Chapter 245 The Olympics 1
Eva was very happy when Jake returned home and even more so when she received Tom Cruise’s autograph, she was very proud to know that her son would be in a movie with Tom Cruise.
She didn’t have to wait long to see, Jake showed her the camcorder footage, the picture quality was much lower than the cinema, but Eva was happy to see her son performing with Tom Cruise.
Of course Jake explained that if this was put into the movie he wouldn’t appear with Tom Cruise in the scene, yet she didn’t care, it was cool enough to see her son playing a great actor.
Over the next few weeks Jake spent his training, he was focused on winning for sure at the Olympics, the school also ended after a few weeks and Jake didn’t attend prom as he said he wouldn’t.
He wasn’t a party-keeper, and besides the people in his room and some people on the basketball and football team, he had no one he knew at this ball, and even if he does, it wouldn’t hurt everyone’s ball.
Everyone closest to Jake who studied with him got great grades and went to the universities that took the test, of course, he still had to know if they would be accepted by the universities.
Basketball and football teams would have the help of the school as promised to them when they all transferred to Elite school, of course not everyone would receive a scholarship.
But just the opportunity to go to university would be something many young people would fight for, so everyone was pleased, having entered the elite school that had a good reputation helped all students get a chance at university.
Jake had a party at his house after the prom and called all his classmates, his teammates in basketball and football, everyone who was invited to the party showed up and was surprised to see Jake’s mansion.
Few students outside the basketball team knew that Jake was rich, many were prejudiced and also thought that Jake was poor for getting into the school through a scholarship, but now they realized how foolish they were, Jake never needed a scholarship with how he had as much money as he was smart.
That was a happy day when they would meet maybe for the last time, some let it slip that Jake would attend the Olympics and everyone promised they would watch and cheer for Jake, Jake thought he was lucky not to say he had participated in the Tom Cruise movie.
At the end of the party Jake stayed with only his closest friends, he talked much more with his basketball teammates, after all even though Jake intended to keep in touch with them was not something that could be guaranteed.
He also wanted to keep in touch with his teammates he had before moving to Elite school, but now he couldn’t find anyone else to talk to, Jake didn’t even know if they entered a university or started work.
That’s why Jake had the idea of having a party like this, he didn’t like the ball and so he had to create a similar event to have good memories of all his friends after everyone left only Joseph had been left behind.
Joseph would later go to Princeton University to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, and Liza wanted to help Joseph after college if she was to marry him, but as they were not even engaged she decided to do journalism at Columbia University.
So they would be separated for 4 years while studying, that would be a good test to know if they would really love each other even after 4 years without being able to spend much time together, Jake would also have to separate from his best friend.
But their friendship was harder to break, after all, Jake would still always keep in touch with Matthew and Oliver, plus he would have 5 percent of the company stock that Joseph would have to take on in the future.
Even though Jake felt emotional about having to part with a friend who stayed with him for 7 years, after those years apart Jake wanted them to remain, friends, Joseph felt the same way.
"Our school time is over, isn’t it?"
"At least high school is over, we still have university and a few more years to study and say it’s really over."
"Are you going to be okay staying so long away from Liza?"
"I will miss her, fortunately, we can see each other several times in those 4 years, after that we will be ready to think about marriage."
"Study well over the next few years and you’ll be ready to take over your grandfather’s company."
"I will, luckily I’ll still have you to help me when the time comes."
"You can count on me."
"I hope you succeed in college basketball at the university you are going to, and also in the Olympics this year if you have time to get a girlfriend for you too."
They continued talking for some time and Joseph left later, so Jake knew it was official, high school was over, in a few days Jake would have to go to the Olympic Village and after that to the university in North Caroline.
When Jake had to go to college he would have to separate from his mother too, it was hard for Jake to do that, luckily Eva would still have Anna and the restaurant not to be alone in those years.
Jake had to think about how to get new friends at university, luckily he knew he wouldn’t suffer any bias for being a scholarship holder, and if he did well at the Olympics and basketball he would be easier to find new friends too.
It was still a few weeks before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, so Jake continued with the training and stayed with his mother while he waited; he could go to the Olympic Village in Atlanta, Georgia in a few days.
But he would be in no hurry to go there, after all, Jake would compete only at the end of the Olympics, Jake didn’t have many people he would like to meet at those Olympics, he didn’t follow those competitions very much in his past life and much less before this year He was very young.
So Jake started to become a fan of some athletes only after a few years, and some of the athletes he was a fan of were even from other countries who took major US medals in various Olympics.
Michael Phelps whom he liked best would not be in the Olympics this year yet, Jake greatly admired Michael Phelps because he knew he was one of the best Olympians of all time.
In fact, Jake started thinking about competing in various competitions and trying to win several medals because Michael Phelps started it, of course, this is almost impossible for Jake to beat his idol in athletics, he could win 10 medals for Olympics if he didn’t try other things than running.
So Jake wasn’t very greedy about it, after all, Jake had basketball too and Michael Phelps didn’t have that, if he could win more than 10 gold medals he would be very happy about it.
After spending a few more weeks at home training and staying with his friends Jake went to the Olympic village in early July 1996, he arrived at the place and went unnoticed by the other athletes.
After all, not even the youngest he was, Jake was glad not to be recognized and found the place where he would be for the next 2 months, after arriving at the Olympic village Jake did not intend to leave until near opening day.
Jake decided to go early to settle in with the place and the weather and also to get away from the reporters, he had decided that he would leave these next months to rest well and be ready for the day of the competition.
After a few weeks of rest Jake had gone out a few times to talk to other athletes, luckily he could speak other languages and thus talk to many athletes from various countries.
Jake met some people he knew would win competitions or be medalists after he got Photographic Memory skill he could remember many things he had forgotten in his past life in detail.
So he worked especially hard to remember who had gotten good positions at the 1996 Olympics, he talked to Antonella Bellutti from Italy, Laura Flessel-Colovic and Marie-Jose Pérec from France.
Marie-José Pérec won two gold medals at these women’s and women’s 200m and 400m Olympics, so Jake had especially more to talk to her, these athletes from other countries were happy to talk to Jake in their languages even while in the United States.
Jake also spoke to the German athlete Isabell Werth of whom he was a fan too, he took all his language skills to talk to these people, of course, Jake also spoke to American athletes that he was a fan.
Jake also spoke to Michael Johnson who would win two gold medals in the 200 and 400-meter races, and also spoke to Amy Van Dyken who was a talented swimmer who would win 4 gold medals at these Olympics.
Jake was very fond of her for her talent and took the opportunity to give her some tips to take care of herself after a few years, Jake remembered that she would have an ATV accident in over 17 years, but he couldn’t say something like that clearly.
Even though it was hard for that to change anything, unfortunately, the system had prevented Jake from interfering with any accident that had nothing to do with his life directly.
So Jake had to accept, he really wanted to warn the world of many accidents that would cause many deaths, so he was sad to be stopped, but already expected it when he returned in time.
In fact, Jake had already changed the future a lot with all the things he was doing, at these Olympics he knew that there would be a terrorist attack that would kill a person, but he couldn’t interfere with that.
After a few more weeks the opening day of the Olympics finally arrived, Jake was getting anxious to wait so long, he received the clothes he would have to wear at the opening ceremony and went to prepare to enjoy the show and parade with the other athletes.
The opening ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics took place in the evening on Friday 19 July in the Centennial Olympic Stadium.
This was the hundredth Olympics to be held in the modern age, a milestone that would also be the first time Jake would compete.
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