"There are no absences today. It appears everyone is present.
"Chiyabashira-sensei strode through the classroom with a bold smile on her face.
"That's the first hurdle for you leftovers. Are there any questions?"
"We've studied diligently these past few weeks. I don't think that anyone will fail."
"Oh my. You sound quite confident, Hirata."
It was not just him, everyone in the class wore a confident look. But looking and being confident are two entirely different conversations. As the teacher handed the test papers I knew Kushida had just netted the win. Our first test was social studies, we were starting with one of the annoying ones. And yes, I understood that most of it was about memorization but I just outright did not like the subject.
"If anyone stumbles here, the other tests will be an uphill battle, quite frankly. You'll take this midterm and the final exam in July. If no one fails either test, you'll be rewarded with a vacation during your summer break."
"A vacation?"
"That's right. A dream vacation on an island surrounded by the brilliant blue sea."
This school had done nothing but fuck us about so a vacation sure sounded appealing but…"Sure sounds like a load of bull," I mumbled but I kept my voice low. No need to shout it to the skies.
I'd hope it was just as she said, a vacation in paradise, again though, it was hard to trust an anime world and its nonsense—maybe a beach episode, yeah that would make sense.
"Wh-what is this strange pressure…" one of the boys muttered. My eyes were turned to him, and then I noticed, suddenly most of the boys had a 'do or die' expression…right, swimsuits, great now I was imagining it too, though to be fair Horikita in a suit would be marvellous, to say the least.
Chiyabashira-sensei stepped back, the air getting too tense even for her.
"Everyone. Let's do our best!"
"Yeah!" Ike howled along with our classmates. I could even hear it from my back. Followed by a "Perverts, both you."
I glanced at her, my eyes wide, I protested, "I didn't even say anything."
"You were thinking it."
Esper! Was this world an anime harem battle royal after all!?
"No retort? I was right it seems. Pervert."
Shaking my head at her, I turned my head back and banished the thoughts from my mind.
Soon enough we all had our papers and on the teacher's signal, we all began.
Reading the paper though and sure enough, it was all from the previous years. It would be strange if anyone didn't get decent grades now. Regardless of them all I began working my way through the papers.
The second and third-period exams were for Japanese and chemistry, respectively.
Looking through all the tests, especially Japanese and Social Studies, I understood that Horikita was very good at focusing on what would come for the test. Her narrowing was excellent, mine was not. When I had picked problems for the material they were all for understanding the content, and to serve such a purpose a lot of my questions were sometimes above or sometimes below the curve. Her problems though, were dead on.
Then came maths, out of the four we had given thus far, this was the one I enjoyed the most. Decent fun all the way through. I hadn't even looked at the old paper for this to be honest. However, I did realise I had to brush up a bit more on my side, which was fine.
Then came the break and the members of the study group gathered together at Sudou's seat.
"An easy victory! We've got this test on lock!" That was about all I heard before I switched off.
Then before the break could end, someone was at my table, Horikita, "Sudou did not memorise his English paper."
Well, he'd done fucked up.
"I want to lower your score, it would lower the passing requirement if you scored full in English then—"
"Hold on, how does that help? Isn't the passing grade 40% of the total?"
Then she looked at me like I was an idiot, "No it is half of the average."
Right, I was in Japan.
Still, "You serious?" I looked up at her, she was deathly serious. Okay, fine. But one guy would not help, we needed the whole class on this. So, I looked over at Kushida, "Please come here for a moment."
She did, "What's the matter?"
"Can you ask everyone to aim for about 80 on the English paper? No more, if possible less?"
She was confused for a second then her eyes sparkled, "To save Sudou!?" A wide smile drew on her face as she flew to the podium and started working her magic. Ignored it.
Horikita looked down at me. What her eyes said I couldn't tell but they were saying something. So I just asked, "What?"
"I am sorry. I used to think you were just Kouenji's pet."
