Rich in Hawaii

John Jacob is the biggest overachiever in the world. John had an older brother named James. John’s good at basketball and hockey and an extra little talent is that he’s good at sword fighting and also defends himself from gangsters. John’s family has an average paycheck but always reminds him to not think that he’s rich, and John has a stock account as a side project. John does relatively well in school and he’s a bilingual student who knows French. And he’s trying to get some money. Here’s how it all started.

It was the Friday before winter break. John was looking forward to John's “game night”: playing board games with his friends. His older brother James was playing in a concert, and John’s parents wanted to go, so they told me to go to John’s friend and neighbor Ranu’s house. Noah and Jake, the mischievous twins who always played pranks, were there already. 

“You’re late,” Jake said. “We already finished a game of Ticket to Ride, and you didn’t get to see John's great victory.”

“You probably cheated,” Ranu said. With most people, this would be an exaggeration, but with Jake and Jake, you never know.

“How do you even cheat in Ticket to Ride?” John asked, but they were already setting up the board, so he just sat down and grabbed his pieces. 

After John won, we decided to play another round. This time, Ranu won, and after that Ranu’s mom allowed them to play some video games. Then John managed to convince his mom to have a sleepover and the next morning John’s mom came to pick him up. 

On the weekend, James and John had plenty of time to talk and have fun, although they had to do some chores first. John didn’t mind chores too much as long as he got to have fun afterward. They had some fun with James's friends too; Nick and Bobby were generally pretty nice to John, and Sammy was Ranu’s brother, so he got to see Ranu as well. 

On Monday, John’s parents made a surprise announcement: they were going to Boston for some sort of work thing, and for the next two weeks John and James would be home alone, so they had to be responsible for the house. Well, that was easy. James said immediately that they should play some video games, and John agreed. But before they could, John’s computer hangout went ping. 

Their uncle Teddy was chatting with them from Hawaii. He said that John’s billionaire second cousin’s great- great uncle or something had died, and John didn’t know what to say. Should he be sad? Should he be happy? Or should he just ignore him, assuming his uncle was playing a prank?

But John was significantly more surprised when he said who John's second cousin’s great- great uncle was. He was the thirty-eighth richest person in the world, according to James a few seconds later. John had no idea that guy was his relative, and for a second John thought Teddy was playing some sort of prank on them, so John asked why the money went to their family. Teddy said it was because they had the key to some sort of long box.

John suddenly had a distant memory: An old man saying, Happy Birthday, John. Thinking of that made him sad, and he remembered how his relationship with his grandpa and how his grandpa always talked about someone else. How his grandpa gave him the key.

John told him he’d be back in a second, and John rummaged through his box and got his weird-looking key. It didn’t look like it could unlock anything. He wondered if it was even made out of steel. John's computer was still sitting there, so he asked what was in that box. Uncle Teddy said he didn’t know but only John's key could open that box. He said only us could come, and then he left. Leaving John and James scratching their heads wondering how the heck they could go from California to Hawaii. 

Uncle Teddy had made it clear he wanted them to come quick. James and John decided to brainstorm ideas: 1. They somehow board a cruise ship. 2. They somehow board a plane. 3. They convince our parents to go to Hawaii. All of those weren’t very good ideas, but they didn’t have time to brainstorm any more ideas because the doorbell went ding-dong. 

James checked the peephole and opened the door. Sammy and Ranu were standing there, and they brought laptop computers to play video games.

“We wanted to play some final video games before our trip to Hawaii,” Sammy explained. James and John shot wide-eyed looks at each other, and John stuffed the key into his pocket. 

“Can we go with you?” John asked. This could make him rich! Outside, he hoped he looked normal because inside John was hyperventilating. 

“Sorry, John's parents made it quite clear that Noah and Jake are enough,” Ranu replied. John was depressed. How come those two get to go? Even though he could become a billionaire out of this? 

“Well, if I go, I could earn a billion dollars,” John blurted out before James could stop him. Ranu looked at John like he was crazy, and he had a good reason to, so John showed him John's texts with his uncle.

“You could be stowaways on the plane!” Sammy suggested eagerly. The whole billion-dollar thing was obviously exciting for him. 

“Well, that sounds a bit extreme, but 50 billion dollars calls for desperate measures,” James said. 

In the end, John decided to make the money his self by doing online surveys and using John's stock account. John's stock account had 125$, which was infuriating. But James was a far better investor than John, so he pooled over his money and they split it to get both of them plane tickets to Hawaii. 

John actually called John's parents with that plan, and believe it or not, they were okay with it, but they were a little worried about how trustworthy John's uncle was. In the end, however, John still got to go. 

And that’s how, two days later, he was in Hawaii with Ranu’s family and friends. After that, John went to his uncle’s house, where lots of people were gathering. Teddy had called plenty of people to a local park, and he brought the box, too. John used his key and opened the box, where plump diamonds sat. 

That’s how John and James both became billionaires, along with their lucky grandpa.