Chapter 11: A look inside

"Okay, the classes should be updated. Let's start the meeting now, would anyone like to comment on their new group of students first?" asked Headmaster Jackson.

"Mine's pretty intelligent this year. All of my students are in at least one class A," said an old woman.

She was wearing long, black pants, a brown sweater and glasses, and had a pile of books next to her.

"I tell you every year Dorothy, intelligence is not the most important thing you should look for," said a middle-aged man wearing a tracksuit.

"Jim's right, intelligence is nice but other skills are extremely important in this academy," said a slavic, old man while checking his laptop.

His face was full of wrinkles and he had a long, white beard, and he was wearing a gray suit and glasses.

The room, located somewhere in the academy's administrative building, was dimly lit; most of the light coming from the sunset.

"In fact, if we're talking average scores on test, my group is the highest," continued saying the old man.

"I don't think that's important right now, Sergey. What matters is that I have students who excel at one or more subject," argumented Dorothy.

"I believe that strategy would only work if the students were helpful between them," said a young woman wearing a flower dress.

"Oh Rosalie, you always value empathy above everything. But in this case you're right, helpful students tend to work together which is beneficial." Said Sergey.

"Now, please don't fight again. We've already known each other's strategies for a few years." Said Jackson, with a kind smile on his face.

In the center of the room, there was a large oak table with office chairs around it. There was also a tablet-like display for every member who attended the meeting.

"Speaking about your strategy, you seem to win a lot, but I don't really understand how," said a young man with messy hair and a wrinkled shirt.

"That's simple, Mark. I choose very different people, but they all have something in common; they're all great at decisions and arguments," he started saying.

"Decisions are the basis of our lives; our actions have consequences, and weighting those will give the most correct answer in any situation," he spoke eloquently, with everyone else listening to him quietly.

"Arguments are the other half of my strategy. Whether it's interactions with their classmates or students from different classes, whenever someone tries to convince someone they must use arguments," he continued.

"Interesting, Ace. But I don't see how that's as important, since those are not part of the criteria to grade students," said Jim.

"Directly, it isn't part of the criteria. But it is really important for every single part," replied the headmaster.

"Okay, I see what you mean. So you're making use of those two abilities in all criteria," said Mark.

"Exactly. Plus, they're far more likely to be able to deal with problems than other students. Now, shall we take a look at the rankings as they stand right now?" proposed the headmaster.

The table lit up, each of the staff members having a seamless touchscreen in front of them. It showed relevant information that they would discuss, and they could access a variety of information.

The screens showed the following panel:

Year 3

 1

Ace Jackson

2377

2

Sergey Umnov

1721

3

Jim Anderson

1254

4

Olivia Gauthier

1039

5

Rosalie Twórca

1022

6

Dorothy Knowles

1014

7

Mark Miels

358

"As always, Mr. Headmaster, your 3rd-years are doing great," said Sergey.

"That's true, if we go by rankings, Ace's group has pretty much won," agreed Mark.

"Oh, I don't think we should be overconfident because of that. There's a whole year ahead for the students," explained Ace.

Rosalie looked at her display carefully, her eyes scanning the data. "Say, Mark, didn't your third years have a lot more points on our last meeting?"

"That's right, they were on par with the rest of the groups. We did host the special exam, but most classes only lost about 200 points," said Jim.

Despite his third year students being in the bottom, Mark had a smug face. "Everything's under control, it's just part of the bigger picture."

"I'm convinced everything's under control. Plus, I know part of the reason is related to a deal with my third years, Stella has let me know that," said Ace.

Sergey laughed and looked at the headmaster directly. "I'm assuming that's related to how every class got such a low result, while your class gained so many."

"Oh? I would've never thought about that. But now that you mention that, it did seem like there was something off about the whole event," commented Olivia, with a surprised look.

Every single staff member surrounding the table seemed perplexed about what they had just heard, and was trying to fit all the pieces together.

It seemed like they would start commenting on the exam last summer, but the headmaster interrupted before they could even start.

"I'm sure you all saw how the exam played out as spectators, so I'd like us to get on topic. You're free to speculate about what happened after we finish commenting on the second years," said Ace as he cleared his throat.