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  Ichigo’s family’s tragedy. Mrs Nami falls off the boat and drowns. Mr. Ichigo loses a wife and unborn child.

  That was a headline. Under there was a picture of a family.

  A young child with yellow hair where my eyes landed on. Looking around the age of four or five dressed in a cute tuxedo. The little child was holding hands with a woman. I would guess she is his mom. She had a bright red dress. Her make up is natural, paired with a red lipstick. Her eyes bright, a small smile on her lips.

  Then slightly behind her a hand of a man touching this woman's shoulder. The man had blonde hair. A dad and husband. His look was neatly collected, eyes sharp, looking sideways turning his body towards something interrupting from behind. The man's half of his face turned away from the camera. Attention at something behind him.

  Mother and child were looking at the camera. Both were smiling but the man had turned his head.

  The picture itself gave me a vibe of an interrupted family portrait.

  Behind this man in the background there stood someone else. It was a blurred figure of a man. Also dressed in a suit. All I could make out was his light hair color but very blurred. His face was facing the other side. So no one could tell who this man was. By the looks of it. The dad who had turned his head was reacting to the man behind.

  Eyes trailing off the picture. I opened my mouth to say something but Yuji was already gone, sat down in his seat, head looking towards the front of the classroom. I looked down the phone to read the article but at that moment a professor came into the classroom.

  I tucked my phone away.

  Second year development class homeroom professor: Mrs. Doris. She is a woman close to her fifties. Dark hair. A similar hairstyle like a flight attendant. Glasses on her nose. Her blue uniform was looking slightly too short on her. Sharp eyes stared at the class rather coldly.

  “Good Morning.” She scanned each of us.

  Class responded to her ‘Good Morning’.

  “Today we have our half term test.” Mrs Doris announced.

  Everyone was already aware of this, prepared and sat in their seats. Pencils ready, including myself. She walked and handed the papers on the first desks.

  “Please, pass to the person behind you.” She instructed.

  All first desks followed. A chain reaction of papers was passed along the class.

  Students ended up receiving a test of five sets of A4 format papers with questions on them. Each page was double sided. I sat at the end on the left side by the window.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  My eyes scanned through them. Turning around the pages.

  It consisted of questions of the material we have covered over this half term last term and also things we haven’t touched yet. I had picked up my pencil to write my name on the test papers but I stopped myself when I heard the professor speak.

  “Before you start. I will tell you how we are going to grade these tests.” Mrs. Doris spoke of something unusual.

  How are they going to grade these tests? That’s an odd way of saying it.

  “We will use a new system that the university wants to introduce. You are the first ones experiencing this and notes will be taken from it. So before taking the test I’d like to give you all some advice.” Mrs. Doris spoke to everyone. Her tone was sharp but her eyes slightly changed as she was telling us this.

  Looks like this was something very important, suggesting that this test wasn’t just for our grades only.

  “Till now we have focussed your talents as a group in choosing the schedule of your lessons each week.” Mrs. Doris spoke to all of us.

  This is true. Our class schedules depend on our overall score as a class. More time given to the classes where our group of students excelled the most. For the group I am in it was a development class. Every subject has either one, two or three times a week. They don’t depend on the schedule of the teacher but rather on how we absorb information.

  When I just came to University Of Akasia I had to adjust to. Some classes I found easy had more lessons than I wanted to be in. Other lessons are lesser. I had to adjust to that. Though previously I was homeschooled. This adjustment was overall for every little detail of life inside a study facility. I had no grounds to tell if this is normal or not as my own education was abnormal. But that thought did not matter right now.

  “Now the university wants you to focus on every material equally and individually.” Our professor paused and went on. “Within this new system one might even cover a third year’s course in their second year.” Mrs. Doris informed us.

  Someone at the front picked their hand.

  “Wait, that sounds a little unfair. What do you mean by that? What happens if we can’t keep up?” A random student asked questions.

  Mrs. Doris eyed the student. She looked at her and then at the rest of us. I could tell that whatever she says next is something she opposes.

  “If one can’t keep up will be demoted to a lower class.” She answered the students question but this answer raised so many other questions. First one. What does she mean by lower class?

  “I know and understand that you all have many questions about it but this is as far as I can tell you about the changes coming today. This test result will be made as the baseline of your abilities. The advice for you is to be careful with your answers on your test!” Mrs. Doris told us. She was giving us a precaution that this test will be an important baseline for the new system to take place. And she is trying to get our attention at the task at hand. It’s true, if we ask questions and debate over what’s coming it would waste precious time we should be spending on the test.

  “The official introduction to the changes will be explained next time we meet. The important thing for you now is to do well on this test! I will add an important detail. This test will be made public to see for your whole grade. My advice is that you excel at it!” Mrs. Doris told us.

  The class atmosphere tensed. Students looked down and up at the teacher. Then around the class and then back at their tests. Grabbing their pencils.

  I felt confused but intrigued by this and finally wrote my name on the corner of each page.

  “Best of luck to you all!” Mrs. Doris gave us a head start to dig in. Motioning all of us to focus.

  Some students still glanced around in confusion and nervousness. Some were unsure and the ones who understood stared at the paper on their table intensely. This made me linger. A decision looming over me. Then I glanced at Yuji.

  His head was down, filling in the pages. Yuji was the only one who never raised his head the whole time Mrs. Doris spoke to us. Already digging into the test. Seeming not to care about the announcements that were just made.

  I followed his lead and started to fill the pages.