School Days (4)

Time quickly passed for the next several days and before they even realized it, it was already Friday morning.

At Maple-leaf, Fridays were a bit special because instead of having their normal first period classes, the seniors all had a short P.E. class to ensure that the students didn't get overly lazy after completing the required credits in their freshman and sophomore years.

The senior's P.E. classes weren't very similar to a typical one. Rather than do activities in class every Friday, they were expected to do a certain amount per week and then do benchmark tests in each class to check if they were actually doing it.

Originally, the school had simply given the students forms that they had to fill out and turn in to pass the class but one of the newer teachers who had graduated from Maple-leaf before going to college had pointed out that nearly everyone cheated on it.

When there was no way to prove one way or another if what the students wrote on the sheet was true, it wasn't possible for the teachers to say anything to a student or fail them in the class even if it was clear they weren't exercising as they said they were.

In order to solve the problem, Maple-leaf had contracted several leading figures in physical fitness to create benchmark tests that would allow the school to measure each student's personal fitness.

They didn't want to use standardized tests because although it would of been easier and more efficient to do so, it would of been lowering the standard expected from them.

With the way their tests were set up, even if a student wasn't able to run as far or as fast as someone else or lift as much weight, as long as the student was proving they were maintaining their health they would pass the class.

At first, many of the students disliked the class because they had expected to just be able to lie on their activity like everyone else did but as time passed, they realized that the class was actually not too bad. It helped them stay healthy by providing an incentive and passing it was still extremely easy because it was tailored to each student.

As Aria and Aika walked to the P.E. class, Aria explained to her all about the class so that she would know what to expect. Your first time attending the class was a bit different than all the other ones.

The first time, you had to take every test to set a baseline and recently students had figured out that if they wanted to be lazy, the best method was to purposefully do worse on the physical tests and allow their future tests to all be even easier.

Despite the teachers telling the students at the beginning of the year that doing so and getting caught would result in failing the class and having to repeat senior year, both sides realized that there was no way to prove it and it didn't change the situation.

Thinking about the school's P.E. Aria shuddered. She had read horror stories on the school forums from students in the normal classes who said it was spartan like torture and they were going to complain to their parents. Sadly, the majority of the students parents realized the importance of staying healthy so even when the several parents actually complained to the school, nothing would change.

When they got to the changing rooms, they separated to enter their individual areas before meeting back in the general area of the room. Aria eyed Aika's body in wonder. The girl was surprisingly fit considering all the two had done for the past week was laze around in their dorm and go to classes.

She had expected her to be much like herself, not toned but not unhealthy either. Instead, she noticed slight muscle definition that looked purposefully maintained at that level so that she didn't have obvious muscles.

Setting her shock aside, she quickly looked away so it wouldn't be obvious she had been examining her friend's body and drew patterns on the bench to look distracted.

After the physical tests, Aria dragged herself through the rest of the day's classes while secretly glaring at Aika who was still perfectly energetic and didn't look at all like she had just had her fitness tested hours earlier.

The moment that classes were finished, she rushed back to their dorm room and changed into pajamas. She was far too tired to care about having to eat dinner later and would deal with ordering food when she woke up if Aika didn't. All she could care about at that moment was finally getting a chance to rest for a bit.

Aika walked into the dorm shortly after Aria fell asleep and covered her friend's sleeping body. Assuming she had gone to sleep without ordering anything to be delivered from the chefs later, she placed an order with the kitchen and smiled at Aria's silliness.