Wednesday After the Examination
Everywhere was on fire—not actual fire, but the heat could be felt, and felt the most from the Class 4 classes.
It was a tradition for Class 4 that after the third semester exams, they usually tore each other's sleeves. Class 0 to Class 4 wore short white sleeves to class, while Class 5 wore long sleeves. So since they were done with their exams and would no longer be wearing them, they usually engaged in this sort of violent action of tearing each other's sleeves—regardless of whether you wanted it or not.
Well, not everyone wanted their sleeves gone. Perhaps they had younger brothers they wanted to give them to, or perhaps just other juniors who had asked them for it. So they'd usually quietly pull it off and give it to a junior to help them keep it till the whole phase was over.
Liam and some of his friends, who had already taken off their shirts and given them to juniors to keep for them, could be seen chasing other Class 4 students who still had their sleeves on. Liam had already set his eye on Daniel, as he knew that Daniel would probably keep it to himself even during Class 5—perhaps only to wear it as a spare set of clothes.
"What are you planning to do with it? Just give up already!" Liam said with a smile on his face as he and Lucas pursued Daniel.
Daniel was normally way slower than them, but because he didn't want his clothes torn, perhaps he had tapped into hysterical speed, breaking his limits.
"Stop! I already told you I'm giving it to someone!" Daniel begged, visibly out of breath as he ran like his life depended on it.
"Yeah, right. Who are you kidding? Who in their right mind would want your white?" Lucas said, hinting at the fact that his white sleeves probably weren't white anymore.
"Calling it white is actually a huge glaze. More like brown!" Liam added.
His hand managed to get ahold of Daniel's collar. Without even applying force, since Daniel was struggling, it ended up ripping off by itself. Daniel halted. There was no point anymore, and from the look on his face, he was visibly pissed off.
For a moment, Liam hesitated. He and Daniel, after graduation in the original timeline, had become distant. They hardly ever talked. Seeing him like this was more like reminiscence, and it kind of made him think he'd gone too far.
Well, what's done is done.
Liam decided to take this moment to directly tear the entire back of the cloth, even causing Daniel to fall to the floor in the process.
"You're a bastard, you know. You didn't even tear yours, and here you are doing this to others!" Lucas said, still laughing at the scene in front of him.
"Don't try to paint me as a villain. You're only saying this because I didn't save any for you! Well, you can still take your time to pull the buttons off the shirt!" Liam said, laughing.
Daniel, hearing that, was even more angry.
"So you even hid yours! And here you are tearing mine!" Daniel said, dusting his body as he stood up.
"What can I say? Your shirt was an old relic that needed to be forgotten. You're lucky I didn't tear your trousers as well!" Liam said, turning to leave.
Lucas followed him. Together, they went to hunt their next prey.
Later That Evening, 5:00 PM - Ashford Hostel Downstairs, First Apartment
Most of the students were gathered, with Joseph sitting on top of a locker, addressing them.
"So the list of sports that will be done in the inter-house competition has been presented to me. Unfortunately—or rather, fortunately—there's no football or basketball. So we have table tennis, handball, volleyball, long jump, high jump, shot put, javelin, discus, and several types of races like the 100 meters. Then, as usual, we have the march past."
People began to murmur at the list of available sports, perhaps showing their dissatisfaction at the absence of football. Meanwhile, only Liam was quiet.
He'd already seen everything and knew the outcomes. Also, the fact that there was no long jump or high jump—which would have been free points for them. Well, of course, he couldn't just say that.
"That's enough. So for now, I don't know who will be in our handball, volleyball, shot put, discus, or javelin spots. But for now, I think our fastest runner should be Anthony or Liam, right?" Joseph asked, obviously addressing the Class 4 students.
"Yes, senior!" they responded, as they knew it had to be one of them.
Well, actually, it was Liam. But it didn't really matter since Joseph had said "Liam or Anthony," and it hadn't actually been tested—only based on speculations and assumptions.
Meanwhile, Liam regretted this particular moment in school—or rather, the entire period of preparing for the sports competition. He and Anthony had to wake up earlier than others to jog around the school and do drills just to get in shape. To both of them, it was meaningless. There was no shape to get into. Being in this school was already a drill that would get anyone in shape.
Not to mention, when he and Anthony were asked to run multiple times he had won more time than the tied, so he was even more subjected to more intense drills.
And at the end, he lost at the competition. Pitifully. All because he had followed the advice of their house master.