Mr Estrada called attention to himself again. Today's classes were structured very strangely today so as to allow us to settle in.
Homeroom didn't have long left, around 15 minutes.
"Now that you know each other, I'd like to bring attention to the fact that your official student ratings have been released, they are a comprehensive report of your skills over nine specific sectors."
I had known about these ratings, and I had briefly checked some of the older students' ratings in my free time today.
"Your scores have been released on the school app, they are updated once per year so please reflect on your score and how to improve in later years"
Now that they had been uploaded, I immediately checked my score, as did
everybody else.
"Uhh.. Shit" I said this quietly, not quietly enough for old lilac sitting next to me to not hear and not immediately look at me.
"Students, you can use the rest of your time as you wish"
"Why'd you exclaim that immediately?" Egawa asked me within literal seconds of Mr Estrada finishing.
"Cus I looked at my score, and it's uhh, shit?"
"Surely it can't be that bad, no one below 75 overall is even let into this class"
Before I could even stop her, this girl grabbed my phone and looked at my score, then back at me, dumbfounded.
"75?" She was purely just confused here. "How on earth did you get into this class with a C?"
"Luck?"
"I'm looking at your individuals" That was something I desperately wanted to avoid here, but she had complete control over my phone.
"Uhh.. Are you serious right now?" I had anticipated her to believe I had woefully average scores and leave it at that, but instead she checked my real scores, and saw the reason for my 75 overall.
My scores read out as such:
Daniel Barrington
Academic Ability: S (100)
Intelligence: S (100)
Decision Making: A+ (98)
Physical Ability: B+ (88)
Adaptability: A (96)
Social Contribution: B (84)
Cooperativeness: F- (34)
Work Ethic: F- (32)
Attentiveness: F+ (48)
Overall: C (75)
Potential: S (100)
Seeing as this young lady had taken it into her hands to forcefully check my scores, I did the same and grabbed her phone, strangely she didn't even protest, she was completely absorbed by my rankings, hers
were as such:
Sakurako Egawa -
Academic Ability: A+ (98)
Intelligence: A (96)
Decision Making: A- (93)
Physical Ability: C- (70)
Adaptability: B+ (87)
Social Contribution: B- (80)
Cooperativeness: C+ (78)
Work Ethic: A+ (98)
Attentiveness: S (100)
Overall: B+ (89)
Potential: A (96)
Egawa had incredible overall marks, and she had 14 points over me in total. Just as I was about to place her phone on her desk Randan walked up to me with the new group he had somehow conjured out of his ass.
"You two seem relatively close for the first day, didn't think old Daniel had the ability to talk to people on his own" Randan teased me, I was sad.
"Oh yeah? How about you, oh I don't know.. end it??"
"Are you telling me to kill myself?"
"Guess we'll never know.." This was not an uncommon thing nowadays.
"Anyway Daniel, show me your score!" Randan was rather excited to see
if he had beaten me, seeing my piss poor marks in the last three metrics, he had definitely beaten me.
"Yeah sorry, this lady here is rather absorbed in my phone, I'll tell you that I got a 75 overall though"
"YO, Same!!" Holly practically yelled this, despite it definitely NOT being something that should be highlighted in the slightest.
"Hah, seems like you're the bum after all, I got an 83, B- ain't too shabby, and neither is the 20 dollars you owe me"
Now despite the fact I could easily half this price, showing randan that I had achieved 100 in two stats was not something I wanted to do, I decided to keep that private. Even if I wanted to show him decision making or something, he'd still end up seeing the other two, so I gave up and let him have this one.
"Shit guess I do owe you that now" Swearing probably wasn't allowed on campus, so I should really keep that to a minimum from here on. The five musketeers decided to wander over to the other people in the
class, so Egawa had the ability to speak after regaining her composure.
"Ahem, err.. I don't even know what to say here.."
"I do, nothing, you say nothing of that score to anybody else unless I tell you that you can"
"That's fine. I just want to know how you were given two 100s, you seem like a simpleton"
"Thanks for sugarcoating it. I got it because I guess they don't judge grades, they straight up go to the source"
"Meaning? I assume they just do it based off of what they can discern from you as a person, not a clue how they'd do that"
"Neither do I to be honest, but I'll tell you this, those scores are no mistake, I am most definitely deserving of them"
"So you seriously would be able to beat me wouldn't you"
"Without a doubt, but I don't intend to try too hard this year, so don't worry"
"Alright fine, I'll keep this a secret between us, but couldn't they just check the scores on the app?"
"They could, but they'll believe whatever score I tell them, which will be 80"
"I see, but what about the app?"
"Yeah that'll be a problem I intend to solve soon"
As those words left my mouth, perfectly timed, I was called out of the class. I was thankful for this, only to look into the doorway at who was calling me. Silver Hair, brown eyes, 6'7", it was my brother.
I got out of my seat and exited the room. Most onlookers would have assumed this was my loving brother welcoming me to the class, but in reality the second we were out of sight, he grabbed me by the collar of
my shirt and thrust me into the wall, partially winding me.
"Ergh! What the hell are you doing Michael!?"
"You tell me what you're doing!" Michael said this in an extremely aggressive whisper-yell.
Putting his forearm up to my neck, I was completely trapped here. I was physically able, but he had 8 inches on me and was probably three times stronger than I was.
"You are not serious right now here Daniel, how the hell did you get 100 on anything"
"Maybe because I'm better than you" I teased while flashing a smirk.
This statement was a mistake, because he promptly drove his fist into my stomach, not full strength but damn did it hurt.
"Urk!!" I crumpled to the floor and Michael let go of me.
"This isn't going public, on the app it's marked as an 80 with an asterix, do that what you will"
I smiled as he left, still in pain but at least I was correct, there was no way he'd let me outshine him if it was the last thing he did. I
checked my app, and surprisingly it still showed my real score.
I sat there for a moment before footsteps approached me, very light ones. I didn't even need to look up to know it was Egawa.
"Are you alright there?"
"Just dandy, getting jabbed in the stomach is a past-time of mine actually" I said, rather strained.
"Wouldn't be that surprised"
"Really?"
I finally looked up at her and realised something, too loudly unfortunately..
"You are really quite short"
"Uhh, what?"
"Shit, uhh.." I had made a major fumble here. "How can I put this.."
"I'm 155 centimetres tall, there's your answer"
"Huh.."
I got up, pushing myself up on my knee.
"Well then, guess I'll say sorry for that comment earlier. I get encapsulated by certain things sometimes"
"Is my height the only thing that caught your eye?"
"Well it wasn't your height alone per se, just that you were a rather small person in general"
"I meant other than that you idiot!" Egawa was definitely more than a little annoyed by me at this point, but she did look kinda cute right now I guess.
"Well I mean yeah but like.." I trailed off but Egawa glared at me, I felt like I had to say it like some stupid rom-com scene or something.
"I'll tell you later, it's a secret"
"Fine, guess I'll be keeping one too then"
When Egawa said this I turned my head to her at possible bone-breaking speed, she took no notice and returned to class as usual, I followed not long after.
Thankfully my brother wasn't the fourth year who gave us a tour around
the campus, it was some random ass guy who's name I couldn't tell you if I tried.