Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

89th place.

Well, 89th place overall. In the second-years, I came in at 31st. It was slightly higher than what I would've liked, but still nothing to gasp at.

The first ten finishers were listed on a big screen at the end

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1. Mizuhara Sayaka (3-A)

2. Otoyama Akita (3-A)

3. Murakami Akio (2-D)

4. Takafumi Genjirou (3-B)

5. Masuda Hideyuki (3-A)

6. Akihiko Harumi (1-A)

7. Fujiharu Sara (2-A)

8. Furukawa Kai (2-C)

9. Hamasaki Ester (2-A)

10. Okamoto Riku (2-B)

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I made my way over to some of the other students who had already finished. In the crowd, I noticed that quite a few notable people were missing. I guess Kimura knew that something was going down in Class 2-A. Well, I didn't really care that much.

"Good job, Mizuhara! You did well."

"Thanks, Furukawa."

We took a seat on the grass as we waited for the rest of the students to finish.

After quite almost an hour, the final few participants were finally finishing. It was clear that many students were not very athletic, and such a long course came as a big shock to them. The last few walked to the finish line, looking as if they'd collapse any moment. However, some students looked as if they hadn't tried at all. Well, that was to be expected for some.

Two hours passed before everyone finished. Eventually, the principal of National High School came out to give a speech. It was the usual gratitude to everyone who came out to help with setting up and all the teachers who stood as checkpoints. During the long speech, people started getting restless, with water being poured everywhere.

Finally, he dismissed everyone.

The year-level results would be given out during class time.

• ───────────────── •

Back in 2-C, we were all seated in our seats, lightly chatting away.

The teacher had yet to come to class with the results. I guess there must have been some sort of delay wherever they were getting them. The other students were discussing and hypothesising about the result, eagerly waiting.

I wasn't really all that interested.

"Okay, everyone, I've finally managed to get the results."

Suddenly, the class went silent.

She put them up on the board.

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NHS Cross Country Event Results

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Second-years' Class Results

1. Class 2-B: 439

2. Class 2-C: 302

3. Class 2-D: 232

4. Class 2-E: 209

5. Class 2-A: -2

~

Second-years' Individual Performance

1. Murakami Akio

2. Fujiharu Sara

3. Furukawa Kai

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The results definitely came as a surprise to most people.

"Class A got negative points? That's so funny!"

"I thought Class A was supposed to be the best!"

It was pretty obvious what had happened in that class. I had always known that Class A had very little to no cohesion. As such, there weren't going to be any combined efforts like our class to strive for the top. As such, there was likely a coalition of sorts trying to bring each other down. There was likely a group of Class A students who purposely placed in the last few spots.

I guess that was the reason why many noticeable people were missing from the top 10. Someone like Hasegawa would never fall below the top 10 if she were seriously trying. It seemed that Kimura also had something to do with this.

Whatever the case, it didn't matter to me.

Before long, there was a notification on my phone.

For coming 31st, I was given 500 points, which wasn't a very large amount, but it was something. Above that, I was given 3,000 points for our class' placement.

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Your Account

Current Points: 7,395

Owed: 87,780

Owing: 12,000

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Oh well, there wasn't really much to think about. The class was having some happy discussion about our placement. Many of the students were thanking Kaoru for hosting the training sessions and leading the class. I didn't see much reason to join them so I made my way back to my dorm.

• ───────────────── •

Honestly, the amount of work that the school put into setting up a nice atmosphere was not without merit. There were plenty of trees around, decorating the school with a natural-esque feel. There was also not a day where the gardeners were not working, always taking care of the flower beds and grass.

It was nearing the end of the month, meaning everyone would get more points. In the last few days, quite a few students moved down classes in order to get some relief points, not that I really cared. In the end, I was never in a position where I could've really run out of points. If things progress as they have been, I'd likely never run out of points.

Granted, with Tachibana and various other people on my tail, it probably wouldn't be much later before I had to exert myself again. It was annoying. I much preferred to just live a peaceful school life. Well, it was to be expected that things wouldn't always go my way. In the end, I was sure that my sister would also try to pull something.

I made my way down the clean stone path, past the main oval, which wasn't very commonly used, to my surprise. I guess there wasn't much organised sport at this school; as such, the oval looked brand new, with crystal clear green grass and perfectly straight lines.

It was getting somewhat late into the afternoon, so I guess I'd make some food when I got back. I'd probably need to go out and get some more supplies though since my stock was starting to run out.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of frantic footsteps behind me.

I turned around.

Standing in front of me was a girl. I didn't recognise her from anything in particular, but I could tell that she was a first-year. She was relatively short with black hair—well, I've never been one to observe girls too obtusely.

Looking straight into my eyes, she stared silently.

"Do you need something from me?"

"M-mizuhara-senpai... I like ya... please go out with me."

Oh.

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