the din for a moment, "is my acceptance."

Mark squinted at it. "What is that? A bottle opener? Some kind of cheap keychain?"

Brittany peered closer, then recoiled dramatically. "Ew, is that from some weird club? Like, a Dungeons and Dragons guild pin? So lame, Alex. So, so lame."

The crowd erupted in fresh laughter. The medallion, so significant to Alex, was just another object of ridicule to them.

Alex looked at their laughing faces. He almost smiled. They had no idea.