"I'm sorry, but no."

PART ONE

We entered the director's office and took a seat across from each other. "That was a remarkable ceremony don't you think? He asked, I replied, "From your point of view, yes, but it wasn’t that much fun for me.” In my first moments at this school, that girl thought it was a good idea to put me in a difficult position.

It felt like she did this on purpose.

"Now I will tell you some things you need to know about this school Nage-kun. First of all, as you know this school has high standards, thus the study and exam levels are difficult but knowing you that shouldn't be a problem." He was right, I may not look like it but I am really smart, since I was a child I picked up things quickly. Studying for exams was never a problem for me, as I liked the praises for being the best in class.

I always wanted people to like me.

When I became a teenager I started to learn more about life and the society around me, so it was then that I began to distance myself as a person. I just didn't care what others did or thought of me.

"Every year there are competitions for schools to win 'the best high school of the year' award, last year we missed out on the top spot. This year we're going for the first place! The competitions are being held a total of four times that's two physical contests and two intelligence contests, They take place every 2 and a half months. They are not in order, for example, if the first contest is an intelligence contest then the next contest doesn't necessarily have to be a physical contest but instead can be an intelligence contest for the second time. Of course, this would lead to the two next contests being physical." He explained.

There are two types of contests, physical and intellectual, one contest to test your athletic ability and one contest to test your brain.

"There is one team from each high school that can participate in the competitions, a team consisting of seven students. To be eligible for joining the team you need to have outstanding alethic ability or have excellent grades."

That's a lot of pressure on the participating students, there must be some kind of reward for them if they put so much effort into this.

"I reckon the contests are not easy to win, as the opponents are also great in that category. What are the rewards for the students that manage to win the grand prize?" I asked.

He showed me a little smirk and replied, "I forgot that Nage-kun is sharp in these types of conversations. Yes, there are rewards for the students who manage to win. These seven students get a 3 million yen bonus and immediate access to a scholarship from the best university in the country after graduating high school."

Now I know why they would be willing to enter this contest, it had great rewards. That is if you managed to win, being able to get a scholarship and access to the best university in Japan is great and all but I can see why some would do it for the money. Helping your family financially is exceptional for some of the students as they go to school in order to land a good job in the future.

"These seven students also get an exclusive private room only accessible by them, there they can discuss strategies and talk about the upcoming contests." He added.

I see, so they get a private room for themselves which is rather convenient as there aren't any outsiders who can get inside this room. It's a perfectly quiet and calm environment.

"Now I will explain and tell you about the rules for the competitions. As a school, you need to have 7 students participate in the competition. If one participant can't make it to the contest for any reason for example by being late or sick, then there will be a deduction of 20% from the overall points gathered for that contest. If more than two participants fail to appear then that results in the school being disqualified from that contest."

If one student can’t make it to the contest, then there will be a deduction of valuable points. If more than two students can’t make it, then that will be a disqualification.

“Also about participating in matches, if one participant is chosen for one match then they can’t participate in the second match. Although they can join the third match, if they do that, then they can’t join the fourth match but will be eligible for the fifth match and so on.”

That means that you can’t play every match, so you need to choose wisely who will be participating in every match.

“If some participants misbehave or make trouble then their school will be disqualified for that contest, this does not mean that they are out of the whole competition”

If you make trouble at the contest that will result in a disqualification of your school in that contest but can participate again in the next contests.

“A week before the contest starts we will get to know what kind of contest it will be.” He explained.

“I think you know why I just explained all this, don’t you?”

He wants me to join the team to represent the school in the competition.

“You want me to participate in the competition for the school, and to win the award.”

“Exactly!” He said while looking directly at me.

“I’m sorry, but no. I didn’t come to school to participate in any competition.” He started to look unhappy after hearing my answer. “Nage-kun, please think about it and reconsider my invitation.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I will change my mind.”

It was quiet for a couple of seconds…

“You are joining Class A of the first years, my assistant will accompany you to the classroom. And give you the necessary stuff you need.”

He then called for his assistant to bring me to my classroom, and she gave me my books and class schedule. We were walking in the first year’s hallway, and arrived in front of the door with the tag: ‘Class A.’ This will be my classroom for a year. I entered the room and saw the class that I wanted to avoid, had become my class.

