On May 1, the morning bell rang for our very first day of class.
Soon, afterward, Miss Elena strode into the room. Her expression today was even more stern than usual. Had something happened to her?
"All right, your morning homeroom is about to begin. Before we get started, does anyone have any questions? If so, now is the time to speak." It seemed like she was expecting questions.
Immediately, several students raised their hands.
"Um, I checked my point balance this morning, but I didn't see any deposits. Points are given on the first day of every month, right?"
"Erik, I think I already explained this before. Points are deposited on the first day of the month. I have confirmed that points were successfully allotted for this month without any issues."
"But…nothing was deposited into my account, though."
Erik and John exchanged glances. Leo appeared too shocked to notice them. I had checked my point balance that morning as well but saw that it was the exact same as the day before. No more points had been deposited into my account. I had simply thought that some issues might have occurred & the points would be credited later.
Everyone started muttering to themselves & soon the class was filled with all kinds of irritating noises.
And then the bomb dropped.
"A whole class comprised of Morons. You are all pathetic."
In response to her words, the classroom exploded in an uproar.
"A combined total of 178 absences and late arrivals, 473 incidences of talking or using cell phones during class. That is quite a few interactions over one month".
"In this school, your classes results are not handed out to you but reflected in points that you receive. Your unquestionable behavior and that alone has resulted in the withholding of your points allowance for this month."
"And the points allotted to this class, for the month comes out to a total of Zero."
Miss Elena spoke in a robotic fashion, devoid of any emotion. The doubt I had since the beginning, was finally confirmed, though in the worst possible way.
Even though we had started with the huge advantage of 10,000 points, Class D had lost it in just a single month.
"But teacher, I don't recall ever hearing you explain that to us before----" said Alex.
"What? Are you incapable of understanding something unless it's explained in detail?"
"Of course. There was never any explanation about reducing our points. If you had explained that beforehand, I am sure we would have defiantly avoided being late or talking during class. "
"What kind of peculiar argument is that? It is certainly true that I do not recall explaining the rules of point distribution. However, didn't you all learn in elementary school to not be late or talk in class? Was not that taught throughout your whole elementary and junior high school life? It's called basic manners if you ask me."
"Well, that's---"
"I am sure that in nine years of compulsory education, you learned that being late and talking in class are bad things. And now you say that you cannot understand this because it is not explained to you? I am afraid your reasoning is insubstantial. If you had simply acted properly and followed all the basic class rules, your points would not have dropped all the way to zero. This comes down to taking personal responsibility for your own stupid actions."
There was no denying to her perfectly sound argument. Everyone knew that bad behavior didn't pay & their own actions would come to bite them so day.
"Did it never occur to you to question your circumstances? You are only teenagers, why you would be given such an extravagant sum? Didn't you think there would be some sort of catch?"
She continued.
"Your assumptions were wrong, now you must pay the price. If you had doubts, why did you refuse to act upon them?"
With these words spoken, the whole class fell to utter silence. No one dared to speak anything because they knew they were wrong & they had to pay the price for their own actions. As she said, it was about taking personal responsibility.
The first one to break the silence was Alex. Although he was frustrated, he looked the teacher straight in the eye. "Well then, could you at least tell us how points are added or deducted? We can keep that in mind for future reference."
"I cannot tell you. We can't disclose the methods behind our student evaluation. It's the same as any other organization. When you enter a company, it's the company's choice whether or not to tell you how it evaluates its employees. However, I am not cruel and I am not trying to be cold. In fact, this situation is so pathetic that I will give you one bit of guidance."
For the first time, I saw a faint silver smile on her face.
"Let's say that you stop being late to class and have no more absences…Even though zero points will be deducted from you this month, that doesn't mean that your points will increase either. That means next month you will still receive zero points. From another perspective, you could say no matter how many times you are late or absent in class, it doesn't matter. So, you are not really at a loss are you?"
"Tch…" Alex's expression darkened. Her explanation was so counterproductive that it had the opposite effect; some students were unable to understand what she meant. The students who thought they could improve their situation by remedying their bad behavior had their hopes lost. This was probably hers or rather, this school's intention.
The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom.
"It looks like we spent too much time on unnecessary topics. I hope you understood the gist of it. It's time for us to switch to our main topic."
She did some gestures on the screen of the tablet she carried & the big screen of the class lit up, showing some info. The still-confused students stared blankly at the screen.
"Are these…the results for each class?" Amanda tentatively took a guess. She was probably right. On the screen, Class A through Class D was listed. To the side was a row of numbers that went up to a maximum of four digits.
…
Class A – 920 p
Class B – 670 p
Class C – 450 p
Class D – 0 p
…
In this case, 1000 points mean $10,000 dollars, wouldn't it? Every class had apparently lost points.
"Isn't something about this odd?"
"Yeah. The numbers look too even."
Amanda & I both noticed something strange.
"You have all been doing whatever you pleased this past month. The school has no intention of preventing you from doing what you want. Your actions, such as being late or talking during class, only affect the points you receive. The same goes for how you use your points. How you choose to spend is entirely up to you. There are no restrictions on any point usage."
"This is not fair. We can't even enjoy our student life like this." Leo shouted, who had stayed quiet until now.
John wailed in agony. He had already used up all of his points…
"Look here, idiots. Every other class got points. The number of points the school gave you for the first month should be plenty for you to live on."
"B-but, how do the other classes still have points left? That's weird".
"I have already told you, there is nothing unfair about it. All of the classes were scored using the same rules. Despite that, they didn't lose as many points as you. That's the truth."
"But…why is there such a difference in our point values?" Alex also seemed to have noticed that the number were too tidy.
"Did you finally get it? Did you know why you were placed in class D?"
"The reason why we were placed in Class D? Weren't we simply accepted into this school?"
"Huh? But classes are normally divided up like this, right?"
Students exchanged glances.
"In this school, students are sorted by their level of excellence. The superior students are sorted into Class A, the least capable in class D. In other words, Class D is akin to the last bastion for failures. You are the worst of the worst. You are 'DEFECTIVE'. And this is the result of being defective."
Hearing this Amanda's face stiffened. She appeared shocked by this line of reasoning. It certainly made sense to sort the superior students with the other superior students and the failures with the failures. If you mixed rotten fruits with good ones, the rotten would quickly spoil the good. Inevitably, the superior Amanda would find this revolting.
A very faint smile occurred on my face, which didn't go unnoticed by the teacher. Things finally got interesting
This school was not that simple as it appeared to be. This was the real face of the school in which I had enrolled & before I realized my expectations of enjoying a peaceful life were on the verge of collapsing.