Classroom of the Elite: Alter - Self-Test

Vol. 1: Chapter 16.3 - Class B's Preparation

I was mesmerized by Horikita's beautiful smiling face. When she felt that I was staring at her for an extended period of time, only then did Horikita realize that she was actually smiling.

"E-Eherm," she cleared her throat, returning to her cool and collected state. "Anyway, this is good news, Ayanokouji-kun."

It seems like Horikita wants to avoid talking about what happened just now. If that's the case, then it would be disrespectful of me to tease her about it, as much as I want to.

"Yeah, do you want to tell Hirata and the other tutors?" I asked.

"No need. The fewer people involved, the lesser chance for these to be leaked accidentally." Horikita answered with a serious expression.

"Do you not trust them?"

"That's a tricky question. It's not that I don't, but I won't ask for their help when I don't need to," she explained. "I have no problems cooperating with my classmates, even with someone like Kushida-san. Your words and abilities gave me a wake-up call, after all... But I think it's not a good idea to rely on someone else all the time."

Considering her "I don't like people" attitude during the first week, this mindset of hers isn't the worst development. But it would've been better if she could put more trust into someone like Hirata.

"That's true. Forcing cooperation between people isn't always the best option-- I agree with you on that. You're someone who doesn't sugarcoat anything, so being friends with a thick-skinned guy like me is the only way to go," I joked.

"Thick-skinned? I see. I thought you were just a masochist back then." Her face told me that she wasn't joking at all.

"You didn't have to do me like that, Horikita." I tried to keep the conversation going, but Horikita has already turned away from me.

"In any case, I want you to send those test questions to me later. I'll let you handle the explanation part tomorrow." Horikita opened her book once more. "You can go chat with your other friends now, Ayanokouji-kun."

Horikita didn't have to be so adamant in shooing me away. But given that I saw her smile, I guess everything was worth it.

Time passed by and I'm now in my room. After sending the images to Horikita, I proceeded to chat with my friends until it was time to sleep.

When the next day came, Horikita and I finally decided to tell Hirata and Kushida about the plan. They promised to help us gather the class later. And when Chabashira-sensei left us after the last homeroom period, Hirata stood up and got everyone's attention.

"Everyone, I know we all agreed for this last day to be a self-study day, but there's something Ayanokouji-kun would like to say before you leave," he announced.

Hirata instantly attracted everyone's eyes and ears. Meanwhile, Kushida and Horikita divided the number of papers among the two of them so they can be distributed. I walked up and stood behind the lectern, facing the students of Class B.

"Everyone, what you're holding right now are old test questions given to me by a senpai," I declared.

"Huh? Old test questions?"

"Will we use these for studying?"

"Are the topics even the same?"

Everyone voiced their questions and opinions on the matter, but after giving the papers a quick scan, they noticed that the questions were very similar to the study materials that they've been using.

To be honest, even I was amazed. According to Hirata and the other tutors, Horikita had the biggest contribution in terms of picking the topics that will most likely be on the test. Seeing the similarities between her sample questions and the old test questions, I can only praise Horikita in my mind for her amazing feat.