C'mon people read! Its not that bad, I promise lol!
Well thanks: vendred13 for reviewing and I hope that more of you will!
I will try to produce the perfect combination between angst and humor!
Thanks!
Chapter 2: Everyone's Math Troubles
Shizuka was nervous, she seemed calm, but that was a simple illusion.
She had barely gotten any sleep thinking about the math test that was now going to happen in no more and no less then one hour, but luckily before that, the teacher had scheduled a review that every student was expected to attend.
Of course, there was good news to this madness. After this test, testing week was over, and that meant something else as well. One week of no school! Oh that was going to be heaven to the poor students who had studied so hard for their exams.
With that in mind, Shizuka walked into the testing room, where a couple of the other students had already gathered, most of them were older then her, and didn't pay much attention to the girl that was "way too smart" and was for some reason in their math and science classes.
I'm really not that smart though. I'm not some kind of child genius; I simply study way too much. That was it, Shizuka spent her life studying.
She took a deep breath and sat down quietly, by herself, at a desk that stood inconspicuously in a corner. The other groups of students chatted amongst themselves and broke out into laughter every so often, well, all except for one other besides her.
There he was, Seto Kaiba. He sat not even three desks away from her. Why did she pick this seat? She couldn't help but to stare at him. He was truly gorgeous; the essence of true beauty was sitting three seats away from her.
Luckily for her, he didn't notice her staring as he was deeply involved in the literature that he was reading at that moment. Shizuka tried to catch a glimpse of the title just to see what it was that Mr. CEO liked to read. She caught the first word… "The…" and the second was… "Advanced…" Well she couldn't catch the rest, but by the picture of the computer on the cover, she assumed it had something to do with computers. It figured that he would read that.
Satisfied about his reading choice, she went on to study his fashion choice for the day. It was, once again, pretty typical. He had on a black sweater, black pair of pants, black coat. Going for the Goth look? She supposed that that was the idea today. Goth or not, he looked good. Always as he sat at that desk, she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He looked so…so professional, especially with that briefcase that always stood beside him, and the expensive laptop that adorned his desk.
She would kill for a laptop like that.
Her staring would have to be cut short because at that moment the teacher walked into the room, and the entire class scurried to their seats and fell into silence. Sensei Sakawara was a commanding presence in his dark suit and sharp tie. "Ohayoo Gozaimasu!" he said to the class.
"Ohayoo Gozaimasu!" the students murmured back, but because they all said it at once, it seemed loud.
"Now, I hope you realize the importance of the test you are about to take…" he began, "For two of you, this test could mean a scholarship and a future in one of the best colleges in the country."
The students knew this already. Several of them rolled their eyes, because he gave this speech everyday.
"In any case, this is not a test to be taken lightly and you should all try to do your best. Even if you do not get the scholarship, a good test score will help of your transcripts and this is something you should all be thinking about." He finished. "Any questions?"
Everyone had heard about this test so much that any question one could have possibly had at one point had already been answered, most likely more than once. The students sat quietly and no one raised their hand.
Sensei nodded and picked up a stack of light green papers that lay on his desk.
Shizuka hated how these standardized tests were always printed on some kind of weird colored paper as if to make it seem easier or friendlier or something like that.
Soon, one of the booklets lay on her desk, and she cringed to even look at the problems inside. She was sure that she would open it and the first question would be impossible, even though the first question was supposed to be easy to give you a confidence booster.
"You may begin!" Sensei announced to the class, and immediately all of the students in the room opened their booklets, and read the first question. Several of them placed their heads in the palms of their hands, obviously giving up the fight before it had even begun.
The first problem stared up at Shizuka from the paper. It was difficult for sure, but it wasn't something that she couldn't do. She picked up her pencil, turned on her calculator, and immediately began to write down the steps to solve it, pressing numbers into the machine as she wrote. Five minutes later, she had finished, and she wrote the answer down in the space provided.
45.7893
On to the next question! Yes, this would take a while.
***
Meanwhile, Anzu, Yugi, and Jounouchii sat in their math class.
