It was a day like any other. The sun was slowly going down the horizon and the students eagerly waited for the clock to strike three. Everyone was excited as this was the moment of their lives where they would discover if they were part of the Selections. Hardly anyone was paying attention in class and nearly everyone’s eyes were fixed on the ticking clock arm at the front of the room.

*RINGRINGRINGRINGRINGRING*

“That’s the end of the year! Make sure to properly tell your parents to fill out forms for your high school, and I hope many of you make the Selection!” said Mr. Brons energetically while evading a wave of students. “Your results are in the packages I gave you—give those to your parents too!”

“Thank you, Mr. Brons!”

“See you next year Mr. Brons!”

“You might not see him next year, idiot, if you make the Selection.”

“Oh yeah...goodbye, Mr. Brons!”

The students rushed out with their bags while exchanging goodbyes with their friends. Mr. Brons, too, left the classroom shortly after picking up his books. Some students remained in the classroom, talking with their friends or busy checking their results in the packages they received.

And at the back of the room, a boy was slouched over his desk. The boy’s hair was a messy black roughly brushed over to the side for comfort. He was face down on the table as if sleeping, and one arm dangled on the desk in a random motion. His friend approached him with an open packet on one hand and a sheet of paper on the other. He had a smile on his face.

“Guess what I got on my results?” said Jothan. “I’ll buy you a drink if you guess correctly.”

Jothan waved his sheet of paper above Demund’s head. Demund raised his head slowly in a groggy way and rested his chin on the table with his eyes still closed. A faint shadow was present below his eyes like he hadn’t slept enough. He gave a hefty sigh.

“You probably got better than me. Your scores were amazing, after all.”

“Well? You have to at least guess. You might get a free drink,” said Jothan with a smile.

Demund forced his eyes open and stared at the piece of paper.

“An A+ ranking!” exclaimed Demund.

“Wrong! Too high! But hey, I’ll still buy you a drink for evaluating me in such an honest way.”

“Mhmm. Well, what was the actual ranking anyway?”

“Look for yourself.”

Jothan presented the sheet of paper proudly for Demund to see. Ignoring all the graphs and words, Demund skimmed the paper line by line until he saw the single letter at the bottom of the sheet.

“B+? not bad. You’ll definitely pass the Selection with that score.”

“It’ll satisfy my parents well enough. So, what did you get?”

Jothan carefully put his evaluation sheet back into his packet. Demund’s packet was on his desk, still unopened with the glue intact on the lid. Demund stared at it. He predicted that he would not make the Selection, but still had a faint hope from what the examiners had told him. Maybe…just maybe his score was high enough. He might be able to join his friend on the Islands after all. Or his wishes were unanswered and he’d stay in his everyday, bland life just like the majority of the population.

“You really want to see? It’s probably much lower than yours.”

“But I want to know whether you’ll go to the Selection with me or not.”

“You know I won’t. Don’t keep your hopes up. You know my scores were pretty average. People like you are the special ones.”

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“But still! You might have a chance? You said that, didn’t you? That you might be lucky.”

“Fine,” said Demund while stretching, “I’ll open it.”

Demund traced his fingers to the corner of the lid and tore it slowly. It split apart halfway, so he used some scissors from the back of the classroom to cut open the package neatly. The white evaluation sheet was clearly visible among the other, grey and yellow detail sheets. Demund reached his fingers inside, pinched the paper, and lifted it up for Jothan and himself to see. To their surprise, they found a rather disappointing score.

“A D+.”

“Wow. So close. Too close, damn. What’s wrong with the examiners!”

“Only C class and over can take the Selection,” said Demund. “and you know it’s not really that close. There’s a big gap between C class and D class, so this was probably the highest score they could give me.”

Demund slid his sheet into the packet. “You are planning to go to the Preliminary Islands, aren’t you?” he asked.

“That’s my wish. Manifesting and improving my own power sounds absolutely awesome, doesn’t it!”

“Haha, good for you. Since you’re B class, you’re better than 90% of the world's population. Congrats.”

“Ahhh…sorry about that. I didn’t mean to sound condescending. You probably deserve the Islands better than me.”

“No way.”

In truth, Demund was a little depressed. He had at least wanted to make it into class C as the examinations showed that he had enough potential for C class. That was only during some examinations, though. Sometimes his potential fell below 100, the norm for an average person. He hadn’t expected much anyway, but he had still been nervous the whole day as he hoped he would at least get a C. But now that the results were out, all hope was gone.

Jothan knew his friend well. He was disappointed too as his wish was for them to take the Selection together, pass, go to the Preliminary Islands, and become legendary ability users. He wondered if the examiners made a mistake. But oh well, results were results.

Jothan scratched his head and hung his bag over his back. “Let’s go get a drink. I’ll buy you one. Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to manifest our abilities before I go take the Selection,” suggested Jothan. “We can still have fun before I go. We got plenty of time.”

“Hah…yeah. It’s not like I got zero abilities. I’ll manifest an ability that even the S class are jealous of!”

It wasn’t time to be depressed. He was just normal, after all. Now was the time to celebrate for his friend and wish him good luck in the Selection. Demund quickly got up and tapped Jothan on the shoulder before running outside.

“Last one there is a loser!”

“Hey! Wait up!”

They both sprinted towards the nearest shop.

〄 〄 〄

Demund slowly jogged toward his house. It was around dinner time as he and Jothan had been talking until then. Jothan, excited as he was, was careful not to brag too much. Demund knew that. But he still felt gloomy knowing that he was just a little off from C class. At least on paper, anyway. They had planned to meet the day after as it was finally break, so at least that was nice. His footsteps were still heavy though.

He looked around the scenery to his house. It was the same old street, the same lights, the same sunset, the same car noise in the background. Now that the Preliminary Islands were out of reach, he had to accept this view. At least for high school, as college would bring new friends and new experiences.

When he stepped into his house, it was empty and dark. He was an only child, so there weren’t any noisy siblings either. He turned on the lights and took a pre-made sandwich out of the fridge. He flicked on his phone to read some manga while he was eating. There wasn’t really anything to do now that school was over, so he played some RPGs on his laptop afterward.

“I really need to ask my parents to get me a new computer…this one is dying, literally.”

He continued to play on his old laptop. He completed the daily quests, and after admiring some items he obtained the day before, he quit the game and scrolled through some news on the web. News of superheroes was hot as usual, and apparently, there were even two S class students in his area that year. They would be guaranteed an exciting life full of good pay and good friends. The Preliminary Islands made sure of that.

“Jothan will definitely join them…”

And Demund felt pretty alone. He thought about Jothan and his great potential, about Jothan’s family and his two siblings, about how his life was better than his in almost every way, except maybe, academics. But as the world was, one's potential was better than any A+ on a test.

Demund had grown used to the feeling, but now that the gap between Jothan and himself had gotten larger, he thought about it again. His head felt suddenly dizzy, so he stopped surfing the web and shut off his computer.

Demund plopped himself on the bed. He was tired for some reason, maybe due to the disappointment that resulted from his examination. He lay there while staring at the ceiling. It was only 8, and his mom would pester him again if he fell asleep without bathing first. But it was break after all; she would understand.

Demund quickly changed into more comfortable clothes, turned off the lights of his room, opened his window curtain, and pulled the blankets over himself. Now that he’d done that, he realized how tired he was. Was it due to staying up late the nights before?

He wasn’t sure. He just felt so tired. His eyes dragged his vision down and he sank into his bed. For the first time, darkness enveloped him, and he could actually feel himself falling asleep.

“That’s weird…maybe my power is manifesting…”

He couldn’t finish his sentence as his consciousness was dragged away from him.