Summer Start (1)

"I can't," I blubbered.

Although I wanted the money, my sanity was washing away again.

It happened frequently and I couldn't control it, more like watching myself through a screen.

Ethan stared at me with great disappointment, appearing exhausted to the point he hasn't slept in weeks. We weren't able to get through a single paragraph for ten hours. Meanwhile, Luke and Alex were too deep asleep to know what was going on. This was what happened when I wasn't able to take a single break, confined to my chair whenever I found myself conscious.

"I need a break!" I angrily yelled.

My mind was melting, trying to find ways to escape. Searching for some tools, my eyes landed on my sharp pen. Since my legs were shackled to the leg of the chair by an anklet, I began to stab the same area. I could tell Ethan was shocked, but Luke always had a prevention measure for this. He spelled the accessory, not letting me touch the same area. My pen hit a barrier, a centimeter away from my target. I sighed as my attempt was a failure as I predicted.

"You're absolutely crazy," Ethan's eyes flickered.

"Free me," I knew he had the key.

Maybe I was getting extremely desperate, but I began to see Ethan as my next target. Unconsciously, I threw my pens, aimed at his neck. Ethan's eyes went wide as he immediately dodged my attacks. When I ran out of pens, I picked up the scissors with sparkling silver blades. It was a pity my aim never landed, wondering what other angles to use. Surprisingly, this was starting to get fun, using everything I had at hand.

"She's actually throwing things," Delia was stunned.

"You should wake up," Cillian shook Luke.

It took a few minutes for Luke to open his eyes, confusedly looking around the room. However, it didn't take him more than a second to notice the pens and scissors on the ground. This wouldn't have happened if they didn't push me to my breaking point. No matter how strained we were on time, ten minutes would have barely made a difference. Luke instantly dashed to his office, grabbing my arm to stop the attacks.

"What did I tell you about throwing things? You cannot ever throw things unless you're in danger, and you know what that definition means," Luke was furious.

"I really apologize, this hasn't happened in months. I will make sure it will never happen again," he turned to Ethan.

"This happened before in your study sessions?" Ethan was nearly speechless.

"You can't blame this on me. You never gave me a break and you pushed me too far. I repeatedly asked for ten minutes. Only ten minutes to keep me sane," I raised my voice.

"Rika!" Luke was making this my fault.

"Give up on me! Abandon me somewhere on the streets," I had great survival skills.

"Again?" Alex woke from the noise.

"Is it the pens this time? Or did she just rip the pages out?" He rubbed his eyes.

"Grandfather told me to visit," Charles opened the door.

"Rika threw things again," he noticed the tense atmosphere.

I had given up on maintaining my decent image. It didn't matter anymore. I was tired of begging and pleading for them to be more merciful to me.

I bet the minute my fake friends were in my shoes, they would break down within the first hour. It was different watching a person go through the suffering and experiencing it yourself.

Fortunately, Luke didn't have enough time to conduct his usual lectures. There was dangerously little more than a day remaining in the outside world before the ceremony. The supplemental exams needed to be taken at least twelve hours prior to that time. Why were my fake friends here anyways? Shouldn't they be getting ready for the ceremony? It was weird they were mostly with us, nearly sleeping overnight with us.

Luke's marble began to vibrate again, his family members frequently checking our progress. Sadly, even I knew it would be humiliating if one of them couldn't graduate. Their eyes looked desperate when negotiating the amount of money they would give for my waterpark. When Luke accepted the call again, Logan appeared on the screen, wanting an update. Luke answered without him asking, "we're two weeks behind schedule, and we couldn't start the mocks yet."

"The exam has to be taken less than a day outside," Logan appeared devastated.

"I'm coming here. I'm taking time out of my schedule for you Rika," he turned to me.

As soon as the call ended, Logan reappeared inside the club room, surprising all my friends. Like Luke, he instantly noticed the pens and other stationary scattered on the floor. Ethan quickly rose from his seat to make room for Logan, cautiously moving towards the gaming section. I wondered why they were treating Logan like he was someone to be feared. Everyone shrank and immediately plastered an elegant and proper image of themselves.

"Pass me the workbooks," Logan gestured to Luke.

Thankfully, Logan managed to solve the problem within minutes. When he went through the material with me, he knew the way I thought. He sighed while facing me, "you're absolutely burnt out. You can't think anymore, and nothing is coming into your brain."

Unexpectedly, he offered words of comfort, "it's not your fault, our expectations were too high. We will lower them by several levels again."

"Rika doesn't have the ability to normally go through the workbooks anymore. Turn everything into the format of picture books and songs. The mock will have to be done through games," Logan began to provide a demonstration.

I was surprised when he removed the shackles on my ankles, placing me in his lap instead. Opening the workbook for history, his voice was smooth as a narrator, "this person was a villain in the villager's eyes. But he could be said to be a hero to the rest of the world."

Since the way he told the story was memorable, using the illustrations to resemble a picture book, everything stuck with me. Logan created a simple plot for every single fact, quickly going through the pages. I nodded to tell him that I understood, adding comments in between, "villains are needed for development and change."

After finishing around half of the history workbook within an hour, he moved onto the theory portion for the sciences. My ears were filled with catchy songs, the lyrics flowing into my head and staying. How was everyone in the first district such a good singer? I could instantly repeat the songs, memorizing the theory and recalling the steps to calculate them. They should have done this from the start!

"Do you have an idea to conduct the mocks?" Logan turned to Luke.

"I do. I know a way to test her," Luke sent him a proposal.

"This should be good enough. It's a good idea, I'm returning to my office now. Don't hesitate to contact me when the progress starts faltering again," Logan vanished.

Luke was a quick learner, using the same techniques as Logan. The room was filled with singing and storytelling, the number of completed workbooks increasing. My eyes went large when Luke used my hand games, asking questions on the rhythm. The material was soaking inside and easily applicable. Did I need my dimensional library if I always studied like this? Time quickly passed as Luke finally let me have a break, one hour before the exam.

"The Roselia family really lowered their expectations, much more than the bare minimum," Oili watched me relax inside the sleeping bag.

"How much did they lower?" I rolled towards him.

"This studying technique is what they use on children less than a year old," he revealed.

Was he serious? The Roselia family was treating me less than a year old? I didn't know whether it was a good or bad thing. Although I was suffering now, lowering their expectations would become helpful in the future. There was no way they would ever assign as much work as Joanna to me at this rate. In fact, I may never be assigned any work. Luke never allowed me to touch the fraction documents without his permission too.

"Can I lower the expectations even further?" I wondered.

"I don't think anyone could possibly lower them further than this," Oili was amazed.

"I can lower them further. I was lowering them on purpose," I was determined.

"There's no way you were lowering them on purpose. Do you think we don't know your abilities?" Alex found the idea ridiculous.

"You can't eat, change, study, and wake up on your own," he scoffed.

"Well, you wanted to do it for me in the first place," I reminded him.

"I eat and wake up on my own now. I cry less during the study sessions too," I shrugged.

"The begging decreased," Charles agreed.

"It's usually worse?" Delia was stunned.

"It's much worse. Rika was really trying hard for those workbooks," he supported me.

These people were idiots. I could imagine how much work they would be assigned later on. After the hour passed, I took my exam, finding the questions to be somewhat easier than normal. One of Luke's family members definitely pulled the strings, my mouth tugged into a smile as multiple choice was dominant in the test. If I didn't know the answer, I could always guess my way through.

Not expecting much, I faced my results almost instantly, and covered my mouth. I received perfect scores. I couldn't believe it. I could take awards with those scores, it was possible!

"What were the results?" Ethan had helped with the tutoring.

"Perfect scores," I showed him.

"What did you guys get?" Ethan turned to my ex-friends.

"A mix of As and Bs," Sienna showed him theirs.

"How the heck did you get lower grades than Rika?" He was shocked.

"What did you get?" Delia peeked at my screen.

"No way!" She shouted.

"The teachers made her exam harder since they were making an exception," Alex was equally disappointed in them.

"This was why our family was desperate to complete the planned schedule," he added.

"But they were mostly multiple choice," I was confused.

"Multiple choice?" Luke wanted to see the exam booklet.

"This is the format they use for high school students. It increases the margin of mistakes and less chances for part marks," he analyzed.

"They really made your exam harder than normal," Ethan looked at my exam.

"You got lower grades than the person who learnt the material by using picture books and songs," Charles mocked them.

"You can get better grades in high school," I stuck my tongue out.

"Our family is having a celebration from the results after the ceremony," Luke showed me a message.

"Don't they usually do this for people who graduate from high school? Like Jules and Yulee?" I was confused.

"They're combining it. You were really at the edge of repeating a year," Alex read the same message.