Just to make things clear, I don't think that Tomo acts like she does to cover up some kind of deep inner pain XD But at the same time, I find it hard to believe she just coasted through high school and was never reprimanded or anything (except for that scene at the beginning of 'Exams').

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Grade A Denial

Yomi walked through the hall, a little unnerved by the silence. It was funny how different the school looked without dozens of students mingling in the halls, their voices forming a comforting background noise and their bodies a tide that would carry her from class to class. Now, nearly everybody was gone for the day—and the students who belonged to a club were holed up in the gymnasium or computer lab. The building seemed empty and strange.

She'd made it more than halfway home before suddenly realizing that she had left her English textbook at school. After debating with herself for several minutes, she turned on her heel and, frowning, made her way back toward the school. If she had been with the others, she might not have gone back—probably wouldn't have gone back. But the rest of her friends had already turned onto the side streets that lead them home, and Tomo, who lived closest to Yomi, had disappeared at the final bell. So she walked back to school.

As she neared the classroom, she could hear a woman's voice from inside, and cringed as she realized that it was Miss Yukari. She had been planning to duck inside, grab the textbook, and leave, not get dragged into some inane conversation with her homeroom teacher. Yomi was about to pass by without entering—not even English homework was worth that—when her own name made her freeze.

"…but this is your future we're talking about, here. I certainly hope you aren't expecting to follow Miss Mizuhara around for the rest of your life, copying her work."

There was a pause. Then, almost sullenly, a girl's voice answered: "No."

"Well, good. I'm glad to hear that. You know, you're not a stupid girl, Tomo. You just need to take some initiative." Miss Yukari sounded bored, as if she'd repeated this speech more than once before, and was tired by now of trying to motivate lazy students.

"I do study, sometimes!"

Yomi glanced around, biting her lip. If the situation had been reversed, she was sure… but that wasn't her style, exactly. She wanted to keep Tomo from getting too full of herself, not make her feel bad.

Miss Yukari's chair scraped against the floor, and Yomi started, taking a few steps backward, but the classroom door remained shut. Instead, Miss Yukari said, "Sometimes just isn't enough. Look, to be honest with you, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life when I was in high school. All I had going for me was an aptitude for foreign language. I guess I became a teacher because Nyamo did." Another pause, and Tomo said something she couldn't quite make out. "You just have to take whatever you're good at and use it," Yukari continued, and though Yomi couldn't see her, she imagined the teacher waving one hand dismissively. High school problems didn't matter anymore once you'd graduated.

"…good at anything," Tomo replied after a minute, in a much lower voice than she usually used. "Even Kagura has sports."

"Well," Miss Yukari replied, sounding as if she'd moved closer to the door, "maybe you should use some of that extra energy finding out where your talents lie. But, listen, you're still young, you know? Just concentrate on studying right now, and take things from there."

Miss Yukari did exit the room then, but she turned in the opposite direction and skipped down the hall with her back to Yomi, humming cheerfully. Yomi paused, unsure of what to do. Tomo was still in the classroom, and she didn't want to make it obvious that she'd been eavesdropping. But then again, what if Tomo was really upset? She didn't act like she cared about school, or anything for that matter, but…

So she walked over and slid open the classroom door before she could talk herself out of it. She didn't know what she'd been expecting—Tomo in tears, maybe? Tomo angry?—but it certainly wasn't the lazy grin that the other girl gave her when she entered the room.

"Oh, hey, Yomi! What are you doing here?" Tomo asked cheerfully. She was standing next to her desk with one hand resting lightly on top, as if she, too, had forgotten a text book and was about to root around inside her desk for it.

"Uh… I forgot my English textbook," Yomi said uncertainly. "What are you doing here?"

"I had a meeting with Miss Yukari." The cheerful honesty of this statement surprised Yomi. Being lectured by a teacher wasn't something to brag about, even for Tomo.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it was some class rep thing. Pretty boring." Tomo looked around the room, then shrugged. "Chiyo-chan felt sick, so she didn't stay."

"…Oh."

Tomo raised her eyebrows and gestured to Yomi's desk. "Um, are you just gonna stand here all day? Let's get moving!"

"Yeah. Sorry." Yomi moved to the back of the room and pulled the textbook out of her desk, letting it slide neatly into her bag. She clicked the latches shut and straightened herself, then followed Tomo from the room. She realized as they walked down the empty hall that Tomo was humming.

She didn't even want to know what went on in other people's heads sometimes.

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