There were only a few minutes left on the weekly tests, Joao was sleeping, Monke was still looking through the paper for something that might require a simple answer and Po was putting all his focus on one question. He hadn't even flicked the page yet to realize that there is another set of questions on the backside.
As usual Mr. Peterson would take his time to stare at Joao because the kid would only answer a few questions and get all of them correct. Sometimes only 80% and sometimes lesser, depending on what the last top achiever got.
Mr. Peterson had previously wanted to ask Joao why did such a thing but ended giving up after realizing that he had become an associate. Being a force against the law, Joao would probably not want to be seen upholding it if he wanted to join. But then again some boy named Mothusi who was in the student council and also a permanent member of Divinity would from time to time get a hundred percent.
It was really depressing for Mr. Peterson to see all of the school's talent being redirected into Divinity. He shifted his gaze to Monke as he thought this, he wondered why a boy as young as him was already next in line to become this area's Kingpin. And to think that he was already an underboss even though everyone referred to him as a capo.
Mr. Peterson then redirected his attention to Po. He felt bad, according to him, Po was only in this for his childhood friend. He was aware of the fact that after the murder of Monke's mother the kid started talking crazy about magic and other stuff. That in turn led to him and Po's family being exiled from the inner circle.
He looked around his classroom to see other children with similar troubles, Kofi who was a young kickboxing prodigy. Lost his title to Monke who wasn't even trying, Phenyo, Kane, and the list goes on with many more from other classes. There were weeks when gangs would just go into a rampage and some children never came back to class.
In their lives, it was considered the greatest honor to die by a bullet. Mr. Peterson had also heard that when executing their beloved members, a gun would not be silenced at all. He didn't want that for any of his students which is why he had always produced top achievers from the school.
Sometimes he would look back at the school and wonder what kind of place it would've been hadn't it been for the country's laws. Mr. Peterson sighed, 'why didn't I just accept the transfer to the inner circle a year ago? I wouldn't have to deal with this.'
He towered over Monke and tried to grab his paper. Monke reacted quickly and moved it away. The two glared at each other for a few seconds until Monke's eyes sparkled.
"Please?" Monke whimpered.
"YOUR TIME IS UP! Hand over your paper now or get a zero." He leaned in grabbed the paper.
Monke held on to it and even tried to pull it away. Mr. Peterson growled and Monke let it go.
"Just so you know I'm not expecting anything special from you." Mr. Peterson said as he adjusted his glasses and moved forward. He collected all the papers and woke up Joao.
Mr. Peterson walked to the front and slammed the papers on the table, the time was up and the siren signaling the time to go home had already rung. But none of the students were making even the slightest of sounds, except Monke of course whining to himself like a child.
'I don't know what happened on Monday, but he is slowly starting to revert back to his childish personality.' Mr. Peterson thought with a smile.
"I remember telling you on Monday that if you get less than 40% in this you won't be able to participate in the next sports festival."
All of the students faced him with excited looks on their faces and stopped any sudden movements.
"That decree still stands. If you perform poorly in this paper forget your sports scholarships." He said after clearing his throat.
"Oh come on."
"That's not fair."
The students started whining and raising their voices against Mr. Peterson's stated.
"Oh shut up will you, most of you never had a chance anyway."
They got louder.
BAM!
Mr. Peterson smacked the books against the table again and cleared his throat.
"Don't make give you all zeroes. Some students tried their best in this test so you should be thankful to them." He said as he stared in Po's direction.
Confusion spread across the classroom and the students started talking among themselves again. Wondering what their teacher was hiding from them.
By the time they finished talking to themselves, the teacher had already left the class. So one by one they started to disperse to their respective club activities.
Po reached under his desk and grabbed a sports bag, he gave a slight salute to Monke and left without saying anything else to him.
"Why does he do that after every test?" Joao turned to Monke and asked.
"You've seen him do that for almost two years now, why ask?"
Joao lowered his head, "I just want to know."
"Oh that right, you must be excited about going to the gym. Am I right?"
"Oh, I almost forgot about that." Joao jumped and tried to act surprised.
"Sure~, that means we don't have to do it then?" Monke said with his second smirk of the day.
"NO! No, you promised so we're doing it today." Joao stood up quickly and grabbed Monke by his elbow and started to pull him.
"Okay, okay." Monke whined and as he lazily got up from his chair. He still managed to grab his noddles before being completely being dragged away by Joao who was trying his level best to hide his excitement from the world.