Day 4: What If Robert Coste paid child support? (And wasn't as terrible of a man)
(This is from Nicholas's perspective)
I was an accident, my mother told me by the time I was 8. A fancy party that she was working at for an extra buck, she was supposed to keep the guests entertained and engage in conversations (I don't know why, rich people should be able to talk without extra help usually-). Then she met my dad, Robert Coste. He was going through a rough time with his wife, my mom didn't know he was married, and she found out when she found out she was pregnant. Fast forward to my birth, she expected he would just drop out, and why wouldn't he? He's rich and famous, people always try to pin babies on rich and famous people. But he didn't leave, he didn't really stay either, my mom and him realized that they didn't love each other enough for marriage, and Robert got remarried. He got full custody of his son Jesse Coste, so he and his "better"* family stayed together, but he still visited and made sure my mom and I we able to live a good life.
* Robert doesn't see Jesse and his new wife as better than Nicholas and his old wife, but Nicolas sees them as a golden family.
As I grew older, I got interested in fencing. My dad is a champion fencer, so he was excited that I wanted to be like him. Jesse also wanted to learn fencing, so dad coached us, and we got to learn fencing from the best guy we knew. Jesse and I grew closer, and dad would take us fishing, I also got to have sleepovers at his fancy big house, which was fun. Soon, Jesse and I got so good at fencing that we would get to fence older people!!! Dad always said we had an advantage since we were left-handed, but I thought we were just better. Then something changed, I kept beating Jesse, and he got more and more jealous, and slowly pushed me away. At 11, I wasn't really having bouts with Jesse anymore, and my dad hired a new fencing coach for me since "Jesse needs more help". The new fencing coach had some other kids for me to fence, and it was fun and all, but one stuck out to me, Seiji Katayama. He was a very shy kid, and very kind, he just couldn't tell when someone was upset sometimes, and therefore didn't help the situation much.
In high-school, I was sent to this fancy fencing school called Exton, which was one of the top fencing schools in the state. Jesse and Seiji were also there, and they became friends. I wanted to go to King's Row, which was my dad's old school, but he insisted on this one. As I talked to Seiji more, I realized that I liked him, but I thought Jesse did too. Seiji chose Jesse, and I never told him I liked him.
Fencing matches were really easy for me, I could just feel all the right moves. I was almost unbeaten... until nationals.
Jesse, Seiji and I all got into Nationals, and we were climbing our way to the top. Kings Row also had a few people who came, such as Harvard Lee, who got eliminated mid 30's, I was the one who took him out. There were so many matches for what felt like forever. Eventually, it was Jesse vs. Seiji, and me vs some random kid from iowa. Jesse and I won our matches and were the last two in the tournament. I saw his face before the match, he looked scared, but determined to win. I knew this was more important to him than it was to me, he deserved to win more, even my dad told me how hard he was working. So, we started the match, it was 8-0, then I threw the match. I didn't want it to be too obvious, so I gradually slowed my reaction time, and did win a few extra points. I didn't want Jesse to lose, he's supposed to be the golden child, he was on purpose while I was an accident.
Jesse won, he was happy, I was happy, my dad was especially happy, his sons are the 1st and 2nd in national ranks, we are carrying on his legacy. Later I saw Seiji crying, so I went over to him. Jesse broke up with him. Turns out Jesse only dated him to win something over me. After that, Jesse and I stopped talking. Seiji and I left for King's Row, and Jesse stayed at Exton. Seiji and I stopped doing Nationals after that, we didn't want to see him anymore, and we were fine getting milkshakes at the diner on our own.