A few minutes later, they were back in their room and doing their homework. Math did indeed take up most of their time. In fact, they didn't finish until dinner. Tsubaki finished half an hour after curfew, Maka five minutes later, Liz and Patty finished ten and five minutes before curfew. Maka used the time after she had finished to talk to Tsubaki.
"Say, what's a category two cane?", asked Maka.
"They have canes in categories, based on how much they hurt", said Tsubaki, "the least painful is category five. Or teacher's generally use a category four, while the counselor's use category three".
"So Dorothy got the second worst cane?", asked Maka, "and who uses the category one cane?".
"I heard that the commander uses it", said Tsubaki, "I'm kinda scared when I try to imagine how much it would hurt".
"I heard that it causes you to bleed almost immediately", said Patty, "after only one strike".
"What do they use that for?", asked Maka.
"I don't know", said Tsubaki, "Patty hasn't gotten it yet, and she does some crazy stuff". Then they went back to discussing trivial things, like wondering when Ms. Metzger would have finished correcting that test, and how much they had screwed up in it. Even though Tsubaki had a good feeling about the test, she was kinda sure that it would not really go good for her, but she was certain that she had scored high enough to avoid getting a strike on her behavior card. Maka on the other hand would be glad if her grade was even high enough to avoid getting the worst score in class. At least she wouldn't fail alone, Ms. Metzger said that she had already flunked half of her class.
"But why are you so pessimistic about the result?", asked Tsubaki.
"I didn't even understand half of the questions", said Maka. Tsubaki acknowledged that that was bad. But she also comforted her saying that the next quiz would probably be better. At least there was light on the horizon.
"No there isn't", said Liz, "each math quiz is basically a somewhat delayed caning. Abandon hope". After that, Maka wanted to chat about something else. So she mentioned the name of the girl who got publicly caned today.
"Dorothy frequently get's in trouble", said Tsubaki, "sometimes even more often than Crona".
"Crona get's in trouble a lot?", asked Maka, "she looks like she's completely obedient".
"Well, she's Medusa's daughter", said Tsubaki, "and Medusa is extremely strict with her. You might remember when she and I both had to sit on the unipod? Well, Crona was there for dropping a pen".
"Why is Crona here anyway?", asked Maka.
"Because she's Dr. Gorgon's daughter", said Tsubaki.
"So she was born here?", asked Maka.
"Yes, born and raised here", said Tsubaki. Maka felt bad for Crona. She lied down in her bunk. Lights out would be in five minutes, so she changed into her pyjama. The next day, everything went great, until it was time for math class.
"Class, I got some good news and some bad news", said Ms. Metzger, "the good news is that I put in some extra effort, something some of you should do as well, and finished correcting the tests yesterday. The bad news is that three quarter's of you failed, of the rest, half are under C. This means that those above C will get to watch the others get caned, as I won't have time to actually teach you something today". Maka didn't like where this was going. And why would they get caned? Ms. Berger didn't cane Allison when she got a F in political education. Maka hoped that Ms. Metzger was joking about the caning. She then began to hand the tests out. "Patty F, Allison F, ...". She didn't seem to hand out a single test that wasn't scored F. But then "Elizabeth, A, best score in class". Liz looked like she was trying to break out into wild cheering, and had trouble fighting it back. "Don't let it go to your head, that's the first passing grade you got in my class". Ms. Berger continued to hand out the tests "Tsubaki C plus". Maka wondered when she would get her test back. Over half of the class had already gotten their test back. But there was still a chance that she would get a passing grade. Or at least not the worst grade in the class. After all, hope dies last. "Annette, F". Maka noticed that it was now only her left. "Maka F, worst score in class". Maka looked at her test. She had scored a negative ninety out of a hundred percent.
"There really should be grades worse than F", said Ms. Berger, adressing her class ,"And in some countries, there are. In Europe, for example, they have a grade below the failing grade. I don't know what It's called, but I would call it kilo fail. However even a super fail would be insufficient to describe your lack of effort, so I'd introduce another grade below that. The mega fail. But in order to describe Maka's stupidity, we'd need to go even deeper. Therefore I give you the giga fail. Anyways, it's time for punishment, so I want all of you who scored below C to line up, starting with the highest grade below C. The girls lined up. At least Maka didn't have to wonder where in the line she should be, while the other girls were busy comparing their grades. Apparently, the zero marked about the halfway point in the line, Patty, to be precise. At first, the three girls in front of the line got a strike on their behavior cards each. Then the canings started. Waiting in line to be caned was pure hell. The constant reminder of what lied ahead, knowing just how much it would hurt. It felt like an eternity until it was Maka's turn. And then the caning proved to be even worse than the wait. But at least Ms. Metzger would limit herself to six strokes. Six strokes later this turned out to be false. Maka didn't know how she managed to keep her position. Now it was time for Maka to wear the donkey ears. The entire class started laughing at her. She wanted them to stop. Instead, they threw garbage at her. On Ms. Metzger's command, Maka made her way back to her seat.
"Class dismissed", said Ms. Metzger, "except for Maka, she has to clean up".
"Yes, ma'am", said Maka, starting to pick up the papers her classmates had thrown at her.
"Excuse me, Ms. Metzger", said a woman, dressed in an unfamiliar yet official looking uniform, "but there is a problem with the test, you seem to have written some of your student's grades down as negative".
"Yes, what of it", said Ms. Metzger.
"The worst score you can give is a zero" said the woman, "So we changed all the negative grades to zeros".
"What?", asked Ms. Metzger, "some of my students actually worked hard for their zeros, and you're just taking the sweat of their brow away?"
"They obviously weren't working that hard", said the woman, "unless you arbitrarily set the average to be zero beforehand and graded on a curve".