Chapter 5: The test

Trip sat in his cold stale room with his eyes closed. He was pondering the concept of ice. He was pretty much stuck in his room at this point. Every time he would go outside people would recognise him and try to talk to him or follow him, this meant that he had no option to train outside. Everything he did was being closely monitored by the school and the students. Trip also could not start learning intermediate level magic, as Alex informed him he would only be able to get the books until after the summer holiday.

Trip only had one thing which he could actually do at this point, and that was to start to understand the concept of ice. He thought back to what he had read about ice magic ‘one must condense water in order to create ice’. Trip thought out his plan to create ice, he would summon water in his hand and forcefully make the particles stop moving and push them together. Trip performed this plan, but realised that his forcefulness had not condensed the water, but instead caused it to shoot out into every direction.

Trip was not the sort of person to give up after just one try though, as he thought out several other methods to condense the water, but every time he would fail. It seemed that the water was much harder to control as it became denser. It was also much more difficult to keep the water in a state of higher density.

Only after several hours of non-stop practice did Trip realise that he was taken the wrong approach. His control over higher density water was not high enough, so naturally the water would explode in every direction if he could not control it. Trip was disappointed as he realised that the course of action that he would need to take would include very slightly increasing the density of the water and then practicing that level of density to perfection. Only then would he gain full control over ice.

Even though Trip was disappointed with the time it might take him to gain control over ice, he was at the same time incredibly excited. This was because he had a clear course of action that he would need to take, and that even though it would take him a while to learn, he would still undoubtedly be one of the youngest people that would be able to use ice magic.

Trip had a regular schedule, but he was becoming rather annoyed by it. He had already read most of the books in the library which could be useful for his learning. This meant that during school hours (from 9:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon) Trip would feel incredibly bored. He had never felt bored before, so boredom hit him much harder than it would hit most people his age. Because of this Trip decided to sleep during class instead of sleeping during the night. In theory it was a genius plan. He would be able to get more physical and ice magic training in, and he would still have good sleeping hours.

Unfortunately teachers started to notice Trip’s sleeping antics, and they were very annoyed by it. For a teacher to watch one of your best students start slacking off and sleeping during class is enough to make ones blood boil. After classes ended for the day one of Trip’s teachers decided to confront Trip about his sleeping problem.

“Say Trip. May I ask why you have been sleeping in my class? Is magic theory no longer interesting to you?” The teacher asked, clearly hoping to catch Trip off guard in order to be able to teach him a lesson

“I apologise for my antics during class, and I assure you that it is not because you are a bad teacher or because your class is boring, but it is that I have already completely studied everything that we would learn in any of the classes.” Trip nonchalantly said

The teacher was speechless for a second.  How much of a genius could this child be? To be able to comprehend magic theory was no easy task, and for an 8 year old to say that he had completely studied the topic was unfathomable. After a couple seconds of pondering the teacher naturally came to the conclusion that Trip was simply saying this as an excuse for sleeping in class, and that he would definitely not have already studied the entire topic. To solve the problem the teacher came up with a solution. The teacher would design a test for Trip, if Trip managed to get satisfactory marks then naturally the teacher would never bother him again, but if he did not get a satisfactory mark then he would be forced to pay attention in class.

The teacher proposed the idea to Trip. He was visibly annoyed by it, but realised that he could not escape this situation so he reluctantly agreed.

After classes the next day Trip showed up to the teacher’s office to take the test. He had not even reviewed for the test, many would consider this action as cockiness or confidence, but for Trip this was merely a fact. He believed he would easily get a 100% mark on the test, and then the teacher would then leave him alone.

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When Trip walked into the teacher’s office the teacher was slightly surprised. He expected Trip to not show up; this caused him to have a good impression of Trip, as he did not run away from his problems.

The teacher placed an intimidating stack of papers on a desk placed in the centre of the room and said “Good afternoon. I’m surprised you showed up. I’m giving you 4 hours to finish as many questions as you can. If you can get 70% and above on the test I will never bother you again if you sleep in my class. In fact, I am willing to make a bet with you.”

Hearing the teacher’s words Trip’s eyes lit up. Seeing this the teacher laughed and continued “If you can get 90% on the test, not only will you not have to show up to my class ever again, but I will even upgrade your dorm to a higher level. I have heard you and Alex talk about how much you hated the ventilation in your room. However… if you agree to this, but you don’t get 90% on the test then you will have to give a public apology about slacking off in class.”

The teacher knew that children around the age of Trip were very proud, especially if they were smart and strong like Trip, so a public apology where one would have to admit their wrongdoings would be a horrible punishment.

Unfortunately for the teacher, Trip couldn’t care less if he had to make a public apology. Such trivial matters did not worry him, thus Trip only looked at the benefits. He was already completely confident in getting a score higher than 90%. Only a fool would not take up a deal when the odds are so heavily in your favour.

“I will gladly accept your offer, teacher.” Trip said with full confidence in his voice.

The teacher was shocked. How could this child not have an ounce of fear in this situation? The teacher had a bad feeling that Trip might actually be able to get over 90% on the test. This made the teacher nervous, he would have to cough up a lot of hard earned gold to get a better dorm room for Trip. The teacher sat down at his desk and intently stared at Trip to ensure that there was no way that he was cheating.

Trip looked at the test papers and smiled. This really was too easy, just by looking at the questions he already knew the answer. He breezed through the test and finished it in around an hour, he then looked over the test paper and realised he would get 100% on the test like this. Trip knew that he should try to not shock the teacher like this, but he still wanted the new dorm room. He decided that he would get exactly 90% on the test, to ensure that he barely got the dorm room, thus not shocking the teacher too much.

There were 83 questions on the test, so Trip crossed out the answers he wrote for 8 questions, meaning he would get almost exactly 90%. He waited a bit longer, until the time he had used to take the test reached 2 hours.

Trip then said “Excuse me teacher.”

The teacher quickly responded “Ah Trip, do you have a question?” Naturally the teacher expected Trip had a question or hopefully had given up.

“I’m done with the test.” Trip said calmly

“What!?” The teacher spat out his drink. ‘Stay calm’ the teacher told himself, but he couldn’t help but be nervous when faced with Trip’s smile.

“Ahem. I’ll check your answers. It shouldn’t take long.” The teacher slightly recovered as he grabbed the test with a shaking hand. If Trip really had gotten 90% or higher the teacher would have to cough up 3 months’ worth of salary, this is something the teacher definitely didn’t want.

The teachers despair would only grow as he corrected Trip’s paper. Not only had Trip scored 90% on the test, he had the audacity to childishly cross out some of the other answers. One could still clearly see that Trip would have gotten 100% if he did not cross out the other answers. This was simply an insult to the teacher’s pride. The teacher had the sudden urge to run away and never come back, but promises were promises and the teacher had a strict belief where he would never break a promise he had made.

The teacher informed Trip of the results and told him that he would give him a new key to a nicer dorm room the next day.

Watching Trip walk away gleefully the teacher could not help but smile. While he might have made a dreadful short term loss, he had also personally experienced the birth of a genius. This was truly something he could tell his children when he was older.