Chapter 5: Pop Quiz

"What do you mean 'it's fine'?!" Elias shouted out. It was a sunny day and the sunlight was illuminating their room, making a lively atmosphere. Both Aliyah and Elias were wearing their school uniform since it was almost time to go. As Aliyah was stirring her cup of coffee while staring at Elias with a pair of puppy-like eyes, Elias yelled, "Don't give me those eyes!"

"*sigh* You don't have to do anything about those girls. They'll just make things worse for me if you try doing anything." said Aliyah and began to drink her coffee.

"You've been saying the same thing for a week now. Did things get any better?" said Elias and took his bag with one hand. He slammed the door open and slammed the door shut as Aliyah was frightened because of the loud sounds. She sighed and finished her coffee slowly, while gazing out of the window.

In the class, Miss Spencer walked in with a file filled with papers and slammed it on the table. Except for a few students, everyone were sitting down chattering.

"Stand up." said Miss Spencer. Hearing her voice barely, all the students stood up. "Isabella, come here."

Isabella went towards Miss Spencer and she handed the file to her. "Miss Spencer, what are these for?" said Isabella.

"Have you never seen a pop quiz? It's a pop quiz on the chapter Mrs. Johnson finished tomorrow. Hand the papers to everyone after Mr. Taylor comes. I will leave Mr. Taylor here to monitor you all." said Miss Spencer and left. The students were all frightened already talking about ways they can cheat through the exam.

But among all these frightened students, there was a pair who were moving their mouths at their heart's content, eating in the class in the back. They looked so alike as if they were siblings and perhaps they really were. They were simply wearing white hoodies and looked simple but the strategy they used to fill in their stomach was not simple at all.

"Lucia, Lucius! Stop eating in class!" Isabella shouted.

The exam has began and everyone were frightened. Aliyah looked as if she has no care of the world but inside she was running out of patience and the will not to cry. Elias was pulling his hair whilst Luke was looking at his question paper knowing he doesn't know anything.

"Students, do not eat, use phones or cheat. If you make a single disturbance, I will send a complain to Miss Spencer."

Hearing Miss Spencer's name, the students were alerted and so was the pair. Hearing that they cannot eat in the class, they got a call from their minds that they have to eat in the class. The girl among the pair in the back passed a jumbo pen to the boy. The boy took the pen with a serious expression as if he was deep rooted into his thoughts. He took the pen beneath the desk and opened it to eat the small candies hidden in it.

Close to the window, there was a boy gazing outside, soothing his soul with the beauty of nature. His skin looked like butter under the sun and his eyes were the color of dry maple leaves. There were birds flying around and the sun was caressing the earth with it's soft light. Then the boy looked at the girl in his class who's name is of a flower and was soothing his eyes like it was a garden of Dahlias. All these thoughts were crossing the boy's mind as he was drawing Dahlia and time passed by, without showing him a red flag of warning that he will fail his test. Perhaps it was because of his view through rose colored glasses.

Whilst on the front side of the classroom, Elias was looking at Aliyah's exam sheet as if moving his sight away from it will cause him harm. "(Yes yes...move a little bit to the right side. Yeahh...Shit!)" Elias wiped the tears that came out because of staring at her paper for too long. Seeing him in such state, Dahlia was thinking in her mind, "(I can't believe she hangs out with a dude who cries at his exam paper...)"

On the other hand, Aliyah was moving her pen as if she was writing something. But in reality, she was dying inside thinking of ways to write an answer of a question she cannot be assure of.

"(Ow...I worked the whole day and fell asleep after I got home. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THIS...*whimper* Yes, if I write it this way, then it will look like both of the possible answers. Yeah, I'll write it this way.)" Aliyah was mildly assured.

On the back, there were a few more students who were all using the power of technology to get through the harsh path of exam. Whether they succeeded or not, was still unknown.

Rowan and a few other students were silently writing answers on his question paper without any kind of cheating or unusual behavior. Perhaps, they were the only normal beings in the class both according to them and the unusual beings who were wondering if they can copy them.

Out of all the 'normal' students, there was a distinguish student who believed she was one of a kind. The demon king with Second Year Syndrome was laughing at her exam paper as if it was a mere enemy she has to defeat.

"(Hmph! Look at my beloved companion...Even she is struggling. Heh...no one matches the Demon King, Darkwin's power.)" Kiyoshi was making the pen dance with his fingers and she began to write as if it was choreographed. Even though the choreographed hand movement was a sight to see, filled with elegance, the result was not really a sight one wants to see.

"(I wonder how Kiyoshi's doing...)" Mr. Taylor was frightened to look at Kiyoshi's exam paper. He was looking at the paper with his eyes widened, being flabbergasted according to Kiyoshi.

"(The world shall perish!)" Kiyoshi added a really bold period after the last equation no human can elaborate.

"Kiyoshi Watanabe Cox, your writing was so scribbly, it gave me a heart attack to read it." said a teacher who was comparably older than the other teachers. She was a middle aged woman with wrinkled skin and a high pitched voice. She was handing out the test papers of the recent surprise test.

"Flynn Jewett, your test score is disappointing."

Flynn, who is known as the famous class clown took the test paper without a worry. "Better than your teaching." he murmured.

"Ken, go to the principal's office. You didn't write a single word on your exam sheet. What are these?!"

The poetic boy who was admiring Dahlia during the exam did not answer. He simply looked down without a word and left the classroom whilst some students were laughing at him.

"Shut up!" Mrs. Johnson yelled. The whole class became silent.

"Elias Whitlock."

Elias got up from his seat and took the test paper. He has gotten 49 out of 50 which was a big accomplishment for him. "(Thank God. I've gotten the highest in class it seems.)" Elias sat down with a smirk.

"Aliyah Amer. Well done, you have scored the highest." said the teacher as she handed the test paper to Aliyah with a lovely and proud smile.

"Thank you, Mrs. Johnson." said Aliyah as she took the paper with a small smile on her face. She showed the test paper to Elias with a smirk on her face.

"(A perfect 50?!)" As Elias saw the smirk, he was burning with anger. "Show me that!" He got up from his seat and reached out to get the paper from Aliyah being speedy as a running horse. He keenly observed all the answers and turns out, they were all correct, except one answer that was not properly written.

"Mrs. Johnson! Can you please come here and check this answer?"

"(Noooooo. I made sure to write the answer in a way she won't realize if it's correct or not.)" Aliyah was screaming inside. She snatched Elias's paper and checked it being calm from the outside but being stressed from the bottom of her soul from the inside. She breathing heavily with a completely calm face which looked terrific and comedic at the same time. Rowan sighed from a corner while Luke was having a 'what the fuck' experience according to him.

"(Yessss!)" Aliyah was trying to keep her smile hidden. "Mrs. Johnson, Elias forgot to add a point here." She showed the paper to Mrs. Johnson. She narrowed her eyes and moved her head towards the paper. "Elias, how could you forget such thing?! It changes your whole answer. And you, Aliyah, is this the way you write an answer?"

"Ah...Aliyah look, you forgot to add minus here." said Elias with a devilishly happy face.

"Elias! Your spelling is wrong here." said Aliyah as she showed the test paper to Elias.

"Your calculation looks too complicated here."

"Your handwriting sucks."

Meanwhile Mrs. Johnson was waiting for her anger to reach at an extent when she punishes both of her students.

It did not take her long to reach that extent and snatch both of their papers away. Both of them were left with forty marks in the end, looking at their miserable test papers, standing in the corner of the hallway whilst burning in agony. Not in the agony of guilt but in the agony of defeat that they have not won.