Because of all the smart External Students that flooded into my school, I need to study harder than ever.
Actually, Iāve been taking it easy these days so I havenāt enrolled in a new cram school for high school yet. Right now Iāve only got a home tutor.
Before the exams began I decided to increase my lessons with her.
āReika-san, you just always seem to struggle with maths, donāt you. I think you can improve if you keep up the practice though, so keep trying.ā
āYes.ā
But thatās the hard part. I hate doing these questionsā¦
If I donāt though I might get called in for remedials again. Iāll pass on those days of isolation again. And even though Iām really just some small fry I want everybody to keep saying āAs expected of Reika-samaā!
For the sake of this petty pride I continued to battle with these baffling equations.
*
For the upcoming exams, this time I got my hands on some energy drinks. After all, I normally sleep 7 hours a night. If I get any less I start wobbling with sleepiness.
But when I was in the store seeing them priced at over 1,000 Yen each, they suddenly seemed like a bit much to drink casually. These felt more like something youād buy for desperate cramming.
Thanks to that I decided to just buy a three-pack of the popular stuff to start off with.
Hm, the taste was pretty nostalgic. I did drink it from time to time in my old life after all.
Iām not sure if it helped at all but I used them to study as hard as I could so Iā feeling pretty satisfied.
Although, when Okaasama saw my empty bottles in the bin she started worrying about me and said,
āYouāre a girl so you really neednāt push yourself too far.ā
She gave me a lot of scarily expensive beauty drinks so I drank those too.
Well whatever. Come at me whenever, mid-terms!
*
So, about those mid-terms that I drank a bunch of energy drinks to study forā¦ Well, it was still me doing the tests after allā¦
Anyway, Okaasama dragged me to beauty and hair salons after the exams ended. She really is fussy about how I look, isnāt she. Totally fixated on making sure I look like her image of an āojousamaā. Thank goodness said image wasnāt dressed in goth loli or something.
Oh, and that random white hair seemed to be gone now. I never want to experience that tragedy again. Thatās why from now on Iām going to make sure to get full workovers more often at salons.
A few days after those treatments left my skin and hair sparkling, the results of the mid-terms were posted.
At Suiran, only the top 30 are posted. Since we have roughly 300 students itās absolutely impossible for me.
ā¦But although I say āabsolutelyā, I still canāt help but hope somewhere in my heart. Why is that?
Even though Iām wearing this modest expression that says I canāt imagine being up there, Iām still going to check it out.
I looked up nervously, but yep, wasnāt there.
Still, there sure were a lot of new names up there. They had to be all the Externals. As expected of them.
And at the very top, shining brilliantly were two names:
1. Kaburagi Masaya
2. Enjou Shuusuke
Just how crazy are these guys. Their cumulative result was pretty much full-marks. Just what do they have there inside their heads. Iām so jealous. Since middle school theyāve always been unshaken in the top two places. Well, the two of them would swap positions though.
Also, although 1st and 2nd place were these two, 3rd place was Wakaba-chan! And her marks were super close to theirs as well. Isnāt it completely possible for her to overtake them next time!?
The girl herself was staring dumbly up at the board with unruly hair as always. I just canāt see her as smartā¦ Wakaba-chan, your mouth is hanging open! You look ridiculous, so please close it already!
The students around me were murmuring about the identity of this mysterious āTakamichi Wakabaā but I canāt imagine anybody would connect that name with the spaced out girl in front of me. I guess sheās like the perfect example of that saying about a capable eagle hiding its talons.
On another note, Stalking Horse managed to grab 5th place despite all these new Externals. Thatās amazing, Stalking Horse! As a fellow stalking horse, Iām proud of you!
Anyway, when Wakaba-chan noticed her name up there, relief flooded her expression. I guess this is pretty much life or death for a scholarship student. Congratulations.
It was around that moment that Kaburagi and Enjou came along. They normally donāt care at all about these but I guess theyāre here this time because of all the new students?
As they came sauntering down, the students all parted left and right for them.
After confirming their own names at the top, Kaburagi muttered,
āWhoās this Takamichi Wakaba?ā
Some of the students heard him and pointed her out to him.
After taking one look at her, he simply left with Enjou. Although Kaburagi was expressionless as always, Enjou had a faint look of interest on his face.
The moment they left the crowd grew noisy. It felt a little dangerous, actually. One phrase I managed to catch was āā¦knowing her placeā thoughā¦
Nobody was mad enough to publicly attack her, but it seemed like there were a lot of people quietly dissatisfied with her threatening the pairās dominance on the rankings. The fact that she was poor and stuck out like a sore thumb certainly didnāt help.
But wow, even if they say that, Wakaba-chan is a scholarship student, you know? SheĀ hasĀ to get good marks. And if youāre worried about people threatening those two, why didnāt you complain when Stalking Horse took 3rd place all of middle school.
When I asked out of curiosity they told me, āMizusaki-kun is different.ā
What the heck. Is it his face? Is it because his face looks good?
Not only that, but according to the others, Stalking Horse had a charm that both the boys and girls were drawn in by. Well, I guess thatās not really surprising since he made it to StuCo President.
That doesnāt mean that you can blame your own shortcomings on some innocent External girl though.
āThe External Students entered only after passing some very rigorous tests after all. That they have good grades is a given. Instead we should be marvelling out how Kaburagi-sama and Enjou-sama defeated them all despite that,ā I commented.
āTruly! As expected of those two!ā
Itās almost never a mistake to use the names of those two when dealing with girls. The atmosphere was filled with their delighted squealing now.
When I got my report card handed to me, it listed my rank as 73. Hmmmā¦ Should I be feeling happy about this rank?
*
*
Recently Iāve found a new method of stress relief. Itās called needle felting.
Youāve got this ball of wool and you poke at it with needles. Itās actually weirdly fun. Iāve been following the instructions in the textbook, and my latest creation is a snowman. Well, itās basically just two white balls and two dots for eyes though.
Also when I get too into it my eyes start to hurt so I have to pay attention to the time. MY EYES-! MY EYEEEES-!
I usually do this in my room, but occasionally I camp out in the living room too.
Today Iām making a Tarow the Taro. Iām using brown felt this time.
-poke poke pokeā¦-
When Oniichan saw me after a late night at work he asked me,
āWhoās the target!?ā
Itās not a voodoo dollā¦
*
Geez. I wish I had some friends in the arts and crafts to understand my feelings. I wanna join the Handicrafts Clubā¦
Should I pretend to be socially oblivious and just force my way in?
But if I do that Iāll just end up isolated in the room again. Uuu, these tears are just because Iām straining my eyes, okay?
āMY EYES-! MY EYEEEES-!ā
is a reference to the typical stereotypical chuunibyou phrase,
āMy eye-! My eyeeee-!ā
when their left eye goes red and they unleash their power or whatever.
Japanese has no plurals, so Reikaās line is exactly the same as the above.