After all this time, exam season was finally here. Education in Lion City started at four years old, and then came thirteen years of learning. And all that paid off in one weeks worth of exams instead of like, continuous credit or something. Whatever, Leon thought as he walked into the school for one of the last times. He was confident enough he'd get enough points to get into the college of his choice if everything he was hoping would be on the test was in fact on the test. And if not...well, post school courses to get the credits he wanted were in fact a thing.
He walked into the school and joined the crowd of people outside the gym, which had been emptied out into an exam hall. Janet was looking into the windows.
"Well, half an hour till doomsday." She said casually as she turned around to acknowledge Leon's existence.
"How much studying did you do?" Leon asked, his mind already preparing to comprehend how little effort Janet put in.
"I…opened the books." Janet replied, looking deep in thought. "I read some passages, did the practice questions. Aside from that…"
"Okay." Leon responded with a weary sigh. It was impossible to comprehend Janet's thought process. The two lived in completely different worlds despite inhabiting the exact same city. And the more he thought about that, the more depressed he got.
But alone, the ringing began once again. Janet looked mildly shocked and clutched her sunglasses as Xaawo's voice began to ring out inside their brains.
"Hello, players! Now, I realized that your end of year exams are coming up, and you've been stressed about that all year! So, we decided to give you a break. For the next week, we're holding off any new rounds. So, I hope you all have fun, and have a ton of fun with the next game! Because it's gonna be a real event, let me tell ya!"
The transmission ended, snapping them back to reality.
"Well, how am I meant to focus with my mind still fuzzy?" Janet moaned as she scratched her head.
"My heads already cleared." Leon responded flatly. He knew Janet was glaring at him underneath the sunglasses, but he refused to recognize it. But people were slowly beginning to pile into the exam hall, with Leon and Janet following them in, handing their phones to Ms. Collins, who was screwing around on her own phone. You probably could sneak your phone past her, but the other examiners who'll be walking around the room like Mr. Shankly? Probably not.
And so, the exams started, Leon actually knew a good chunk of the math. The geometry he could pretty easily figure out, much to his surprise. And as much as he hated to admit it to himself, the gas station job probably provided a little bit of an explanation to how easily the financial questions answers came to him. The probability questions didn't give much issues either. Stuff like the trigonometry he put answers for, but he had no clue if he did anything right. And as for calculus, no god damn idea.
After two hours, the exam was finally over, and he was able to meet with Leon and Evelyn in the hallway.
"Ugh, totally bombed that!" Janet yelled, causing several pairs of eyes to glare at her. "How did you two do?"
"Think I did fine?" Leon said, not entirely sure. He was fairly certain he got a C, at the very least.
"Honestly? Not bad." Evelyn shrugged.
"You really put the work in, I forgot." Janet muttered. Evelyn tried not to respond to the dismissal of actually working for your future, instead maybe something more productive.
"What you think you screwed up?"
"Besides the probability questions, everything." Janet replied. "Like the questions about parabolas? What the hell is a parabola?"
"A U-shaped symmetrical curve?" Evelyn replied without any difficulty.
"And I'll need to know that after graduation when, exactly?"
"You know most high school level math is mainly to inspire people who will have actual careers that make the most of it, and also just training your brain if you put the effort in?"
Janet paused for a moment, turning to Leon.
"You get it, Leon?"
"The parabola question? Yeah, that was one of the easier ones."
"Agh, why didn't I team up with the dummies?" Janet yelled. "I bet Elijah bombed it."
"He uh, probably did." Leon agreed quietly.
"But what's your deal with coming here, anyway?" Evelyn asked. "Couldn't you have gone to some fancy private school?"
"Eh, that's what my parents wanted." Janet shrugged. "But what's to gain from hanging with a bunch of other snobby rich kids? So I bugged my parents to let me in here. Sure the facilities are below average and the teachers at best pretend to care, but here I can actually learn about people I'm supposed to rule over."
"You're a real people's revolutionary." Evelyn muttered through clenched teeth. Glad to see someone was enjoying the public school lifestyle.
"Anyway, what's the next exam?"
"Biology." Evelyn replied.
"Sick, didn't take that class!" Janet said with a mild fist pump. "I'll see you two later."
Both Leon and Evelyn took biology, so they were stuck in the building. But a few minutes later, they both got a text.
"Hey, so I'm thinking of throwing a post-exam party at my place when this is all over, you guys have any ideas?"
"She's really not taking this seriously, is she?" Leon whispered to himself.
"And why would she need to?" Evelyn muttered. "She's rich. She already has what we need to fight for a chance of getting. Why take a single fucking thing seriously when everything is handed to you?!"
She threw her textbook down, but her powers made it boomerang back to her and hit her in the face, causing her to get even more pissed.
"So, you're not going to the party?" Leon asked.
"You kidding, I'm going." Evelyn sighed as she soothed her nose. "If for no other reason than a ton of paprika flavored chips."
So Evelyn took the biology test. Not as confident as she was in the math test, but she was pretty sure her studying paid off. And as she walked out of the school, she looked around for Janet. She was gone, because she obviously was. Off to plan the most extravagant event Evelyn would ever see, and it wouldn't crack Janet's top ten. But that was just the way things rolled in the greatest city in the world. But no time to think about that, she had to get to work at the pizza shop.