Author Note: Hi, all! Sorry for the late update. I was sick over the weekend, then yesterday I woke up to my basement flooding, my fabric in my studio was soaked, I still had to go to work, we were down people on stock day, then after nine plus hours of working I still had to go home and deal with the flooded basement. Long story short, I mentally couldn't write yesterday. But all's good now!
Chapter 43:
Results
Ana put down her pencil as she finished the last question on her last test. Done! I'm done! Ah, my brain….
"Pencils down and papers forward," Goda called out.
After everyone passed their papers forward, there was a mad rush for the doors. Ana was too drained to run. She stood up and stretched.
"Want to go eat lunch in the cafeteria?" Sanae asked. "Anti-social can come too if he wants. It's the last day of school before vacation. So, I can be nice."
Seto stood up and glared at her. Ana sighed. She was less hungry and more tired, but she had to wait around for a couple hours. Their school took up the last test in the morning, graded them, and posted them in the hall so that they could see the results. Or in some cases, see how badly they did and get the schedule for summer school and the retake tests.
"Oh, how generous of you." Seto glared at her best friend, who just shrugged at his reaction.
"If you want to sulk off alone again, then so be it. I'm certainly not going to stop you, but Ana is coming with me." Sanae latched onto her arm, emphasizing her right.
Seto rolled his eyes before promptly leaving the room.
"You sure picked a gloomy one." Sanae teased her as they walked arm and arm to the cafeteria.
They rarely ate there, but since it was a special day, they treated themselves. As they were eating, an underclassman with bright pink hair approached them. For a second Ana thought Minami was back, but then realized that it was a guy. He was short and wore large glasses. Ana looked at Sanae, but she didn't seem to recognize him either. The guy stood there fidgeting and not saying a word.
"Can we help you?" Ana asked.
"I-I-I… Um, well…." He looked around nervously, then turned around and fled.
Ana frowned at the guy as he ran away. What was that about? They finished their lunch and as they were making their way back to their classroom; they saw students gathering outside.
"Oh, cool. The scores must be out," Sanae commented, then headed over to look at the scores.
Ana headed to the middle of the list. She always scored in the 50th placement, which was slightly above average. She scanned the list and her stomach dropped. Crap. I'm not on there. Was all the studying I did not enough to catch up? She ambled down the list, looking for her name.
"Sakurai-san, what are you doing?" Arata noticed Ana squinting at the list.
"Looking for my name." Ana was almost at the end and still hadn't found her name.
Arata looked at her astonished, then grinned. "Hey, come look at the top scorers. I bet you'll be surprised."
Ana frowned, but paused in her search and headed to the first page. In first place was Kaiba Seto. She let out a sigh.
"See anything?" Arata grinned at her.
"Nothing surprising, I kind of figured Kaiba-san would do well. It's slightly annoying though that he naturally came first." Ana grumbled.
Arata blinked, then shook his head. "No, no, keep going."
She raised an eyebrow, then looked at the second-place spot. "Oh! Wow. You got second place, Arata-kun. That's awesome. Wait, weren't you sent to tutoring too at one point?"
Arata puffed up his cheeks. "I always bomb tests at the beginning of the second semesters. Summer breaks kind of turn me into a temporary idiot until I find my stride again. You really don't pay attention to rankings very often, do you?"
"Huh?"
Sanae walked up behind her. "Oh, Arata-kun… too bad."
Arata shrugged. "Eh, I'm fine with it. I think Kaiba-san beat me because of math. I always have to go to a tutor for math."
"Wait, did you come in first before Kaiba-san?" Ana looked at Arata surprised.
He frowned at her, then grumbled, "I've come in first every semester since this one. Anyway! That's not what I wanted you to see. Keep looking!"
Ana scanned the list and saw another familiar name. "Sanae! You got fifth."
Her best friend sighed. "Yeah…. Pretty much since elementary school."
"Oh…. Haha." She looked away nervously until both Arata and Sanae pointed together at the list. She followed their fingers and in seventh place was her name. Ana blinked, then rubbed her eyes before reading her name again. She looked at her friend then at Arata and they both grinned at her.
"Congrats." Sanae and Arata said together.
No, way…. In a daze, Ana went back to class. Seto was already in his seat on his tablet. She could barely pay attention as the teacher told them to be safe for summer break. After she said her farewells for the summer to her classmates, she turned to Seto, who quietly got up. She followed him and they walked together.
"You know, I've been wondering why we walk. There is a bus." Ana made a casual comment.
Seto sighed. "Really? Me. On public transportation."
"Good point, but don't you have your own car? Why do we walk?" Ana didn't really care if they walked or not, she was just talking to talk.
Seto looked down at her. "Because I enjoy walking with you and spending more time with you."
Ana blushed, then frowned at him. She changed the subject. "I got seventh place on the tests."
To her surprise, he didn't look happy about this. "Yeah, I saw."
"Seventh place is fantastic. What's with that reaction?"
"No, you could have done better. I'll need to rework the lessons for next semester." Seto looked annoyed, though Ana thought it was more directed at himself.
"Amin-chan, I've only ever placed in the 50s before. Seventh place is a huge improvement." Ana gave him an awkward smile. "What are you expecting? For me to make it to first?"
"No. I'm always first. I just want you to kick that annoying Yugi-knockoff out of second." Seto growled.
Ana laughed. "I was stunned. I didn't know that Arata-kun was that smart."
"You're smarter, you can kick him out of second." He seemed lost in thought, probably already planning her next lesson.
She smiled. It felt odd having someone believe in her so much. Her family didn't necessarily not think she couldn't do things, but Seto seemed to almost unconditionally think that she was brilliant. His faith in her made her feel good. Strong, even.
"Before you go planning lessons, you said you'd take me anywhere I wanted on a date now that summer vacation is here. Right?" Ana reminded him of his promise.
"Yeah…" He gave her a suspicious look.
She grinned then said, "I want to go to the pool."
"No."
Ana stopped in her tracks, and Seto did too. The look he was making was one of annoyance and unease.
"Amin-chan, I want to go to the pool," Ana stated again.
"Then go with your friends." Seto turned his head away from her.
Ana leaned in a little, her smile twitching. "Amin-chan, you said you'd take me anywhere. So, why not the pool?"
He turned back to her, a slight ire in his eyes. "Do I have to swim with you?"
"Of course! Why would we go to the pool and you not swim?" Ana glared at him. "You can swim, you said so yourself. So, why can't we go to the pool?"
The corner of his eye was twitching, and he was holding something back. "I have a question for you. Why do you want to go to the pool?"
Ana paused and turned her head away. She couldn't exactly say it was because she wanted to see him in swim trunks.
"It's fun." She partly told the truth. "You said whatever I wanted."
"Not swimming. Anything but swimming." Seto was standing his ground.
Why does he try to avoid swimming so much? Ana frowned, then picked something else. "Then karaoke."
He let out a loud groan. "Are you purposefully picking things I've said I hate?"
"I want to hear you sing again. You have a nice voice." Ana tried to be seductive and flashed him a flirty smile, but Seto looked almost sad. "No karaoke either?"
"Please pick something else."
She sighed. "I'll need to think about it then."
He let out an almost relieved sigh. Too bad… I really wanted to see him without a shirt.