The rest of the school day passed by with not much of note occurring, and more than once, Ryuji felt himself start to nod off in class. He found himself snapping awake, only to doze off again shortly after. Luckily, it seemed that the teacher's had given him mercy because he hadn't been called on in his classes.
Ryuji found himself in his English class like this, his head drooping as he nodded off again. He might've succeeded in falling asleep had the teacher not called his name so sharply. Ryuji snapped awake so sharply that he almost gave himself whiplash.
He came back to the world, aware now that the teacher was giving him a disgruntled stare and holding out a paper to him. Ryuji stood and walked to the teacher, who pushed the paper into his hands before dismissing him and calling another student's name. For a moment, understanding failed to penetrate Ryuji's befuddled mind before he recognized the paper. He sat back down at his desk, re-reading the essay he had worked on with Niijima.
Hasty notes were scribbled every which way, making it harder to follow in comparison to Niijima's more orderly feedback, but it was still legible nonetheless. But the notes scrawled in careless handwriting between paragraphs weren't what really caught his eye.
On top of the page and circled in red was an 80. Ryuji's eyes widened. What the hell, he thought. This is one of the best papers I've ever written.
As Ryuji walked to the library, he almost felt like skipping. Or like waving his essay in everyone's face while furiously jabbing at the high score at the top of the paper. But he knew that doing either of these would make him at least strange, if not a total dipshit. So he settled for humming a few bars from this or that song as he headed toward the library.
Inside, Niijima was there waiting for him, with a large cardboard box sitting on the table along with her multi-colored binders. Ryuji approached her, approximating a swagger as best he could with his slight limp, and thrust the paper into her face.
"Hey Prez! Not bad eh?" he said, his huge grin going from ear to ear. Niijima leaned back and took the paper from him, her red eyes scanning the scribbled feedback swiftly. Ryuji could barely contain himself as she read over the feedback, bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet as she read.
Eventually though, she did look up. "Well done Sakamoto, it seems your teacher found this to be an improvement over your previous work," said Niijima. Then she stuck her hand out in the air, looking at him expectantly.
It took only the barest moment of processing before Ryuji slapped her hand hard in a congratulatory high five and pumped his fist in silent triumph. Niijima pulled her hand away, shaking it to disperse the stinging pain she received from the force of Ryuji's slap.
"Well then, I think today we might want to do something to celebrate," said Niijima, pushing over the heavy cardboard box to him. The box was plain save for a number written on it in Sharpie. "Open it up," encouraged Niijima, not unlike someone presenting a gift. Ryuji hooked his fingers in the divots of the cardboard and pulled up.
"OH HELL YEAH!"
Niijima's hands made frantic shushing motions, and the Librarian's Assistant sent a withering glare in the pair's direction. Ryuji couldn't be contained that easily though, continued whooping and carrying on for several more minutes before Niijima finally shushed him.
"Oh MAN, thanks Prez! Man, I really owe you one!" said Ryuji, his voice still louder than was acceptable in a library, but quieter than his previously celebrating. Niijima looked down at her hands, the corner of her lips pulling up into a faint smile.
"Of course Sakamoto, it's to help with your studies after all," replied Niijima, her eyes briefly catching Ryuji's. "Besides, the teachers were very amenable. Just be sure to bring it back in good condition so they won't be able to charge you for anything," she finished.
"So? What's on the menu today?" asked Ryuji, sitting down in the chair with a thump. Niijima jumped slightly at the loud noise right next to her, but she over all kept her composure.
"Well, I was thinking we could go over the feedback the professor gave you, and that we could also set up that laptop for you," responded Niijima, gesturing for Ryuji to take the laptop out of it's box. The former track athlete complied, gingerly removing the slick metal device and setting it down on the table as though he were setting down a delicate vase rather than a school loaner laptop.
Niijima pulled the paper over to herself again and re-read the comments that the English teacher had left. "So from what I can tell, you'll be able to get a higher mark if you can flesh out the methods you would use to bring 'wicked adults to justice'," she declared, and passed the paper back to Ryuji so he could read the comments himself.
"Methods huh..." mumbled Ryuji, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess I didn't think about that too much...I got so wrapped up thinking about how awesome it would be to bring those shitty adults down." Ryuji's face turned thoughtful and he began tapping his pen against the paper, as though that might job his brain into conjuring up new methods of forcing adults to become good people.
"If you can't think of anything now, that's fine. We'll work on some more basic grammar to get you going, but I want you to be revising that essay so that we can review it soon," replied Niijima, pulling out her blue binder. When she opened it, Ryuji saw that it was full of English grammar exercises. He held back his sigh and set to work on the exercises that Niijima had prepared for him.
The afternoon progressed into evening, with Niijima's careful instruction coaching Ryuji through several problems having to do with getting the right tense and conjugation. Eventually though, the session began drawing to a close, and Niijima walked Ryuji through setting up an account on his laptop and accessing some of the more basic software before they called it a day.
Niijima was just packing up the last of her binders when she heard Ryuji behind her again.
"Hey...Prez," said Ryuji, looking her steadily in the eyes.
"Yes Sakamoto?" asked Niijima, returning his stare with her own level gaze.
"I just wanted to uh...say thanks. I know I'm kind of a dumbass sometimes, so thanks for stickin' with me," he said, before breaking eye contact.
"Of course Sakamoto. See you tomorrow,"