Luka and Meiko sit in the back corner of the classroom, Meiko leaning back non-chalauntly in her chair while Luka sits up straight watching the classroom with her diamond blue eyes. Luka glances at the many different groups of friends as they all mumble and even shout about the same thing: after school tutoring. She tunes into the various conversations, looking like she's spacing out. "Did you hear that there were more students that failed this test than the last 5 years combined?" one girl whispered loudly to her little group of five. "I heard that anyone who failed is being forced into tutoring." another girl whispered back.
One girl excitedly said she heard it wasn't mandatory and that she was relieved about it, which she was until she was corrected by a girl in another group. Luka, Meiko, and the four boys that sat in the back with them remained silent until Meiko spoke up, "What is the big deal about the tutoring thing anyways?"
Luka glanced over to Meiko about to speak until girls from the two groups close by turned around from their conversation and spoke, "The big deal?" one spoke in a very sassy way as another continued, "You may pass all your tests, but not everyone else does, Meiko-san!" the girls seemed irritated with Meiko's statement.
Meiko went to say something back to the girls, getting up into a more defensive position until Luka spoke in her calm, collected, mature voice, "Calm down, all of you please. No one will know until Kobayashi-sensei gives us our test scores." The girls were all silenced by her words; the whole class was as well. Luka speaking to anyone besides Meiko and the guys seemed so rare that it was almost a miracle.
Before another word could be said, the teacher walked in, the students finding their seats immediately. He addressed the class, his voice booming with disappointment.
He paced in front of his desk, "There have been rumors going around that anyone who failed our mid-year pretest will have mandatory after school tutoring." He crossed his arms and sat back onto his desk, "This rumor is true. Anyone who has below a sixty-five percent on ANY test will have to stay after school for an hour PER test that they have failed. One failed test is one hour after school, two failed tests means two hours and so on and so forth." He got up and wrote 65% largely on the white board in the strong black ink of the marker with many emphasized underlines.
He grabbed a large stack of papers, which were obviously the test scores from a little light blue sticky note on the top that said 'test results - Kobayashi' in cursive. He walked around the classroom, handing the test scores out in alphabetical order. Mr. Kobayachi told the class not to check until he said so, knowing the classroom would be too loud otherwise. After all the papers were handed out, he gave permission to open the packets that were sealed with a very thin, easily breakable clear tape-like seal.
Meiko groaned out once she read her results, "Damn it! I failed two tests!" Meiko slammed her paper onto her desk and sat back irritated. One of the four boys that sat with them, named Kyon had failed three of the tests, Meiko and the others laughing at him, besides Luka. Luka was preparing herself to open the sealed packet. She had become a flunkie ever since last year, when she told herself nothing is ever perfect. Life can never be one hundred percent. She had gotten carried away and began failing. She had made a promise to herself to try and do well again, letting her hobbies and school work even themselves out as priorities even though she had failed to do so as of yet.
Luka slowly slid her finger between the cover and inside the packet, tearing the seal with ease. She opened the paper and read her scores; Language Arts: 80%, she smiled at it and moved her eyes to the next page; Mathematics, 64%, she winced back a bit, trying not to let anyone know even if she would show Meiko in a second. Meiko glanced over and patted her back. Luka's eyes darted over towards her brown eyes as they showed understanding and sincerity.
Meiko flipped to the next page in Luka's answer book; History: 89%, Science: 98%. Luka smiled softly and Meiko wrapped her arms around Luka's, holding her close. Luka looked down at Meiko then smiled, closing the booklet. "I guess we are going to tutoring together, then."
The guys watched Luka and Meiko, smirking about it. Kyon glanced over and saw all of the girls in the classroom watching in awe as well. Kyon knew that everyone, especially the girls, were in love with Meiko and Luka's friendship. Two mature, carefree, seeming to be 'perfect' though they were obviously not-very-perfect girls. Every time a sweet, bitter-sweet, or really ANY moment happened between them, all eyes are on them. Everyone looks past their flaws and sees them as goddesses, especially Luka.
Meiko let go of Luka, noticing all of the attention they were getting. Luka never seemed to notice that she was the most popular girl in school; the most talked about, and also voted the prettiest through the whispers of the upper and lower classmen. Luka could never even begin to think that she was important, or popular. She hardly talked to anyone, so what's the point in thinking anyone else would notice her? Though it was quite the opposite.
