When the four of them arrived in the classroom, everyone was sitting silently with their notebooks on the table.
Everyone was studying silently, getting ready for today's upcoming midterm exam.
"Sophia, Mary, did you two study yesterday?" Luna quietly asked as the two of them headed to their seat.
"We already study in class. Why would we need to study back at home?" Sophia whispered.
After waiting for five minutes, Miss Amy finally entered the classroom with a stack of paper in hand.
"Good morning everyone. Today is Thursday... I assume all of you know what that means, right?"
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The entire classroom remained silent, but everyone had their writing utensil ready.
"Please pass one back until everyone has one."
After everyone had the exam paper, Miss Amy took the remaining paper to her desk before walking back to the front.
"You may now begin..."
---
A few hours later...
Just as Miss Amy was about to gather the students' exam papers, the lunch bell rang.
"Okay, everyone. Please leave your exam paper on the table. I'll collect them myself."
After everyone left for lunch, Miss Amy closed the door, leaving her the only one inside.
"What did you guys get for the last problem?" Sophia curiously asked as the seven of them headed towards the cafeteria.
"I got mana depreciation of the body can lead to coma and unconsciousness," Evelyn replied first.
"Same," Luna replied next.
"I got it can lead to spinal damage," Chloe said quietly.
"You guys got to the last problem? I couldn't even get to do the last page."
Camille complained as she rested her head on Chloe's shoulder, her face on the verge of crying out loud.
"It's okay, Camile. No one in the class expects you to get a high score on this test."
Evelyn's words pierced through Camille's heart as the truth hurt more than she could ever imagine.
"I'm sure sister Camille did just fine... I think Miss Amy isn't going to be grading it that harshly."
Mary comforted as she gently patted Camille's back. Meanwhile, Evelyn and Luna were both still laughing out loud.
"Thank you, Mary. You aren't heartless like these bunch of cruel friends."
As Camille tried to grab Mary's shoulder to cry on, Sophia quickly dragged Mary away to her back.
"You got to pay attention more in class if you want to do better next time. You got no one else to blame besides yourself."
Sophia's words made Camille fall into disarray, walking randomly as if she were drunk.
"Tsk... Alex, I'm really, really surprised. Do you know that? I just really... I genuinely cannot put this into words."
The entire class watched in silence as they felt nervous for Alex, looking more worried than him from the way Miss Amy talked.
Meanwhile, Alex's heart stopped beating completely for a second before he felt something was a little off.
"I really hope you can do better than this at the final... Then I will have the best student in this grade!
Everyone, give it up to Alex, who got the perfect score on this exam. I'm really proud of you, Alex."
As Miss Amy handed the paper back, Alex's heart finally calmed down, and everyone in the class started clapping.
"Thank you, Miss Amy..."
Despite Alex happily saying it out loud, his mind was a little annoyed, as every name called earlier was giving him a panic attack.
"Hehe, sorry about that. Ahem, everyone, please remember that we will start a new lesson tomorrow and next week.
We will have a Math lesson in the morning and the new Alchemy lesson in the afternoon. Class dismissed."
As Miss Amy bolted out of the room before anyone could react, everyone started chattering with each other with their exam paper.
Almost ninety percent of them were comparing it with each other, but most importantly, Alex's desk was surrounded by people.
"Hey, Alex! How did you get a perfect score?" One of his classmates curiously asked.
"I just study a lot in my free time and pay attention during class."
"Alex, do you want to study together?" One of his female classmates offered.
"No, thank you."
"Hey Alex, how did you get number 35 correct?" Another classmate curiously asked.
"Um, you have to read page 120 of the textbook..."
After answering most of his classmates' questions and rejecting several of his female peers' invitations to study, he was finally free.
"Alex, do you not want to accept those girls' study invites? I can see you looking at them in the past.
If you accept their invites, I'm sure they are more than willing to be study 'partners' with you."
Camille's directness made Alex blush a little, but he replied with a calm answer.
"I want to focus on my study first."
"Camille! Stop trying to tempt my brother. He's nowhere old enough to have a girlfriend."
Sophia quickly walked over and interrupted her from making any further advances.
"Who said girlfriends? I said study 'partners.' Actually, Alex, do you want to be my study partner?"
Seeing Sophia staring at him dead in the eyes, Alex quickly shook his head.
"Looks like Alex is never going to be free, isn't he?" Chloe murmured as they watched Alex being dragged out of the room.
"Yeah, not with Sophia watching over him like a hawk... Man, I wish I had a brother like Alex."
As Evelyn and Luna both thought back to their brother, a frown instantly appeared on their face.