Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Self-Test

"Yo, Ayanokouji. It's finally time, huh?" Sudou approached my seat.

After class ended, we showed the study group assignment to everyone. Of course, Kouenji strolled out of the classroom with his usual smile. After nodding to Sudou's words, I see the other three students assigned to me, approach awkwardly.

"Hey there, Sakura," I waved my hand. "Miyake, Hasebe, nice to meet you."

"Uh, Ayanokouji, you all said it was alright if we didn't attend the study group, right?" Miyake asked while scratching his head guiltily. "I don't really plan to ditch, but I have club, so getting a perfect attendance isn't possible for me."

"That's no fair Miyacchi! You have a club pass," pouted Hasebe.

Miyacchi? So they're close enough that Hasebe calls him using a nickname? That's quite surprising.

"I don't really mind. We're doing this to increase your exam scores, but it's still completely optional. It's also the same for you, Hasebe-san. It's alright if you don't attend. If you can study on your own, then by all means," I replied.

"Ah, I was half-joking about that, Ayanokouji-kun. Besides, I'd feel guilty if everyone else is working hard to get high scores while I'm sitting there with my average scores." Hasebe looked away before muttering. "I guess I just prefer spending my time alone."

"I have club too, Miyake, but I took some time off. Don't you wanna do the same?" Sudou asked curiously.

"Hmm... I don't think I need to, at least not for this midterm," answered Miyake.

"Huh. I guess that's reasonable. Since I got a failing grade from last time, I need more time and effort to study."

"Well, whatever your decisions are, I'll respect them. But if possible, I'd like all of you to give your best in this exam," I said.

"Of course! Let's get those 100 class points!"

At least Sudou was enthusiastic about studying. I never would've imagined that when I first met him. They all looked at him with wry smiles. If he's motivated then I'd consider this a good start.

"Hirata and Kushida's groups are studying in the classroom along with some other groups. Do you guys wanna relocate somewhere?" I asked. "Sakura, do you have a place in mind?"

"Eh? Ah— I-I don't particularly mind where we study..." Sakura, surprised that I addressed her, answered stutteringly.

"I want some peace and quiet. Is the library alright?" Hasebe suggested.

"I'm up for it," Miyake nodded immediately.

"Sure, I guess," followed Sudou.

I looked at Sakura and both of us nodded to each other. Alright, I guess it's the library then. They often play classical music in the background so it's quite relaxing for me, too.

Luckily, the corner-most table on the back wasn't occupied by anyone. After laying down our notes on the table, I began to distribute a bunch of papers.

"I prepared these questions for you. I'll see how I should teach you guys based on the results." I turned to Sudou. "Yours is a bit nonstandard, Sudou. Since you're lagging behind, I'll teach you differently than the others."

"I see... Gotcha!" Sudou was quite confused but that's fine.

As I listened to Mozart's Salzburg Symphony No.1, their pens danced on top of the paper I gave them.

After 20 minutes, they submitted their answers and braced themselves for my evaluation.

"Hmm... This is interesting. Hasebe-san and Miyake-kun, your scores on each subject are almost identical..." I said.

"Huh? Seriously?" Hasebe asked with a shocked expression.

"Yeah. Both of you got above-average scores in the sciences, but near-failing scores in language and history. You even got the same questions right and wrong..." I explained.

"Urk— I don't really know if I should be happy about that, given the second part," Miyake said with an awkward tone.

"But isn't that crazy, Miyacchi? We're totally the same," commented Hasebe.

"Sakura, your scores are well-distributed. You're not particularly bad at any subject but you need to improve all of them at the same time," I said.

"Oh..." Sakura reacted meekly to my evaluation. "I'll... I'll try my best."

"And for you, Sudou. I got some bad news," I said.

"B-Bad news?!" Sudou reflexively yelled.

"Shhh!" Miyake and Hasebe shut him up at the same time.

"My bad!" Sudou apologized whisperingly, which almost sounded like a hiss.

"Sudou..." I built it up as Sudou gulped in anticipation. "Your fundamentals are only at the primary level."

When Miyake and Hasebe heard it, even they couldn't help but slam the table in surprise. Their reactions were quite amusing. The blatant disbelief on their faces surprised even Sakura. At the same time, Sakura was also in shock with my evaluation of Sudou.

"Seriously...?! Dang... I guess slacking off in studies finally bit me in the ass..." Sudou clicked his tongue in frustration.

"It's fine, Sudou. I'll try my best to improve your score, at least enough to prevent you from failing."

"Yeah... I'm counting on you, Ayanokouji."

"Alright, for now, I'll give you some pages to study while I create a new set of test questions for Sudou. After that, we'll review what you've remembered and pick up our pace from there. You guys fine with that?" I asked.

All of them nodded in response. Good, we have some nice coordination going on here. If we keep going at this speed, we'll definitely make it in time for the exam.

————————————————————————

After a couple of hours had passed, our group finally finished today's quota. When we stood up after preparing to leave, we noticed that the library was almost full. As I thought, it was a popular place when the exams were right around the corner.

I checked the time and saw that it was 5:56 PM. The five of us walked through the hallways as the sun set slowly, dying the floor with a shade of orange.

"Phew! Oh man, that session sure melted my brain!" Sudou said with a huge grin.

"Seriously dude? You were answering questions for 6th graders. How the heck did that melt your brain?" Miyake bantered.

