The stretches that Hestia and I always did as we walked back to our dorms were no more for now. We were too focused on studying. Instead, we ended up staying in the library until the night curfew to study.
When classes ended for the day, I grabbed a blanket, coffee, and other my study items and headed over to the library. Hestia now knew more history facts and was better at me in our empire language class. When we were studying, Hestia always helped me with my history and language classes while I helped Hestia with her beginner magic, math, and other classes.
Cory looked at the two us in awe.
"You guys really don't look good. Relax."
Cory said, frowning worriedly. He was looking at magic-related books in the library.
With his unkempt hair pulled lightly back into a ponytail, Cory stared down at me with a stiff expression. Then, he put down the book he was holding and walked to the librarian. After speaking to them for a while, Cory borrowed a ruler from them and stood in front of me.
With the clear ruler in his hand, Cory carefully placed it next to my face. I tilted my head towards him, confused.
"Stay still."
Cory put one hand on the back of my head to keep it in place. Some of his hair covered his face as he faced downwards to look at me.
Face down and leaning towards me, he pulled in closer to check something. Then, he put the ruler back to my face and looked back and forth between the two.
What, was he trying to measure how big my face was? When I asked what he was doing, he didn't reply and instead muttered, "It's too serious..." to himself. My face contorted into a scowl when I heard that. Was the size of my face supposed to be something serious?
Cory placed the ruler exactly under my eyes. It was cold. Not too long after, Cory placed the ruler in his uniform pocket and sighed. Kind of like how a doctor sighs during a check-up.
"3.45 centimeters."
"What is?"
"That's how long your dark circles are."
"Why would you measure that?"
"….anyone who had longer dark circles than me always ended up passing out."
Cory said that his dark circles usually measured at 3 centimeters.
After listening to something that sounded like superstitious nonsense, I took the ruler and walked over to Hestia to measure her dark circles. Wow. It was 4 centimeters.
That was a bit of a shock. I stared at Hestia's and my reflection on the mirror. The two of us had dark shadows under our eyes. Our hair was a total bird's nest that was tied back, and we didn't even eat proper meals so we were both looking pretty hungry.
Cory's worries seemed pretty sound. I smiled slightly.
Cory, who had continued to watch the two of us study with an unpleasant expression, ended up joining our study session. We had formed a small study group. The reason why Cory ended up joining was simple.
"Don't you dare get another nosebleed like last time."
He was our security guard.
Cory had seen my bloody nose last time and had joined us in case we went too far.
Once Cory joined our study session, he began to study for history–something that he didn't even care about before. Of course, I had asked him to help us study.
Cory had zero interest in anything that wasn't magic, so he thought long and hard before agreeing to study history with us. But as it stood, Cory definitely wasn't proficient in the arts–he just stared at the textbook before turning his head away from the book and dozing off.
So instead, Cory began to practice on his handwriting. His handwriting was such a mess that he had extra points docked off because the teachers couldn't read it.
Cory took out an empty notebook and practiced writing down the names of various fruits again and again, as neatly as he could. He furrowed his brow in concentration as he wrote the word 'orange' over and over again.
Cory couldn't help us with any language or arts-related subjects, but he was better than me in math and science so he was a great help there.
His writing was messy so his notebook didn't help too much, but he was great at explaining and ended up teaching us what we didn't understand.
Even Hestia seemed to understand the basics of magic after listening to Cory's explanations.
For some strange reason, however, Hestia never tried to start a conversation with Cory during our study sessions. Not even once.
Instead, she would glare at him or looked at him warily.
Later, though, when Cory proved to be a big help, she spoke to him with a haughty tone.
"Honestly, you looked like you'd be really mean, but you're pretty nice, aren't you?"
"…..is that supposed to be a compliment or what?"
"But I'm the one that's closest to Shushu, just so you know."
Cory looked at her with a dumbfounded look. Then, he seemed deep in thought for a while before he pointed at the piercing in his ear. He began to speak.
"You see this? Shushu made it for me herself."
Then, Cory put his arm on of my shoulder and pointed to the orange piercing in my ear. He smelled sweet. I ended up shoved next to Cory for a bit. He smelled sweet.
"And I made her this one."
With his arm still on my shoulders, he rested his head next to mine and shot Hestia a smile.
"What about you?"
Hestia scowled at Cory's attack. At his words, Hestia took out the fountain pen I gave her before putting it back.
Hestia and I never properly gifted each other friendship items. I always gave her things. Hestia never gave me something back.
Oh, wait, no. Hestia always baked me cookies whenever she wanted to thank me.
Hestia seemed extremely jealous as she looked at Cory's and my ear piercings. She stared at my ear.
"Keugh...…. Shushuuuuuuu..."