They were doing group work. The teacher would always give them a worksheet to do to reinforce the ideas that were taught that previous day. Today, they got to pick their own groups of three to work in, usually sensei made the decision for them.
"Do you get this Yugi?" Jounouchii asked, exasperated. He had stared at the first question for a few minutes now, yet it really didn't register in his head.
"Ummm, well, sort of." Yugi replied. He was really not much better off then his friend, but he at least tried to get and answer.
"I'm pretty good at these." Anzu offered. The two boys breathed a sigh of relief and leaned over Anzu's paper to look at what she did. She, as best she could, guided them through the steps of the equation and finally, they were clear on it.
The next question was the same type of question and it was a cinch.
"Wow, thanks Anzu!" Yugi exclaimed. "This is so much easier now!"
Jounouchii nodded in agreement. "Uh-huh, you're really good at this!"
Anzu blushed modestly. "Well if you two would study at all in your lives instead of constantly dueling each other and trying to improve your decks well maybe then you would be better at it!" she said.
"Well, maybe we should study a bit more…" Yugi agreed.
"But this stuff is so boring!" Jounouchii said.
"But, you have to know it to graduate!" Anzu pressed her point. "Just look at your sister, she's taking advanced math because she studies hard and she's going to get that scholarship…" she was cut off.
"But she's smart!" Jounouchii argued. "I'm not."
"Well, can't argue there." Anzu said playfully. Jounouchii growled slightly and clenched his fists, making her laugh and Yugi as well.
"Ah, sorry Jounouchii-kun!" Yugi said, through small giggles.
"Yeah sure, laugh at me, see if I care!" He huffed, pretending to be mad, but he was easy to see through.
"You know we love you Jounouchii!" Anzu smirked, giving him a quick playful hug.
"Class listen up!" The entire class stopped their work and turned towards the teacher who stood at the front of the room, and held up a stack of papers. "I will now hand back your tests from last week!" She announced.
Jounouchii gulped.
Yugi elbowed him. "Is this the test that you really messed up?" he whispered.
"Don't remind me!" he whined miserably. Anzu only shook her head disapprovingly and made that clucking sound with her tongue that people make when they are disappointed by something.
"Good job Anzu-san!" The teacher said, handing her a test paper. Anzu flipped it over and in big writing on top of it was "97". She breathed a sigh of relief. This was more then good! She was thrilled!
Yugi got his next and it was an "84". He was relieved as well, but the two friends turned their attention towards Jounouchii who had yet to receive his test yet. They silently crossed their fingers for him, but even they knew that it wouldn't save his test grade.
Shaking her head, the teacher put the paper, face down, in front of him.
"I can't look." He mumbled. Anzu quickly grabbed it and flipped it over. When she saw the grade, her eyes widened and she quickly showed it to Yugi, who had a similar reaction.
"Jounouchii!" she exclaimed. "I knew that this was going to be bad, but I don't believe this!"
"What is it?" He asked with a tone of voice that said he didn't really care if she told him or not.
Yugi whispered the number into his ear.
Jounouchii jumped out of his seat. "32%!" he yelled, not realizing that it was out loud until every student in the room had turned towards him. He promptly sat down, embarrassed about his outburst and about his grade.
"Jounouchii!" Sensei exclaimed, her voice getting tense. "Was there a need to share your pitiful grade with the entire class?" she asked.
"Gomen nasai." He muttered quietly.
"Thank you." She replied. "I need to talk to you after class, Jounouchii." She said.
"Yes Sensei." There was no use arguing. Nothing could excuse this grade. Yugi squeezed his friend's arm and Anzu gave him a look of sympathy, but they both knew that it would have no effect on his spirits.
"Let's go over the class work." The teacher said. "I need a volunteer to come up to the board."
Anzu raised her hand.
"Come on up, Anzu-san." Sensei said approvingly. It was clear that she liked Anzu; just as clear as her feelings for Jounouchii's study habits were.
***
Now, once again, our high school students were not the only ones who were having trouble in the world of math.
