The following week, the atmosphere in Grade 11 Science 3 felt livelier than usual. That day, Mr. Yanto was going to hand back the math test results that had so many students worried, including Mayra.
Mayra had looked restless since the beginning of class. She still remembered how uncertain she'd felt about what she'd written on the paper during last week's pop quiz. Even after the quiz ended, she kept thinking that her score definitely wouldn't reach the passing grade.
Mr. Yanto didn't call the students up one by one. He carried a stack of graded papers around the classroom, handing them directly to each student's desk.
Mr. Yanto walked past the front row, then headed toward Stella and Mayra's desks.
"All right, here are your test results," Mr. Yanto announced as he placed two sheets of paper on the desk.
Mayra slowly lowered her head and looked at the number written in the upper-right corner: 78.
Her eyes immediately widened. She read the number again to make sure. Her score had reached the passing grade. The tension that had filled her mind gradually turned into relief. She hadn't expected it at all, since she'd previously thought she'd have to take a remedial test.
Stella picked up her test paper and immediately flipped it over so no one could see it. Mayra noticed and became curious.
"La, what'd you get?" she asked nosily.
Stella casually shook her head. "It's a secret."
Mayra immediately protested. "Let me see, please."
"Nope," Stella said, slowly shaking her head.
Mayra grew even more curious. She kept pressuring Stella while tugging at the test paper. "Come on, just this once!" Mayra insisted.
Stella finally gave in. Lazily, she showed Mayra the number in the upper-right corner: 88.
Mayra's eyes flew open. "Huh?! Eighty-eight?"
Mayra really couldn't believe it. During last week's test, Stella had looked confused and had stared at several of the questions for quite a while. Mayra had even thought her friend couldn't solve them.
"Seriously, that's yours?" Mayra asked to make sure. As soon as she heard that, Stella let out a small laugh. "Yeah. What's wrong with it?"
"How? You looked like you couldn't do anything during the test!" Mayra said incredulously.
Stella only shrugged slightly. "It just looked that way."
Mayra continued staring at the graded paper with an unbelieving expression.
After they finished comparing their test scores, Mayra still occasionally glanced at her deskmate's paper with the same disbelieving look. But the classroom grew quiet again when the next lesson began.
The last-period bell rang. Today's final class was Physics with Ms. Sri. As soon as she entered the classroom, Ms. Sri opened her book and wrote several problem numbers on the board. "Today, we're going to go over the homework I assigned last week," she announced.
Stella and Mayra quickly opened their Physics books. Every now and then, they compared their answers with Ms. Sri's explanations at the front of the classroom.
In the middle of the discussion, Stella and Mayra both glanced at their phones, which had just received a notification from the Student Council group. The message reminded them that a meeting about the school bazaar activities would be held after classes ended, and all members were expected to attend. Mayra immediately let out a long sigh when she saw it. "Ugh, another meeting."
Stella looked just as resigned. "I'm so not in the mood. I wanted to go straight home."
They were both Student Council members, but they belonged to different divisions. Mayra was the event coordinator, while Stella was the publicity and documentation coordinator. Mayra leaned slightly toward Stella. "To be honest, I don't really want to go either."
"The poster design I made isn't even guaranteed to pass," Stella said with a long sigh.
Mayra chuckled softly. "Still traumatized by all the revisions from the Student Council president?"
"Absolutely," Stella replied without hesitation. "The colors had to be changed, the text replaced, and they even told me to move the layout around," she continued.
Mayra laughed softly, then turned her attention back to Ms. Sri, who was explaining the answer to problem number three on the board. After going over all the homework, Ms. Sri closed her book and said, "If anything's still wrong, fix it at home. Next week, we'll continue with the next topic."
Ding-ding...
The dismissal bell finally rang.