It has been a full week since school started, and I have finally gotten used to my new daily schedule. I also started eating my lunch in the library since it is remarkably quiet and safely away from all the judgmental eyes of the student body.
I specifically forbade Sheldon from trying to find me during this time. Luckily, he still has not figured out that I eat my meals in the library. Otherwise, he would definitely start bothering me with his endless chatter.
After Sheldon went around attempting to make everyone in the entire school his friend after reading that cursed book, he officially announced himself as the weird kid. Some students even thought he was a special needs kid as well.
I genuinely did not want to sit anywhere near him anymore. Before the accident, I was known simply as the silent kid. I absolutely did not want to be labeled as the silent, weird kid who sits with his incredibly strange younger brother. I would be labelled as a pathetic loser with no friends. Right now it was a choice but it could be a tag.
In this first week alone, I have already finished reading and completely understanding everything related to science and mathematics that I was ever going to be taught at this high school. Mostly, it was just revision since I already knew the majority of the material from my previous life memories.
It is surprisingly much more fun to study when you are actually enjoying the material. I suddenly understood Sheldon in that specific regard. However, having been a completely normal guy in my past life, I knew exactly how off putting it was to yap about advanced physics to ordinary people. It simply makes you look like an insufferable know it all.
I had gone from being a normal, slightly smarter than average fourteen year old kid to being a literal genius. It was an overnight cognitive transformation. It was practically impossible for people not to notice that I had changed. My speech patterns naturally shifted a bit as well.
Therefore, I tried my absolute hardest to stay completely quiet most of the time to make these massive personality changes feel gradual rather than instantaneous. I was already considered slightly more mature than the average fourteen year old after surviving my severe accident.
However, this incredible new level of intelligence just made that maturity far more obvious. I had to actively monitor and adjust my everyday vocabulary so that people would not become suspicious of my suddenly expanded lexicon. I truly did understand Sheldon's isolating perspective now.
The growing intellectual difference between me and my teenage peers was glaringly obvious. It was not intentional, and it was certainly not an act on my part. It was simply that interacting with people my own age suddenly took on a highly unpleasant edge. My natural tone and mannerisms accidentally projected all the exhausting characteristics of a crotchety sixty year old man talking down to a young whippersnapper. It was combined with a deep impatience for the naivete that only the abrasive young can display in such an arrogant manner.
If my new, overly mature persona irritated the young students, it completely infuriated the middle aged adults around town.
Words of wisdom, even if they are not particularly profound, coming directly from the mouth of someone in their seventies is one thing. It is generally acceptable, but
It is an entirely different situation when that same unsolicited advice comes from a punk kid.
The youthfulness of the speaker steps up the negativity by an entire order of magnitude. I was only fourteen, and that made me a disrespectful punk kid as far as any local adult was concerned. Because I was a bit older than Sheldon, people would not find my quirks cute and would most likely argue.
So, for now, I remained purposefully isolated and alone.
________
It was Sunday while I was resting in my room, Mom gently knocked and stepped inside.
Mary definitely noticed the subtle changes. She prayed hard for my wellbeing every night and even came to the high school to personally check on both me and Sheldon during the lunch period to ensure we were adjusting properly.
She even wanted to sit with us during lunch. I knew that would be an absolute disaster, so I vehemently shook my head to say no to her when I saw her approach the table.
I sighed upon seeing Mom coming inside my room. Now it seemed it was time to bring the topic up once again.
"Charlie, I am really worried about you spending all your time cooped up in here," Mary said, her brow furrowed with deep maternal concern. "High school is supposed to be about making connections. Have you tried talking to any of the boys or girls in your classes?"
"I talk to people when I need to, Mom," I replied smoothly.
"That is not the same thing. I just want to see you make some real friends."
"Alright, Mom, I will definitely try it," I said, mostly just to appease her and make her leave the room so I could get back to my dense textbook on advanced group theory.
It was a heavy college level book, and I was having far too much fun learning entirely new concepts. In my free time or whenever a high school class became unbearably boring, I would mentally visualize everything I had read. I understood it all intrinsically, forming my own unique mathematical theorems.
