Results

Chabashira-sensei strode into the classroom. She was surprised to see the students in anxiety, holding their breath as they waited for the results.

"Sensei. We were told that the results would be announced today, but when?"

"There's no need for you to get so worked up, Hirata. You should have passed quite easily."

"So, when will the results be released?"

"Well, if you'd like, now is as good a time as any. If we waited to do it after class, we wouldn't have enough time for other procedures."

Some of the students visibly reacted to the words "other procedures." "What…do you mean by that?"

"Don't get flustered. I'll tell you now."

As usual, she revealed the details simultaneously and collectively. She stuck a large, white sheet of paper with everyone's names and test scores onto the blackboard.

"Honestly, I'm impressed. I didn't think that you'd score so well. Many students are tied with perfect scores in mathematics, Japanese, and social studies. More than ten of you, actually."

Some of the students shouted in joy and delight when they saw the 100s lined up on the results sheet. However, some weren't smiling. The only grade that truly mattered was Sudou's score in English.

Then—

We saw Sudou's test scores. He had scored sixty points in four of the five main subjects, which was considerably high. He'd scored thirty-nine points in English.

"Yes!" Sudou leaped up and shouted with joy. Ike and Yamauchi stood and cheered, too. There was no red line to be found on the results sheet. Kushida and I shared a glance and sighed in relief. Horikita didn't smile or cheer, but she did appear relieved.

"We showed you, sensei! When we really try our best, we can do anything!" Ike wore a smug, confident look.

"Yes, I recognize that. You all did very well. However—" Chiyabashira-sensei held a red pen in her hand.

Sudou unintentionally let out a "Huh?"

She drew a red line right above Sudou's name, Ike's name, and Yamauchi's name.

"Wh-what is that? What does that mean?"

"Huh! Sensei, why are you marking us?

"You failed, Sudou."

"You too, Ike and Yamauchi.

"Huh! You are lying, right? Why did I fail?" Sudou cried as he was the first one to protest. Then Ike and Yamauchi also spoke,

"Yes, sensei! We got more than 32 marks."

"How can we fail in the exam?"

In response to Sudou's, Ike's, and Yamauchi's failing grades, the entire classroom did a complete one-eighty. We stopped our delighted cheering and erupted in confusion.

"Sudou, Ike and Yamauchi. You three failed the English Exam. That's all."

"Don't screw with me! I got thirty-two points! I passed!"

"When did anyone say that thirty-two points were a passing grade?"

"No, no. You said so, sensei! Right, everyone?" shouted Ike.

"Say whatever you want, it won't matter. This is the undeniable truth. You had to score at least forty-four to pass the midterm exam. In other words, you were 5 points short. And you, Ike, you were two points short. As for Yamauchi, You were so close, just one point away."

"F-forty?! You never told us about this! I won't accept it!"

"Should I tell you how we determine the passing grade?"

Chiyabashira-sensei wrote a simple formula on the blackboard: 87.2 divided by 2 equals 43.6.

"We set a passing grade for each individual class, just as we did for the last test. We calculated that number by dividing the average score by two.

That's how we arrived at our answer."

In other words, anything at 43.6 or lower was considered failing.

"I provided proof that you failed. That is all."

"No way… So… Does that mean I'm going to be expelled?"

"No No! How can this be?"

"Why? Just why is this happening?"

"Although your time here was short, you three struggled valiantly. You all will be asked to fill out a withdrawal form after class, but you all will need to have a legal guardian present when you do so. I'll contact them for you."

As everyone witnessed the scene unfold, the teacher rattling off the information as if she were casually giving a report, they finally realized that this was actually happening.

"As for the rest of you, good work. You all passed without any issues. Work hard so that you can pass your final exam as well. Well then, next—"

"S-sensei. Is Sudou-kun really being expelled? Is there no way to save him?"

Hirata was the first to show concern, even though Sudou hated him and had lashed out at him verbally.

"He's being expelled. He got a failing grade."

"Could we possibly see Sudou-kun's answer sheet? And what about Ike and Yamauchi's?"

"Even if you look it over, you won't find any grading mistakes. I was expecting that you'd protest."

She took out Sudou's English answer sheet and handed it to Hirata, who immediately looked over every problem. His expression turned dark when he reached the end.

"There…are no mistakes."

"Well, if you're all in agreement, homeroom is over."

Chabashira-sensei had heartlessly announced Sudou's expulsion without offering him a second chance or the faintest bit of sympathy. Ike and Yamauchi, also remained silent as they still couldn't digest the fact they were about to get expelled. Hirata remained quiet, too. Sadly, some of the students appeared relieved by this. Were they happy that a nuisance like a trio was being removed from the class?

"Sudou, Ike, Yamauchi come to the faculty room after class. That is all."

"Chabashira-sensei. May I have a moment of your time?"

Though she'd stayed silent until that moment, Horikita raised her slender arm in the air and spoke. Thus far, Horikita had never voluntarily made any remarks. Chabashira-sensei and the rest of the class appeared shocked by this abnormality.

