The Divide Had Long Been Decided

"Link, did you know? Yesterday's party was amazing. That girl was definitely interested in me—she made this face at me!" While eating lunch in the cafeteria, Kevin, who sat across from Link, spoke as he mimicked an expression.

"Really, Kevin?" An Asian student seated nearby showed obvious envy. "That's incredible!"

Seeing the expression Kevin was making, Link could not help saying, "Stop it, Kevin. If a beautiful girl made that face, I'd be interested. But if it's you, forget it."

The three chatted as they ate. About twenty minutes later, lunch came to an end, and they began discussing math.

In truth, Link had not expected Kevin to be so gifted intellectually. Everyone knew Black people were naturally physically strong, but in most cases, their intellectual gifts were rather lacking.

But God was fair. There was no shortage of Black people in this world with exceptional minds, like the protagonist of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness that Link had watched in his previous life.

The real-life inspiration for the film's protagonist was a Black man who had received very little education, yet became a famous actuary on Wall Street. His talent and persistence had both played equally important roles.

Kevin was also very talented. In terms of intelligence, he was not much worse than Link was now. The Asian student beside them was Dan.

Dan and Link had met in the library. Later, Link realized Dan was quite talented as well, so he brought him along with Kevin to join Lola High School's Math Olympiad Class.

Perhaps it was because he had encountered noticeably more highly intelligent people in this life, but Link even wondered whether he had truly come to a parallel world. Of course, it might also have been because he had never been exposed to these circles in his previous life.

After the two discussed things for a while, class was almost about to begin. Link stood up and said, "Time to go to class. I'm going to the restroom first, then I'll head over."

"I'm coming too!" Kevin and Dan nodded as well. After tidying up, they followed Link toward the restroom.

Thud, thud. Before they even got close, Link heard a series of dull sounds coming from the restroom, like someone striking an object.

Link frowned slightly but did not stop. Kevin and Dan hesitated and paused. Only after seeing Link push open the restroom door did they exchange a glance and continue following him.

As Link opened the restroom door, he heard voices inside.

"Crawl on the ground like a dog!"

"Hahaha... Look at him. Isn't he hilarious? Doesn't he really look like a dog?"

"You're absolutely right!"

Ninth Grade was about to end, and Link had already spent a year in high school. He knew he had come across a case of school bullying.

An ordinary-looking, frail white boy was lying on the restroom floor. His face was covered in bruises and blood, clearly showing that he had been beaten badly.

Several tall, powerfully built white boys stood around him, laughing and joking. Some mocked the bullied boy, while others occasionally kicked him.

"Get out!" One of the muscular boys immediately turned and shouted when he noticed someone entering. But after the words left his mouth, he recognized Link.

"Are you talking to me, Tommy?"

"...Link. Ah, no, of course not!" The moment he saw Link, Tommy became nervous. "I-I was talking about myself. Right, I was saying we're about to get out!"

"Good. Then why aren't you gone already?"

"Okay, we'll leave right away!" With that, Tommy and the others with him quickly rushed out of the restroom.

Taking advantage of that moment, Kevin and Dan raised their middle fingers at the bullies leaving the restroom.

Of course, they only dared to do that when the others could not see them. If it had not been for Link just now, they would not even have dared to enter the restroom. In high school, nobody wanted to provoke the school bullies.

After they left, Link did not bother with the frail boy. He found an empty urinal, relieved himself, and left.

This sort of thing was widespread on campuses throughout North America and had even become a serious social problem. If he deliberately intervened, those people would definitely target the frail boy even more viciously afterward, so Link showed no concern.

When he had first entered high school, Link had intended to keep out of the school bullies' way. But clearly, he had forgotten about the troublemaker by his side—Lena.

This girl had been a troublemaker even in middle school. After entering high school, she adapted quickly and thrived. Recently, she had formed a Youth Diva group with two other girls and seemed to be planning to compete with the currently most popular twelfth-grade girl for the so-called Queen title.

