COTE: What If - Alternative

Average Student vs Class A (3/?)

A/N: I know I said I'd take longer, but I finally got an idea for the trial, so I quickly decided to start setting it up while filling in the gaps. After all, Class A isn't the only class in this school.

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"Congratulations on a perfect score in the midterms, Ayanokouji-kun and Sakayanagi-san!" Our homeroom teacher smiled warmly at both of us. I could feel gazes of respect from every directi- Ouch. Nobody was looking at me. It would seem that my classmates had gotten used to my top scores.

"5000 private points should have been deposited to each of your numbers just minutes ago."

I opened my phone and nodded in confirmation. It showed 183,235 pp as expected, considering the 94,000 we had received 3 weeks ago. I was mystified as to how our class had lost 60 points. Every single student had paid, or at least pretended to pay attention to every lesson, taken, or at least pretended to take notes, and even answered when called upon.

Perhaps somebody had sneaking peeks at their phone and the camera had caught it? Well, it wasn't like the camera had some sentient AI, it must have been an employee. I really couldn't imagine watching students carefully for hours a day every weekday just to tally disciplinary behaviour. Their life story would end up being even sadder than mine.

What about the person or people in charge of monitoring Class D? Was he looking on in pity at the 'most defective class of ANHS'? Was he snickering? Did he find it amusing? Did he stop tallying their absences, tardies, etc. once their class points hit the magical number of zero? Was it even a he?

"Congratulations on being the only person in this grade to score as much as me, Kiyotaka-kun!" Arisu smiled at me and then smirked at Katsuragi for a second. Of course, she wouldn't miss a chance to rub it in. Especially because he had mentioned his academics during his introduction. Some people are going to change sides.

Her 100 was rather impressive in comparison to Katsuragi's 94. Both of them must have attempted the difficult questions, and Arisu got two of them fully correct.

Katsuragi looked at her like he had swallowed a lemon, then cleared his expression and turned to me "I agree, you truly are impressive seeing as you managed to finish it first by a large margin."

Easily? He had probably finished earlier than most and noticed me staring out of the window. These tests were easier than the quiz last month, so I went for the 100 again. When the results were announced most people saw my name first, looked at me, shrugged, and moved on to searching for their own. Nobody had gone below the red line of expulsions, as expected.

I wondered what was happening in Class D, where 7 names had been below the red line last time. And apparently my seatmate felt the same.

"Mashima-sensei, I'd like to see the results of Class D."

"You know the procedure."

She pulled out her phone and with a flurry of quick taps, made the transaction and then nodded. Our teacher unfolded the second scroll he had brought with him. So, he predicted this, huh? Not bad. It was reasonable, since Arisu had asked for the same on May 1st.

The scroll revealed 5 names below the red line. Apparently Yosuke Hirata's study group idea had saved two people from having to leave the school. Not bad at all. The infamous 'idiot trio' were unsurprisingly candidates for expulsion, since they were known to hate 'that damn ikemen' Hirata.

I didn't know the other two, nor did I care.

Well, it wasn't like I cared about the trio either, though I did feel sad for Sudo. Unlike the others, he had already lost most of his points just about an hour after the entrance ceremony. Luckily for him, the average was so low that he could still be saved if someone from a higher class tried.