Modern Family: New Life

December 30, 2008

About a week had passed since the winter break began, and Palisades School had won its first regional championship with an incredible record of 6 wins and 1 loss in the regular season, followed by four consecutive victories in the playoffs.

The "Incident 2.0" also happened—Andrew tackled and knocked out DeDe again, but this time it wasn't intentional. After leaving her unconscious and making sure she was okay, they waited for her to wake up, and then she returned to the apartment where she was staying.

Unfortunately for Andrew, this time his grandmother did remember that he had tackled her, as she wasn't drunk like she had been at the wedding.

Andrew apologized and told her it was an accident, and DeDe accepted his apology, though he could see a cautious and suspicious look in her eyes. It was as if she was wondering whether something similar had happened at the wedding and that's why she had blacked out.

In other news, since Andrew didn't have to go to school or do homework, he had a lot more free time, so he started working on the first major update for Flappy Bird.

With each passing day, the cheerful yellow pixelated bird was becoming more famous and gaining more downloads. A month had passed since the game's official release, and it had already surpassed 90,000 downloads, rapidly approaching the milestone of 100,000.

The reviews were also positive. Most of the negative ones complained about the ads, but not too many people were bothered by them, since for just one dollar, they could buy the ad-free version.

The first month's revenue was $9,950—a surprisingly high amount that Pippa's and Andrew's parents couldn't believe.

The minimum wage was $7.25 per hour. Working 40 hours a week, the minimum monthly salary was around $1,250–$1,300 before taxes.

An average annual salary in America was approximately $40,000–$50,000, which equated to $3,300–$4,200 per month before taxes. Based on $3,300, Flappy Bird had tripled that average salary.

Andrew kept half—almost $5,000. Adding his first YouTube paycheck from Maverick12, he reached a total of $5,700 in earnings for the month. A great amount for his first paycheck.

With this money, he bought Christmas gifts for his family and his girlfriend, and he saved the rest. He needed to save up for a couple of things he was planning to invest in.

Regarding the first update, Andrew asked Pippa if Howard and Leonard could join. They were just video game enthusiasts—two brilliant minds who wanted to contribute.

Pippa agreed. However, from the very first day they all met at Andrew's house, tensions began to rise.

Pippa had a meticulous and perfectionist approach. Her time was valuable, and the person she had the most patience for was Andrew—since he was her boyfriend, she didn't mind wasting time with him alone. But it was a completely different story when Howard and Leonard were around.

Howard, in particular, became a constant source of friction. It didn't take long for him to fill the meeting with his usual bad jokes and out-of-place comments.

Every time Pippa tried to explain a technical change, Howard would interrupt with some joke or steer the conversation toward completely irrelevant topics—like whether a real bird could react fast enough to pass through the pipes at that speed.

What started as a ridiculous idea quickly turned into a serious debate. Leonard analyzed it from a scientific perspective. He started talking about the reaction times of different bird species and how some had such fast vision that they processed movement in slow motion compared to humans.

Instead of shutting down the discussion, Andrew got excited about the idea and looked up data on his phone about the reaction speeds of hummingbirds and peregrine falcons.

At first, Pippa tried to ignore them and get back to the topic of the game, but when she saw that the three of them were completely absorbed in their absurd simulation, she lost her patience.

Finally, after two chaotic meetings with no significant progress, Andrew decided it was best for Howard and Leonard not to be involved in Flappy Bird's development.

Andrew spoke to them privately, explaining that, in this case, he preferred not to mix friendship with work. He didn't want his relationship with Pippa to be affected, nor did he want his friends to end up at odds with her.

'What a shame,' Andrew thought, remembering how the team he had put together for Flappy Bird had failed. Productivity would have increased significantly if they had Leonard and Howard.

Still, Pippa and he were more than capable of adding the updates they had planned for the game. He had improved a lot since starting his programming class at school—he even studied on his own whenever he had time.

Andrew stepped out of Jay's house, closing the door gently as he inhaled the fresh morning air. The day before, he had stayed over at his grandfather's house to spend time with him, Gloria, and Manny.

It was 8 in the morning, and even though he was on vacation, Andrew maintained his daily training discipline. He stretched on the sidewalk, feeling his muscles slowly wake up. The sun wasn't too strong yet, but it cast a golden glow on the façades of the elegant houses in the neighborhood.

Without wasting time, he started jogging at a light pace. The crisp morning air gave him energy as he moved through the quiet streets. There was barely any movement around—it was a very cold morning.

After several minutes, he turned a corner and arrived at a house larger than his grandfather's. And there, standing at the entrance of the cobblestone path leading to the front door, was Regina George.

