Lesson Learned

You're so beautiful

The atmosphere on the results from mid-terms was definitely less...optimistic than finals.

Mitsuko held the envelope with her results in it and looked around as her classmates dared to peek at theirs.

"Oh, man..." Sugaya groaned in despair behind her.

She grimaced and looked over her shoulder. "How bad?"

He was crying in anguish. "You don't want to know..."

Mitsuko cringed. "Oh, crap..." She looked around and saw her classmates with similar looks. "Well, this is off to a great start."

"Oh, man, this sucks." Sugino was already preparing to leave to go home.

"Tell me about it." Kayano sighed loudly. "Those A-Class jerks are probably loving this."

Nagisa grimaced, looking around. "Hey, where's Karma?"

"Pretty sure he grabbed his results and bailed," Mitsuko said, frowning. "He definitely didn't want any of us seeing his rank after what happened last time."

Nagisa's brow furrowed. "Hm..."

Mitsuko sighed as most of the class started to leave, trying to brace herself as she stared at the envelope. "Here we go, I guess..."She slowly pulled out the sheet at the front which displayed her rank—

"Holy shit!" Her whole face lit up.

"What is it?" Rio asked.

Okuda, Takebayashi, and Okajima paused by the door while a few of the others in class such as Fuwa, Kataoka, Isogai, and Mimura looked up from their desks.

"What?" Sugaya was already standing up with his bag on his shoulder. "Is it bad?"

She jumped to her feet and shoved the results in his face. "I ranked seventh place! Look!"

"Whoa!" He stared at the results in surprise. "How'd you do that!?"

She grinned, holding the results close to her test. "I guess all that extra studying my dad forced me to do paid off!" She looked giddy. "It's higher than the last time as well!"

"Nice work!" Fuwa praised.

"Yeah, good job, Mitsuko," Okuda said brightly.

Rio smirked and nudged her arm. "See, told you you'd be fine."

Mitsuko blushed, smiling more. "I'm just happy I'll finally be able to sleep properly after this." She sighed in relief. "I was surviving off three to four hours sleep and energy drinks on most days!"

"Uh..." Sugaya looked worried. "I don't think that's healthy."

"Yeah, but who cares!?" Mitsuko laughed, feeling giddy. "This is such a relief."

"Well, at least someone got a good mark." Rio patted her on the shoulder. "These midterms were way too brutal—finals are going to be a whole other league."

"I'm already feeling the pressure!" Kimura exclaimed.

"Hey, we'll be okay," Isogai reassured. "Even though we took a hit, a lot of our results were still better than the last midterms."

"Yeah, we just need to put our all into finals," Kataoka said.

"And preferably not do parkour outside school?" Mitsuko crossed her arms.

"Heh..." Rio and a number of the others looked sheepish. "Yeah, that too."

Mitsuko's smile stayed in place all the way down to the bottom on the mountain with the results held protectively against her chest.