Chapter 95 - Mental Gymnastics (2/2)

”If you can improve your mental stamina as well as the flexibility to think and switch tracks, you will be able to memorise things effortlessly despite not completely understanding them. This is a simple mental exercise to increase mental flexibility and capacity to retain information.”

Alex blinked. She was overwhelmed by the level of complexity the simple exercise proved to be. On the other hand, Scarlet was having a hard time trying to do math under pressure. She could remember the orders in sequence perfectly fine and was the only one in the class, other than Elfie, who got all the order sequences correct. Many, including Jasper, missed out the changed order from gr.a.p.e juice to soursop juice.

”Now that everyone understands the purpose of this exercise, shall we try round two?” the programmer smiled.

Instead of being discouraged, the class got even more fired up. The better students like Tom were even more determined to master the skill of multi-level thinking now that the playing field was evened out.

”Let's make this a competition,” Jinru suggested and the boys immediately jumped onto the idea, forming teams.

”The team who makes the least improvement will have to clean the classroom for the rest of the next school term. The team that makes the most improvement will be given priority to choose the desks and chairs that they want in the next seat swap.”

Jasper had an evil smirk and added on to Jinru's suggestion. ”Team members you choose should be balanced out. The team with the highest academic average scores will be given cash prizes by princess Alex over there. The team with the lowest academic average scores must run errands for the rest of the next semester. Anyone who chooses not to participate will be subjected to counselling sessions with Dany.”

There were cries of outrage from some boys who called Jasper a devil. Elfie was nervous for a while until he realised that they were simply joking. The programmer smiled and found himself enjoying school for the first time.

”Should we inform the rest of the boys absent about the challenge?” Jeremy asked and Jasper thought it was a good idea.

”Hey, Elf!” Dragon yelled. ”What's your number? We need to add you to the group chat!”

Not expecting that, Elfie froze. He had at least five different phones for business purposes and none of them were appropriate numbers to be given out because they were taped and highly secured lines. The troubled expression made the rest of the class shift their focus onto Elfie.

Once more, the hacker found himself on the receiving end of hostile judgement played up by his low self-esteem and mental trauma.

Alex caught onto it quickly and defended the programmer by chiding the boys.

”Don't pressure him! The poor boy is only ten and not many ten-year-olds have phones. We'll be sure to add him to the group when his father gets him one.”

Tom laughed and was the first to apologise. That broke the tension and the rest of the class let the matter go, much to Elfie's relief. He glanced over thankfully to the Wilde princess who winked at him. Perhaps his initial assessment of Wilmer's children had been wrong. They were indeed nice and welcoming people even if they were a little odd.

He returned her wink with a small smile and nod before resuming the mental exercises that everyone became fired up about.

[Days till Mid-Year Examinations: 15 days.]