21 Controlling Mana (1/2)

It was Monday today.

The teacher announced that I would be paired up with Luke again, while Ellen and Shelly exchanged partners with each other.

Since we would be starting all over again, I packed up my stuff to head towards another medieval-like room again. This time the change was permanent. So I decided I would study really hard to get a nice upgraded room and an abundant amount of points to get a decent meal as well.

There was an exam tomorrow determining how I would live for the next few years in middle school. I saw Luke already unpacking his stuff, while I placed my stuff on top of the straw bed. Sigh. If I could, I didn't want to live like this anymore.

\”Should we head towards the library?\” I asked Luke.

Luke looked genuinely surprised by my question as he thought I didn't like his intense study sessions. Well, it was true I didn't like studying with Luke, but it brought good results. And I was tired of sleeping on a straw bed for the past month.

So we went to the library study room together and we spent over forty eight hours just cramming all the materials that I had to catch up to from the past month.

By the time it was morning, I felt that we could at least avoid getting minus points with losing a night's worth of sleep.

So when I finished all my exams, I was looking forward to the results unlike the previous times.

When the results came out, everyone looked utterly surprised except for Luke and I. Well that was rude!

The monitor displayed:

Helena and Alex: 100 000 points

Rika and Luke: 20 000 points

Michelle and Allan: 90 000 points

\”Rika didn't get any minus points this time!\” Alex said while looking astonished.

\”As expected of Luke!\” Daniel praised Luke after he unfroze himself from the shock.

\”...\” Allan, Ellen and Shelly looked back at me wordlessly.

Was this really that surprising? You know we usually got a bit more than this amount of points in elementary school so you shouldn't get surprised!

When we got back into our rooms, I happily asked Luke, \”How should we spend the points?\”

I wanted to move into a good room right away so I could sleep without the moldy smell of the rock walls covered with a bit of moss.

\”Well, since moving to a smaller, but better room cost about 15 000 points, I think we should refrain from moving just yet-\” (Luke)

I clasped my hands while making myself look pitiful as I pouted, \”Please~. I promise I'll study harder for the next exam that's one week from now!\”

Luke gave in to my constant begging as he reluctantly decided to upgrade the room, leaving the rest of the 4800 points for our meals and rented two straw beds to sleep on for the next week for 200 points.