Hestia couldn't erase the upset expression on her face as she linked her arm through mine.
"We need something like that too….."
She kept whining. The scene resembled one where a child whined to their parents about something they wanted to buy in the toy store.
I told her that we could get matching accessories after the exams.
At my response, Hestia seemed to want to run out of the library and get something matching, but remembered the bet and didn't beg to go to the store right then and there.
We continued to study hard until the time had come. We finished our midterms, and our grades also came out.
And in the end, I ended up winning.
To be honest, I only won because Hestia had never really sat down to study before and got too nervous during the test. She ended up getting sick mid-exam, and it got so bad that she had to put her head down on the desk and moan quietly in pain throughout it.
Hestia ended up barely finishing the test. She was dragged out of the classroom as soon as exams were over.
Thankfully, my dark circles were only 0.45 centimeters longer than Cory's. Maybe that superstition wasn't fake after all.
Hestia was shipped off to the sick bay. She later read through her report card with a bitter smile.
Hestia sighed deeply, lunch in front of her.
"Shushu, it's like you said. Life really is hard."
"Shut up and eat your food."
Hestia shredded her bread into the soup and played with her food without eating it.
She had tried so hard, but for her to have messed up on the actual exams….. My heart ached for her.
Hestia wasn't the only one who had pushed too far, though. I couldn't sleep when I saw Hestia foregoing sleep to study. I ended up studying through the night as well. Cory tried to force me to sleep during club activities, but I just kept studying.
Usually, I would have been the one to mother Hestia and tell her that her health was what mattered most, but there was just something about that bet that made me feel guilty about taking a break. I always ended up taking everything a bit too far when it came to competition.
Both Hestia and I were an absolute mess by the time the bet was over.
When Hestia just blankly stared into thin air without eating, I took out two sheets of paper from my pocket.
I didn't know how much this would help, but I showed the papers to Hestia.
The two papers were my report cards.
One was my report card from our last midterms, and the other was our most recent midterms.
"Look at this."
"…..?"
"Look at the teachers' comments and my grades."
"Ooooh….. Shushu, you really improved!"
Hestia looked surprised at my grades. Before, a lot of teachers complained about my attitudes in the comments. Now, most of them were filled with compliments. Moreover, my grades had improved a lot from last time. We also received partial grades for efforts, and that made my grades rise a lot compared to last time.
I stroked Hestia's hair as she exclaimed, "As expected, Shushu's amazing!" while comparing the two grades.
"It's thanks to you, Hestia. Truly, thank you."
Hestia's eyes grew round at my words. Then, her expression turned shy as she squirmed in happiness. Hestia smiled, looking extremely pleased.
Hestia raised her spoon and drank a mouthful of soup. I watched Hestia smile at my words with a smile on my own face.
Hestia hummed something before suddenly remembering something.
"But Shushu. You won the best, what's your wish?"
"I dunno, living long and healthy?"
"Noooo. Something that I can do."
Well, I had won the bet. I had to tell her a wish.
The last one was a joke. I had actually prepared a wish that I wanted Hestia to make come true for me. I wondered long and hard what I could ask her to do for me. …to be more exact, I had prepared this from last week.
"I can say anything?"
"Yeah!"
At my words, Hestia shot me a grin full of exhaustion, and I gave her a grin back. The two of us basically shared the same expression on our faces.
I took out a thick folder full of paper from my bag.
"Here."
I threw it onto the bed. It was so heavy that the blanket was weighed down. Hestia, eyes wide with surprise, grabbed the folder and stared at me.
"…..what's all this?"
"The application for the school journalism club."
"A club application?"
"Get in and advertise my club please. We still only have two members."
I said it was only one wish, but there was a lot more that I wanted. I took out a book that discussed the most influential households in our empire with a detailed explanation of each family and the political party they were in, and other history-related texts and laid them out in front of Hestia.
"And here are some books that I personally want you to read. Read them and write a review on them please."
"What?"
"With your writing skills, you can probably get good money for your writing. Earn some money so we can buy everything on the menu in that one dessert shop. Oh, but if I ask that, would that be two wishes? You can tell me one too."
Hestia's face turned bright red when she heard that I read the contents of her notebook. She lowered her head as she looked at the papers and books in front of her.
"Shushu, you're really..."
Hestia's delicate, pale hands shook as she grabbed the school's beige-colored blanket.
"Really, you….you haven't changed."
Hestia put the items I had given to her in a pile and hugged it tight. Then, she placed it beside herself and promised to read everything when she had the time.
"You asked me for one wish, right? Then I'll tell you what I want."
"I'm good with anything except for those matching dragon tattoos you mentioned last time."
"...pi. That's not the wish I want granted this time."