"Well, this is unusual, Horikita. Why?"

"Earlier, you said that the previous test had a passing grade of thirty- two points. You arrived at that number by the same formula you showed us today. Were there no mistakes in calculating the passing grade for the last test?"

"There were no mistakes."

"Then, that raises one more question. I calculated the average score for the previous test to be 64.4 points. If I were to divide that by two, I would get 32.2 points. In other words, higher than 32 points. Despite that, the passing grade was set at 32. That means that you left off the decimal. That contradicts what you did this time."

"Th-that's right. If you follow what you did last time, the passing grade for the midterm should be forty-three points!"

"I see. Did you anticipate that Sudou would just barely pass, then? You only scored exceedingly low in English, after all. But still, it wasn't much and you were off in your calculation."

"Horikita, you…"

Sudou had realized something. The other students gasped as they also realized what had happened. Horikita had gotten perfect scores in four of the five main subjects, but she'd gotten an exceedingly low score of fifty-one points in English. Her English stuck out from her other scores.

"You really—"

Sudou noticed what she'd done. In order to lower the average score for the English test, Horikita had purposefully botched her own grade as far as she could.

"If you believe that my thinking is incorrect, could you please tell me why the calculation differs between this test and the last test?" she asked.

The last ray of light.

"I see. In that case, I'll explain in more detail. Unfortunately, your calculation is off. We didn't simply omit the decimal when we calculated the passing grade. We rounded the numbers up or down. On the last test, we rounded down to thirty-two points, and on this, we rounded up to forty.

There's your answer."

"Tch…"

"You should have noticed that we rounded the numbers, but to hold on to that possibility… Well, too bad. At any rate, the first period will be starting soon. I'll be going."

Horikita had nothing left to counter with, so she remained quiet. She couldn't contradict anything Chabashira-sensei had said. Horikita's last resort had been eradicated. Sensei was about to leave but then Izumi stood up and said, "Man, even if you were given the old test papers and the questions were the same. You three still couldn't pass. Idiots."

As soon as he said, The class went cold. Chabashira sensei also stopped to see the drama he was about to create.

Hirata was the first one to speak.

"Izumi, stop this. You don't have to speak like this."

"Hah! Hirata, you are too good. But, Did I say anything wrong?"

"I mean, you all also saw that the questions given to you all were mostly the same. But they still didn't pass, I mean what did you three study in middle school?"

"What did you say?" Sudou growled in anger and was about to attack him again, but Ayanokouji appeared and held his hand.

"Back Down Sudou," Ayanokouji said as he gripped Sudou's hand.

He backed down as he could feel that Ayanokouji would hurt him if decided to move and Ayanokouji was stronger than him.

The class was shocked by this but they didn't speak, or you could say some of them were too scared to speak.

Koenji was looking at them with fun while Kushida held her head down and no one could see her expression.

Horikita went to Izumi and said, "Why are doing this Izumi?"

She knew that Izumi wouldn't do any nonsense work or anything.

Izumi who was still smiling looked at Sudou and said, "Sudou, Did you forget what I said at the library?"

The people who were at the library that day, i.e. Kushida, Aaynokouji, Sudou, Horikita, Ike, and Yamauchi remembered the event that happened at the library.

Sudou who remembered pointed his finger at Izumi and said, "You! You!"

Ike and Yamauchi also remembered that and said, "You will regret it Sudou. That's what you said."

"Don't tell me, Sudou and we failed because of you. Impossible." Ike spoke and Yamauchi nodded at his words.

Izumi smiled and said, "Do you know that old test papers that you all received in class only had 60% of the total questions of the original paper?"

"But, some of the students in the class had other 40% of the questions. The difficult ones and they got it 2 days before everyone got the papers."

"Now, the students who got the questions before scored more than the rest scored. Seeing that, The class's score got higher."

"But even students didn't know that they were solving test questions, so Horikita who had anticipated low scores also couldn't do anything."

"If you hadn't done that in the library, I wouldn't have given questions to some students. And then the average score would have been 38.7 points. Meaning you would have passed, but a pity. You dug your own grave."

The students in the class had stunned expressions. Even Horikita who hadn't known expected that it was Izumi's work that had failed her plan.

Hirata was shaking in anger that Izumi had used him, but before he could speak, Koenji put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Wait and Watch. Don't disturb his plan."

Koenji didn't want to do this before but now he was having fun in watching the drama.

As for the plan, he didn't know what Izumi had planned but he knew that he wouldn't create drama without any unnecessary cause and stopped Hirata to not cause any more change in Drama.

Ike and Yamauchi who had enough after hearing shouted, "You mean, Because Sudou held your collar once in his anger, you will take revenge and expel him, then what about us?

"What do you want to say about our condition?"

"Oh, You Two? you two were just casualties in it. Nothing more and nothing less."

And when did I say I want to expel him? I just want him to know his place. That's all."

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