Meiko and the two boys beside her talked about their grades, Kyon and the other boy who sat on Luka's left side talked about the results as well. Kyon smiled at Luka, seeming shy around her but grateful that she noticed him. "Don't worry Luka! Those tests were really hard in the first place, and they say a lot of people failed some this year. So you're not the only one!" Mori, the boy to Kyon's left had smacked him in the head, "Just shut up before you make it worse, Kyon!" Kyon had turned around and yelled back, they argued about who was making it worse and what should or shouldn't be said to Luka.
Out of nowhere, Luka had giggled. Kyon had continued yelling about it but, Mori had stopped from noticing. She laughed louder, everyone growing silent from the cheerful laugh of Luka. She held her stomach as she laughed harder. Meiko turned around, looking at Luka surprised, and then smiling softly. Kyon turned around, blushing as well as everyone else in the room, besides the teacher who was surprised, but busy on his computer. "You two are too funny, you know that?" Luka giggled more, it slowly dying down.
Kyon and Mori seemed confused, then smiled at each other, Mori giving Kyon a nuggie. Luka laughed harder and waved her hand for him to stop, "You guys know just how to make me feel better!" Girls in the class whispered to each other, "Luka's laugh is so cute." and "Luka makes my heart flutter" and "those guys are so lucky!" and other things revolving around the situation.
The room got quiet as Luka stopped giggling, Mr. Kobayashi breaking this silence clearing his throat, and speaking up. "Remember, tutoring will be immediately after school in Room 316. The tutoring program will be different from the past years; we thought it would be easiest to have the eleventh and twelfth graders tutor as community service, as well as one-on-one learning for all of you who have failed." The classroom erupted into whispers as the girls (besides Luka and Meiko) heard the high school students would be teaching them.
Mr. Kobayashi cleared his throat again and began teaching, telling the students to take out their notebooks, all complying.
When the last bell of the day rang, Mr. Kobayashi reminded everyone where the tutoring was held and that anyone who did not attend would have detention.
Luka and Meiko were the last two out of the classroom, "Room 316 is the biggest room in the school; There really must be a lot of flunkies." Meiko said to Luka. Luka nodded, clutching her bag close to herself. "Yeah, I wonder why everyone is making a big deal about the high schoolers helping out? You heard how they all started talking right when Kobayashi-sensei said that."
Meiko seemed surprised, "The big deal? The big deal is that if its community service all of the hottest high school guys will be there too! You know, Kimoumo-sempai, Raichou-sempai, maybe even Kaito-sempai and Gakupo-sempai, too!"
Luka was confused, "Kaito-sempai? Gakupo-sempai? Who are they?" Meiko smacked Luka on the side of her head, "You really need to pay attention to me when I talk. I mention them a lot, you know! They are the most popular, hottest- no, SEXIEST- guys in the high school!" Luka thought that it was weird that she, or anyone in the eighth grade would think about high schoolers, especially about how physically attractive they are.
Luka and Meiko soon entered the Room 316, which officially by day was the drama room; by after-school is the tutoring room. All of the desks made a large circle in the room, name tags on every desk along with up to four books on each desk individually. The desks had a chair on the front and back side of it, the inside chairs for the middle schoolers, the outside chairs for the high schoolers.
Luka and Meiko walked to the inside of the circle, finding their desks away from each other which made them each rather disappointed. Luka found hers between two female students, one of which was in her class; the other was probably in a higher class than hers, not by grade but by test scores. Though it may not seem like it, Luka was in class C, the second dumbest class of the four groups her grade were divided into. This year was a shock to everyone as she went from class A to class C within one grade. The teachers thought someone wrote her name on their paper and offered for her to retest but she declined.
The girl beside Luka stared at her with her large green eyes, very happy that she could sit next to her. Luka looked over and noticed then smiled softly and said hello. The girl was speechless and overjoyed, just as she was about to get a word out the high school teacher got everyone's attention.
"Welcome to tutoring, ladies and gentleman. This is not a class to talk to your friends. This is only to study for the next upcoming test. This class IS mandatory and lasts as long as you have a failing test grade. Retests are in 3 weeks, and tutoring class is afterschool Monday through Friday. Treat this class professionally; your upperclassmen are your teachers as of today. I will roll call the underclassmen; all who are here will be paired up with the upperclassmen."
From where Luka was sitting she had to turn around to notice all of the eleventh and twelfth grade students standing against the wall behind the teacher. She had glanced at them but found no interest. "When I call your name, stand up and say here." he began role call, things going by rather quickly as he rushed people. "Megurine, Luka-san" Luka stood up straight, not bothering to turn around just politely saying "Here, sensei" He looked across his chart of student to student pairings and looked over to a man with long purple hair, "Kamui Gakupo-san. You are with Megurine-san."