u/righterandreader

I’m writing a novel where the main character is a hacker at a large state school. He’s approached by rich kids and athletes to change their grades.

Keep it legal, ofc, but is this possible? And how would it work, if so, in theory?

(Edit: by „keep it legal” I mean don’t explicitly say what to do I don’t want this to get taken down. I’m exploring what can actually be done. This is illegal in the novel.)

I’ve done some research but there’s nothing like convo and firsthand, especially when developing a novel.

Would love to hear from you all!

All contemporary writing is beginning to sound the same to me: “she adverb action the adjective noun, then adverb verb the adjective noun and felt adjective emotion.” Idk how else to explain it. It takes me out of the story. And I greatly lament the loss of interiority and reflection and psychology in writing. Now it just reads as pages and pages of action with adverbs and adjectives thrown in to make it sound decent.

My friend and I signed up for horseback riding lessons at a new farm. We were running 3 minutes late for tacking, so we texted the trainer, Kelly. She said no worries, that she was running late too because she was at a horse show.

We get there and Kelly is not there. My friend has some experience from years before at this farm; I’ve been on a horse maybe ten times. We tack the horses, though I need more help than I’m given and it takes a while. We are there with two high school girls and an older woman who ride/board there. They tell us there are not enough horses, as Kelly is with them at the show. One of the boarders lets me use her horse and equipment. We get in the ring and receive no instruction. I have to ask the girls what to do and how to get the horse to move. We just do a few laps in the pen, and my friend and I swap horses because the girl’s horse was difficult to ride and not a typical lesson horse.

Kelly is not back for the duration of the lesson, and we do not hear from her.

My friend and I send a polite message about how this was not what we expected and how even the girls there said this was unusual. We ask for a makeup lesson. Kelly assures us that this is not how it usually goes and that we will love our next lesson with her. We’d already paid in full, and payment for the next lesson is not mentioned, so we assume it is a makeup.

We attend the next lesson—Kelly is there and so are the lesson horses. It goes well, and I text her saying I loved it.

A week later she sends me a Venmo request for full payment. I explain I thought it was a makeup. She responds: “you’re right! I can’t expect customers to not pay just because they didn’t like the lesson! But I’m glad you liked the lesson with me!” which feels passive aggressive and contradictory, since I wasn’t saying I didn’t like it—I was saying there was no lesson.

I apologize and say I was confused, especially since my friend didn’t get a request. I pay in full. I’ve paid for all 2 lessons in full now.

My parents say using the horses, equipment, and space still costs money, so she has a point. But there were not enough horses, and as an inexperienced rider I didn’t receive enough instruction to even get the horse going. The girls were kind and helped, and maybe Kelly asked them to step in, so I see that perspective. But I had different expectations and found it unprofessional.

AITA for expecting that to have been a free makeup lesson?