All Chapters of My Future Self Called: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

The instant I clicked the mouse, every ounce of strength drained out of me, and I sank back into my chair.A confirmation window popped up on the screen.[Congratulations. Your full scholarship offer from the University of Elinseburgh has been confirmed.]I stared at that line for a full three minutes.My phone screen lit up. It was a message from Harley MacGowan.Harley: [Babe, did you pay the rent this month?]Harley: [My account's dry. Send me three thousand for now, just to cover it.]A clingy little sticker followed, the kind he always sent when he wanted something.The old me would have opened the transfer screen the second I saw that message, no questions asked. Half of everything I earned tutoring on the side went to his rent, the other half to his clothes and dinners. I'd thought we were building something together, that he was just stressed about his grad school exams and needed me to hold things up.But my future self had told me the truth. He'd already secured hi

Chapter 2

Three days after I turned Katy down, she suddenly asked me out to dinner.She picked Bellini's, the little bistro on the street behind campus, the place we'd been going since freshman year.By the time I got there, Katy was already seated in a booth, makeup done just right, smiling and waving me over."Anita! Over here, over here!"I sat down. She slid the menu over to me immediately, fussing over me in a way that felt almost excessive."My treat today. Order whatever you want."I raised an eyebrow and said nothing, just picked two dishes at random.We made small talk for five minutes before she finally got to the point."Anita, I really can't handle my senior thesis."She set down her fork, her eyes rimmed faintly red."You know my coding is weak, and my advisor's on my case constantly. If I don't graduate on time, my mother will kill me."She reached out and gripped my wrist, the pressure calculated just right, somewhere between affection and pleading."Just help me this

Chapter 3

Friday night, my roommate dragged me to a graduation season get-together."Come on, come on, it's our last one ever. If you don't go now, you might never see half these people again."I'd meant to say no, but then I reconsidered.Fine. I'd treat it as a goodbye.The party was at a karaoke lounge next to campus, a big private room, more than twenty people packed in.By the time I arrived, Harley and Katy were already sitting together. There was one seat of distance between them, which looked normal enough on the surface.But I noticed the way Katy's elbow kept brushing his arm, and the way his body leaned toward her without him seeming to notice.Details like that, the old me would have looked right past. Now, every one of them felt like a crack in the surface.Someone suggested a round of truth or dare. The bottle spun, and the mood kept climbing.On the third round, it landed on Katy."Truth or dare?""Dare!" Katy said with a giggle.Whoever had proposed the round was alre

Chapter 4

"Anita, stop right there!"Harley caught up to me, grabbed my shoulder, and spun me around. His face was a mix of panic and anger."What's your problem? Embarrassing me like that in front of everyone?"I shook his hand off and stepped back, staring at him coldly."Harley, do you even understand what just happened? You and my best friend hugged, and you're the one storming out to interrogate me?""That was truth or dare. It was just a game!" he said through gritted teeth. "Can you not blow this so far out of proportion?""A game?" I let out a cold laugh. "Was your face going white when you shoved her off you also part of the game?"That caught him off guard. His chest heaved for a long moment before he managed to force out, "Anita, what's actually going on with you lately?"You won't help Katy, you won't send money, you won't answer my texts, and now you're picking a fight over nothing. Are you doing this on purpose?"I leaned against the wall, arms crossed, studying his flushe

Chapter 5

My voice wasn't loud, but it was like a hand closing around Harley's throat.Every word he'd been about to say caught in it.His pupils shrank. He stared at me, unblinking."What do you mean?""I mean, who told you I wouldn't go abroad?"I said it again, watching Harley's expression slide from mockery into confusion, then into a flicker of panic.He opened his mouth, his voice coming out thin. "You said you weren't going, didn't you? You said you'd stay and study for your exams...""I changed my mind."I pulled out my phone and opened the confirmation page for my University of Elinseburgh offer, the screen's glow lighting up his ashen face."Full scholarship. AI program. I leave next month."Harley went completely still. His eyes locked onto the university's logo, his throat working up and down, and he couldn't get out a single word.Down the hallway, Katy had come out at some point too. She stood against the wall, her face even worse than his.She understood better than an

