"The two weeks passed, I am now in the top nine hundred of the whole school! But this is only the beginning, it's time to move up even into higher realms, restless until I am the most popular in the whole school! There is also some kind of obstacle, the winter holidays started, for two more weeks I am not going to be in school."
"Even though this sounds as I get slowed down it still could get a bit interesting, one week I am going back to America…hehehe, I thought much about it, should I stay polite but don't hide how much I changed and developed, maybe even completely hide it, but sorry, I heard that flexing with what you have or reached makes you only more enemies or give you bad luck especially if its arrogant tone and way but I need to do this! They haven't saw me in about halve a year, I was so disciplined with staying calm and polite the whole time here, I just need to do this!"
In the rest of the two weeks' vacation with school he had a much faster pace at becoming popular, one reason is that it was not really school students were more open and less stressed.
"JULIAN, come! We are moving now to the airport, come!"
Julian was excited internally very much; he had a big smile of excitement on his face and went down.
"America is going to be great!"
In America they decided to stay at the house of Julian´s grandparents, after only a few minutes talking with Julian they noticed the change in him, back then they only thought "Poor Julian, why is he so antisocial, I hope he gets some friends in the future maybe?" But this version of Julian seemed to be not existing anymore, they thought that Japan influenced him in such a good way!
"Also, when we still lived there, we lived near my grandparents, so there is a high chance to meet people from my old school, Hehehe…"
Back then he wasn't just antisocial, he was insecure, you could almost say it was social anxiety, but now, he wasn't afraid of them anymore, he wanted to encounter them!
"Grandma, it still needs a bit time until dinner is ready right?! So, I would just look around the neighborhood a bit, I wasn't here for a long time."
"Sure, go if you want, it still needs longer!"
Julian went out, he looked left, then right. "This place feels so trusting but so strange at the same time, even though I didn't have any real contact with anyone in this neighborhood I still now were everyone lives, also the one that I went with in school."
He walked for a while, looked at his old house that was completely empty, at least to now no one wanted to these guys after looking at it for seconds he wanted to keep on going, in the distance he saw someone, it was someone that was sometimes bullying him, not always, but every time this guys had anger to get rid of.
He recognized Julian already from a distance, they walked at each other, Julian with a nice smile, the bully also with a nice smile, only that you could see that this guy is evil.
"I just stay calm, but don't he dare to bully me again!"
"Julian??? I haven't seen you in a while, I heard that you moved after Japan?!"
"Yes, for the new school year I moved because I father works there."
"Cool, cool, and how is it there, aren´t you also not halve Japanese?!"
"It's nice there, you know, I got raised more in a Japanese way, there this is just normal, I think, I want to stay also for my next and last year."
He nodded and said, "Yeah I am mean that were you are belonging to right, into your country back, right?!" He said smiling, he didn't expect that he was going to defend himself that much.
"The fuck you are saying, shut up."
"Ohh, did I hit a weak point?" His devious smile got even bigger.
"Just don't say something like this again and apologize!"
"What if not, why don't you back after China or were your coming from, why are you even saying now something like this to me, a few months ago you seemed as you didn't care?!"
Julian became serios, he tried to be as frightening as possible and said "Why don't you care about your own business, why you think you are that you think that you can talk like this or anyone else like this, did no one ever teach you simple manners? Maybe your parents thought from beginning on that it will have no use if you even have parents?!"
Silence.
He walked away, not crying but silent, he lowered his head and was going forward, Julian stayed cold like iron, he also continued to walk further, exploring the neighborhood after so many months away again.
"Hehe, this worked perfectly, who else is going to try bullying me?"
He walked further until he was at a playground, he was not looking at it, he thought about how he defended himself and about future plans, on this playground some from his class and neighborhood chilled there, they also recognized Julian because he had the reputation in the neighborhood of the "Loner" or "Antisocial guy" or just "Weirdo" or "Creep".
Those on the playground weren't bullies, they were just some bystanders, some of them even kind of liked Julian a bit.
"JULIAN???"
He got kicked out of his thoughts and looked at the playground; he decided to go to them.
"Hello, I am just back because of holidays."
"How are you and how is Japan?"
"Yeah, I am good."
He tells them about Japan and how it was without going to much in detail or depth, they continued talking for a while until one of them said "In two days there will be a party, do you want to come."
Everyone was excited about what he was going to say because he never accepted such an offer.
"Okay sure, were?"
"W-what really???"
"Yes."
They looked at themselves like they see a ghost, it was something big "Mercer Julian isn't antisocial anymore and even wants to come to a party?!" They all had similar thoughts like this.
"O-okay, it's in our neighborhood, only two houses next to mine, if you know where this is?!"
"Still remember, see you then! And merry Christmas!"
He slowly went home for dinner.
"This was already good for the first day…sigh…Hehe, me exactly one year ago I never thought that I will be like I am right now!"
"Tomorrow is Christmas, I really wonder how it is going to be, the first Christmas without my mother…"
The next day.
He woke up really regenerated, after his mind also woke up, he smiled "Heh, I don't know why but I feel really good today?!"
"I thought much about it why I ranked so much more at the school vacation then in school, I not only think it was the environment but also the strategy, becoming the most popular means being famous and liked, not having loyal people liking you."
"I should go out now, some of the others are probably also already awake, today also my uncle and his family comes for Christmas, instead of my father he wanted a big family, he already got his first child very early, he has four now and even is already grandfather, my father waited until his mid or late thirties."
Over the last six months he has not only changed from antisocial to charismatic, but internally he drifted more and more into something bad.
"Good morning!"
"Good morning, when will my uncle arrive?"
"He said in about three to four hours, you know that he lives much apart from us."
"Wait, I still need to ask my father to allow me to go to the party tomorrow!"
His father was in the backyard, he seemed very pensive, Julian asked "Father, I got invited to a party tomorrow, can I go?" His father didn't even look at him and said cold, indifferent "Sure, if you want to."
"Sigh…what´s wrong with him?"
Until his uncle arrived, he helped his grandparents in the household and other tasks, like this and a bit of resting the four hours passed like he only blinked once or twice.
"Hello, we haven't saw us in a while!"
"Heh, you grew, didn't you?"
His uncle is extroverted and overall playful but most of the time Julian blocked those attempts, the first time he didn't block it.
After some time talking, the uncle asked, "You changed, haven't you?"
His cousins that were around his age or a bit older were also surprised that he was so different.
"So, kids it's time to look what you get for presents!" Both of his grandparents said.
"This is going to be fun."