"All-right class, put your pencils down and flip your papers. The test is over," Those words leaving the teacher's mouth felt like silk caressing an old wound I never knew I had.
Not because the finals were hard, this is sixth grade after all, but because I can finally go home and be done with this boredom.
After the teacher passed between the desks and collected the tests, We were finally released from classes.
"Yo Issei," Oki began, Catching the attention of the class pervert, "I got some super secret DVDs from a trusted source, wanna come over to my place and check them out?" That is the most suspicious thing I ever heard.
"I don't know Matsuda, maybe next week. My granparents are visiting from Hokkaido so I need to be home," Good job for holding back your temptations Issei-kun.
Those DVDs aren't going anywhere, family is.
"Oh," Oki said dejectedly, before turning to me, "What about you Ken? Do you wanna?" The morally correct answer will be to turn down the invitation, citing some sort of excuse that I don't have.
On the other hand, You're only 12 twice in your life, better get the most out of it.
"Sure, Let me just drop off my bag at my house and we can go." I answer, making Matsuda pump his fist in celebration.
As our group reaches the gates of the school, we hear a voice calling out to someone.
"Motohama-Boss-Senpai!" Calling out to me?!
We all turn around to see Ruruko Nimura, The girl I tutored for a day almost a month ago, running towards us at high speeds, almost ramming into other students in her way.
"Ruruko-chan, what's go-" My inquiry gets interrupted by the young girl slamming into me and knocking me to the ground. luckily my bag softened the fall and my glasses didn't fly off.
She Pushes herself up from laying on top of me, now sitting on my lap, before she grabs my shoulders and starts shaking me around.
"Senpai!" She cried, "You have to help me!" I'm getting a headache from all the shaking my body has been through in the last minute.
"Ruruko-chan, calm down." I manage to get out between heavy gulps of air trying to refill my lungs.
I can hear Issei and Oki laughing at the situation behind me, why aren't they helping me out here? Traitors!
You can't just leave one of the boys like this!
"Senpai! I need you to tutor me for my finals!" Ruru cried as she kept shaking me.
I try to slap her hands off of me but the vertigo of being shaken so much is making it hard to hit.
"Ruru-chan, get off of me." I manage to grit out, causing my junior to finally take note of the situation.
"Huh? Huhhhhh!!!!!?" She shrieks as she jumps off me, kicking my ribs accidentally in the process, "I'M SO SORRY SENPAI!!!" She screams as she bows repeatedly after standing up.
Issei and Oki just keep laughing harder at the predicament I find myself in.
...
After we all headed to a park and bought ourselves some ice cream, we sat down on one of the park tables before Ruruko started telling her story.
"So what you're saying is that the test I tutored you for somehow put your test in the top 10 of the grade, and now your parents want you to keep that streak going?" I ask after repeating what she said, she nods her head repeatedly, her twin ponytails whipping around.
"So, why should we help you," Oki asks, taking a bite from his Tutti Frutti Ice cream.
"Who said I want help from you?" Asked Ruruko, her voice growing cold and serious, and a total change from the energetic kid who slammed into me 20 minutes earlier.
"Eek!" Oki and Issei squeal before moving away to the far side of the table, Issei dropping some of his Punch Banana ice cream in the process.
"That's what I thought," She said as she looked at the boys scooting away, before she turned back to me, her almost Yakuza-like attitude changing back to the loud and energetic kohai that I know.
"So will you help me?!" She asks, her green eyes looking straight at me, her hands clasped together as if in prayer.
"Foolish Kohai of mine, Puppy dog eyes don't work on me," I tell her before taking a bite of my chocolate chip.
The frankly adorable face Ruruko was making melts away, replaced with the face of someone planning something devious.
Slowly, a smirk forms on her face, and I also start scooching toward Oki and Issei.
"Senpai?" She asks slowly, not coming any closer to us boys, "I heard you like money," She said, and its no surprise that she knows that, I'm not keeping it a secret that my dream is to make enough money to never need to work again. That's what I tell everybody when they ask me what I want to be when I grow up.
I want to be rich.
Obviously, I'm not expecting to ever achieve that dream, but it is a good enough driving force to keep going to school.
"What are you getting at?" Now her smirk is a full blown smile, showing her pearly white teeth. But not the kind you want to see, more of a shark ready to swim into a school of fish. I continue inching closer to the end of the table, so much so that If I go back even a centimeter more, I might just fall onto the ground.
"I'll get my parents to pay you," She said, and I heard a gasp next to me.
"Don't do it, Ken, It's a trap," Issei whispered loudly, shaking his head so I won't agree to her idea.
"Why are you still here? Don't you have grandparents to greet?" I ask Issei, momentarily ignoring Ruruko and Oki. His answer was "Yeah, but this is actually interesting now,"
Oki nods his head rapidly before chiming in with "We didn't know you were so good at teaching that a single session made someone your underling."
"Wha- Just because I call him Boss-senpai doesn't mean I'm his underling!" An Indignant cry left the mouth of my minion.
I turn back to the girl and nod my head, giving her a thumbs up before saying, "Come over to my house, I'll tutor you for a week, tell your parents to pay me based on the results of the test. That's a good business motto, A Motohama Ken Guarantee,"
What I expected was for the girl to something like 'thank you for doing this, Senpai' or something silimar.
Instead, I got tackled into a hug, which thanks to me sitting on the edge of the table's bench, meant that Ruruko tackled me onto the ground.
Luckily the grass is soft.
The Ice-cream that splattered on the ground wasn't as lucky.
...
After splitting off from Issei and Oki, Ruruko and I make our way to my house.
"I'm guessing that the test will be in Math, like last time?" I decide to try and get a grasp of the situation, asking Ruruko questions about which subjects we'll need to work on.
"Hm? Yeah," She answered, before we stop next to a cross-walk, "Sorry if I'm being a bother, Senpai, It's just that you're the smartest person I know," She said, her head looking at the floor, refusing to look me in the eyes like she normally does.
How I wish I was as confident as this fifth grader back in my last life, maybe I would have had a chance to actually talk with girls my age.
But, Seeing my cute little kohai dejected like this, likely ashamed that she needs help getting a good score on a test, I decide to comfort her the only way I can think of that doesn't include buying more ice cream.
I place my hand on her head and ruffle her hair a bit, eliciting a squak of surprise from the young girl, before she quickly turned to look at me only to recieve a soft finger flick to the forehead.
"Owowow," She whispered as she put her hand on her forehead before looking at me like I just betrayed her.
"Hey, At least your chin is up," I say before I continue walking in the direction of my house.
Noticing that she's not following me, I turn around and call out to her, "What are you waiting for? Your awesome teacher lives this way!"
She looks at me, a number of different expressions cross her face before she sets on a glare and starts stomping after me.
"Stupid Senpai." I hear her mutter.
...
Ruruko's parents later had her give me 60,000 yen. An equivalent of a month's worth of expensive private tutoring. Or roughly 450 US Dollars, which is an insanely high amount for what is essentially a sixth grader telling a fifth grader how to do basic math.
That is also to say, Ruruko got first place in her grade on the math exam.
It was decided between us that I'll continue tutoring her in the next school year, so she will keep up her streak of success and I'll keep up the money rolling in.
...
A week later, Me and the boys graduated from Elementary school.
In two months, Middle school begins, and with it comes the worst enemy of youth.
Puberty.