Chapter 6

A month later, I landed in Elinseburgh.September in Elinseburgh was all steady drizzle, the air carrying the smell of wet earth and heather.I dragged two suitcases out of the airport and took a deep breath of the foreign air.No one had come to meet me. No one was waiting for me.But I had never felt so free in my life.The first week, I threw myself into adjusting to a fully Elinseburghese-speaking environment, buried in the library until closing every day.The second week, I worked out the application process for the AI lab. It needed a letter of recommendation from an advisor and a small independent project to show for myself.The third week, I sought out the professor myself, a man named Preston Rohm.His office was at the far end of the fourth floor of the computer science building, the door half open, the room packed with papers and a whiteboard covered edge to edge in equations.I knocked three times."Professor Rohm, I'm Anita Grey, a new student in the AI program.

Chapter 7

By the end of my first semester, I'd officially become a core member of Professor Rohm's lab.There were six of us in the group, and no one took me seriously at first, not until my first project presentation.My module was the transfer-learning piece of the multilingual sentiment recognition project. In two weeks, I pulled the group's accuracy up from seventy-nine percent to ninety-one.The day I presented, I stood at the whiteboard and walked through my methodology, and when I finished, the room went silent for three full seconds.Then one of the PhD students started clapping, and the rest followed.Professor Rohm leaned back in his chair, the corner of his mouth lifting in a rare, small smile."Not bad. Faster than I expected."After that, no one in the group questioned my ability again. I started taking on more and more central work, spending upward of twelve hours a day in the lab.Was it exhausting? Yes. But every minute of it was spent burning for myself.That exhaustion

Chapter 8

In the spring of my second year of grad school, Coogle's technical vice president came to Elinseburgh for an academic visit.Professor Rohm put our lab's project front and center for the visit and arranged a small technical demonstration.I was in charge of walking through the core algorithm module.I wore a black blazer that day, hair pulled back into a sleek low ponytail, and stood in front of the projector screen delivering a twenty-minute presentation in fluent Elinseburghese.When I finished, the vice president leaned over and said something to Professor Rohm. Professor Rohm smiled and nodded.After the meeting, he called me into his office."Anita, Coogle's very interested in our project. There may be further talks about a partnership down the line. If it eventually goes as far as an acquisition, you'll get an equity payout as a core team member."My heart started racing, but I kept my expression steady. "Professor, what do you need me to do?""Keep doing exactly what you

Chapter 9

The Coogle acquisition talks moved faster than anyone expected.Right at the start of the next semester, Professor Rohm called us all into the conference room, wearing an expression of gravity I'd never seen on him before."Coogle has formally made an acquisition offer. Our multilingual sentiment recognition project is valued at just under twenty-nine million dollars."A collective, sharp intake of breath went around the room.The professor swept his gaze across us and let it land on me."Anita, as the lead developer of the core algorithm module, your share of the equity payout comes out to around one and a half million dollars."My mind went blank for a full three seconds.One and a half million dollars.I was twenty-plus, sitting in a conference room in a foreign country, hearing a number large enough to change the rest of my life.One of the PhD students clapped me on the shoulder. "Anita, well done."I smiled and didn't say anything. What surfaced in my mind was that nigh

Chapter 10

Five years after I landed in Elinseburgh.I was twenty-seven, standing at the top floor of an office tower in the world's greatest financial hub, the City of Langdon.Between the Coogle equity payout and the returns from the Eklund Growth Fund, I'd had the seed money to start my own company: an AI investment firm focused on incubating and funding early-stage tech ventures.The first year, we funded three projects. Two of them returned fivefold.The second year, the firm's valuation crossed the hundred-million-dollar mark.The third year, my name showed up on World's 30 Under 30 list.Twenty-five years old, self-made, worth nine figures.Everyone said I was a genius, that I'd gotten lucky, that I was the golden child of the times.No one knew it had all started with a phone call from the future.That afternoon, I'd just finished the last term sheet on my desk when my assistant knocked and stepped in."Ms. Grey, there's someone downstairs asking to see you. No appointment.""W

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