03 - How did you do that?

As I had already taken my shower and dressed in my school clothes, I waited a little longer in the room while continuing to work on the computer.

This was a parallel world, this was something I heard from God himself, but I was still surprised to see that several songs that were successful in my previous world, in this world didn't even exist.

Since I didn't listen to music while I was walking, I didn't realize this earlier, but now I was surprised to see Noah's playlist and notice that I didn't know any of these bands.

I liked Rock in my previous world, from heavy Rock to Indie Rock, I knew a huge amount of music by heart, with the lyrics perfectly stored in my mind.

'Would this be a good idea to start making money?' I started thinking. 'Considering my current appearance, it might be a little difficult to get gigs in nearby bars to make quick money, but I can learn to sing while playing the guitar and post on MeTube to make long-term money and promote my music.'

Following the path of music was a dream for many people, but most lacked individuality.

Luckily for me, I had so many ideas from bands from my previous world that I could take ideas from several of them to have "originality" in this world, as well as a huge repertoire of lyrics that were already successful and that I could use to be successful in this world. world too.

Of course, as I didn't have time to develop this since I had to go to school, I just decided to look for singing lessons on the internet and practice it in the spare moments I had until I got back home.

After a few minutes had passed, I saw that it was time to wake Ethan up, so before that I made my bed and organized my things.

This was one of the things little Ethan fought about with the old Noah, but he just ignored it thinking it was his little brother's annoyance, but I knew that an organized environment was a great ally for someone with ADHD.

When everything was tidy, I woke Ethan up.

"Come on big boy, it's time to wake up." I said in a calm voice next to him.

Initially he was a little lost, not understanding what was happening, until he reasoned and woke up quite easily.

Even though I could see he wasn't entirely awake, he just went to the bathroom on autopilot, not even noticing the difference in my hair.

Seeing that he woke up without any problems, I also left the room and went to the kitchen with my backpack.

As soon as I arrived in the kitchen, I saw Olivia touching up her makeup with a small mirror while my new mom was making some eggs for breakfast.

"Good morning…" I said, not really knowing how to deal with these two.

Honestly, these were the two most difficult people to deal with in the house, both my mother with her perfectionism, and Olivia with her self-centeredness, and this got even worse when she entered High School, as she joined the popular group. while I was one of the excluded, which pushed us further apart, as she probably felt that our social hierarchy was not equal.

Just as I imagined, Olivia didn't say anything while my mother responded. "Good Mor…" But before she finished answering, she looked at me and saw my new haircut.

"Oh my god! Noah, what happened to you?!" She screamed in fright as she ran towards me and looked at my freshly cut hair.

For a woman like her, hair cut in such a rebellious style was as scary as a horror movie, but I already imagined it would happen.

Little did she know that I still wanted to bleach this hair, just like my hair in my previous world, but I would leave that for later.

At my mother's scream, Olivia also looked in my direction, curious, which made her raise her eyebrow slightly as she nodded, probably liking my new cut much more than our mother.

Considering that the average person's stats are 10 points, I went from 3 Charisma points to 5 points, taking a huge step forward in looking more visibly likable, which Olivia clearly noticed.

At least if she liked it, that means this cut isn't something weird in this world like I was worried it would be.

Now looking at the desperate woman in front of me, I sighed as I responded. "I just felt like cutting it, my long hair was a lot of work to maintain and looked really ugly, so I cut it myself."

Hearing that I cut my own hair, the two women had different reactions, with Olivia surprised that I could get a good cut on my own, and my mother shocked that I used my guinea pig's head to get a haircut for the first time.

"Are you crazy? Imagine what could have happened to you? Did you cut yourself somewhere?" She said as she started looking for any cuts on me.

At this point my patience was running out, as I wasn't used to dealing with someone demanding so much from me, I only got to this point because of the old Noah, so I took a deep breath and responded trying to remain calm.

"Mom, calm down. I didn't get hurt, my hair looked good, nothing bad happened, you see? There's no reason to worry, I saw a lot of videos before you did this to me. Now calm down, okay?" I said in a serious voice as I placed my hands on her shoulder and spoke in a calm tone.

When she heard me talking like that and holding her shoulders like that, surprisingly she calmed down.

"I think it's okay…" She said a little confused as she went back to cooking.

-------- Lauren Commentary --------

Sitting on the couch, with a lost expression, Lauren didn't quite know how to react.

"I was so worried about Noah, but the way he spoke to me…" She paused. "I don't think I've ever seen my son speak so confidently… he looked me in the eye!"

When Lauren realized that Noah had looked into her eyes while talking to her, she was shocked.

"Even though I was worried about him, just seeing that confidence he showed made me very proud, and the security he gave me, as if everything was under control when he cut his hair, really convinced me!" She said excitedly.

For someone like her who had perfectionism, the feeling of security was very important, and the security that Noah gave her at that moment was enough for the perfectionism to shut down for a few minutes and just make her happy.

