Chapter Four: Tom
"Son! Are you paying attention?" my father bellowed.
I struggled to stay awake."Yes, Papa! If sales production increases by fourteen percent in the next six months, the profit of the average employee-" I yawned. "Would be...would be..."
Just when I was about to slip into unconsciousness, I was awakened by the slam of my father's paw against the table. For the third time.
"Tom, please, stay awake here. You have that test tomorrow and I want you to do well."
It's not that I don't like the business program at school, or any business for that matter, it's just that I can't stand these study sessions with Papa. Papa's a successful storekeeper and has always encouraged me to be one too. In fact, he's been telling me since before I could walk that one day I'd take over the family business. I'm looking forward to it; I always have. But, really, any more father-son marketing lessons and I'll hate retail.
Papa's just going overboard. He gets that way a lot.
He handed me a five-hundred Bell coin. "Will this help you study?"
I groaned. Not because I didn't want the money, I just really didn't want to study. I know all of this all ready! "Can't you just take me to your store for a while instead of studying? Reading is boring."
"Do you want to become successful?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"Then you need to work for your money." He pressed the coin into my palm. It was cold.
"Fine," I grumbled. Mom always called me a Bell-pincher because I had saved every Bell I'd ever received. She said I got it from my father. Papa's extra careful with how much he spends and, as a result, we live luxuriously in a nice, open, country mansion. He said it took him five years of saving to afford a house like this one. I admire the guy. He's an honest man, my father. I've always looked up to him.
I tried my best throughout the session and ended up doing pretty well. I'm prepared for my test tomorrow. That is, if I don't end up with liquified potassium—or whatever it was—in my eyes again.