Before Summer Vacation

"Classmate Sakayanagi, that was pretty ruthless of you." Sakayanagi reined in her emotions. She hadn't been particularly surprised by the outcome. "You won't even give up the initiative for a frail girl like me?"

"A frail girl?"

She did look delicate, but could a girl with the aggression of a tyrannosaurus really be called frail?

"I want you to defeat Katsuragi in the next Special Exam." Since Sawahara wouldn't give up the initiative, she had to bring it up herself.

Sawahara had already guessed what she was after. It was obvious that Sakayanagi no longer intended to maintain the current division within Class A.

"Then what do I get out of it?" Sawahara asked.

"Victory in the next Special Exam."

"That belongs to our class already." Sawahara shook his head. "You can't get something for nothing, Classmate Sakayanagi."

"Hmph. You're the one being too greedy, Sawahara." Sakayanagi pursed her lips slightly, looking unexpectedly cute.

"Now that we've said everything we need to, I'll leave you to it." Sawahara knew there was no point in saying more. She had already achieved her goal.

"The swimming pool?"

After school that afternoon, Manabu Horikita called the Student Council members to the school's swimming pool.

Advanced Nurturing High School had two pools in all: an indoor pool used for lessons, and this one, which opened only during the summer.

"Right. Summer's here, so the school pool will open starting next week." Manabu Horikita adjusted his glasses as he explained. "We need to clean it out this week."

Naturally, that job fell to the Student Council members.

"Nagumo's on duty today. Kiriyama, check the facilities in the boys' changing room. Tachibana, check the facilities in the girls' changing room.

Sawahara, you'll clean the pool with me."

"Understood."

Once Manabu Horikita had assigned the work, everyone followed his instructions. Looking at the enormous pool, Sawahara couldn't help falling into thought.

"President, could I call some more people over to help?"

"Work is a form of training." The president rejected Sawahara's suggestion. He clearly disapproved of Sawahara trying to use his status as a leader to get out of work.

"You're as strict as ever, President." Sawahara sighed, but didn't argue. He picked up the mop and got to work.

Cleaning the pool took two days. It was a large pool meant for students across all three grades, but Sawahara was on duty that Friday, so he hadn't been there.

Later, Tachibana told him that Nagumo had brought over more than ten second-years to help clean the pool. Otherwise, they would have had to spend half of Saturday cleaning it too.

"Looks like Senior Nagumo still has some training to do."

Time flew by, and before they knew it, July had arrived. With final exams fast approaching, hardly anyone went to enjoy the pool, even though it had opened.

That was especially true for Class 1-D. After their painful experience last time, no one dared take their revision lightly.

"If only we could still buy the answers. Then we'd have time to go play in the pool," Yamauchi complained, bringing back unpleasant memories for many of his classmates.

Even without those painful memories, they didn't have a penny to spend on past exam questions.

Class C had a joint study session with Class B, so they didn't need past exam questions. Class A was strong enough on its own, and would never need to buy them either.

So the past exam questions weren't selling. Please, someone buy them... Ahem. The upperclassman who had hoped to earn some points from them was bound to be disappointed.

"You all did well on this final exam. Everyone passed, and no one failed."

Similar words were heard in every first-year class.

After this exam, the classes' points changed slightly once again.

A: 1090

B: 840

C: 730

D: 120

Class D's Class Points had finally reached three digits, but they weren't happy. In fact, they felt awful, since all the points they'd earned had gone to Ryuen of Class C.

"It looks like the next Special Exam will take place during this Luxury Cruise Ship trip."

After announcing the results, Sakagami-sensei brought it up. All first-years would soon be going on a two-week Luxury Cruise Ship trip. Given how this school operated, there was no way the trip would be simple.

"Just like Sawahara-kun predicted." Shiina put down the book in her hands.

She'd only started calling him that recently. After hearing Ichinose address him that way, she'd changed how she addressed him too, as though the two of them were competing.

"Still, even if there's an exam, we should make sure to relax. There's no need to let the rest of the class know about it." Sawahara spoke to the people in front of him. After all, even if they had to think up a strategy for the exam, only the people sitting with him would be useful.

"This time, Class A's Sakayanagi Faction will be going after the Katsuragi Faction."

"Oh? Sounds like this exam might be a bit dull." Two classes had already dropped out of the competition. Ryuen was a little disappointed.

"But winning should be easier."

"Right. As for the room assignments, Kaneda, Ryuen, and I will share a room. That'll make it easier for us to discuss things." Sawahara finalized their room arrangements for the cruise.

"Sure."

"Sounds good."

Ryuen and Kaneda agreed without thinking much of it.

Sawahara let out a breath of relief. At least everyone sharing his room was someone he knew.

"Be a little careful during this summer vacation trip."

At the last Student Council meeting before summer vacation, the president specifically asked Sawahara to stay behind and told him that.

Sawahara looked surprised. "Doesn't that count as giving me the answers, President?"

"Not really." The president shook his head. "Every new class has to face this. You can find out about it just by asking the upperclassmen.

Besides, you already guessed it, didn't you?"

Sawahara nodded, then thought of something else. "Have you told your younger sister about this?"

"...No." The president fell silent for a moment before answering. "I can't get too close to her."

"Looks like Vice President Nagumo is putting a lot of pressure on you, Senior." Sawahara quickly understood the problem. Nagumo had used Class B of the Third Year to attack the president's class, trying to provoke Manabu Horikita into a showdown. There was no guarantee he wouldn't use the same approach against Horikita Suzune.

"I'll warn her, but her class doesn't have much of a chance in this exam anyway." Sawahara understood why the president had asked him to stay, so he gave his word.

"Thank you."