Midterm Exam

"Here, Takahashi. This is the collection of mistakes made on first-year midterm exams in every subject by all the students in my classes over the years I've been teaching." Hoshinomiya smiled as she handed Takahashi a document folder. "I saw your message and started putting it together right away."

"Thank you, Hoshinomiya-sensei. I've already transferred the points."

"Honestly, Takahashi, I admire you more and more. If I were ten years younger, I'd pursue you like crazy!"

"Please don't, sensei. I don't want to hang out with an eight-year-old girl." With that, Takahashi left the tutoring room.

Hoshinomiya froze for a moment at his words. When she finally understood, she laughed twice and said to herself, "Takahashi, I'm going to make you mine."

"Takahashi."

Ayanokouji and Kushida called out to Takahashi just as he reached the classroom door. From Kushida's cheerful expression, it looked like something good had happened.

"What's up?"

"Guess what we got?"

"Let me guess... You're this happy, so it must have something to do with the upcoming midterm exams?"

"Correct, but there's no prize." Kushida smiled. "These are the midterm exam papers. We bought them from an upperclassman."

"Great." Takahashi set the document folder in his hands on Kushida's head. "This is a collection of past students' mistakes on their midterm exams. You can use it with Horikita to check the error rates and make a more effective study plan."

After discussing it, they settled on a plan.

With one week left, Horikita would use the collection of mistakes to quickly decide which types of exam questions to focus on with Sudo and the others. They would make a copy of the past exam papers for every student in the class and hand them out the day before the exam.

"Judging by the way you look, you seem pretty confident about this exam." Teacher Chabashira scanned the students of Class D as she held their exam papers.

"Sensei, we've all been studying hard lately. I can see how much effort everyone's put in, so I don't think anyone will fail."

"You're certainly confident." Teacher Chabashira gave a faint laugh. "If nobody fails either this exam or the final exams afterward, I'll take you all on a vacation during summer break."

Her words set the whole class buzzing.

"Teacher Chabashira, where are we going?"

"Really, sensei? I'm not dreaming, am I?"

"Really. And you'll spend some time there living a dreamlike life."

"Woohoo!" Ike seemed to be fired up. "I can't wait! Saeda, let's start the exam!"

After the exam, everyone gathered together, excitedly talking about how many points they thought they'd get and how easy the questions had been.

Only Sudo sat tensely at his desk.

"Sudo?" Yamauchi stepped over and called to him.

"Huh? Sorry, I... I..."

"Did something go wrong during the exam?"

"Yeah... I... I accidentally fell asleep yesterday, so I didn't look at the English exam questions. I only memorized some answers right before the exam today."

"It should be fine. You worked hard this week, and Horikita used the collection of mistakes Takahashi provided to go over most of the key topics. You should still pass." Kushida tried to reassure him.

"Sudo."

When Horikita came over and called his name, Sudo gritted his teeth. "What? Are you going to call me defective again? Say I messed up despite having the exam questions and don't deserve to be in the same class as you?"

"If you had the exam questions and still messed up, that was your fault. But I could see how hard you worked while studying."

"Are you trying to comfort me?"

"Comfort you? I'm only telling the truth. Also, I looked into basketball, and I apologize for disrespecting your dream before. I hope you'll apply the perseverance and hard work you developed in the Study Group to basketball, and strive to become a professional player." Horikita slowly bowed to Sudo.

She straightened up and continued, "That's all I wanted to say. If there's nothing else, I'll head back to the dorm."

Horikita's actions left everyone speechless. They hadn't expected her, usually so proud, to bow and apologize.

"She... actually went out of her way to learn about basketball for me." Sudo pressed a hand to his chest. "I think I'm falling for Horikita."

Before long, the day came when the exam results were announced.

"Sensei, when will the exam results be posted?" When Teacher Chabashira entered the classroom, a student asked when they would be announced.

"Don't worry. I came here specifically to post them."

Teacher Chabashira took out the recorded scores and pinned them to the blackboard. "Honestly, you've made a lot of progress on this exam. Nearly ten people got perfect scores."

"Then, sensei, did anyone fail?" one student asked.

Sudo and the others watched Teacher Chabashira tensely, as if waiting for her verdict.

"Nobody failed."

"Yeah!" At her words, Sudo jumped up from his seat, cheering.

Teacher Chabashira saw him and laughed before leaving the classroom.

"That's great, Sudo! You passed English!"

"Hahaha, I can't believe I passed English too. It's all thanks to Horikita." Sudo looked at Horikita happily.

"That was your own effort. I had very little to do with it."

"You're quite something. You got perfect scores in every other subject, so why did you get fifty in English?"

In the tutoring room, Teacher Chabashira looked at Takahashi, who was drinking tea.

"Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, right?"

"A mistake? What a perfectly timed mistake. If you hadn't made it, Sudo would have been expelled."

Takahashi set down his tea and pursed his lips, thinking, I can't exactly tell you I saw him panic and memorize answers from the English exam paper before the test, can I? Everyone knows we bought the exam questions, but nobody's going to get in trouble as long as we don't say anything. If I did, I'd be handing you the knife and letting you give me a good cut so I'd learn not to get carried away.

"Nobody can be expelled yet. It's only been two months, and I can't guarantee they won't prove useful later on."