Andrew wasn't surprised to see her standing there. In fact, he knew she was waiting for him. Regina lived in this residential area—her parents had a lot of money, on par with Veronica's parents or even more.

He never understood why she attended a public school when her family was so wealthy.

Why did he run in the mornings with Regina George?

Andrew usually visited Jay's house once or twice a week, and the next morning, he would go out for a run. On one of those days, he ran into Regina walking an extremely small and ugly dog. From that moment on, she started joining him, claiming she needed to stay in shape if she wanted to keep putting on good performances as a cheerleader.

Regina wore a vibrant pink Adidas sports outfit that highlighted her slender figure. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and her usual haughty, almost defiant expression remained unchanged. But as Andrew approached, a faint, almost imperceptible smile formed on her lips.

"You're late," Regina said, crossing her arms with feigned indifference, though her eyes glimmered with amusement, waiting for Andrew's response—knowing he wasn't the kind of guy to suck up to her like most boys she interacted with.

Andrew glanced at his watch and then at her. "No, I'm not. My time is the same as always. You probably came out earlier than you thought," he replied in a relaxed tone.

"No. I came out at my usual time," Regina said, frowning as a flicker of irritation crossed her face.

"Mm, no. It's 8:03. It takes me exactly three minutes to get here at my jogging pace. You left early, you just didn't check the time," Andrew said, unwilling to back down.

Regina, irritated but refusing to yield, huffed.

"Why won't you admit you're late?" she asked.

"Why won't you admit you left early?" he countered.

They started running as their argument dragged on endlessly until Andrew, growing tired of it, decided to pick up the pace, running faster and enjoying the slight look of surprise on Regina's face as he left her behind.

"Hey, get back here!" Regina shouted, clearly annoyed at being left behind.

Andrew grinned, picking up the pace even more as he glanced over his shoulder. "If you admit you left early, I might slow down."

Regina, furious, started shouting again, trying to match his speed, but it was impossible.

An hour later, both of them sat on the sidewalk, their backs against a wall. The morning sun was shining brightly, and sweat dripped down their faces as they gasped for breath, trying to recover.

With his mind a little clearer after running at full speed for so long, Andrew reflected that maybe keeping such a constant, fast pace hadn't been the best idea.

After all, Regina hadn't stopped chasing him, refusing to admit defeat—even if it left her completely exhausted. Her endurance was impressive for a girl.

Still breathing heavily, Regina let her head drop onto Andrew's shoulder without saying a word. The contact was unexpected, but Andrew didn't mind.

"Next time, just admit you left early, and we wouldn't have had to run so fast," Andrew said.

"Fine, I will," Regina finally admitted, giving in.

'Did she just give up?' Andrew thought, surprised, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. Her face was resting on his shoulder, her eyes closed, her breathing still uneven.

They sat in silence, recovering. At some point, Regina lifted her head from Andrew's shoulder and looked at him.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked, noticing his serious expression as he stared straight ahead.

"Revenge," Andrew replied in a serious tone, his face unreadable.

"Revenge? Against who?" Regina asked, a bit confused by the strange answer.

"My cousin," Andrew said.

"Oh, I'm guessing Alex, right?" she asked for confirmation, and Andrew gave a slight nod.

"So, you're finally getting back at her for the wedding thing, huh? Got something planned?" Regina asked, aware of the incident.

Lately, ever since Andrew helped her, she had grown closer to him—entirely by her own initiative—because she felt very comfortable around him and finally saw that she could have a real friend.

Andrew let December 28th pass to make sure Alex lowered her guard. It had been a long time since the wedding, and she most likely wouldn't expect him to pull a prank on her now.

"I don't know. I asked my friends for suggestions, but… they were all terrible," Andrew replied, scratching the back of his neck.

He had even asked Pippa, but her idea of revenge was way too mild. Too harmless. Though Andrew found it charming how kind she was about it.

"Maybe you have something in mind. After all, as a sort of manipulative queen bee, you should have a few good revenge ideas, right?" Andrew added, looking at Regina with interest.

Regina, hearing the reference to her manipulative nature, smirked with a mix of arrogance and amusement. She noticed Andrew didn't say it with malice.

"Maybe I do have a few ideas," she said with a slight, mysterious smile.

"Oh? What are they?" Andrew asked, intrigued.

Regina started sharing her revenge ideas, tailored to the situation. Nothing too extreme—since it was his cousin, after all—but definitely a fun payback that would mess with Alex, just like she had done when she got Andrew drunk.

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