Paige and Leslie walked out of theb as if they had just seen a ghost.


    "What just happened?" Carly asked, looking at the two in shock.


    "I showed them something incredible," I said, then turned to Sam. "Remember that prank you pulled with some tape and pencil dust?"<fnb4a6> Th?s chapter is updated by find{n}ovel</fnb4a6>


    "Yes," she nodded, raising an eyebrow. "But heh, not one of my finest moments," she shrugged.


    "Well, I showed them that," I said, holding up a piece of tape with graphite stuck to it.


    Everyone stared at me oddly.


    Leslie snapped, "Can you stop acting like it''s nothing?!" She threw her arms up. "You basically proved that graphene is real, not just theoretical. This is the biggest breakthrough in condensed matter physics of this century!"


    "Well, the century''s only a year and barely two months old..." I muttered, earning a sharp re from Leslie.


    "Paige?" Carly asked, eyes shifting to her.


    "We still need full confirmation, but if what we saw holds up... this disproves what most scientists believed for decades: that stable two-dimensional materials couldn''t exist in nature," Paige exined.


    "I don''t see how that helped, Paige," I remarked tly, as most people still looked dumbfounded.


    "See?" I turned to Paige and Leslie. "I just secured your Master''s and PhD," I added, half-joking.


    "You''re... gonna... give that to us?" Leslie blinked at me,pletely nk.


    "I don''t have the time, patience, or the skill to study it further," I replied. "I just have a very unorthodox way of thinking," I added, showing the tape again. "But I don''t have the foundation to go deep into the research."


    In my past life, I graduated in engineering from an elite university. My knowledge base is way above average, but not at the level needed for advanced scientific research like this.


    That''s when Pepper and Harvey appeared.


    Before leaving home, I had called them and asked them toe.


    "What did you do this time, Jake?" Pepper asked (same as Carly).


    "Heyy! Stop acting like I''m always causing trouble," I protested, feigning outrage. "I helped revolutionize physics," I dered dramatically, handing the tape with graphite to Pepper like it was the Holy Grail.


    "What is this?" Pepper asked, carefully inspecting the small strip.


    "Just regr Scotch tape with a bit of B6 pencil graphite," I replied proudly.


    I could almost see a vein pop on Pepper''s forehead.


    She walked up to me, pressed the tape against my forehead, and gave it a yful p.


    "Ahhh, Peps, what was that for?" I shouted. "That was an artifact of a physics revolution!" I said while peeling it off and rubbing my forehead to clean the graphite.


    "Paige, can you please?" Pepper turned to her, requesting an exnation.


    "What Jake said earlier is true. If what we saw was indeed graphene—a hexagonal pattern, like a honeb, only one atom thick—then it breaks an existing scientific paradigm. It would mean the discovery of a unique material with likely extremely high electron mobility and surprisingly high conductivity."


    "Electronics," Harvey and Pepper muttered at the same time.


    Even if they weren''t from the field, you don''t doubt Harvard minds...


    "Yeah, it could be worth billions in patents," I said quietly, only to the four of us—serious this time. "But it would take years, even decades to make itmercially viable."


    I knew the potential graphene held, but even by the time I died, there hadn''t been much.


    "We don''t have the expertise or the personnel needed. We''d have to start from scratch. Better use Caltech for this," I added.


    "And there''s a second thing Jake''s not saying," Pepper said quietly, speaking just to us four. "Gordon Moore donated six hundred million dors to Caltechst year—spread over multiple years.


    His foundation is worth five billion. And this discovery checks every box that would grab his attention: disruptive potential in physics, elevating Caltech''s status, and direct application in electronics.


    Gordon was one of the founders of Intel—that''s where all that money came from."


    "Mr. Gordon sure is rich…" Paige murmured


    "With Gordon and this, it basically secures Dr. Siebert as the next president of Caltech—if we wanted," I said, smirking at Paige.


    Paige was looking at me like I had a second head.


    "You have a lot to learn, lil'' sister," I said, patting her head. "Thank God you have a 195 IQ."


    "There''s also the Nobel Prize," Paige added.


    "Nah, that''s just like a one-million-dor prize. I don''t care much," I replied jokingly.


    She bit me.


    ---


    Harvey and Pepper went to speak with Dr. Siebert and Eric Gablehauser. They knew the implications of what had just happened and understood the importance of moving quickly and strategically.


    While they were busy handling that, I walked over to Paige and threw an arm around her shoulders.


    "Remember what you promised?" I grinned. "While Harvard, MIT, Caltech, and Stanford will all fight over you, they won''t realize they''re already toote. Paige''s intelligence is Jake Harper property now."


    She pinched me. Hard.


    Then I turned to Sam and the others, still smiling. "The legend says Newton discovered gravity by watching an apple fall. Now we can say I discovered graphene by watching Sam pull a prank with tape and graphite."


    Samughed and said, "Can you imagine our professors'' faces if they heard that?" She keptughing while Carly facepalmed.


    Meanwhile, Leslie groaned with her hands over her face, frustrated. "A discovery worth of a Nobel Prize is being treated like it''s just another Tuesday..."


    Cara murmured to Freddie, "Jake really knows how to make malfunctions, nk faces, and frustration happen."


    "Yeah, he is like Windows ME," said Freddie, making a nerdy joke.


    ------


    A/N About Jake: Basically knows where the treasures mines are — but his capacity is that of a shovel, while Paige is an excavator.


    Haley, on the other hand, would be a coffee spoon


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