章 17: Talk with Hirata
It was Thursday. Tomorrow, the midterm would be upon us. The class had ended for the day. After Chabashira-sensei ended the homeroom period and left the classroom, Horikita immediately leaped into action. She took out printed copies of the old test with some changes and went to the podium.
"Everyone, before you return to the dorm, would you mind listening to me for a moment?"
Everyone, including Sudou, stopped and listened to Horikita. Even though people had a frown on their faces, they still settled down to listen to her.
"I have something for you all regarding the test tomorrow." As soon as she said it, Hasebe, Hirata, and Karuizawa looked at me for a second and then looked back to Horikita.
(Flashback 2 days)
"Hirata, Do you have some time? I need to talk to you about something." I asked Hirata as I went to his seat. The girls around him glared a little at me for taking him away and Karuizawa was about to speak but Hirata spoke before her and said, "Sure Izumi, Let's go and talk."
"I will see you all later." He said to Karuizawa and others.
Reaching the cafeteria, we sat down and bought lunch.
"So, what did you want to talk about, Izumi? It's the first time since we had a talk and it's rare for you to approach others." Hirata said and I nodded at him.
"Here, Read these first, then we will talk." I gave him the old test papers.
A few minutes later.
"Are these for Real?" Hirata asked with excitement to which I nodded and said, "Yeah! The test will be the same. Now Let's start the talk."
"Then why did you show it to me? You could have just given to the class directly, but that would make them stop studying and lose the motivation." Hirat asked as he was confused.
"Two Days later, meaning the day before the exams, Hirikita would give the questions to others but it would only be 60% of all questions. I will mark the questions that she will give and before that, you will teach the remaining questions in your group with values changed?" I said and Hirata tilted his head slightly and asked,
"And why did you not want to give all the questions?"
"Hirata, You know class points depend on the class performance?" He nodded.
"Then imagine, in the midterms, the average score of the class was 88 points and we got 100 Class Points for that, and the average is after everyone copied. Now in the next exams, we won't find the papers like this, average of the class will be reduced to say 80 points, then how many Points will we get?" I asked the question and Hirata, after hearing this had an understanding look.
"It would definitely be less than 100, and with 88 being the maximum average score our class can get, then we won't get more than 100 points ever in academics. In that case, shouldn't we not pass the paper?"
"I know what you are thinking, but we can't look only at one point, we need to think about several conditions and strings attached. The midterms are gonna be a warning and a wake-up call for everyone. You already know the condition of the class, our class is divided into groups and you and others will have to bring the class together or someone in the class will get EXPELLED." I said focusing more on the word expelled, which brought Hirata trauma and his face changed slightly.
A few seconds later, Hirata spoke, "I understand. Then what do you want me to do?"
"You don't need to do much, just use the remaining questions and give questions to everyone you are tutoring in the extra class. Also, don't tell anyone about this except for a few whom you can trust enough that they won't tell anyone." Saying this, I sent the questions to him on the Email and was about to leave the place.
"See ya later."
"Izumi, Why didn't you give them yourself? Why is Horikita giving them? After talking to you now, I can understand the rumors were fake and you didn't try to even clear them. Why?"
I stopped for a moment and then said, "I am not interested."
'But the thing I am uninterested in or the reason about it, you all won't understand.'
I left the cafeteria.
1 day later or 2 days before the test.
"Horikita, you will give the paper tomorrow," I said to her as we were having lunch in the cafeteria with Ayanokouji and Sakura.
"But don't give all the questions. Here, these are the questions and they are 60% of all the questions." Ayanokouji said as he sent the file to her.
"But why not all? Won't that help everyone more? And with more questions, the class's score will get higher and everyone would get more points." Horikita asked and the trio looked at her with surprised expression.
I looked at her for a minute and then asked, "Horikita, ARe you by chance getting dumber these days?"
Ayanokouji snickered at her while Sakura murmured something which only I and Ayanokouji heard, "That's why Horikita san shouldn't have spent her time with those idiots. It seems she is getting affected by them. UmU, that might be the reason."
That caused us to stifle a laugh but still, Ayanokouji looked at her and said, "I wasn't expecting that from you Horikita, are you really getting dumber?"
Horikita looked at the duo showing her confusion. I sighed and said to Ayanokouji, "You explain it to her. I am not in the mood to explain again."
"Again?"
"Yeah! we will talk later."
