When I Grow Up

Many Teenagers dream and yearn to live up the dream, but Pablo's case is a lot more different, find out, in Living The Dreams.

When you are growing up adults usually tell you that you can be whatever you want to be, right?! I was told I would be a starving artist if I became what I wanted to be. I let their words become me. All their words. I let them dictate the person I became. I kept the real me to myself after so many years of their hatred for that person. I let little bits of my soul break away and die to keep their torment to a minimum. I learned to not rock the boat, just keep my head down and do as I was told. I was the party crasher on their life that never left. Until I shocked them when I did. Out on my own, I wasn’t as strong as I thought I was. I settled for the first “nice guy” to come along. That quickly fizzled out after a shotgun wedding. After a year alone I met Prince Charming #2 at a backyard BBQ. I didn’t know my jerk radar was still broken. Then out of nowhere, the one I had always thought was a jerk turned out to surprisingly be my Prince Charming. Being the man, I need in my life. He became everything I needed, and everything I didn’t know I wanted. Allowing me to grow and blossom as a person which inspires him to do the same. And we live happily ever after.

My name is Noah Brooks, and according to my father, I committed one unforgivable crime… I was born a girl. Apparently, that means my older brother, Owen is destined to inherit the legendary Brooks hockey legacy, while I’m expected to clap from the sidelines and pretend I’m not the better player. Yeah… absolutely not. So when my brother suddenly can’t play for Blackridge University’s elite hockey team, I do what any perfectly reasonable, mentally stable girl would do. I steal his identity. Now I’m living as Owen Brooks, sharing a dorm with twenty sweaty hockey players, hiding in bathroom stalls to change clothes, praying nobody notices my voice cracks every five seconds, and trying very hard not to die every time someone suggests group showers. Easy. Except my roommate is Jace Donovan. Campus hockey god. Professional pain in my ass. Certified menace. And unfortunately… my brother’s best friend, plus my long-time crush Jace has an annoying habit of barging into our room half-naked, stealing my food, invading my personal space, and looking at me like he knows I’m hiding something. Which would be bad enough… …if I wasn’t slowly falling for him. Now I’m pretending to be the guy he’s known for years while secretly crushing on him like an absolute idiot. Even worse? He keeps getting weirdly protective of me. The lies are piling up. The championship is getting closer. My identity is hanging by a thread. And if Jace finds out the truth… I won’t just lose hockey. I’ll lose him too.

He’s going to make me break my number one rule. And possibly lose my job. How dare he? It’s pretty simple, though. Don’t date students. Which is normally easy to stick to. Who wants to date an eighteen-year-old boy? Not me. I much prefer an older man with rough hands that knows what he’s doing. Enter Mr. Evans. A single father billionaire with more time on his plate than he knows what to do with. And the man is brilliant and wickedly delicious. Much to my surprise, he’s quickly becoming my star pupil, which means he gets more of my time than necessary. But I can’t help myself. He’s exactly what I need in my life, in my bed, kissing me at the stroke of midnight… And the best is even though he’s older than me, he’s more than willing to let me teach him a few new tricks. Let's just hope we don't get caught.

What was it like to grow old? Graduate college? Have a career in life? Get married and have your own family with your own kids? I am Celene Monte and I dreamt of those once maybe somewhere in my other ninety-nine lifetimes. Once the hands of the clock struck at twelfth midnight on the 22nd of April again, the day I turned eighteen, I died all over again and reincarnated to another world. And now this will be my 100th new cycle of life to live before turning 18. But I didn't knew that in this lifetime, new things would begin again when I met a crazy but famous lead vocalist of Dare, the Interhigh Academy's most famous band. And a very stubborn girl who was determined to beat Dare and dream to become the best band in the world. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wordcount per chapter excluding the Prologue: 1200-2000 words A/N: Happy Reading to all!

On the last day before my study-abroad application closed, I was about to give up my full scholarship offer. Then, out of nowhere, I got a call from my future self. "Don't give it up. Click confirm enrollment. Right now." "Harley locked in his own graduate placement three months ago. The only reason he wants you to stay is that Katy needs you to finish her senior thesis for her, and he needs your money every month to live on. "Two weeks after you turn down that offer, the two of them go public with their relationship. "That so-called best friend of yours, Katy? She already betrayed you. She's been sleeping with him." I froze, my finger hovering over the mouse. The voice kept going, speaking faster and faster. "Listen carefully. Once you confirm the offer, take the twenty thousand dollars left in your account and put every cent into the Eklund Growth Fund. It goes public next March. It'll grow eightfold within the year. "Once you're abroad, apply to your advisor's AI lab before your first semester ends. That project gets acquired by Coogle two years from now, and as a core team member, you'll get a share of the payout. "Twenty-two-year-old me, I'm begging you. Stop wasting yourself on people who don't deserve it." The voice cut off. I took a deep breath and moved the cursor to "Confirm Enrollment." The instant I clicked, my mind was made up. I wasn't going to bury my own future for anyone who wasn't worth it.