It's a peaceful day in the North Side of Starlight City. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, there isn’t even a cloud in the sky. Most would only expect to see such a beautiful day in something like a painting, never in reality. As people make their way throughout the city they all silently agree that there’s no way anybody could be having a bad day-
“NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
As the pained voice rings out for all in the north side to hear, the birds fly away in fear, clouds start to cover the sky, and everyone in the streets begins to wonder who it was that screamed out in pure defeat.
The answer?
A local freshman at Starlight High by the name of Selina Gulvonac.
“Please delay midterm week by like a month! PLEASE!!!!” Selina prays in Amnestor’s classroom.
“Sorry but, I don’t exactly get to decide when these things are scheduled,” Aken Amnestor remarks as he sips his coffee.
Elsewhere in the classroom, X Locke, Sammy Becken, Marcus Veridan, & Randy Buzz are all looking at everybody else in confusion.
“Guys it's just a few tests,” Marcus says trying to calm everybody down, “Its not gonna be that hard.”
“Not that hard?” Alex groans, “Easy for you to say bub with your perfect math skills and perfect grades.”
“Well my grades aren’t perfect but-”
“JUST TAKE THE COMPLIMENT, BUB!”
“YEAH YOU DESERVE IT!” Elizabeth angrily agrees.
“Uh, okay,” Marcus responds.
“I don’t see what the huge hubbub is about,” Sammy says as she sits atop a desk, “It’s just grades, they’re not anything to fret over.”
“Maybe your family doesn’t care about them but ours do!” Ronnie rebuttals as he is skimming through a 500 page textbook.
“I mean what happens if you guys do badly? It’s not like the club would get closed down or anything,” Randy laughs.
Though as Randy laughs, he sees X Locke fall silent on that matter.
“Wait, it will?!” Randy yells in shock.
“Sheesh you don’t have to shout, I’m right next to you,” X groans as he rubs his ear, “And yes. Before I joined the student council, Evan Dixon made a rule where all clubs had to have their average GPA be above 3.0 in order to still function. The rule is being applied starting right after midterms.”
“3.0? That doesn’t sound too bad to fulfill,” Marcus says, “Right guys?”
He gets no response from the others.
“Currently, your GPA scores are,” X Locke begins to say as he looks at a clipboard, “4.0 for Marcus Veridan.”
Everyone glares at Marcus as he tries to say, “Well- It isn’t exactly anything too impressive.”
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“THAT’S THE HIGHEST GPA YOU CAN GET!” Selina yells.
“Randy’s GPA is 3.5,” X remarks.
“Wait, I’m smarter than all of y’all?” Randy questions as he grins, “Looks like The Buzzing Brawler wins this match up!”
“Sammy has a 2.75 GPA,” X remarks.
“I could do more if I studied but I don’t so,” Sammy shrugs.
“Alex has a 2.6 GPA, Elizabeth has a 2.5 GPA,” X Locke remarks.
“Wait, I’m better than Lizzy?!” Alex questions as he looks at Elizabeth.
“Ugh, how the hell is he better than me?” Elizabeth groans.
“And lastly,” X says as he takes a look at the bottom of the paper he has, “Ronnie’s GPA is a 2.0 while Selina’s is a 1.8. Averaging it all together and you get 2.74, .26 below what you need to keep the club afloat.”
The whole room falls silent as they take a look at the sweating bullets that we call Ronnie & Selina.
“Dudes, like how?” Alex asks.
Ronnie & Selina don’t respond.
“Wait, how did you even know our GPAs?” Marcus asks.
“Principal printed some off so I figured I’d take a look at some and borrowed it,” X states.
“So you stole it?” Elizabeth questions.
“W-well steal is such a strong word, do you really think I’d-”
“He stole it,” Alex agrees before getting an idea, “Say, what does your GPA look like?”
X freezes in place before trying to make a mad dash toward the door, as he does so Elizabeth, Alex, Sammy, & Randy all run toward him and manage to rip the paper out of X’s hand.
“HEY GIVE THAT BACK!”
“Dude, a 1.9?!”
“And you were giving us shit for our GPAs!”
“They might shut down the student council if the others are just as bad as you.”
“HOW THE HELL DOES CRUNCH HAVE A 5.0?!”
As the classroom breaks out into its usual chaos, Amnestor sees both Selina & Ronnie still haven’t moved since their GPAs were exposed. With a quick glance he can tell the states that both of the two teens are in.
A state many teachers have all seen in at least one of their students before.
A state of soul crushing defeat from a test that isn’t even in their hands yet.
“Hey Selina, have any of those books you read taught you how to fake a report card?” Ronnie sighs.
“Yeah, but the district emails them out anyways so its not even worth it,” Selina sighs.
The two sigh loudly as they’ve already given up on passing, that is until Amnestor slides them a slip of paper.
“Usually I’d offer to tutor you both myself but I have my hands full the whole week with other students,” Amnestor coughs, “If you go here, I’m sure you’ll be able to pass.”
Selina & Ronnie look down at the paper to see its an address.
“Th-th-thank you!” Selina says, holding back tears.
“I’ll let them know you’re heading over once school gets out,” Amnestor remarks.
The two look at the note with hope that they could finally do well on a test for once.
_______________________
“Why are we here?!” Elizabeth yells.
A group of four consisting of Ronnie Everst, Selina Gulvonac, Alex Smith, & Elizabeth Moore are walking down an apartment hallway, specifically the floor above where Elizabeth’s family lives.
“Amnestor said the people helping us study live here, guess its a small world huh?” Ronnie remarks, “Shame the others couldn’t make it.”
“Like they need it,” Selina says as she knocks on the door to the apartment, “Hey!! Open up!!”
As Selina continues to pound on the door, Elizabeth begins to sweat.
“There’s a lot of noise complaints coming from this floor recently,” Elizabeth says, “My dad went up to try and interrupt an argument here when one of the tenants picked him up and put him into a laundry basket.”
“Sorry that happened to your dad but how does that effect us?” Alex asks.
“Because,” Elizabeth shivers as she points to the door Selina is pounding on, “They live there!”
Selina stops pounding as the door slowly creaks open. The group of high schoolers freeze as they see the three shadowy figures standing in the doorway.
“Oh so you guys are the students Amnestor asked us to help out,” one of the figures says.
As the door fully opens, the students see that the three tenants are none other than the biology teacher Sam Penningberg, culinary teacher Zesti Champion, & the teacher’s assistant Ray Ramirez.
“Well don’t stay out there for too long,” Zesti remarks with a cheery smile while Ray glares at them with disdain and Penningberg glares with boredom, “Come on in!”
See You Next Chapter!~