"It can't be helped! And besides, you're bad at Japanese too, you bastard!" Sudou countered.

"You guys are getting along quite well. Not bad for the first day." I said.

Their heated conversation didn't look like it'll turn into a fight, but I'll prevent anything from happening regardless.

"Well, they're both blockheads. It's natural for them to get along." Hasebe haughtily made fun of them.

"The hell'd you say, Hasebe?! Just you wait, I'll get a better score than you and Miyake in Japanese!" Sudou snapped back.

"Hey, isn't that a bit cowardly? Why don't you compete with us in the sciences too? You choose; Math, Chemistry, or whatever." Miyake crossed his arms with a smirk.

"That's unfair! I'm bad in all subjects, so I can only possibly beat you guys in subjects that you're bad at as well!" Sudou argued.

"Hmph, fine. Let's accept the challenge, Miyacchi. Let's grab a bunch of points from Sudou while we're at it!" Hasebe smiled. "So, how many points are we betting?"

When he heard that, Sudou shut up for a brief second, looking quite intimidated.

"5,000 points..." Sudou said with a glare, but his tone was pretty tame.

"Hmmm~? Why not 20,000? or maybe even more?"

"Tch, alright, fine. 10,000!" he replied.

"Deal!" Hasebe and Miyake called it instantly.

"Ayanokouji! Make sure I score perfectly on Japanese!" Sudou looked back at me.

"That's up to you, idiot," I replied.

"C'mon, man! Back me up in here!" Sudou desperately looked for an ally.

"Well, if your motivation stays like this, you'll have a high chance of beating them," I said.

"Oh~! The class genius has calculated your odds, Sudou! Be happy!" joked Hasebe.

"Heh! I knew it, I had the potential!" Sudou smirked, clenching his fist in excitement.

The combination of those three turned out to be surprisingly lively. If Sudou's reputation in the classroom wasn't like this from the beginning, I doubt the two of them would converse with him so openly.

"How'd you find our session today, Sakura?" I asked the girl who was walking beside me.

"It was alright... I was a bit scared at first, but Sudou-kun turned out to be a pretty good guy— Miyake-kun, too."

"You can tell? You just met them for the first time, though," I asked.

I thought Sakura was the type of person who needs more exposure to a person before she can open up to them. If she easily judged Miyake and Sudou, then it might not be the case at all.

"I can... actually tell if a person can be trusted just by looking at their eyes," she said. "You know when you look at someone's eyes and it feels odd— like there's something different behind those eyes? That's how I feel a lot of the time... even if the person seems kind on the outside."

"Is that how it works?" I tilted my head.

"I-I can't really explain it... I've judged people like this since I was young. Most of the time, people's eyes scared me. That's probably why I can't talk to people, and more than that, I can't look at them in the eye..." narrated Sakura.

For the duration of our study session, I had Sakura sit next to Sudou, using my lesson plan as an excuse. Since they had the chance to talk, then it must've worked well. Of course, I made it so Sakura could converse with Hasebe and Miyake, too.

"I see... So Sudou and Miyake's eyes were that of the real good people?" I asked, to which Sakura sheepishly nodded in agreement.

"Your eyes are also like theirs, Ayanokouji-kun... Kind and gentle..." Sakura added with a slight blush. "Miyake-kun doesn't talk much, but he's pretty vocal when he's comfortable around the people he's with. Sudou-kun was a bit scary, but he's kind to those who are kind to him... Ah- and of course, Hasebe-san was kind to me, too."

I'm impressed. Sakura's perception is a lot better than I thought. She's surprisingly a good judge of character. That said, I think she can just sense if a person has an ulterior motive. It's probably the reason why I'm in the red. After all, I wouldn't really classify myself as "kind".

"Sakura, haven't you noticed? You're talking normally with me right now. You're even looking at me in the eye. If you can keep doing this, then you'll make more friends in the future," I commented.

"Eh-? Ah—... I-I hope so... It would still be really hard for me though..." Sakura looked down and muttered. "After all..."

Her voice was so soft that it would've been impossible to hear and understand if I hadn't tried hard enough. Is she hiding something...?

When we reached the shoe lockers, I stopped in my tracks to say goodbye to them.

"I'll be heading back to check on the other study groups," I spoke loud enough for the four of them to hear.

"Heh~? Come hang out with us, Ayanokouji-kun! These two idiots are just about to fight!" Hasebe called out to me while pointing at Sudou and Miyake.

"Don't fight, or I'll beat you up myself," I jokingly said.

Hearing my words made Sudou flinch.

"Tch— Miyake, let's stop. I ain't scared of anyone... but Ayanokouji will probably pummel me." Sudou softly whispered to Miyake.

He was genuinely nervous.

"Wha-?! Seriously? He's that strong?" Miyake was reasonably shocked, but he didn't doubt Sudou.

"You guys are exaggerating..."

"Sakura-chan, come! Let's head back to the dorms together!" Hasebe waved her arms to Sakura.

"U-Uhm, thank you for today, Ayanokouji-kun! See you tomorrow," Sakura bowed gratefully.

"Yeah, be sure to listen to the new lessons," I said, gently waving my hand goodbye.

"Later, Ayanokouji-kun!" yelled Hasebe.

Sudou and Miyake waved at me, as well.

I'm glad everything turned out fine. I had fun, too.