Gaijin

First days are tough

I was handed a paper not after a minute after entering this class, this paper was different, it contained some very weird question

1. Do you consider yourself a good person?

This was the first question, my test had an English version of the question and a Japanese one so I checked Yua's paper and to my surprise she didn't have the English version, coming from an English-speaking country it's only natural to have a version like that 

"Why are you peeking? That's a personal test so there is nothing worth cheating"

Yua said as she glared at me, I quickly turned to my paper and started completing it, for the first question I answered with

<Most people I have met are telling me how good of a person I am, that's possibly to act nice but I would like to believe I'm a good person>

2. Are you the type to defend yourself by using violence?

Kind of a weird thing to ask but I still answered truthfully

<Yes if a conflict is un-avoidable>

3. What are the plans you have for the future? / if you don't have a plan tell us what you want to do in the future

<I don't know yet, I'm still trying to find things I enjoy>

4. A train is going at 100km/h and it's headed toward a pack of 5 old people, but you notice a lever in front of you, this lever changed the course of the train, but if you do that a life of a young teenager like you would have been taken away, would you still pull the lever?

That question is a bit darker than normal

<I will not pull the leaver, old people don't contribute much to society while a young mind, with full of fresh ideas can possibly change the future and do way more things than those 5 people could ever do at their age>

all the remaining questions were somewhat the same, some were philosophical and some were simply career-related, it was my first time seeing a test like that but it was somewhat surprising, after about 30 minutes I placed the test on the teacher's desk

"Did translating your test help you a bit?"

my teacher asked

"Yeah actually that helped more than you think, also you don't have to spend time translating, I already know the basics about spelling and grammar, right now I'm studying kanji so if possible please try to translate only kanjis"

my teacher laughed

"Do you think I spent time translating? I just used gogol to translate everything, anyways, You can pass by the library and borrow a book about kanji, so before leaving school or during lunch go there and ask the one that is responsible for the library at the time to help you"

My teacher said, she then told me to sit down and that's what I did, Yua was still writing this test, Takito-kun was writing too, why did I finish this fast? Did I miss a page or something? But I'm sure I checked everything and my teacher isn't saying anything so I guess I wrote everything, but I still can't shake off this feeling of incompletion, the bell rang after some time of me being worried

"I will see you next period, and before you go Hikita-kun please come with me to the office, I want to discuss something with you"

I gulped, it is only my first day here and I'm already dragged to the office, I got up and started walking with her, I was barely taller than her

"Did I do something wrong? Or did I not complete the whole test?"

I asked but she remained silent, she didn't say a single word until we got to her office, once we entered there she immediately lighted up a cigar, she also seemed more relaxed

"So you are Domic's son huh? You sure have some muscle!"

She told me as she was touching my shoulders

"D-Do you know my father?"

"Wasn't it obvious? I wouldn't have brought you here otherwise, so how do you do in Biol? I heard good words from your father but I want your impression too since you lived there most of your life"

she asked me as she laid back on her chair

"Terrible! The people don't respect your private life, it's almost impossible to find a relationship and also doesn't has anything fun like a mall to pass your time at"

for some reason, I could speak with more ease now

"Huh sucks for you! Now tell me, what is this old man of yours doing? The last time I cared he wanted to travel to Europe"

"He is happy, he has a little farm of his that he rises chickens, he also recently started to grow his own vegetables, this hobby of his is also very fitting for him since he can work from home or even his farm"

"Hmm? Then I guess our little Domic started fooling around with animals now"

That comment upsets me

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh I must have thought out loud, my bad, anyways, another reason I called you here was to tell you about our school activities since you are from this project you can choose more than 1 club to attend, also you have a privilege that most of the students don't, for some particular occasions your underperformance will be ignored but make sure you don't try to exploit this privilege because if you do the school won't be very forgiving"

that's all she told me, she then sent me off 2 minutes before the bell rang, when I entered the class some people were staring at me, it was kind of uncomfortable, but thankfully Yua came just in time to pull me out of this situation

"I'm not surprised that our teacher called you in, what was it for? Coming here with a bike, or something even worse?"

I forgot that Yua is arguably the most punchable person I have ever seen

"She only took me there to talk about school stuff and other stuff that you probably shouldn't care"

I told her as I sat down on my seat

"Yosuke-chan Do you know where the boy I was talking with went?"

I asked her but Yua didn't seem to care about my question, I guess I can't ask her anything, before I could go outside to search for him myself he happened to enter the classroom

"Yo! Where are you going?"

Takito-kun asked me while blocking the exit

"I was searching for you actually, do you want to go exploring around the school when the next break begins?"

