Chapter 35 - Third Year, Class 4 and First Term Finals

Today was one of those nerve-wracking days in any third year higher schooler's life.

It was the first term finals.

For the next three days, these third year high schoolers would take the exams that would determine the recommendation from teachers, separate the gold from the dross, and favor of tertiary institutions.

The result of all of this was a prediction of the final score on the all-important College Entrance Exam in half a year. All of the person's hopes and aspirations were pinned on how well they did on that exam.

On a day like this, anxious parents clacked flint, beseeching the gods for luck for their children. Every student had gotten at least one charm from a temple. Those who had boyfriends or girlfriends temporarily stopped dating to study. Most tried to go to sleep earlier the night before and many barely slept due to nervousness. In the lot behind the school, near the dumpsters, study drugs like Ritalin were traded for payment in either favors or cash.

For Satou, the world's most normal boy who was a third year at PK Academy, in Class 4, he did experience all of the above, except for the purchase of drugs.

He was nervous, of course. He wasn't particularly smart, but wasn't wantonly stupid either. He wasn't super hard working like the class representatives but he wasn't as lazy as to not do homework.

Most of the time.

He simply wanted to go to an average, commonplace university and study something boring but respectable like economics or literature. He hadn't thought about his future in more detail than that. He decided to do the college thing because it was encouraged by his parents. After all, that was the normal thing to do.

Sitting in class for that brief free time before exam time, Satou chatted with his friends while half-heartedly flipping through his study notes. A homework book from a cram school before him, with question and answer. His usual two guy friends, and his girlfriend, the green-haired Suzumiya Hii, hung out with him.

At the present moment, Suzumiya talked about how she narrowly missed being run over by a careening motorcyclist during her morning walk to school.

Satou frowned at that and apologized to Suzumiya. He would have walked her to school like a proper boyfriend, but it was exam day. People's study schedules took precedence over what would have been normal courtesy from a boy who likes a girl and the said girl likes him back. Any rational high schooler knew to do that, their individual future was too important.

Suzumiya waved his concerns away. She was used to the ultra bad luck and that made her as ready as a doomsday prepper. Instead, her attention, and Satou's friend's attention, was drawn away by a teacher who came to class almost fifteen minutes early, with a student in tow.

"Hey, is that Saiki Kusuo?" said Suzumiya absently as she watched the teacher walked Saiki to the last seat in the last row, which was the only unassigned seat in their class.

Yep. It was Saiki Kusuo, that odd but still pretty forgettable kid who used to be in Class 1. No one else in the school had that shocking magenta-pink-colored hair, or talked so little. He had caused a bit of an uproar a few weeks ago when he scored first place on midterms. Academic superiority attracted jealousies and admiration. Some girls immediately liked him, despite never meeting or noticing him before, especially the freshmen. Some of the boys, specifically Tanihara, swore that they'll knock Saiki down a peg or two. That same uproar died quickly since Saiki never came back after taking the midterm exam. No one had seen him for the past five weeks.

"Didn't he withdrew from school a while back?" whispered one of Satou's pals, a thinnish young man with buck teeth and glasses Abe Yunichi. Out of the group, he was the smarter one. "I heard that from Takeru-kun who went to Class 1."

"He did," confirmed Suzumiya. She did not, however, whisper. "Toritsuka-kun told me and asked me if I knew anything."

"Why didn't he get walked in after class started? Isn't it normal for someone in the administration, like a vice principal, to introduce him to class?" asked Satou. "Even if he's just coming from another class?"

"It's finals of the first term," answered Abe. "There won't be enough exam time if we waited."

"Well, won't he test badly?" asked Suzumiya worriedly. "He's missed over a month of classes."

"Well, he made first place on midterms," pointed out Abe. "Full points too. There's a rumor going around that he's actually related to a couple of really well-known geniuses and this whole 'going to school' thing is a sham."

"Saiki Kusuo?" said Satou incredulously. "How can that be? He's always ranked next to me all last year. "

"Well, the rumor also said that he did that for the real challenge of knowing what everyone did and changing his right answers to wrong answers to get an exact grade," said Abe. "He's simply that smart to know what everyone's answer is going to be."

Satou gave a queer laugh. "No way! You're crazy, Abe. In order for him to do that, he'd had to be a psychic. And psychics don't exist."

"That's like saying Godzilla doesn't exist," said Abe haughtily.

Satou rolled his eyes. Abe and his conspiracy theories. "Whatever. You can believe that Saiki is a psychic if you want to. I might believe it when he can actually throw a ball properly."

"What if he's bad at throwing a ball is because he's trying to blend in?" suggested Abe.

"Uh-huh," said Satou. At this point, he was simply entertaining Abe by pretending to agree.

And to think Abe ranked in the 20s during the midterm. Maybe all the smart ones did not have common sense.

Suzumiya, though, had decided to do something about the return on a generally unremarkable student. "Well, I gotta tell Toritsuka-kun and Miko-chan about him! They're Saiki-kun's close friends. They'll be glad to know that Saiki came back." He paused momentarily to lightly pat Satou's hand. "I'll be going now. Meet me after school, okay, Hiroshi-kun? Good luck on today's test."

