Chapter 7: Results: What happens now?
As the bell rang to end the day, class A, B and C rush down to see their marks for their final exam. The rest of the students gleefully abandon the school grounds. The excitement for summer breaks is contagious, running high within most of us. I manage to escape from Kin-chan and the rest of my friends. I hadn't been particularly social all day, it was as if all my energy had been sucked away. I slowly drag my feet down to the school bulletin board where the top one hundred students overall have their final exam marks posted and their final grade with their class for next year.
Ignoring the whispers and stares from the other students milling around, I start at the one hundred side and move across the floor, searching for my name. As I get closer to the top ten, the whispers grow more urgent. I look at them. When they notice my stare, they fell silent, staring at me with disbelief. I raise an eyebrow and continue my search. I pass tenth place.
Ninth place.
Eighth.
Seventh.
Sixth, fifth, fourth and third. There, I stop dead.
Marked as the smartest student in the school with a final grade of one hundred percent, Irie-kun's name is number one on the list, scoring a perfect 500 out of 500 on the final exams. Not a big surprise considering his photographic memory, but sitting in second highest score, as the third smartest student in the school, I scored 499.5 out of 500.
I stare in utter shock at my name written there next to Irie-kun, different by a measly half a mark. I was hoping to place top ten, and expecting somewhere in the top thirty, but I didn't expect a nearly perfect score. I finally begin to tune into the gossip and whispers circling around the students behind me.
"How is it possible that a class F student is almost as smart as Irie-san?" A voice retorts bitterly behind me. I spin on my heel and mentally groan. I was not in the mood to put up with Kobayakawa Sara and her posse. She crosses her arms and cocks her head, "I don't think you're smart enough to subtly cheat on the final exams, I guess that means you must have seduced your teacher." She looks down and back up then smirks. "He must have bad taste." She states. The two girls beside her laugh into their hands. I open my mouth to retort back when I spot Irie-kun looking at the names on the board, walking closer to me. I managed to avoid him this long, and I still didn't feel like talking to him. Tightening the grip on my bag, I shoulder my way past them, briskly making my way to the exit. Behind me, I hear Kobayakawa flirting with Irie-kun. For once in my life, I mentally thank her for grabbing his attention.
Escaping outside, I breathe in the summer air. Lighter than I felt this morning, I skip out the school gates, quietly humming and stop. Leaning against the wall, Satomi, Jinko, and Kin-chan were laughing probably waiting for me. Kin-chan spots me right away.
"Kotoko, where did you go?" He asks walking over. I smile and walk right by him to join up with the girls. Spinning on my heel, I smile brightly, "I went to go see the results for the final exams." I state brightly. Kin-chan looks at me, confused.
"Why would you do that? It's not like any of us are on there." They all laugh. Smiling, I shake my head
"Nope, you're looking at the girl who got the second highest score and is ranked third in the school." I state contently.
"What!?" They scream, "Are you serious!?
I nod my head smiling. They look at each other and turn, sprinting back inside the school no doubt looking to see my name on that board. I look after them for a moment before shrugging my shoulders. I turn, making my way to dad's restaurant.
The restaurant is in the middle of the city, at this time, people are rushing to and from places, and the sidewalks are tightly packed. Opening the door to the restaurant, the little jingle of the bell announces my presence. Hey, dad, how's your day going?" I say walking around the bar to kiss his cheek. He smiles at me as he garnishes the last dish in front of him. E waves a waitress down to bring it to table six.
"Not bad, business is busy as usual but it's all good." He wipes his brown and starts preparing the next dish. "What brings you to this neck of the city hmm?" He asks.
I shrug, "I got my exam marks back and I have the second highest score in the school."
He smiles widely, "Well, this calls for a celebration doesn't it? Tell you what, give Mrs. Irie a call and tell her not to make dinner. I'll reserve a table and we can eat here tonight. I'll make your favorite." He winks at me. I nod my head and grab my phone. "How did Naoki do?" Dad asks casually. My body freezes, my hand above the call button. "He's first, as always." I answer slowly. I press the call button, walking outside to make the call.
"Hello?" Irie-kun's voice has me gripping the phone tight.
"Hi, it's me." I utter quietly. Irie-kun's silent on the line, his breathing quickens slightly, I can hear the breath he took when I spoke.
"Dad wants to celebrate how well we did on the exams so he wants to treat everyone for dinner at the restaurant. Could you tell your mom for me?" I say quickly.
"Yeah. Sure." He answers.
More silence between us, I feel sick with the tension between us. "Okay, well, I guess I'll see you later." I begin to hang up.
"No! Wait, Kotoko." Irie-kun quickly stops me, "We need to talk."
I close my eyes, my throat thick. Those were the words I feared. "I know we do, it's just hard right now. I need time to understand what went wrong last night." I take a deep breath, "I'll talk to later." I say before quickly hanging up before he can speak again. Leaning against the wall, I look up at the sky, begging the tears in the corner of my eyes to go away before dad can see them. The same question runs through my head as it has done all day: What happens now?
So I'll keep expanding on her results, in the coming chapters. That's going to cause I whole lot of problems at school. Can Naoki and Kotoko handle it? Actually, I was going to name the chapter reconciliation and I was trying to get them back together. Then I thought about it... If a guy I was dating got a little violent over jealousy, I'd probably be questioning like Kotoko what to do from here. I want you to think, what would you do? Not for the story, but actually sit down and think what would you do in her scenario. That may be a little morbid and depressing for a fanfiction but I genuinely curious as to what you guys think. Comment your thoughts in your review and I'll write to you guys next time. Ciao.