Mokuba sat in the back of the classroom in English class. He wasn't listening to a single word that the teacher had said, but was staring at his math notes trying to make sense out of them and failing miserably. It might as well have been written in French instead of Japanese, it made no sense to him.
Now, there was a test tomorrow and he knew absolutely nothing for it. He was sure that he would have to show Seto the grade and that would be no fun, and if he didn't show him the test grade then Seto would see his report card and become even more angry because he had hidden it from him.
This sucked really badly.
He supposed that he should take Riku up on her offer to help him, but his thoughts were soon interrupted.
"Can you help us Mokuba?" Sensei Akitago asked.
Mokuba had absolutely no idea what the question being asked was.
"Um…" he began. "Could you please repeat the question, Sensei?" he asked meekly.
"Mokuba, you must pay attention!" Sensei reprimanded him gently.
"Gomen." Great. Now he was in trouble in this class as well.
"The question was, how do you say "Kissaten" in English?"
Mokuba searched his mind. He knew this answer, he really did. "Umm, "café"? He was sure that was it.
"Correct." Sensei announced, "But please, you must pay attention Mokuba!"
He nodded. He looked around the room and thankfully he hadn't brought any lasting attention to himself, except for one person's.
Lara sat in the front of the room, and Mokuba knew that he saw her smirk out of the corner of his eye. She annoyed him to no end. What did she have against him anyway? He supposed that he would never understand her.
But he did understand one thing. He understood the venom in her blue-green eyes when she looked at him and the poison that dripped off of her tongue when she said his name or that of his friend.
He understood that he hated Lara.
The bell rang and that signaled the end of English class. Next was math.
This was not going to be a happy class to attend. He slowly packed up his bag and when he walked towards the door, it was slow and without purpose.
"Mokuba!" Darn it! She had to talk to him, didn't she? She just had to make his day worse then it already was!
"What?" he asked. "What do you want, Lara?"
"You shouldn't day dream in class you know?" she asked him, not really expecting an answer.
Duh I know, you moron!
"Do you have anything important to tell me?" he asked.
"Well, I was just worried about your perfect reputation, and, oh you have math next right?" she asked sweetly.
He nodded, and he was sure that he knew where this was going.
"That's not really your best subject, is it?" she asked, her sweet voice, suddenly turning sour.
"What the hell Lara?" he exclaimed. "What do you want from me?"
"Oh nothing, just I wonder, how is it that you stay out of trouble for your grades?"
"What?"
"You know. I would think that with your family being so smart and all, grades like yours would be unacceptable, like you are a disgrace to your family." She smiled, obviously pleased with the damage that she had done, and as they walked into the math classroom, Mokuba tried to ignore her words, but somehow they hit home.
I am a disgrace to Nii-sama, what would he think if he knew how I really did in math?
Yes Lara had succeeded in striking a chord that went deeper then she could have imagined.
***
Shizuka was half-way through her test. So far, the test had lived up to her expectations, it was close to impossible. Each question was tougher then the previous and she was glad that she had seriously overdone the studying, but as she looked over at Mr. CEO, she noticed that he was closing his booklet and raising his hand.
The teacher came over, and they exchanged words which she couldn't hear and he got up, packed up his laptop and walked out the door, his coat swaying out behind him.
He's done!?! What the heck?!? How did he do that!?!
Yes, he was done, and she was sure, as well as Seto Kaiba was himself, that he had gotten a 100% on the test.
That really was unfair. She had noticed the satisfied look on his face when he had looked at the other students who were still working when he had left. She knew that he considered himself to be above them, and the sad part was that he was above them, at least in the intelligence department.
But, if he got a 100%, so would she.
Determined, she looked back down at the paper and onto the next question. This was bad.
Graphing was never her strong point, and this question involved graphing inverses of trigonometric functions and finding points in the graphs algebraically. If any question would screw her over, this would be the one.
No! She would not fail. She would beat Kaiba!
Then she realized, why was she thinking about beating Kaiba? This wasn't a contest. This was her own future at stake and she was treating it as a game.
She would get the highest score, but not to do better then anyone, but to please herself and only herself.
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