All Chapters of A Family of Five, and I Rank Sixth: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"Jane, how many days are you planning to stay this time?" asked my dad, Michael Brown.He kept his eyes trained on his phone screen, his thumb rapidly scrolling through the smart lock's administrative application.Without waiting for my response, he continued, "The guest token caps out at a maximum of seven days. I'll authorize a one-week clearance for you now. Make sure you track the expiration date and remind me to renew it."My mom, Sandy Brown, grabbed my wrist and forcefully pressed my finger onto the biometric sensor. She cycled through three different fingers on my right hand, but the machine cut through the silence with a sequence of error chimes.Her features tightened with impatience. "Why are you the only one having trouble? Shel and Mau registered on the first try."My younger sister and brother both had elegant names carefully chosen by our parents. Mine was a simple one, picked at random by my illiterate grandmother in the village.When addressing them, my parents u

A few days later, some of Michael's and Sandy's friends came over for dinner.I was in the kitchen washing fruit when I heard Michael introducing Shelly and Mauro to the guests.One of the guests laughed and praised him. "Michael, you're blessed to have kids like this. Your daughter's going to a top state university, and your son is winning math Olympiad medals at such a young age. You've done a great job raising them!"Michael waved a hand. "Not at all. My oldest daughter is difficult to handle. I wanted her to pick a college closer to home, but she insisted on going all the way to Eldorainbay to study... What was it again? Aircraft engineering or something. Sounds impractical."My major was Aircraft Propulsion Engineering. My advisor had described it as building hearts for rockets. But to Michael, it was just an impractical major he couldn't even bother to remember.At the dinner table, one of the ladies turned the conversation to college expenses."My daughter just got accepte

Back at the apartment, Sandy stared down at her unreplied text message. "Jane is really pushing it, throwing a tantrum like this."Annoyed, she fired off another text to the family group chat.[Jane Brown, breakfast is on the table. Eat it or don't.][And charge your phone already. Don't miss anything important.]No one replied.Michael clicked his tongue and stirred his oatmeal. "Her temper is getting out of hand. Just let her rot."Shelly bit into her toast, talking around a mouthful. "Maybe she went to find a summer job. A couple of days ago, I saw her checking flights on her phone.""Flights?" Sandy frowned. "She couldn't just save some money and take a cheap bus? Always looking for ways to blow cash! Just wait until she gets back; we're having a serious talk."Slapping her silverware down on the table, Sandy marched over and pushed open the door to my bedroom. The bed was empty, and the suitcase in the corner was gone."Did she really leave for a job?" Sandy paused, a bri

We were deep into the third round of data verification.It was two o'clock in the morning, and the only sound filling the server room was the drone of the cooling fans. I stared intently at my monitor, scanning line after line of the complex propellant ratio parameters.A senior member tapped my shoulder. "Go get some sleep. Your eyes are bloodshot."I shook my head, my eyes refusing to leave the screen. My cursor stopped on one value, isolated four digits past the decimal point. The deviation from our theoretical model was infinitesimally small—the kind of microscopic margin that any routine automated validation script would instantly skip right over.But something about the symmetry felt wrong. Trusting my gut, I pulled up the raw paper logs from every related experiment we had run over the past six months, cross-referencing them page by page.The crisp sound of turning paper rasped loudly against the silence of the room. Linda didn't say a word to disrupt my focus. Instead, she

On the day I went back to campus to handle my graduation paperwork, the weather was great.I put my diploma away and signed the agreement for the combined master's and doctoral program. Danial told me the base had already submitted a request. Once I finished my PhD, I would return directly to the team as a research lead.As I walked out of the administration building, I saw Shelly leaning against the wall. She looked more mature now, dressed in a professional suit with carefully applied lipstick."Jane," she called out, stepping forward with a strained smile. "Congratulations. Mom and Dad told me you're a big hero now."I nodded without speaking. She followed me toward the dorm, her high heels clicking sharply on the stone path."You haven't come home once in three years," she said. "You have no idea how things have changed. Dad's business isn't doing well. He lost most of his old clients, and money is tight at home."I just started working, but my salary barely lasts before I ha