COTE: Someone Extraordinary (Kiyotaka x Honami)

Arc 1 Chapter 8: The Mid-term Exam

Part 1

It was now Thursday, the day before the mid-term exams. Hoshinomiya-sensei ended class and was about to leave the classroom. Before she could, however, Amikura and Ichinose nodded at one another before they each leapt into action. They walked towards the front of the classroom together. Amikura was carrying the printed copies they'd made at the convenience store and stood alongside Ichinose at the podium.

"Everyone, wait just a minute before you all dash back to go and study. We have something to give all of you," Ichinose said.

Everyone obediently waited behind. I wouldn't have minded taking the credit for finding the test papers, but this was something only Ichinose could pull off. It's not like I'm someone who's able to speak to the whole class openly like this.

"Firstly, I'd like to commend all of you for the hard effort you've put in over the last few weeks. Despite some unforeseen circumstances and unexpected problems, you have all adapted and studied extremely well. Good job!"

Polite applause broke out followed by words of congratulations and other forms of praise.

"However, to increase the chances of the whole class passing, Mako-chan has kindly gone out of her way to get some old test questions that we believe will be of immense importance. Mako-chan, if you will."

Amikura began handing out the question and answer sheets to the people nearest the front.

"Test questions? Did you make these, Amikura-san?" Himeno was surprised by this sudden development.

"Actually, I got them from an upperclassman the other day. These are the old first term, mid-term exam problems," Amikura said.

"Old test problems?" Kanzaki said analysing the questions before widening his eyes in surprise. "These questions... Are these questions going to be on the exam tomorrow?"

"Yes! To be honest, I was told that the mid-term exams from the year before had the exact same problems as this one. So, if we properly memorise what's on this test, it will definitely boost our overall grades."

"Hoho! For real? Thank you, Amikura-chan!" Tabata couldn't contain his excitement and gazed at Amikura with hearts in his eyes.

"What on earth? If we had gotten these sooner, all that studying would have been completely pointless," Terumento said.

That's exactly why we waited until today, Terumento.

"I'm sorry Terumento-kun. I only received the questions recently and didn't get a chance to get them printed off until today. Besides, you still got to improve your academics overall because of the studying you already did, right?" Amikura said.

Terumento seemed to agree, even if only a little bit. His academics were not the best after all.

"Just one more thing, make sure to keep this a secret from other classes. Let's all do our best and aim to do as well as we can!" Ichinose decreed with renewed determination. Although I would usually agree with her, I'd already given the test papers to Horikita. I wouldn't usually send information to an enemy, but this was a special case. Regardless, everyone started returning to the dorms in high spirits.

Hoshinomiya-sensei had stopped herself from leaving and observed the class over the course of the discussion. After it had finished, she nodded to herself looking satisfied and glanced at me with the same speculative gaze as last time before leaving. Had she figured me out?

I was about to make my own way back when someone interrupted me.

"Why does she keep looking at you like that?"