May 28th, Friday.
"Good morning, Class B," Chabashira-sensei smirked seeing everyone's stiff appearances. "No absences, huh? Well, I guess that's only natural. Are you all ready?"
"Everyone has worked their hardest for the past few weeks, Chabashira-sensei. I don't think anyone in our class will fail," Hirata answered, carrying the thoughts and feelings of everyone.
"That's good, that's good." Her smile was unchanging as she nodded on Hirata's reply. "This midterm exam will be the foundation of your academics. After taking this, you'll have your finals in July. Do your best because the school will be rewarding you with a nice vacation during summer break if everyone passes."
"A vacation?"
"That's right, a dream vacation on an island surrounded by the brilliant blue sea," she answered.
It was a no-brainer that the boys immediately thought of girls in swimsuits.
"W-What is this pressure...?" muttered Ijuuin.
Even Chabashira-sensei stepped back from the obvious tension that the students exuded... which mostly came from the boys.
"Everyone, let's do our absolute best!" howled Ike.
"Yeah!"
Driven by Ike's misguided enthusiasm, the entire class's morale increased two or threefold. I was debating on whether I should cheer with them or not, but feeling Horikita's terrifying glare, I chose to stay silent.
Social Studies, Japanese, Chemistry, Mathematics, and English-- those were the order of the subjects we will take.
After the questions for the first subject were distributed, I instantly scanned the paper to see if they were the same as the old ones.
I won the gamble.
Even if I didn't memorize everything to the tee, it was evident the old test questions were identical to what we were taking right now. The order and phrasing were slightly different, but the questions themselves were essentially the same. I glanced to the side and saw Horikita looking at me with a triumphant glare. "It's Class B's victory", I thought as the two of us nodded at each other.
I glanced around the classroom to see how my classmates were faring.
Almost everyone was smiling. They really did study the questions we gave them. Alright, time to answer the exam myself.
Time passed by and at last, we finished our Mathematics exam. Students can finally take a break.
"Hell yeah! This is a complete win for Class B!" Ike cheered with the boys.
"I could probably score 120 points at this rate!" As usual, Yamauchi's confident words reverberated around the group.
Meanwhile, the Ayanokouji Group was having a meeting around Airi's seat.
"How'd everyone do?" I asked.
"No problem~! Those test questions were a godsend, Kiyopon! We got this in the bag!" Haruka raised her hand for a high-five.
Of course, I responded in kind.
"I probably scored 90 or more points on every subject. Not only were those a big help, but Kiyotaka's study materials also made it a whole lot easier for us, even if we didn't get to memorize everything."
"That's true... If Kiyotaka-kun didn't teach us the way he did, I'd probably score a bit lower even if I had the test questions," said Airi.
Our eyes turned to Ken, who was frantically scanning the test questions for English.
"Ken, is everything alright? You were especially weak in English. Did you study the materials properly?" I asked.
"Ken's fine. He's just making sure that he didn't memorize everything incorrectly." Akito answered for him while shrugging his shoulders.
"Oh, yeah." Ken turned to us. "I was almost in trouble last night. Good thing Akito came over."
"Yeah, I thought I'd go to his room to do some last-minute studying together, but this idiot fell asleep while studying English. If I didn't call his phone over and over for more than ten times, I would've been stuck outside waiting for no one."
"Pfft, what are you, Kencchin's girlfriend?" Haruka scoffed.
"Shut up," Akito rolled his eyes at her.
"I won't expect you to score too high, Ken. But you have to be careful. The class average will probably be a lot higher this time around, so the passing grade might be hard to reach if you mess up."
"Yeah, don't worry about it, Kiyotaka. Even if I can't understand most of these questions, I took the time to memorize most of them last night," nodded Ken.
When the bell rang, everyone finally took the last two exams. As expected, everything was still the same.
"Good job, everyone. You all seem confident in yourselves. I'm looking forward to the results." With that, Chabashira-sensei left the classroom carrying our test papers.
"Let's go! We're finally done!"
"Hey, hey, let's go shopping afterward~!"
"I'll reward myself by buying the latest game!"
Class B happily celebrated the end of our midterm exams. A lot of them invited their tutors out as a sign of thanks. Of course, Ike and Yamauchi happily went with the flow in order to ask Kushida on a date.
"Ah, I'm sorry Ike-kun, Yamauchi-kun. I have plans later. But, don't worry, your thanks are more than enough for me! It's been a pleasure tutoring you guys!" Kushida declined them with a huge smile.
"Kushida-chan, you're such an angel!" yelled Yamauchi.
"You're too kind for this world!" followed Ike.
I glanced at Horikita, wondering what she was doing and what I saw really surprised me.
"Horikita-san, do you wanna come with us?" asked Satou.
"We'll have lunch in Keyaki Mall and do some shopping afterwards. Don't worry about using your points, we'll treat you on everything!" Mori declared with a smile.
"That's... I can't possibly..." Horikita's head was probably a mess right now.
"It's alright, really! Let us at least thank you for tutoring us." Satou insisted.
Horikita reflexively looked at me. At this point, all I can do is nod. In the end, it was still her decision.
"Then... I'll take you up on your offer. But, I'll only accept your treat during lunch," she replied.
"Ehh? You're not gonna go shopping with us? You're such a cute girl, Horikita-san. It would've been fun if we could buy clothes together while talking about our tastes in fashion!" said Mori.
"I'm really sorry, but I have to decline. I have something else to do later," Horikita answered sternly.
"Well, if that's the case, we'll just treat you big-time for lunch!" Satou reached a verdict cementing their plan.
It would've been great if she could become friends with the other girls.
I stood up and approached Akito, who was seating in front of me.
"Wanna go ahead and grab lunch with the others?" I asked.
"Sure, I was just about to stand up as well," he answered.
The two of us invited Ken, Haruka, and Airi to Pallete. The Ayanokouji Group merrily celebrated the conclusion of our midterm exams. All we have to do now is buckle up and wait for the results.
Author's Notes: