#50 Midterms

"What I meant is that this news will prevent you from being expelled as long as you put in a little bit of effort." Yuichi corrected himself and Horikita started handing the test papers out to everyone.

Koenji who noticed this refused to take it and left immediately after saying a few sentences how he doesn't need to use such cheap tricks.

Naturally, there were a lot of questions that were immediately addressed by Horikita. She explained everything to everyone.

"Horikita-san! I knew you wouldn't just abandon us!" Ike screamed out in happiness with moist eyes.

'Ugh' Horikita wanted to show a disgusted expression but she had to keep her composed face since that's something she and Yuichi agreed upon.

Horikita kept her cold and indifferent face, which formed once again some kind of area around her, almost impossible for others to approach her but this time, others just thought that she is bad at social interactions so she was having Yuichi do this job. They didn't try to force conversation with her or approach her but they still felt grateful to her and Yamauchi and Ike were definitely among them.

Yuichi just faintly smiled after seeing how groups formed in the classroom were getting along quite well. He couldn't call this class unified but they were on the right way towards it. Before leaving school for the day, Yuichi reminded everyone to study from these test papers only at the dorms and that they shouldn't show them to anyone just in case.

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The students studied those test papers as if their lives depended on it. All wanted to get as high as possible scores. Yamauchi and Ike weren't exception. The midterms quickly arrived and everyone was sitting in their seats with a confident and relaxed smile, the entire atmosphere in the classroom was very relaxed as if there were no midterms today.

"Good morning, I hope everyone is ready for your first hurdle." Chabashira-sensei walked in the classroom and said while walking towards the podium to her desk in front of the board where she put all her stuff.

"We are absolutely ready for whatever comes in front of us!" Ike said with a smirk.

"Hm?" Chabashira-sensei turned at them and only now she noticed how confident and relaxed everyone was. She wasn't exactly surprised by this but she wanted to know who was the reason behind this. The first person she looked towards was Yuichi or maybe Ayanokoji, it wasn't clear since Ayanokoji sat right behind Yuichi.

"I am glad that even you are so confident, Ike." Chabashira-sensei replied before she handed out the first test papers.

"You will take this midterm and final exam in July. If no one fails either test, you will be rewarded with the vacation during your summer break." Chabashira said before starting the exam.

'Huh? Is this supposed to be some kind of encouragement? To be honest, I no longer see any encouragement that comes out of her mouth as an encouragement. I honestly don't want this so-called vacation, I would be fine with just a few days off the school' Yuichi frowned down and thought while observing Chabashira-sensei's face.

"A vacation?!!" Ike immediately questioned with sparkling eyes. He was very easy to take the bait.

"That's right. A dream vacation on an island surrounded by the brilliant blue sea." Chabashira-sensei replied with a faint smile.

"That means..." Most boys muttered together while glancing at each other, confusing most of the girls but they knew that the boys weren't up to anything good.

"Yes!" Ike exclaimed with an excited grin while holding up his clenched fist high.

"Everyone, let's do our best!" Ike said aloud and all other boys responded to him positively with clenched fists.

Not wanting to look like he is ignoring their calls for unity of boys, Yuichi pretended to still study a few seconds before he gets his own test paper.

'They can be really embarrassing sometimes...Even Ayanokoji followed them with his emotionless voice.' Yuichi thought while keeping his head down covering his face with a hand.

After this little distraction, Chabashira announced the start of the first test.

Yuichi quickly looked at the questions as everyone else and immediately, everyone released relieved expressions which prompted Chabashira to smile inwardly.

All tests went very well for Yuichi. There was only 1 last test from English remaining to be conquered after the 10-minute break.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Yuichi asked in a low voice, while standing near Sudo who was still reviewing the old test from his phone.

"Hm? I am quite confident in scoring pretty high in all subjects but I guess English will be quite average since it's my worst subject. Still, I did as you suggested and started reviewing it right from the day you show them to me...Thanks to that and your additional help, I am absolutely confident in passing through it." Sudo raised his head and replied with quite a calm expression but it was apparent that he was very happy from his tone.

'Who doesn't like success, no matter in what field it is...Still, after this, he will have to start studying normally once again. I hope he won't start hating studying once again. It's all right if he doesn't exactly like it but he needs to have at least some kind of motivation to study diligently.' Yuichi thought with a smile before going to check on Hasabe and Miyake. These 2 were completely fine and said that they won't score less than 70 in any subject.

The next test from English passed by very quickly and everyone was finally free for the day, however, no one was exactly tired or nervous.

"Hey, hey, do you want to go to karaoke today?!"

"You read my mind! I wanted to ask you the same, hehe."

Girls started talking among themselves with relaxed smiles, planning how to spend the rest of the day.

"Look at their behavior...neither of them is worried or nervous..." Horikita muttered but Yuichi wasn't sure if she disliked their behavior or if she just found it interesting.

"Well, they were most likely able to pass the midterms so let's cut them some slack. Everyone did good and you should admit it..." Yuichi said with a faint smile.

"...You are right." Horikita replied and stood up before approaching Ike, Yamauchi and Ayanokoji. She praised them for their efforts despite not being sure of the results. Ike and Yamauchi were definitely surprised by this which changed their whole opinion on Horikita... Now they thought that she is just an extreme tsundere and not exactly a socially awkward and cold girl.

'Looks like we were able to overcome our first so-called hurdle. I wonder when the next one will come...' Yuichi thought and couldn't help but think of the vacation Chabashira-sensei mentioned.

'Why would she mention it so soon? And why right before the exam? I highly doubt it was supposed to serve as motivation because she must have seen confident smiles on everyone's faces. Well, there is no need to think about it right now, there isn't much to think about anyway...Hm?' Yuichi thought while frowning down and looking out of the window from his seat before he felt someone's eyes on him.

Yuichi inconspicuously glanced around the classroom to see who it is and he quickly found the one who has been staring at him for quite a while for now.

'Matsushita Chiaki...Why was she staring at me for so long...and why did she act as if nothing happened when I found out? From what I remember...she is quite "average", usually fooling around with her friends but she doesn't seem to struggle with her academics...' Yuichi quickly redirected his gaze out of the window before he thought about the one who was previously staring at him.

There was no reason for someone to stare at him, and one of the perks Yuichi acquired thanks to being popular during his Junior High school ages, he knew that she wasn't looking at him to admire his looks or whatever it might be. He already learned how to ignore girls' stares unless those stares were out of anger or anything else that isn't related to admiration. Although it couldn't be said that Yuichi "learned" it himself, he simply passively obtained it.

'Hmm...Iwamura Yuichi...good yet not perfect grades, superb athletic abilities, though there weren't many situations to truly assess his true abilities... This entire situation with old test papers doesn't fit in well with me...Compared to Hirata, he is lacking in academics. Maybe I am overthinking everything.' Matsushita thought while participating in her friends' talk about their today's plans.