Then Ayanokouji explained the things I said to Hirata yesterday but in more detail.
10 minutes later, Horikita stood up and said, "I am going. I need some time alone to think."
"It hurt her pride." I commented and Ayanokouji commented, "Let her be. If she can't understand this, she won't even reach Class C instead."
"Sakura you don't need to go to her, she needs some time alone," I said to Sakura who was about to get it.
"Izumi, I know you are right but right being alone will cause more damage to her. I know what she is feeling." Saying this Sakura got up and went to Horikita.
"She had grown up," Ayanokouji commented to which I nodded with a smile and said, "Yeah! Before she couldn't even look into someone's eyes and talk and now she can make her decision."
Both of us looked at each and said, "We raised the girl." At the same time.
(Flashback end. In the class.)
"I know that you've all been studying a lot in preparation for the test tomorrow. I have something to help you. I'm going to hand out some papers."
Horikita distributed the question and answer sheets to the students in the first row.
"Test…questions? Did you make these, Horikita-san?" Kushida was visibly surprised by this sudden turn of events.
'Tch! She has been changing and gaining popularity. It would be more difficult now.' Kushida thought inside as she put up a cheerful expression.
"Actually, these are the old test problems. I got them from a third-year student last night."
"Old test problems? Huh? Wait, will these questions be on the test tomorrow?"
"Yes. To tell you the truth, I heard that the midterm test from the year before last had many same types of problems with just a slight change which wouldn't matter much. So if we solve these tests, they surely will come in handy."
"Whoa! Seriously? Thank you, Horikita-San!" Overjoyed, Ike hugged his test paper.
None of the other students could suppress their elation, either.
"What the hell? If we had these, then wasn't it pointless to study so hard?" Yamauchi complained, even as he laughed.
Hirata who heard this thought, 'It looked like he was right. With these, everyone would lose their motivations'
"Sudou-kun, do your best when you study today!"
"Yeah. Thanks, you really helped me out." Sudou also happily accepted the test papers.
"Let's keep this a secret from the other classes! Don't be scared, everyone! Do your best and aim for a high score!" Ike shouted with joy and determination.
Everyone returned to the dorms with high spirits.
"Horikita-san. Excellent work." Kushida gave Horikita genuine praise, which was unusual. But she was thinking differently internally.
Horikita didn't say anything because she knew it wasn't her idea and she wouldn't have ever thought of using Old Test Papers
"Also, I think that you were correct to announce that you had it today
after class. If you'd carelessly let word get out about this test, it's possible that everyone would have lost their motivation to study." (K)
"That was only because I received the test papers so late. If any of the same problems are featured on the test tomorrow, then everyone will probably manage to get pretty high test scores." (H)
"Yes. It also means that the last two weeks we spent studying weren't for nothing." (K)
The past two weeks had probably been tremendously long for Sudou and the other failing students. Hopefully, they'd gotten more into the habit of studying now.
"It was hard but fun." (K)
"I don't think the Idiot Trio found it the least bit fun." (H)
Well, they had done as much as they could. The next step for those three simply came down to effort.
"I just pray that I don't draw a complete blank during the actual test."
"Well, should we head back?" (K)
Horikita quietly looked over at Kushida as she put her textbook into her bag. "Kushida-san."
"Hmm?"
"Really, thank you for everything you've done. If you weren't here, the study group would not have succeeded."
"Don't worry about it. I just want to get into the higher-ranked classes together with everyone else. That's why I did it, and why I agreed to help with the study group. I'll help you again any time." Smiling, Kushida grabbed her bag and stood.
"Wait. There's just one thing I want to confirm," Horikita said.
"Confirm?"
"If you say that you'll continue working with me for the sake of our
class, then I need to be sure of something."
Horikita looked straight at Kushida, who was still wearing that dazzling smile.
"You hate me, don't you?"
"Hey, hey…" I'd wondered what she wanted to ask, but that was ridiculously unexpected.
"Why do you think that?" Kushida asked.
"You're not answering my question because it's true. Right?"
"Ha ha, you got me." She shouldered her bag and lowered her hands. Kushida faced Horikita without losing her smile. "That's right. I really hate you."
She answered clearly, making no attempt to hide it. She was direct. "Do you want me to tell you the reason?"
"No. That's unnecessary. Knowing that is good enough. I can continue working with you without hesitation."
Despite what she'd just been told, Horikita spoke calmly.
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