"Huh?"
Kouenji laughed from up ahead, "Ha! He is a gofer, not a pet."
He called me a gofer so I bit back, "Yeah, pets are treated better."
"That they are." Kouenji agreed and laughed harder.
She sighed, there was a small smile on her lips though. "Cute—" Immediately, I got hit by a light slap on my head. Rubbing the spot she hit, I glared at her as she walked away, shaking her head all the while.
Again, when the exams were over the study group gathered around Sudou and for about a minute or two they chatted. Then Horikita broke off, leaving Sudou for some reason a blushing mess.
Then she went back to her seat and got ready to leave.
Seeing her I stood up as well. Looking over at Ayanokoji he was coming to join us as well.
All three of us departed together—a habit we had developed since we lived in the same dormitory.
While walking I asked her, "What did you do to Sudou? He looked like a mess."
"I apologised."
Makes sense why he was surprised then.
"You have been doing that a lot lately."
"I saw his dreams, aspirations, and hard work as childish and worthless. It only made sense.
I shared a look at Ayanokoji, "Did someone drug her—"
Ah! Bitch stomped on my foot!
—————————————————————
Chiyabashira-sensei strode into the classroom, looking around at the students in surprise. Everyone was anxious, holding their breath in anticipation of the test results.
"Sensei. We were told that the results would be announced today, but when?"
"There's no need for you to get so worked up, Hirata. You should have passed quite easily."
"So, when will the results be released?"
"After class. Though I must say I am impressed. I didn't think that you'd score so well. Many students are tied with perfect scores in mathematics, Japanese, and social studies. More than ten of you. You know, I will just let you people celebrate it."
She took out a rolled poster from underneath the podium and stuck it to the board, declaring our scores instantaneously.
Some of the students shouted in joy and delight when they saw the 100s lined up on the results sheet. However, some weren't smiling. Not that it mattered, I pulled my eyes to my grades. Perfect scores in everything but English, where I got a 70. As expected. English on the whole our class was the lowest scoring subject with no one crossing the 80-point mark, well except 'perfection incarnate' of course who had gotten a perfect grade.
Chiyabashira-sensei leaned into the podium then, "There were perfect results in every subject. But English only had one, Kouenji." Then her eyes went to Sudou. "Work hard on it. It will be an important part of your life."
My eyes moved to his score, he had passed everything. English was his lowest though, thirty-eight. His scores made me wonder if it was right for me to help Horikita with her material-making after all. I think she could have forced more marks with just her ability to narrow down the problems alone.
Well, I would talk to her about it later because while I didn't care if someone passed or failed, it would hurt the class and inadvertently my bottom line i.e. private points.
With that, the bell rang and the teacher left the class. Sudou stood up immediately. With determined steps, he went over to Kushida's seat and bowed.
"Thank you Kushida, you saved me when you asked everyone to lower their score." Then he turned to the rest of the class and bowed again, "I am sorry and thank you."
Kushida had a hesitant ting as she stood up from her seat, "Sudou, it—"
I cut her off loudly, "Excellent work Kushida. I knew we were lucky to have you in the class."
"Yeah!" Ike was the first to agree.
"I know, right?"
"First the exam papers and then this. She is really smart!"
"Yeah, the credit for our win goes to her today! Three cheers…"
As the chorus of praises got louder, I felt her eyes on me, she had a small pout. I shrugged it off.
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[A/N: The midterms are not over and we are down with the first volume of the LN, I only have to write the epilogue.
In this LN Sudou originally got 39 in English and failed. In this, he got 38 and passed! The reason for getting a lower score is as examined by Heylel, he went for content in which lowered the original grade of the group by a few points. His involvement will not always bring a positive result. Remember that.
This was rough, I got what? 50k words done in 4-5 days. Well, how do you think this is all going? What are your thoughts? What do you think of the characters? And regardless of it all, thanks for reading this garbage. Peace.]