After all...
It wasn't just the school dance; high school life itself never belonged to every student. The dazzling, colorful high school life that one could enjoy and look back on in the future was never for the ordinary, average students.
There were only a handful of popular figures on campus.
The rest were just background characters.
Take Locke and Gwen, for example.
Since his first day, Locke had occupied the number one spot on the school's heartthrob rankings. From that point on, he and Gwen had pushed the concept of "beauty and brains" to its absolute limit.
Next month, they would even be representing Midtown High at the high school chemistry competition in Maine.
Then there was Betty, the campus broadcasting goddess.
And Flash, the captain of the basketball team, along with Mary Jane, the head of the cheerleading squad.
These were the people who received attention and actually enjoyed the "beautiful" high school life.
However, Midtown High students didn't need to worry.
The student council had already developed a mature and comprehensive contingency plan for the rest.
Opening "blind boxes."
Since there were only a few gods and goddesses, and the majority were ordinary students, the final winners of the dance would inevitably be the popular elite. But since the dance belonged to everyone, the student council invented a blind box system for the benefit of the majority.
If you didn't want to go through the trouble of inviting someone—for instance, the top students who never looked up from their books, or those who simply couldn't find a date but still wanted to go—they could choose to sign up.
The student council would tally the numbers and use a computer to perform random matching.
What?
You entered the matching pool, didn't like the result, and wanted out?
Fine.
But sorry—for any subsequent dances, the student council would refuse your participation. You signed up and failed to follow the rules of the game; that was the price of breaking the contract.
The number of male and female students in the ninth grade was roughly equal anyway.
They had to do it this way.
Otherwise, some equality organizations would target them for "playing favorites."
Gwen looked earnestly at Locke's profile. After a moment, she pursed her lips. "Alright, Locke Broughton. I accept your invitation."
This was a date.
Unquestionably.
Locke caught Gwen's gaze out of the corner of his eye and smiled. "I'm glad you accepted, Gwen Stacy."
'This counts as a date, right?'
Not bad.'
Locke often had said that women would affect the speed of his job completions, but he wasn't actually repelled by them.
"Speaking of which..."
Gwen's face flushed slightly. She quickly changed the subject to shift her own focus. "Actually, Megan only came to this school because of you."
"Huh?"
"You transferred in first, and as a result, the male-to-female ratio for our grade became unbalanced. That's why Megan was brought in as an exchange student."
"..."
Locke felt Gwen was intentionally changing the subject, but considering the various equality movements currently rising in the Federation, he felt she wasn't lying.
Gwen leaned back, remembering something. "Speaking of which, when we were accepting student sign-ups yesterday, someone from the student council suggested matching you with Megan. I just stared at him for a long time."
Locke: "..."
'What a joke. Everyone in school knows that Locke and I are a pair.'
Even though Megan wasn't very popular and Gwen was doing her best to help her, it didn't mean Gwen would sacrifice herself to fulfill the needs of another female student.
Locke's mouth twitched. He thought of the female assassin who had been enrolled for a month now, shook his head, and asked curiously, "What, nobody invited Megan?"
Even though the female assassin posing as a student had dressed stupidly during their first meeting, since then—aside from her lack of common sense—her appearance was actually quite good.
How could no guy be interested in her?
Gwen gave a dry chuckle.
There was a sense of helplessness in that laugh.
After all...
She had never seen any student who lacked basic common sense as much as Megan.
"You remember the chemistry prep class two days ago, right?"
"Mhm."
Locke nodded, and as a thought occurred to him, he glanced at Gwen. "She really tried to steal Cindy's boyfriend?"
Gwen let out a weary sigh.
Locke was also a bit speechless.
Let's put it this way.
Because it was a preparatory course, not many people chose it, especially for a subject like chemistry.
There were very few students choosing chemistry as a prep course—only about a dozen or so.
Initially, there was a seating chart; who sat with whom was assigned by the system. But once everyone got to know each other, they basically adjusted things as they pleased.
as long as you didn't disrupt the classroom, students could coordinate among themselves.
Cindy and Kahn had hit it off under these circumstances and became lab partners.
However...
Neither had confessed. For teenage boys and girls, even if they had mutual feelings, they usually wouldn't confess so easily.
People who confess the very first time they meet are either scumbags or idiots.
In short, that was the situation.
Then came two days ago.
When Locke and Gwen went to class, they discovered that Megan had also chosen chemistry as her prep course. Then, she snatched Cindy's spot and sat directly next to Kahn.
Kahn was utterly confused.
But Megan claimed she wasn't in the wrong spot; according to the system, this was the arrangement.
Cindy was livid at the time, ready to turn into a lioness and teach this Megan—who was poaching her man to her face while playing dumb—a lesson.
If the teacher hadn't arrived just in time, and if Gwen hadn't stepped in to guarantee things, a bloodbath might have occurred.
After class, Locke, Gwen, Megan, and Cindy went straight to the teacher's office to check the seating chart on the system.
The result...
It was exactly as Megan said. On the system's seating chart, Megan and Kahn were indeed lab partners.
It was obvious.
Megan had likely snuck into the office, hacked into the system's backend, added herself, and modified the seat numbers while she was at it.
The teacher would definitely not have arranged it this way.
Setting aside the fact that Kahn and Cindy were also members of the chemistry competition team and the teacher often teased them about when they'd finally confess—just look at the fact that student seating had already been unofficially settled. How could it be changed so abruptly?
At this age, having a memorable first love wasn't something that would be rejected or forbidden.
Otherwise, George wouldn't be taking Locke to target practice; he'd be turning Locke into the target instead.
So, this was another blatant farce caused by a "noob" who had just escaped a closed, isolated training base for assassins, failing to understand the many unwritten rules of campus life.
However...
***
Well we didn't make it to 300 stones but I'll drop a bonus anyways
Let's keep the goal 200 stones this time
I'll post 2 if we reach it by next Sunday
***
Read 30 Chapters early on P-atreon.com/Redestro666