My mind was a world of its own now. I could spend the whole day just thinking of things inside my head, processing numbers and everything else I knew.
Mathematics is genuinely fun.
To successfully appease my mother and actually attempt to make some high school friends, I realized I first had to make myself appear more approachable and decent.
That evening, I firmly decided it was time to get a proper haircut. So, I got the money for a haircut from Mom.
I wanted to look significantly different from Georgie. It was becoming a massive hassle to take care of all this long, unruly hair every single morning anyway.
It was fun for a few days, but the novelty quickly wore off. Hats off to Georgie for committing to the long hair.
I decided to ask the barber for a curtain bangs haircut. The style is cut so that the long front fringe parts right in the middle, or slightly off center. It falls smoothly down the sides of the face, looking very much like curtains framing a window.
It was the absolute best hairstyle choice because I would not have to do much daily maintenance to keep it looking good for a long time. It also instantly made me look completely different from my twin brother.
I desperately needed that visual separation. The previous version of me had deliberately copied Georgie's messy look in hopes of attracting a girl, but I was simply not that foolish kid anymore. Though I certainly still liked girls, I would not copy Georgie.
This new, cleaner hairstyle actually helped to greatly accentuate my eyes and made me look rather dashing. I possessed much brighter blue eyes than Georgie or anyone else in my immediate family, and the new cut framed them perfectly. Most people already differentiated us brothers by our eyes alone.
I definitely looked noticeably more handsome after stepping out of the barber chair.
When I finally got back home and opened the front door, it was almost time for dinner. The entire family was already gathered around the kitchen table waiting for the food.
I stepped fully into the bright light of the kitchen, and the loud background chatter instantly died down.
Mom froze with a wooden spoon in her hand, her eyes widening in absolute shock. "Oh my goodness, Charlie," she gasped, quickly rushing over to inspect my face. She grabbed my chin gently, tilting my head from side to side to check if everything was okay.
"You cut off all your beautiful hair! My sweet boy. You look like a completely different young man."
"You look very handsome," she added warmly.
George Senior looked up from his evening sports section, blinking several times as if trying to clear his vision. "Well, I will be damned," he muttered in genuine surprise. "You finally look like you have some proper sense in your head, son. It is a massive improvement over that messy mop you used to drag around."
Dad always wanted us brothers to cut our hair short. It was an old school football thing, but we had never listened to him before.
Missy leaned over her empty plate, squinting at me critically. "You actually look weirdly pretty now," she announced bluntly. "At least it will be easy to tell which twin is the nerd and which one is the dumb one."
Georgie immediately scowled from his seat, crossing his arms defensively. "Shut up, Missy. I am pretty too." He turned to me with a frown. "Why did you cut it, man?"
"I just wanted to try something different. By the way, you are pretty too," I said to Georgie with a straight face. He did not even know I was making fun of him. Ah, the sheer joys of dealing with a simpleton.
Georgie just grunted and went back to his dinner after saying something about how chicks dig long hair and that it was my loss. That remark quickly earned him a swift smack on the back of the head from our mother.
Sheldon simply observed the exchange silently before going right back to eating his dinner.
Meemaw was also having dinner with us tonight. She usually came over to eat with the family at least three times a week, bringing her own brand of chaotic energy to the table. She easily had the best reaction to my sudden transformation. As soon as I walked in, she immediately stood up from her chair and walked right over to wrap me in a tight, affectionate hug.
"Look at my handsome grandson," she declared proudly, pulling back to pinch my cheek. She genuinely loved all of her grandkids, but I always suspected that I was her secret favorite. It was most likely because I had inherited the name of her late husband, Charlie. That shared connection always seemed to grant me a little extra grace in her eyes.
She often slipped me a few extra bucks whenever Mom was not looking, telling me to go buy something nice for myself. I genuinely loved her for that constant, unspoken support. There were very few people in this busy household that my new, highly advanced mind could easily tolerate on a daily basis.
Meemaw effortlessly claimed the very top spot on that short list. She was undeniably cool, completely relaxed, and she never nagged me the way Mom constantly did. She simply cared for me as I was. Honestly, what more could a kid possibly ask for?