PART TWO

“Nage-kun it’s great to see that you have been appointed to my class! My name is Misaki Yuna, but you can call me Sensei like everyone here” The teacher said happily after I entered. My first thoughts about her were that she looked rather young for a teacher, she had this dark brown hair and green eyes. She was dressed like a normal teacher, the white shirt and the black skirt with a nice belt looked nice and formal on her.

“Let’s see which table will be yours…” She said while putting her finger on her chin and figuring out where my seat will be.

Then pointed to the available seat in the first row next to Nura-san. “This seat is yours, Nura-chan can you help Nage-kun by showing him around the school after class?” She looked at me for a moment, and then back to the teacher and said, “Sure, I will show him around.” I didn’t expect her to say that after the things I said to her while walking to school this morning.

“Now, everybody will introduce themselves to Nage-kun. We start with the first row.”

This first-person was a boy, he looked kind of friendly with his brown hair and glasses. “Nice to meet you my name is Yoshi Min.” He said while fixing his glasses. The person next to him was also a boy who didn’t look Japanese with his silver hair, “My name is Noah Lint, in my country we say the calling name first and the surname last, that means that my surname is Lint and not Noah as here in Japan it’s normal to say your last name first. You can call me Noah just like the whole class does, pleased to meet yahh.”

Then it was the turn of the person that was also seated next to me, the popular girl, Sakai Rumi, that tried to embarrass me just an hour earlier. “He already knows me so I’m not going to introduce myself,” she said with an ignorant look.

It didn’t bother me.

Then it was Nura-san’s turn, “Pleased to meet you, Nage-kun! After class I will show you around the school, I’m also the class representative so if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask them.” She said with a bright smile.

She was the class representative but it was strange, she already met me before but didn’t state that.

Then it was the turn of the person seated behind Yoshi-kun, “Nice to meet you Nage-kun, my name is Nakata Kotaru. He said with a smile, he had blond hair and blue eyes and looked very confident.

After a while, it was the red-haired person’s turn, “Jo, my name is Matsuda Iwao. Don’t be in my way.” He said this with a harsh look on his face, he was also bigger than the average male student here.

Everybody had introduced themselves to me and I began walking towards my appointed seat. “Alright, it’s time for the math test. Put your books away and give the test to the person behind you.”

The front row started to hand the tests to the person behind them, each taking one test. “Nage-kun you don’t need to do this test as this is your first day and you couldn’t study for it.” Misaki-sensei said, I replied, “Don’t worry about that Misaki-sensei I will take the test, I don’t need any special treatment even if it’s my first day here at school.” My classmates were surprised to hear me say that, as I didn’t need to take the test. “Are you sure? If you happen to fail the test then that will be your fault.” She stated, “No problem, it’s my responsibility.”

I finished the test in a much faster time than all my classmates, I glanced over at the tables with my eyes to see how far they were and saw that they had not even finished half the test. I just put the test on the corner of my table and waited calmly for them all to finish.

Sakai-san noticed this.

“And… time is up, everyone stop writing and give your test to the person in front of you.”

The teacher then gathered all the tests and overlooked them. For a while, everyone was just talking to their friends. “You’re so stupid,” Sakai-san said to me while she didn’t look at me. “Why is that?” I asked curiously. “Well, you take a test that you didn’t have time to study for. You gave up in the middle of the test which means you will fail this test, as it was very difficult.” I looked at her for a moment and said, “Difficult? It was easy.”

She busted out laughing, “Hahaha… easy? This test is on the same level as tests you take at a university. There is no way you have finished this test and even passed it!”

“You will see,” I said calmly.

She looked at me angrily because I was too confident. After a couple of seconds, she was more serious and said, “When you’re so sure of yourself, let’s make a bet! I was curious so I complied and said, “sure, tell me the details.”

She started telling me the details of the bet, “The one who has a lower score on this test will be the slave for a whole week and will do everything that’s being told!”

I found this rather interesting and agreed to those terms. “Alright, let’s wait and hear the results.”

The teacher stood up and demanded everyone to be quiet again, then she started speaking, “I finished scoring the tests so here are the results, first I will tell the three highest scores. The third highest score is a score of 82%, that person is… Yoshi-kun! Good job!” She said with a smile.

He stood up and bowed to his classmates as if he won a big prize. “Thank you, Sensei!” He was very happy to hear he was in the top three.

“The second highest score is a score of 87%, that person is…”