Satou blushed. He was still new at the whole experience of hearing his given name uttered by a female who was not his mother. The feeling of a girl's soft, warm hand on his own was extra nice. He almost forgot to nod.

"I'll text you," said Suzumiya sweetly.

With that, Suzumiya quickly ran out of class and down the hall.

Satou continued to chat with his friends for a little bit more. He was distracted by his friends enough not to hear a high-pitched "eep!" that sounded very much like Suzumiya and several loud crashing sounds that came from down the hall. Instead, he allowed his eyes to dart once or twice over to the new addition to their class.

Saiki had taken out a thinnish-looking book and placed it on the desk. Though not close enough to see what Saiki was reading, Satou could make out the weird characters that reminded Satou of the speech bubbles by the extraterrestrials in manga. It looked to be all numbers, exclamation marks, fractions, letters, three dots, parenthesis, and summation signs.

Oh oh. Trouble. Tanihara Kenji, the kid that Saiki dethroned as the number one test-taker had walked in. Though it was probably only ten minutes before the bell, Tanihara made a special trip over to Saiki and slapped a palm down on Saiki's desk.

Saiki pulled the book at the last possible second to prevent Tanihara from putting his hand on the book. He didn't look up to Tanihara, but kept on staring at the errant hand that invaded his space.

"Get ready for a beat down, Saiki Kusuo," declared Tanihara. "I aced the preparatory mock exam at Ten Star Academy, which I've heard, is the very same school that you've flunked out of in your first year."

The said Saiki Kusuo stared at Tanihara's hand, did not look up. From Satou's line of sight, Saiki just looked tired.

Tanihara allowed a crooked grin to grace his lips. He could already feel first place within his grasp. His opponent looked almost malnurished, and probably stayed up too late playing video games.

There was a clap from the front of the classroom. "Tanihara-kun," called the male teacher. A stack of paper in his hand. The words "50-minutes" were written on the chalkboard. "You should be back at your class. Exam will start in five minutes."

The facade of a model student returned on Tanihara's face and Tanihara lifted his hand from Saiki's desk. He made a gesture of two fingers pointing at his own eyes then whipped his hand 180 at Saiki. "I'm watching you."

By now, almost everyone had shuffled back into class. There were a few others who remembered Saiki, back from when they had classes with him during the second year. These students were namely Takahashi and his two close friends, Yokota Jaga, Murata Shuuji. They crowded around Saiki's desk briefly.

"Wow, Saiki. Welcome back! Nice to see you rejoined the land of the living," said Takahashi. "Where have you been all this time?"

By that time, Saiki had put his book away. He had retrieved a pencil and an eraser.

It was a strange setup, since most people had a calculator with them.

Back to the conversation, Saiki looked up from his seat at Takahashi. "Here and there," he said noncomittally.

A weird look overcame Takahashi's face. "Did you just said, 'here and there?'" asked Takahashi as he rubbed his ears a bit.

Saiki's nod was barely perceivable.

"Wow. Why does it feel like this is the first time I've ever heard you talk, man?" said Takahashi to himself.

"Because he almost never talked," explained Yokota. "Even if he did, it was hard to hear him over that loud idiot Nendou and that chatterbox chunni Kaidou."

"Plus, he hangs out with that punk Kuboyasu," added Murata. "Ever hear him yell?"

Takahashi ignored the chatter from his two close friends, focused on the potential gossip material.

"So, where exactly is 'here and there?' Here is home. Right? Where is there?"

For a moment, it seemed like Saiki wasn't about to respond. But he did end up saying, "England."

"England?" Takahashi repeated. He scrunched his nose a bit. It seemed fitting, since Saiki always struck him as a snob, always going to a cafe and such. "Why would you go there?"

"For its charming weather." There was a twinge of sarcasm in his voice.

It took a moment for Takahashi to catch on. He completely caught on once Murata clarified, "Because it's always raining in England, Takahashi."

"Ohhh!" Takahashi and Yokota both uttered in unison.

"Well, probably better than there. it's been an incredibly wet spring," said Takahashi. He then narrowed his eyes. "You know, your seat in Class 1 went to Shinoda Takeru," informed Takahashi. "There was even an auction for it, since, you know, you used to sit right next to Teruhashi, the goddess herself." Takahashi's expression turned slimy. "Want to know which teacher got some yen out of it?"

Before Saiki could respond, there was a clap in front of the class, getting someone's attention.

"Alright, third year, Class Four. The Final Exam of the first term is about to start. Return to your seats. Phones away. Pencils, erasers, and calculators only. Do not start until you are told to do so."

With that, everyone quickly shuffled back to their seats. The customary teacher's greeting was shorter than usual. Soon, the test packets were passed out.

Everyone sat at ready attention, looking at the test cover packet. Many students felt the increase in their heartbeat and the knot in their stomachs. This was going to be one of the hardest tests that they'll be facing and it was not even the hardest they will take this year.

The teacher held up a hand as the student sat in their seats, backs straight. They watched the teacher like sprinters, ready for the shotgun start.

"Begin!"