Looking at the camera with a little embarrassment, Lauren said in a low voice. "I didn't say anything to him, but the more I looked at him during breakfast, the more I thought that haircut suited him, making him look much more stylish. I just couldn't say that and imply that I would approve of a style as rebellious as that…”

-------- Commentary Ends --------

Seeing how calm my mother was after I gave her security, the one who was most shocked was Olivia, who had never seen my mother act like this towards her.

The expression on her face told me clearly that she couldn't believe I had dealt with my mother so easily.

When I sat down at the table, she quickly came close to me and asked in a low voice.

"How did you do it?"

Knowing what she meant, I pretended not to know as I took some of the eggs to eat, since the toast I ate with my father almost two hours ago didn't satisfy me. "What do you mean?"

Looking at me in disbelief, Olivia asked. "How did you get her to accept your hair so easily? I was sure she was going to freak out on you for at least another 30 minutes."

Taking my gaze away from my eggs and looking at her, I just smiled slightly as I replied. "Magic."

Hearing my response, Olivia was surprised for a few seconds, until she realized I was teasing her and snorted as she went back to doing her makeup.

I didn't care and went back to eating.

-------- Olivia Commentary --------

Instead of the anger she showed towards Noah at that moment, Olivia had a slightly surprised expression as she sat on the couch and looked at the camera.

"Noah is different today, he's able to talk to me normally…" She said. "It had been so long since he spoke to me, for a second I felt like my big brother had returned."

-------- Commentary Ends --------

When Ethan came downstairs and saw my hair, his shock was as big as my mother's, but unlike her who was shocked and worried, Ethan just got excited as he looked at my hair and asked me to leave his hair. same as mine.

Hearing his request, I saw my mother looking at us worriedly.

I knew Helicopter Mom mode was kicking in, so I tried to balance that.

"How about after school? When we get there I can cut your hair with our mom's help." I told him calmly, with concise information and set timing, which for someone with ADHD was key.

Just as Olivia was shocked at how I calmed my mother, my mother was now shocked at how easily Ethan accepted this and sat down to eat breakfast.

She probably imagined that Ethan would have trouble accepting that I couldn't do this right now and would keep asking for it over and over, but seeing how calmly he accepted everything, she didn't understand why.

Luckily she didn't complain about me cutting his hair after she heard me saying that she would be there when I cut it.

Good thing cutting Ethan's hair can help me level up my Skill faster.

When we were all done eating, my mom took us to school, first dropping Ethan off at his school, and then Olivia and me at our school.

Knowing what I would have to deal with at school, my mood already worsened a lot.

I always had problems learning the subjects, so my grades were always low.

The only reason I liked going to school before was because I was away from my dad, and because of my friends.

Now at Noah's school, not only does he not have many friends, but these friends are also clumsy and don't know how to talk properly, they only talk about topics that I don't care much about and to make matters worse, the 'bullies' at this school still bother me. from him.

'I hope these kids don't bother me, as I won't listen quietly.' I thought grumpily as I walked into the school, leaving Olivia behind as she went to talk to her friends, and heading towards my first class room.

'And to start the day off right, I'm still going to have to start studying mathematics... how great...' I sighed mentally as I entered the room and sat in my usual place, the last chair in the last row, since my large size covered the view of the other students if I sat in front of someone.

[Buff Acquired!

Mathematics Classroom
Effect: +50% bonus when learning Mathematics-related content.
Duration: While in this room.]

Looking at this Buff that appeared out of nowhere, I was shocked.

Since I didn't have anyone to talk to, I decided to pick up the math book and try to learn something.

Just looking at these complicated formulas made me think my head would start to hurt, but I was surprised that it didn't seem as difficult as I imagined.

In just a few minutes I was able to study and completely understand the content explained in that chapter of the book, which made a notification appear in front of me.

[Intermediate Mathematics Lv 1 (+18 Levels)
Effect: +19% ease in understanding and applying intermediate math concepts.]

Once I learned this new skill, the speed at which I could learn increased much faster.

What I previously needed to read five times to understand, now I could understand just by reading it four times!

Without me noticing, the class started and I was still focused on studying the math book, which before seemed like torture, was now quite interesting as I understood the applications of these formulas.

Despite my large size, I was normally quite ignorable in class, as I hardly disrupted the class, or tried to participate, but because of my new haircut and the 2 points of Charisma I received today, I think my appearance stood out a little more than usual and the teacher asked me.

"Black, can you tell me the result of that calculation on the board?" The teacher asked me, trying to get my attention from the manga he probably thought I was reading.

Looking at that question on the board, if I depended on my previous knowledge to answer, I would probably have a lot of difficulty, but luckily this was part of what I had just learned in the book, so I thought for a few seconds and answered.

"The result of X is 16, professor." I said in a confident and slightly disinterested voice, since learning from my book was much more interesting than answering the teacher.

Hearing my answer so quickly, I could hear some mocking laughter around me, but when the teacher confirmed that I was right, everyone became quiet.

With an intelligence of 9 points where the average for a normal person is 10, that meant I was slightly below average, I probably wasn't the dumbest in the room, but I was still in the bottom half so it was really surprising to them I wish I had gotten this question right.

Ignoring their comments, I went back to studying my math book until a new notification popped up.

[+1 INT]