A/N: The 10th was a stupid day for me, in retrospect, because no matter what I did in my word processor, it died before I could save it. We had power outs all day that day, for just long enough to tick me off. It was distracting to say the least.

December 10th

"You are going to fail, if you keep that up." Midori sighed, popping another pretzel into her mouth, crunching on it merrily. "What's gotten into you anyway? You're not usually into helping Nao like that."

"Screw Nao, get to the lesson plan." Natsuki groused, crossing her arms and pointedly ignoring the smirk Mai was giving her. "And don't you start."

"Here, I saved you the trouble." Midori said then, passing out study guides to her friends in front of her. "That's the test for my class, point blank." She told Natsuki and Mai before turning to Mikoto to stress the same exact aspect for the lower grade level. "Word for word. If you know the questions in that order, and the answers following them, you'll be fine." Midori took to pitching back the beer she had in hand. Then she pointed to Natsuki and Mai, growing thoughtful again. "Your math exams will be easy, just look at chapters twelve, sixteen, and twenty...that's basically the test." It was hard to see these girls as her pupils, especially all that they had gone through, both as friends, and as rivals. "Mikoto's remedial class is probably just going to be a repeat of questions from the small quizzes she's had before. If she looks them over, she should be okay."

"You've never seen her math homework, have you?" Natsuki gawked, knowing well that Mikoto was nearly failing every class that couldn't hold her attention, and math was one of them.

"That bad?" Midori winced, to which even Mai nodded.

"You've seen her history grade." Mai said then, agreeing with Natsuki. "It's even worse when you think about math. She hates it."

"Science too, when it isn't a lab day." Natsuki shook her head, unsure of what Mikoto's future would be if this kept up. The younger girl in question just kept eating snacks, and didn't pay any mind to the conversation around her. Instead, she hummed away, enjoying Mai's cooking. "See, she doesn't even care."

"Well, some people aren't meant for long and boring classes." Midori shrugged. "There were times we skipped out, and we're fine, aren't we?"

"She might get held back again." Mai protested, pointing in Natsuki's general direction. "I wouldn't call that fine, would you?"

"I am not going to be held back." Natsuki's voice was an agitated rumble, bordering on dangerous. "Those grades better be passing...and if they aren't, I'm calling in a few favors. Fumi owes us big time for that crap she pulled."

"Relax." Midori told Natsuki, putting a beer in front of her too, though she knew Natsuki wasn't much of a drinker anyway. "You'll be fine. In my classes the lowest thing you have is a C."

"Damn you." Natsuki hissed. "If you would have paired me with Mai for that last hands on quiz, I'd still be sitting at an even B."

"If I would have done that, there's a good chance Chie would have burned the school down. You know she can't cook. Mai's the only one in the class I can pair her with...at least, if I want to give her a passing grade by the end of the term." Midori said simply, knowing home economics was Natsuki's worst class as well. "Besides, it wasn't a bad first attempt. You and Aoi did just fine."

"It wasn't good either." Natsuki sighed then, glancing through her study guide. "Okay so history is this crap, and math I can more or less wiz by, what about the other stuff?"

Midori gave that some thought. "Chemistry is going to be a tough one." Midori said after considering the questions that were on them. "I would say to make sure you have the periodic table completely memorized, and it might be a good idea to look over those flash cards you made at the start of the year. You never know what will be on that one, and I haven't seen the test for it." With all of the tough classes out of the way, Midori smirked. "English and modern Japanese are ones you won't have a problem with, so I wouldn't worry. Gym will probably be split up into two groups based on gender. To be honest, I think Mai will find that one harder than you will."

"Alright." Natsuki nodded, she could taste her diploma at this rate. "What about the second semester exams? I've got to take those as well to test out of them."

"Dunno about those." Midori shrugged, a bit unsure about that herself. "If you've read through the books and curriculum, then you can probably muddle your way through most of them, at least, I would think so." With a squint she chugged down the last bit of beer in her glass and leaned back a bit. "Mine are out of the textbooks, literally. As long as you've read it, you should be fine. I'd say Chemistry is going to be the hardest written test you've got to be worried about. In home economics, I've got a thirty question written portion, and then a demonstration segment for the final."

"Alright, what are you going to force me to cook this time?" Natsuki muttered, not willing to think about how badly she could screw it up just yet.

"Student choice, but it has to be from the second half of the class, so I'd suggest you pick a recipe and learn it before exam day." Midori eyed her empty glass, and then with a smirk she put it down. "So tell me Kuga, now that all of that unpleasantness is out of the way, what's really going on between you and Yuuki?"

Natsuki sighed heavily. "That's it, I'm going to Shizuru's."

"Running away again, huh?" Midori waved her hand, not minding either way. "It isn't any matter. I'll find out sooner or later, I always do."

"Whatever." Natsuki didn't stay around. She packed her bags and headed out of the dorm room she shared with Mai and Mikoto, walking down the hallway with heavy strides. She knew she had to study, but at least with the cooking exams coming up, she had a good excuse.