Ethan
"Yoohoo! I'm here again to study!" Mia waved hello cheerfully as she appeared in front of my door.
"Waah..."
"Eh?! What's wrong??" she asked, confused.
Seeing Mia standing there made me feel a sense of relief about the whole study thing. It almost make me wanna cry.
"But to think you forgot our study session! Hmph, we always do it every time there's an exam, right? Since you always want a tutor," she pouted, annoyed but still playful.
"S-sorry, I kinda forgot..." I admitted feeling a little guilty. Yeah, with Rubielle here, I actually forgot about it.
Mia raised an eyebrow at me, but her pout softened. "Well, I guess I'll let it slide. But you better focus now! Time to hit the books!"
"Oh, I also bought some chocolate and snacks—wait! What is she doing here?!" Mia suddenly exclaimed, shocked when she spotted Rubielle sitting on my bed, still absorbed in her reading.
"So, you completely forgot about me because of her, huh? I didn't know being friends for years was such a fragile thing!" Mia huffed, crossing her arms.
No, if she left now, there would be no ounce of hope for both of us to pass this midterm!
"I-I was actually gonna call you just now! I know! Why don't we have a group study with Pres and the others?" I suggested, trying to save the situation.
"Group... study~!" Mia's face instantly lit up with delight. She was so easy to please. I couldn't help but chuckle at how easily she warmed up to the idea.
"Alright! Let's get this study party started then!" she beamed.
After that, I called the people I knew. Well, it was only half the semester, so it's not like I had a lot of friends to reach out to.
"Pres said she was fine with it, and I tried calling Lucas, but he didn't answer. Maybe he's studying on his own?"
"How is it, Rubielle? Are you getting it?" I checked in on her, hoping she was keeping up.
"Hey... why is there structure in speaking? It's just speaking, right?? I didn't know you need to think about how to speak!" Rubielle asked, clearly confused.
Ah, so it was the English this time. I wish I could ask the person who created this too.
"Oh, looks like Pres is nearby, I'd better go get them," I said, standing up.
"Yeah, we'll be waiting here," Mia replied, already nibbling on a chocolate bar.
I headed out, hoping the study session would go smoothly.
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(Outside)
"Geh! Why would you bring him, Pres?" I complained, glaring at the man beside her, Gabriel.
"Oh! Am I being hated? I feel hurt," Gabriel replied with a sarcastic smile, clearly amused.
"Huh? Should I not bring him? He insisted that he wanted to make friends or something, so I brought him," Pres explained, shrugging nonchalantly.
Don't bring people like a pet, President... and I highly doubt that man actually wants friends. It's written all over his face.
"Ah, and here's a gift! Are cookies fine? I wasn't sure what to bring, so I grabbed the first thing I saw," Pres said, holding out a bag while scratching her cheek.
"Oh... thank you, Pres..." I replied, a little awkwardly.
"No need to call me Pres, just call me Lillian," she smiled, waving it off.
"Oh! I also bought some!" Gabriel interrupted, holding up a pack of communion bread.
"What are you doing?? Bring that back from where it came from!" I pointed at him, rejecting his gift immediately.
What kind of person brings an ostia, even if he's a priest? Is he out of his mind??
With that, I took them into my house.
"Hey Mia, we're ba—"
"DO IT AGAIN!! THIS IS WRONG! THAT IS WRONG! EVERYTHING IS WRONG!"
It was a sight to behold. Mia, with her spartan-like teaching, was practically barking orders at Rubielle, who was now crying on my chair, tears of suffering falling down her face.
Waaah, memories are coming back to me. Mia has always been serious about studying, so whenever she tutors, it's like a military boot camp. She may not look like it, but she's a top student.
"Ho~ you brought more trainees, Ethan lad?"
L-lad? Gulp… I'm getting nervous with how she's staring at us, like she's going to eat us.
"Hey Ethan, is she always like this?" Lillian asked with a nervous expression.
"Yeah… I hate to break it to you, but she's always like this..." I replied, looking away.
(hours later)
"Take this seriously! If you can't solve this, you will run 10 km, do 100 push-ups, and 100 sit-ups until you get it right!!"
Aren't we gonna go bald if we do that?
"Somebody stop her... she's going out of control..." I said, my voice trembling as I wrote down the answers, desperately trying to keep up.
"Just solve it, and she'll let you go. See? She didn't bother me much," Lillian reassured me, sounding far more competent in studying than I ever could. Now I feel a glimmer of hope.
*munch* *munch*
"Wait! Don't make us more trouble than this!!" I shouted, staring in disbelief at Rubielle munching on all the snacks.
"Ho~ Rubielle, you got a lot of confidence eating in front of me," Mia pointed out in her cold tone, snatching away Rubielle's snack without a second thought.
"Determine the first derivative of this!" Mia demanded, her voice unwavering, no trace of mercy in it.
"I don't know!" Rubielle answered with full confidence, completely unbothered.
*WHACK!*
"ACK!" Rubielle yelped, her body jerking from the force of the giant paper fan Mia had smacked her with. The sound was so loud, it practically shook me to my core. N-no mercy...
"O-one man down! Let's take this seriously, guys!" I muttered under my breath, mostly because I had no intention of getting hit by that fan.
"Hey, blind man, calculate how many moles of H₂ will be produced."
As the study session continued, Mia started to resemble some kind of gangster. Somebody stop her!
"Eh... I'm blind so I can't— *WHACK!*"
Waah.. That hit sounded so brutal! I felt it in my soul...
"Are you joking with me? I can see you move normally, so solve normally!" Mia snapped, clearly on the warpath. At this point, it felt like we weren't studying, but enduring some kind of execution trial.
"You, long hair, what's the answer?" Mia pointed at Lillian.
"ze-0.137 mol?" Lillian responded.
"Correct!"
I wanted to escape! I don't want to take fan whack!
We spent the entire weekend enduring the brutal whacks from that massive fan. I was actually starting to get the hang of the lessons, mostly because I wanted to avoid getting hit again.
And then... a week later, after the midterms had passed.
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"Yay! I passed!" I exclaimed, relieved to get a barely passing score of 70s out of 100 in each subject.
"Oh! So you passed, Ethan, congrats!" Lillian waved at me.
"How about you, Lillian?"
"I did pretty well, scores mostly in the 80s and 90s," she said, showing off her results. I couldn't help but feel a bit jealous.
I didn't even need to ask—Mia probably scored 100s.
"Heh... as my elders always say, 'Comparison steals the joy of your unique purpose-'"
"Oi..." Mia grabbed Gabriel by the shoulder before he could finish.
"What is this?" she asked coldly, pointing to Gabriel's scores that ranged from 40s to 50s.
"You're coming with me..." Mia dragged Gabriel away. May the blessings be with him. Rest in peace, Gabriel.
"O-oh, right! Rubielle, how did you do?" I asked, half-expecting her to get dragged away like Gabriel.
"Heh! Bow down, peasants!" Rubielle declared, proudly showing off her perfect scores in all subjects.
"EH!! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! YOU WERE JUST AS STUPID AS US A WEEK AGO!" I shouted, completely shocked.
"Of course it's possible! I'm smart after all! Wahahahaha!" She puffed out her chest, her pride swelling.
"Don't tell me you cheated?"
"Hmph! I wouldn't do something as lowly as cheating! I just read the textbook 10 times faster than normal using magic!"
Wait—now that's cheating in its own way…
And with that, the midterms ended, and the second quarter began.