The usual?
Roland tilted his head to the back hearing Anna's whisper.
Her tone was amiable and sweet, and some would even feel as if she was acting cute towards him. Her voice may even sound coquettish, especially to those who were head over heels for her.
If it was before, Roland's heart would surely beat faster if Anna requested something from him. Getting relied on was a nice feeling after all.
However, Roland was already different than before.
He merely scoffed at her direction before focusing on checking the test paper in front of him, which happened to be Bryant's.
Roland also secretly laughed and ridiculed, seeing that his first ten answers were all wrong.
As for Anna, what she meant by 'the usual', was for them to exchange test papers when they were done checking. This kind of tactic that was created by Anna was only done recently. At that time, Roland was pretty gullible and would always do what she wanted because he didn't want her to have a low score.
Right now, Roland realized even more how foolish he was back then. The more he recalled, the more ashamed he was for his old self.
Anyways, it was all in the past. The important thing was that he was not the same man back then.
As for Anna's request, there was no way he would agree to something like that again. She can rot there along with her low score and he would not feel a thing of pity.
He continued to listen to Madison as he checked Bryan's answer without any correct answers.
On the other hand, Anna was fuming in anger after seeing that Roland had ignored her just like that. If smoke was an indicator that someone was angry, a lot of them would have already blown out of her nose right as she stared at Roland right now.
Roland could feel the animosity behind him and decided to ignore it. These kinds of emotions don't affect him at all.
At the far end of the seat, Bryan's intense emotion towards him also seemed to have doubled.
Roland guessed that he must have felt jealous after seeing that Anna decided to 'interact' with him. However, as usual, Roland did not care about his feelings at all.
They can't do anything to him anyways.
In fact, he even felt a little happy that he managed to rile up both of them at the same time.
Time passed in the blink of an eye.
Madison was already at the last number.
"Alright guys, as a reward for being present today, Mr. Theodore made the last number as a bonus score for everyone," she said with a smile on her face.
Hearing that, everyone, especially the back seaters erupted in a loud cheer.
"The lord did not forget me. I finally have a point," one of them said as he bowed deeply with his two palms resting at each other like in a prayer.
All of them had mixed emotions regarding this matter. Some were happy, while some were mad that the others got an extra point enough for them to cross the passing score. Aside from them, there were also people like Roland who did not feel anything regarding the bonus point at all.
After all, even if number 40 was not a bonus, he was confident that he would still get a perfect mark.
A while later, Madison told everyone to pass the papers forward once more.
Once she got all of them in her hands, she looked at everyone's scores and would frown and smile every once in a while. She then looked at everyone and asked, "Everyone, do you want me to announce the scores?"
Hearing that, the colors in the back seater's face immediately turned dark. They knew that if it got announced, they would be humiliated for their low scores.
They strongly objected to the idea, but unfortunately, some actually liked the idea of announcing the scores. These people were those who scored high marks, and wanted to know the score of their 'enemies' to secretly compare it to themselves.
Inside of any school, these were pretty normal. Rivalries and secret competition were quite common after all. It can serve as a motivation as well so that they would work harder.
Seeing that their classmates had a mixed reaction towards the matter, Madison decided to settle it with a vote. It was a simple yet an efficient solution.
Madison did not waste any more time and proceeded to let everyone vote whether they wanted the scores to be revealed or not just by raising their hand.
After a while, the matter was decided by a small sweep. The score was 22/18, in favor of people who wanted the scores to get revealed.
Surprisingly, the one who caused the victory were actually most of the people at the back. No one knew if they were only messing with everyone or if they were truly confident about their scores.
Anyways, the anti-reveal group gritted their teeth in anger as they prepared for the upcoming shame that they would receive once their scores got announced.
"Alright everyone, don't get scared about a lower score this time. This won't be included for the grade and is just some sort of refresher, so just chill and do better next time for the official tests, alright?" Madison said in encouragement.
Hearing that, some of their faces also lit up, as if they finally regained their courage to face everyone.
This score won't be reflected in their grades anyways, it doesn't matter if they have low scores. When the time comes, they can just say that they purposely lowered their score as it was not an official anyways.
Finally finding a proper reason to get away from shame, their mood instantly turned brighter than before.
Madison finally began the announcement.
She started off with her own name on the list, and unsurprisingly, she scored a perfect score.
After that, the score varied from low to high, from perfect and then, to those who only scored 1 point.
The class laughed hearing that someone actually only scored one point. Scoring just 1 point was equivalent to scoring zero after all.
Everyone had the urge to look at the back and see Bryan's face right now. However, they hold their urge in, afraid that they might incur Bryan's wrath if they did so.
Roland also did not turn his head, but he could feel the intense shame and anger that Bryan was giving off at this moment.
From this day alone, Roland had already lost count at how many times Bryan and Anna got riled up. It seems that even the heavens were not favoring them anymore.
He secretly laughed as he waited for Madison to announce his score.
And without even a hint of surprise, Roland truly scored a perfect mark as well like Madison.
Their classmate did not even have an ounce of reaction to his score at all. They were already used to it, and they had labeled Roland as a nerd before. So it was not surprising for them that he scored a perfect mark like the class president, Madison.
Madison secretly smiled in approval after seeing his score. However, when she recalled that Roland finished quicker than her, her face immediately turned sour as she vented it out by announcing the low scores of her classmates.
After a while, she was finally done announcing the scores.
Some were satisfied while some secretly ridiculed their enemies for scoring lower than them.
There were a total of eight people who scored perfect including Roland and Madison. Most of them came from the first row too, so everyone did not even bother questioning the result.
The most ashamed one at this moment was probably Bryan and Anna.
Both of them actually just scored 1 point from the bonus. Among all the classes, there were only three of them who scored 1 point. It was the guy who did not manage to answer anything earlier. However, all because he did not answer was that he felt he was at least better than Anna and Bryan.
'I only got zero because I chose not to answer. How about the two of you? Tsk, disgusting!'
The whole class secretly looked down at the two of them as well.
Just what have they done the whole semester break for them to forget everything they have discussed so far?
Even the last guy of the class ranking has managed to score five points. They were even more secretly shocked about Anna's score. After all, she would always score high before. They wondered what happened to her.
They then recalled that she and Bryan were already dating.
A thought suddenly emerged in their head as they arrived at this point, 'Could it be that.. being dumb is truly contagious?'
'Shit, we should get away from them as soon as possible. We'll become even more dumb if we continue to associate with them.'
Everyone secretly thought to themselves.
Bryan and Anna, who were oblivious to their thoughts, were still feeling depressed at their low scores. Even Bryan's lackeys had more scores than them, making their situation even more awkward.
Anna gritted her teeth in shame. She looked at Roland with great ferocity, as she blamed him for her low scores.
If he just agreed to swap papers like usual, if only he allowed her to copy like usual, will her score even be this low?
"This is all your fault! This is all Roland's fault!!" Anna finally erupted out as she suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs.