Eyelids felt heavy, it felt too difficult to try and open them up, so Cale only opened them partially.
It was a hazy scene at first, but as his eyes adapted to the sudden light, he could see the figures In front of me clearly.
A petite girl looked Intently at him, with a massive black bow decorating on the back of her head.
Her pearl like pitch black eyes met mine and quivered slightly, almost as If expecting an answer.
Cranking his head to the side, a tall young boy almost as tall as him filled an artistic image, resolution high, his blonde hair was a mess but had a strange charm stuck to it, making him look better despite it being a mess.
His Ocean-Like eyes stared Intently at the bewildered Cale, awaiting for some kind of answer.
"Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
Vocals rang out crisp, yet bland and more monotone than before.
"Your textbook?"
"..?"
Catrina pointed at the textbook nestled In his arms, she then brushed her hair aside with her other hand.
"I need to copy the material for the test Cale"
"Ah..."
He hesitated a bit before he gave her the textbook, she grabbed it swiftly with her hand snapping through the wind with ferocious force.
"Thanks, I'll give it back~"
She started scribbling In her textbook, The pen in her hand scribbled on the dry paper so fast It had slightly impressed Cale. Though the fact that she didn't even glance at her textbook and only at Cale's was even more impressive, and the words she scribbled were not chaotic at all, in fact it was the opposite, the lines were so neat and crisp that it felt satisfying just to read them.
"Where is the teacher?" Cale turned to Gabriel, tearing a gaze away from the scribbling Catrina.
"I don't know...It's been 10 minutes already, I think he said he needed to get some papers to give to us since they are really Important to the upcoming test"
"..."
Test... the word lingered In the mind.
'These past few days- No, ever since classes first started I've been doing everything In my power to try and listen to the teachers words, but no matter how hard I tried to. I couldn't make sense of anything they said'
It went in one ear and out the other, obviously Cale knew It was Important, there was no way it wasn't Important If the contents of the letter empathized that It would directly effect his chances of survival.
But he just couldn't, It was frustrating, whatever studying method he had found never worked, he tried to learn history by rote. It had worked but it still wasn't enough, It was just...average. Cale tried to understand algebra on a deep level and geometry as well, but no matter how much he pounded his brain to try and remember or understand the countless equations on his textbook, he just wasn't able to.
Cale wasn't capable of doing it.
Ba-Thump!
Ba-Thump!
His heart rang so loudly it could vividly be heard in his head.
This could potentially be the cause of his death after all.
"H-hooo"
Cale exhaled and took deep breaths.
Creakkkk~
A door creaked slowly revealing the figure of Carlos Ashen holding a stack of papers on one arm while the other opened the door.
He walked to his desk carefully, making sure the stack of papers didn't fall on the way there.
"You're probably wondering what these papers are about right?"
Everyone nodded their heads, Catrina, Gabriel and Cale Included.
"Today we're not going to need the textbook"
"...?"
Carlos raised his glasses slightly and spoke with a beaming smile on his face to show to the slightly confused students.
"I'm going to give everyone here a small test"
"What?!"
"Oh I'm really screwed"
"You think you're the only one!?!?"
"Son of a bi-!"
One by one, students started complaining left and right.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Carlos started clapping his hands, telling the students to stop. They didn't and just became louder.
Some even meowing angrily at some point.
Only when Carlos slammed something solid on the desk did they quiet down.
"Hey! everyone stop talking, you haven't even let me finish yet!"
After a few more minutes the class had calmed down at the unexpected test.
"This test only serves to see what you've learned these past few weeks, and I will obviously hold similar test like these In the future as well"
His voice reached every ear in the classroom.
"Which also means this won't directly Influence your Grades"
A student raised their hand.
"Yes?"
The student started speaking, It was Raven Stone.
"What do you mean by 'Directly' sir?"
Carlos cleared his throat, coughing a few times before speaking an answer to Raven.
"It means that If any of you don't put in the effort to try and solve the test, I will obviously lower your grades"
Carlos then turned and faced every student In the classroom.
"Think it's unfair? these small tests were meant to make you aware of how difficult the test will be if you don't pay attention to my classes, I didn't need to put In any effort in making these papers you know?"
He waved a few of the papers that he set on the desk before.
"The content In this test isn't any different from what I have shown In class"
He took all the papers on the desk and started giving them out to the students In a swift and efficient motion.
"If you have listened and paid attention to my classes, you will know how to easily solve them"
He reached Cale's desk before long and gave a piece of paper like the others.
"..."
Multiple complex equations littered the paper in a dizzying formation.
Cale payed special attention to Carlos's classes knowing it would be difficult to get even an above average grade If he didn't do so. In other words this would be easy.
'I focused so much In class....yet I can't even...'
It was at this moment that he truly realized how much of a worthless piece of trash he was, so much attention to the teachers lessons were paid in full, and trying his absolute best to make some sense of it, but he was only met with something that he couldn't hope to solve, even though he should have been able to...
'If I paid so much attention In class, shouldn't I be able to solve at least one part of this? that way my efforts In trying to genuinely learn wouldn't be so wasted...'
He wasn't angry or frustrated. Cale was just enlightened on how he couldn't even do something ordinary people could do by just paying attention.
'I knew I am not capable of maintaining high grades, so I at least tried to at least get the average'
But he couldn't do even something as simple like that.
The ballpoint pen was clutched for a while, eyes locked on the sheet.
'Don't they say that repetition is the best way to learn anyway?'
Cale started writing, anything he could remember, anything that came to mind that sounded right to him.
'...Anything is fine, just try...'
That is all he wanted to do at the very least.