Because she fit American beauty standards so well, there was naturally no shortage of hormone-driven high school boys pursuing her.

Quite a few of them disliked seeing Link tutor Lena after school every day, so one Football Team player had specifically come to warn him.

Ever since entering high school, Lena's mother, Mrs. Dent, had raised Link's tutoring pay to 10 US Dollars an hour—twenty US Dollars a day.

Even just for the sake of his own savings, Link naturally could not give up such a well-paying job. The two sides thus came into conflict, leading to the kind of after-school woods brawl that so many high school students loved to see.

Obviously, while those guys could rely on their naturally large frames to bully weaker students, they were facing Link. He was now over 180 centimeters tall and weighed more than eighty kilograms.

His build might not have given him an absolute advantage against individual Football Team members, but in terms of strength and fighting skills, Link—who had trained with Robert for the past year—completely outclassed them.

What began as one-on-one fights turned into groups of three or five coming to cause trouble, yet they had never succeeded. Instead, they ended up in miserable shape every time. After several such incidents, they chose to take a detour whenever they saw Link.

Elizabeth had not mentioned it during their conversation yesterday, but this experience was also an important reason why Link was popular with girls.

In the United States, boys like this were indeed the type many girls—especially girls who liked excitement—were drawn to.

The next class was Social Practice, an elective. Link had chosen Basic Psychology, though most students chose Life Skills.

The practical courses covered a wide range of topics, such as cooking, milking cows in basic agriculture, handicrafts, and skills like repairing cars.

Of course, by the time Link was reborn in his previous life, more than half of American schools had already canceled these courses. But they were still widespread in public high schools now.

The reason such courses existed and had been incorporated into the curriculum was not difficult to explain.

Students in American high schools could generally be divided into two groups. One group planned to attend college and continue their education, while the other entered society and began looking for work after graduating from high school.

For students planning to attend college, life-skills courses were obviously not particularly important. Things like cooking and milking cows had little use for them.

But for students planning to begin working right after high school graduation, these life-skills courses were extremely practical.

In many American films and TV shows, people saw how men in American households could do so many things themselves and thought they were amazing, practically capable of anything.

In reality, those people could repair cars, unclog drains, and plane wood because they had received this kind of life-skills education in school.

At the same time, labor costs in the United States were high. Hiring someone to do work cost a great deal in wages, forcing people to handle many things themselves. It was also a way to save money.

Of course, at private high schools, Life Skills classes differed greatly from those at public schools, and the subjects taught were also very different. There were more options like the Basic Psychology Link had chosen.

The reason for this distinction was simple: could students attending private high schools really come from families short on money?

Basically, the paths of private high school students' future lives had already been planned out. They did not need to work as hard as public high school students doing these kinds of tasks.

Simply put, private high schools taught more cultural and academic knowledge. Even hands-on skills were combined with such knowledge, focusing on teaching students how to make a living with their minds and knowledge, or how to manage. These were the people considered society's elite.

It could be said that the broad divisions of American students' futures had already been decided in high school. While not absolute, they determined the futures of the vast majority.

Upon careful analysis, this was reasonable, but it was also cruel. This was, in fact, the normal state of society. Most students were simply immersed in happy education and had not deeply understood the cruelty behind it.

Next came PE. Link had naturally chosen baseball. In fact, Coach George, the severely overweight football coach, had once wanted to recruit him for the Football Team.

But compared with baseball, football involved much harsher collisions. Players also had to wear thick protective gear, leaving them drenched in smelly sweat during summer. Combined with Westerners' active sweat glands, the odor was not something worth describing. Baseball was relatively less intense and required no heavy protective gear, making it much better.

Thus, Link wanted nothing to do with football and firmly made baseball his only athletic choice. In Texas, aside from football, baseball was the most popular sport.

Kevin had initially been very enthusiastic about football, but the results were not great. He had talent intellectually, but clearly had not inherited the physical gifts of Black people.

After trying several times and getting himself covered in bruises, he ultimately had no choice but to give up and devote more energy to the Math Olympiad Class.