The Chrysalis Project - Chapter 24

I woke up to a violent nudge followed by a casual laugh full of mockery.

“Wakey wakey, nice drool,” Hayden’s infuriating mocking voice spoke out between laughter.

I hesitantly opened one eye to see a happy yet annoying Hayden Whitehall, smiling right above me as he hovered closely.

“Ew, why are you in my apartment,” I said lazily, slurring my words, “don’t you have class or something?”

“Elites like me don’t need to attend lectures,” he explained casually.

Still remaining still on the bed, I yawned loudly as I stretched my arms, kicking the duvet away as I try and wake myself up before he tried anything stupid, like tickle me or something.

“Grumpy kind huh, I’ll remember that for next time,” he winked jokingly.

“Won’t be a next,” I yawned again and kicked him in his left thigh, causing him to wobble back a couple of steps.

I finally lifted myself up from the bed and eyed Hayden irritatedly, clearly not amused that he was just able to get into my place without my permission.

“Go to class,” I rolled my eyes.

“Says the sleepyhead, shouldn’t you actually be in a lecture soon?”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you broke into my house and that you came to visit me on a day where I have school.”

“What if I told you I did a thing?” Hayden asked wearily, slightly uncomfortable.

“What did you do…” I asked hesitantly, still glaring at him.

“So, I came here today because you’re actually moving to the twenty-first floor, in about an hour or so,” he said as he looked at his phone for the time.

“Why would you pick a Monday to move, that’s so stupid, I have class!” I complained.

“We got professional movers coming in later, so you’re actually not doing any of the moving, you kinda just need to get out of your house before they arrive.”

“I don’t want random people touching my stuff, how the hell would I know where they will be moving my stuff exactly?”

“Just trust me, they’re really good at their job, they will move your entire place upstairs in the exact same positions if you wanted. But the new floor is a lot bigger so they will actually give you a big diagram of where they moved everything,” Hayden explained.

“How big are we talking about?” I asked, “this is already a two bedroom apartment plus a den.”

“Starting from the twentieth floor the units get a lot bigger,” he shrugged, “your floor now has about ten units per floor right? There are four units per floor starting from the twentieth, and from the twenty-fifth floor, two units, and thirtieth floor…”

“Yeah, I know, the entire floor is one unit,” I sighed deeply, “but I still don’t get why I need to move, what’s the point?”

“Right, I was about to get to that actually,” Hayden smiled awkwardly and grabbed the closest chair as he sat down next to me.

“So, I know you are technically my assistant and all, but officially the story that was told to the school was that I am sponsoring you, therefore upgrading your overall…status?”

“I don’t follow,” I blinked slowly, “am I supposed to magically just be a rich kid now or something?”

“Something like that, you know most of the students here are already stinking rich, as you would say,” he chuckled slightly, “but those rich students are just sons and daughters of rich bankers or small business owners. They’re rich but at Valentino, they are just regular people, do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, slightly following now,” I admitted.

“So a scholarship student among them is the same, you’re just a regular student, which is why they place you in lower floors with rest of the regular students. But when social and financial changes come with time, the school understand there must be changes to accommodate along with your current status. Which goes back to the moving, among other stuff…”

“How are sponsored students somehow better off than regular students?” I asked curiously. It made no sense, sponsored just means the original student didn’t have enough money to even be a regular student.

“They aren’t,” Hayden said abruptly, “but it changes if the sponsor is an elite, or someone with enough status for the school to say that the sponsored student’s change in status is significantly better off than regular students.”

“I’ve never heard of this when I joined this school, Valentino sure has some absurd rules,” I scoffed.

“Well, they don’t broadcast sponsorship to just everyone, it’s mostly on a need-to-know basis more than anything.”

“So, I just have to now accept that my net worth is somehow more than most of the stinking rich students here because it’s you that sponsored me?” I rephrased, profoundly shocked by this information.

“Well if you want to put it like that, then yeah?” Hayden said with uncertainty.

“What the fuck did I sign myself up for?!” I said to myself aloud, both of my hands covering my face.

“A lifetime of good things, why the hell are you sad?” Hayden said judgingly, glaring at me.

“Because this is all so stupid, and none of this makes sense, but apparently I just have all these privileges without a cost?”

“Because I’m paying for it, you bum.”

“I know we talked about all of my doubts before, I just have a hard time believing all of this is happening at once. Not to mention the fact that I can only just sit here and watch it happen to me,” I complained desperately.

“Yeah, you’re sitting here complaining about it when you should be enjoying every moment of this, honestly.”

“Okay, fine,” I sighed, “I did say I would try and enjoy this and try new things.”

“Good,” Hayden smiled, “now get your lazy ass up and get ready, we’re going to settle some last minute paperwork for the school.”

“More paperwork?” I pouted, “I have lectures soon.”

“Yeah, it’s important, it has everything to do with your status, and forget about your stupid lectures, they won’t matter later anyway.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” I jumped off of my bed and slapped him in the arm, “I can’t just skip classes, I’m not an elite like you and have my entire life set up to succeed, grades are everything I need to graduate.”

“Not after this status change you won’t be,” Hayden smirked, “and plus, what did I say when we signed our own contract? I’d cover you for as long as you need until graduation, so you don’t need to worry anymore about classes or grades.”

“I’ve been studying my ass off for years so I can get into this school, so trying at something and consistently working at it is my forte, what am I without it?” I confessed gently as I sat back down, slightly unconfident and scared of the future.

“Nothing,” Hayden said plainly, causing me to be surprised, “but that’s what’s so interesting, let’s do stuff to change that, so you don’t have to resort to constantly working and tiring yourself that you don’t even know who you are anymore.”

“Fine, but if I feel like I am uncertain, can I still go back to attending lectures if I wanted to?”

“Yeah, you’d still be on the class list, you just don’t need to attend or do any work for that matter, but we’ll make sure the stuff you’re trying and learning is much more useful by graduation,” Hayden said as he reached over to pat my head gently.

“I’m not your pet,” I protested but didn’t move a muscle as he continued to play with my head.

“Then stop me,” he teased as he continued to ruffle my already messy bedhead.

“Get the hell out of my room, I’m gonna get ready,” I said as I stood up and charged at him, pushing him out of the door in the process.

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