"Sure why not? I also found a venting machine behind the school, so we can head there to get a drink before exploring"

I agreed and we then sat down at our desks, the bell rang and our teacher came in

"Hello everyone, I reviewed your answers and I came up with pairs for all of you, oh right, I forgot to tell you that you will all be paired based on the questions you gave me, after you pair you will have to learn more about each other, because if you don't then you will have a hard time doing school chores or studying"

Our teacher wasn't so clear about what she said, so naturally, some students asked her to clarify it

"So basically you will have to work together throughout the whole year, you will be studying together in the library and also have to do chores that we assign you to do together, doesn't that sound cool? Anyways, one last thing that you have to know is that your grades will change your partner's grade, meaning that if your partner writes 10 on a test and you write 100 then your grade will be reduced by half of the points they didn't get, so 45 points, but if you only have 20 points difference this decrease in points won't count"

Everyone seemed shocked to hear that but Yua remained calm, I guess she knows about this from her father

"Hikita-kun come here and hand everyone their assigned paper"

my teacher said, so I went up there and saw the papers I had to give them, they all have their names on them and the place of the classroom they were sitting, the papers were placed in such a way that mine was last, my teacher thought about everything huh? Also, how did she manage to check all of our tests this quickly? She spent half of our break talking to me, so I find it impossible to "correct" every test and also find a matching partner for all of us, but who knows? Maybe she has a talent for grading, before I realized it I handed every paper in my hand so I sat down

"Why are you looking at me like that? Open them!"

She told us with a smile while looking at our stressed faces, does she enjoy our sorrow?

"WHAT?"

Yua screamed, some other students got up from surprise and some even whined, this room feels intense, and for what? When I saw my partner I realized why

"I can't believe they paired me with a brute like you! What will I do? You will bring my grades down to your level"

Yua exclaimed loudly

"Why are you assuming that? You know I wasn't a bad student at my school"

"Yeah, yeah, is that what are you telling your father to not bother you with school?"

She asked me with irony

"Now that you know about that how about a good old math test? You won't have to worry because I will use material from junior high school"

she told us as she handed the test herself, when the test was in front of me I realized how easy this is, well this is supposed to be junior high but that's still very simple, so I didn't lose any time, I immediately started to write down my answers, it didn't even take me 15 minutes to complete the test

"I'm done Barkingson-sama"

I said, a lot of eyes were turned at me, but a single glare from a certain someone was the only stare that gave me chills

<You will be sorry>

Yua wrote down on a paper that she showed me

"Come here and hand it over then, are you expecting me to come and pick it?"

she told me, I handed it and she quickly checked it out, she nodded while checking each answer

"Splendidly Hikita-kun! You scored a clear 100"

She made sure that my grade was loud enough for all the class to hear, is this a strategy to stress them even more?

"You can sit down on your desk, use your phone or something to pass the time, I don't know what you youngsters do nowadays, just make sure no other teacher sees it"

She told me, while I was walking to my seat Takito congratulated me, and when I sat down I was surprised to see Yua's face, does she really believes everything she says about me? While I was sitting I sent a message to my dad telling everything about this school, my teacher, my grade, and this annoying girl, in response he sent me a photo of a roaster with his hand thumbing up, I love it when he sends me random photos

"Time's up everyone hand me over your tests and sit down, I will publicly announce your grades"

our teacher said, some students asked to keep their grade a secret but she turned them all down, I didn't care about anyone's grade except Yua's, if she got lower then I bet that she will feel stupid, after a lot of names Yua turn quickly came by

"Yosuke Yua, 77 points, that means Hikita Iriasu's points are dropping to 89"

Yua's face turned pale when she heard her grade, after some more grading she finished and she told us to go outside since she didn't prepare anything else and the bell was about to ring, only 5 minutes remained

"How about that Yosuke-san? You lowered my points just because you can't do some simple math, and you were always downplaying me but look at you now, the class average was about 67, and you only managed to exceed that by only 10 points? I thought you were smarter than me but I guess you are merely a show-off"

Yua simply got up and left, was I too harsh? NO! Even if I was harsh that's okay, she insulted me way more and for no reason, so I can't feel bad, I just kept the same energy she had, if she can't handle insults then why insult others?

"Hey Hikita-kun, don't you think that you were a bit excessive"

Takito told me with an uneasy face

"What do you mean? You remember her from the mall, right? She kept on cursing and cursing at me but when I do it it's excessive?"

Takito was a bit surprised by my answer

"You got a point but you know she is a girl and you also don't have to do it here, you could have told her somewhere private"

I didn't think of it, but I guess he is right, I could have been a bit more private. Before I got up someone came bursting into the classroom

"Who's name is Hikita?"

He asked angrily, I then raised my hand and said it was me, now that I think about someone coming this aggressively into a classroom searching for someone, he probably doesn't want to just talk to them, the boy grabbed me by my uniform and slammed me into the wall, oh boy things are beginning to go south