When Nagisa walked into his classroom, there was someone already there. A girl with chin-length, bleached-white hair; piercing, lavender eyes; a small, silver nose-ring; thin, winged eyeliner; and a black choker around her neck.
"Kiya?" Nagisa was surprised to see her.
"I'm just here two days for exams," she explained before he got the wrong idea. "As soon as I've taken them all, I'm gone." Nagisa nodded in understanding.
"Hey, Kiya-san," Nagisa asked, "I've sort of been wondering all year, but who brings you the homework every night?" Kiya flicked her tongue across her lips with a shrug.
As the rest of the class trickled in, they all stared at Kiya. This was only the second time she'd come to class since school started. The only reason she came on day one was because if you didn't show up the first day of term you were cut from the class. Finally, Asui walked in, twelve minutes after the bell rang, and gave her excuse, as usual.
"Thanks for waiting for me. I found an injured dog on the way here and had to take it to the vet." She had a different excuse every morning, and they were getting steadily more absurd. Nagisa suspected that by the end of the school year she would have claimed to have been abducted by aliens at least once. She gawked at Kiya, who sat directly behind her as she went to her seat, then Nagisa began the lesson.
"Great, now that you're all here," He said.
"For once," Marihara added, gesturing to Kiya.
"Er, yes," Nagisa agreed awkwardly. "Today is the first day of your first semester mid-term exams. I will not be administering them to you, because I am only a teacher-in-training, and therefore not allowed. I had hoped that your actual teacher might show up-"
"For once," Marihara added again, just to be annoying.
"Er, yes," Nagisa said again, just as awkwardly. "But he did not, so when testing begins in sixteen minutes, Ms. Hanji will be your exam administrator."
"Hold up!" Misono interrupted. "Ms. Hanji is qualified to give an exam, but you're not?"
"Er, yes." Nagisa was already getting tired of saying that. "Before she gets here, however, I just wanted to make sure you all are feeling good about the material. If you have any more questions before the exam starts, now's the time to ask them, because once you get your papers, there's no more help." No one raised their hand. "Alrighty then." Nagisa smiled, then Kurra's hand went up hesitantly. "Yes Kurra-kun?"
"I just want to make sure you'll stand by the agreement," he said.
"Of course I will." Nagisa sighed. "But remember, everyone has to get a 'C' or better on every exam. One person gets a 'C-' and it's not happening." They all nodded, determined. Nagisa liked their determination, and he wanted them to do well, but at the same time he hoped there would be just one slip up, so he wouldn't have to carry out his end.
There was a knock on the door, and when Nagisa opened it, in walked the custodian/faculty assistant/exam administrator, Ms. Hanji. "Alright people. Good luck." Nagisa-sensei said as he left the classroom.
What followed were two days of intense test taking. Exhausting and nerve-wracking. Students desperately trying to remember what they learned. Fear of failure loomed over their heads like a poisonous fog, just waiting for one of them to take a breath so it could choke them up. Will Nagisa-sensei punish us if we all flunk. I know this one. That was too easy, I must've done it wrong. Is it spelled 'I-E' or 'E-I' what was the rule again? I better get these right or I'll actually have to do my homework. But the image of Nagisa-sensei in a dress was a surprisingly good motivator.
After the two days of test-taking were over, twenty-one downtrodden high-school third-years trudged out of the classroom.
"That was brutal." Misono remarked.
"Ugh." Hinata stretched his arms above his head with a groan. "Never let me sit down that long ever again."
"That was impossible!" Asui whined. "I'm pretty sure I got every single one wrong on the vocab portion for English.
"English can crawl into a hole and die alone." Ippantekina agreed.
"I think I did okay on home ec." said Ken, "but that's it."
Kurra felt about the same as the rest of the class did. He tried to remain optimistic, but he didn't like his chances of being able to cash in on that deal he had made with Nagisa-sensei.
[Nice, short chapter. If you don't like short chapters, don't worry, because the next two chapters are way on the long side. Love y'all.
<3 Raaor!]