The midterm exam is on the Friday of the third week in May, just about a week away from June 1st.
So once the points for the midterm exam are distributed, Class D won't have to live in such a tight spot anymore, relying on Hirata to get points.
Though no one says it out loud, everyone feels uncomfortable about it.
Even if not many points will be given out after this exam, it's still better than having to beg others for money, which feels like charity.
On Monday morning, when Kanda Shuichi and Miyake entered the classroom, they noticed a particularly tense atmosphere.
But what can you do? Today is the day the exam results are announced. Even though they had last year's exam papers, if something unexpected happens and someone fails a subject, they could be expelled without mercy, so it's only natural to feel nervous.
However, Sudou seemed to be nervously excited. He had really studied the exam papers that Kanda Shuichi gave him the previous week, so that might explain his mix of tension and anticipation.
Maybe this time, he would set a new record for his highest score since elementary school.
"Sensei." As Chabashira walked to the podium, Hirata immediately stood up to ask, "I heard the exam results will be announced today. When exactly will that be?"
"No need to rush. I'll announce it right now, since there will be a lot of paperwork to handle after school."
Paperwork?
Hey, hey, hey, no way!
Could there really be someone who failed the exam?
Sudou is so confident—who could possibly have done that poorly?
"What… what's going on?"
Hirata had a bad feeling.
"Don't worry, I'm announcing it now."
After saying that, Chabashira-sensei put a large white sheet of paper on the blackboard, listing all the students' names and their scores.
The most noticeable name at the top was Kanda Shuichi, with a perfect score of 100 in all five subjects. While others also achieved full marks, Kanda Shuichi was at the top of the list. The reason was simple—when scores were the same, names were sorted in order of the first character in the Japanese syllabary.
"神 (ka)" ranks sixth in the syllabary, placing him highest among all those who scored full marks.
It feels familiar to see this kind of sorting; in my past life, lists for various things were often ordered this way, and Excel spreadsheets used this method too.
As Kanda Shuichi scanned the exam results, he was shocked.
Wow, Sudou didn't come in last! Or rather, he didn't get the lowest score in every subject.
Moreover, Sudou's scores in Japanese and Social Studies were above 50, meaning no one would fail.
At that moment, Sudou finally finished looking at all his results.
"Yay!"
Sudou couldn't help but stand up.
"I didn't get a failing mark! And I'm not in last place!"
Compared to Sudou, his good friend Yamauchi Haruki looked much worse, as he was the one who came in last in English this time.
He couldn't even believe that Sudou had surpassed him.
"Well, let me congratulate you for passing all your subjects, Sudou," Chabashira-sensei acknowledged Sudou's grades and congratulated him.
"But…"
As she spoke, she drew a red line over the name of Yamauchi Haruki in the English subject.
"Yamauchi Haruki, you have failed English."
"What? No way! I scored 43 points! Didn't you say the passing line last year was 32 points? I surpassed it by 11 points!"
After a moment of shock, Yamauchi Haruki stood up excitedly to argue.
"You said it yourself; that was last year. Who told you that this year's passing line is the same as last year's?"
After a brief silence in the class, Chabashira-sensei took out a marker and wrote a number on the English score.
88.6
"This is the average score for this English test, and the passing score is 88.6/2=44. So, Yamauchi, you have failed the exam."
"It seems you all really put in a lot of effort this time; even Sudou scored close to 50 points, which raised this average score significantly. Naturally, the passing score will also go up."
Seeing Yamauchi Haruki looking lost, Kanda Shuichi felt no sympathy at all. This guy's foundation was much better than Sudou's, and like Sudou, he had also received the test papers in advance.
Even though Kanda Shuichi had already warned him, he still didn't pass the exam. What else could be said? He deserved it!
Honestly, in the two months since school started, Kanda Shuichi hadn't seen any strengths in this guy—just a lot of bragging.
After hearing Chabashira-sensei's words, Yamauchi Haruki's face twitched.
His face, which was already at the bottom of the class's attractiveness, looked even more disheveled.
"It's all your fault! It's all your fault for doing so well in English! It's your mistake, and it has nothing to do with me!"
Surprisingly, Kanda Shuichi didn't feel angry at Yamauchi Haruki's accusation; he even wanted to laugh.
Look, the drama we've been watching every day has started, right? Very interesting!
However, Yamauchi's failure in the exam was actually very beneficial for Kanda Shuichi. What was initially just a precautionary plan could now be put into action.
Moreover, most of the students in the class showed disgust towards him. It was clear that he hadn't worked hard himself, yet he blamed others for being too good. What a joke!
"Yeah, it's all Kanda Shuichi's fault! It's you who said that the average score for this exam would increase the class points, so everyone worked hard!"
Kanda Shuichi had indeed said this in class, but only a few people, including Horikita, knew about it. Yamauchi probably overheard it by accident, so when he said this, the classmates looked at Kanda Shuichi in surprise.
Chabashira-sensei also directly confirmed that this was indeed the case.
"So it's all your fault! If it weren't for…"
Before Yamauchi Haruki could finish his sentence, Kanda Shuichi casually picked up a pencil case from his desk and threw it at him.
What's with the pencil case again?
Bang!
"Do you want to die?"
This time, Kanda Shuichi was making a bold move right under the camera's watch, but he didn't care since there were no points to be deducted from the class anymore.
"Blaming your lack of effort on someone else's hard work? Yamauchi Haruki, you're a complete loser."
"And I gave you all the exam material a week in advance, right? Why did Ike and Sudou manage to score close to 50 points or even over 50, while you couldn't?"
A week in advance?
The classmates froze for a moment and then started to murmur among themselves.
Then Kushida Kikyo stood up.
"Everyone, listen to me. This exam material was actually given to Kanda by a senior from his club, but he only shared it on the last day so that it wouldn't discourage everyone's motivation to study."
Kushida's words confirmed the truth of Kanda Shuichi's statement and made the students in the class dislike Yamauchi Haruki even more. He received the exam material a week early and still couldn't pass.
What is this?
And now he's trying to turn it back on Kanda? Is this some kind of real-life version of the farmer and the snake?
Just as Kanda Shuichi said, he's nothing but trash.
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