My chest was still feeling shaken up for some reason. I left the toilets and walked back to class, returning two minutes late.

As I interrupted Chabashira-sensei with my entrance, I apologised for my tardiness and went to my seat, waiting for the roll call to be finished. There was only one student away today, Kita. I've never seen her in class since the war.

Chabashira-sensei moved onto the main topic of the homeroom. It was something that lingered in the back of our minds, but we didn't realise it was coming so soon after the truth of the school came to light.

"On the week of the 15th, all of you will be participating in the first midterms."

Before, it was very likely our class would start whining and complaining over this announcement. However, we all held back and listened in carefully as part of our strategy to improve our class points.

"There will be fourteen exams in total, meaning you'll be taking two each day. One in the morning, and one in the afternoon. You will receive your exam timetable on the 12th. I suggest you use these two weeks to properly revise and listen to your teachers in class."

Chabashira-sensei's crossed her arms as she talked to us robotically. I think she was impressed that we became more obedient after losing all of our class points.

"The midterms will be on your core five subjects and Vanguard. At the end of the midterms, we will be handing out report cards with your grades on it, and at the end of the month, the school will declassify everyone's grades so they will become public knowledge."

The students who weren't very academic, like Mitsuba and Tadokoro, squirmed in their seats. The idea of having their grades being exposed to other people must've been terrifying.

It was ruthless and merciless of the school to do this, but it made sense in conjunction of the system. By showing E Class's abysmal scores, it gives the other students confidence and a reason to talk down on us.

"To pass the exams, you must get a grade of D or above. Getting a grade of E and lower are considered failures. Of course, what you get on the midterms will also affect the S System, both individually and as a class."

Chabashira-sensei had handed us a massive hint towards this midterm. These weren't throw away practice exams for the finals, these had the potential to affect our lives and future at this school. Perhaps this was enough to motivate some of the lazier students, or the students that wanted to get out of E Class as soon as possible.

However, she didn't dispose of the exact details, just a vague promise that if we did well, we could be promoted. There was bound to be a catch here, just like in April. I'd imagine there'd be some experimentation by the students to try and figure out how the S System works too.

"Are there any questions?"

It was a short, brief explanation. It was obvious she had omitted some information, and left it up to us to try and extract that from her. However, we needed to obtain through questioning.

Matsushita, essentially being the leader of E Class, put his hand up first.

"Chabashira-sensei, could you please explain how grading works?"

Even though Matsushita looked unsure that this would be successful, Chabashira-sensei nodded and turned to the whiteboard, writing down the six subjects we were going to take. History, Japanese, mathematics, science, English, and Vanguard.

"Each midterm has a different amount of full marks you can score. The grades are determined by the percentage of marks you score from the full marks."

She wrote down the total marks of each midterm exam next to the subjects.

History: 240 marks
Japanese: 240 marks
Math: 240 marks
Science: 240 marks
English: 160 marks
Vanguard: 200 marks

"For example, if you score 180/240 on the history midterm, you'd get 75%. As a result, your grade would be B-."

"Then, what are the mark thresholds for each percentage?"

Matsushita tried to press for more information. Chabashira-sensei looked at him, thought for a minute, and began to write them down on the whiteboard. However, she omitted the top half of the marks, as if saying she doesn't believe that we can achieve it.

39% - 30%: D
29% - 25%: E
24% - 0%: F

At the very least, all we needed to get was 30% of the test right to pass. If we get 40% or more, we'd get C or above. This gave some students more hope, as 30% was only 72 marks on a 240 mark midterm. Even less for subjects like English and Vanguard.

"Shizuka-chan-sensei, what's the structure of the exams like?"

Sakigamiya asked a question next.

"2 history exams, 2 Japanese exams, 3 math exams, 3 science exams, 2 English exams, and 2 Vanguard exams."

Splitting those 72 marks among three exams would be 24 marks per exam. Between two exams, it would be 36 marks. It sounded surprisingly easy to pass the midterms.

However, I'm sure just passing wouldn't be good enough for the school. Being in E Class, we had to be on our guard at all times, or else the school might try to pull something unfair on us.

Even though Chabashira-sensei was giving us all this information for free, she left it up to us to fit it all together. I took out my notebook and started doing some rough calculations.

"If we fail, do we get expelled?"

Matsushita asked that horrifying question.

"No."

Thankfully, Chabashira-sensei's straight-laced personality erased our worries.

"Alright! We won't be expelled by failing the midterms!"

Mitsuba was the first to openly cheer. However, Chabashira-sensei shot him down quickly.

"It doesn't mean you're exempt from being expelled through other means."

For some reason, those words carried more weight than they had any right to.

After doing the math, I determined how many marks each exam was worth by itself. History and Japanese would be 120 marks, while English, math and science would be 80 marks. Vanguard was the outlier, being worth 100 marks.

My best bets were on the English exam as I was fluent in it. I was confident that I'd get a good grade there. For everything else, it was up in the air. I was a strictly average student, so I could only see myself getting a C. However, I didn't know what were the requirements to get a C even was.

I could assume it fell around the bounds of 40% and 50%, since that was the same as getting a D. However, the gap for an E was small, being only 5%. It didn't make much sense to me, so I continued my assumption that getting at least half would land me with a C.

In that case, I'd need to get 120 marks, 80 marks and 100 marks respectively. How troublesome.

"Umm... what are... the grade percentages for... A?"

Nora asked his question next.

"I omitted that information because I don't believes failures can get anything above a D."

Chabashira-sensei instead mocked all of us, rather than give an honest answer.

"I wouldn't accuse us of that, Shizuka-chan-sensei, because we're not like any other E Class you've taught before."

Sakigamiya cut in with a sharp response.

"We'll exceed that expectation you've put on us. We'll get A's, change your perspective on us, and beat all the other classes while we're at it!"

"While those are some arrogant words, it hasn't persuaded me to disclose the information. If you want to show me that you're not like the E Class of last year, then don't say meaningless words and figure it out for yourselves. This homeroom is over."

With those icy words, Chabashira-sensei left the classroom. As she did, our class went up in arms, releasing their pent up frustrations by complaining and venting their worries.

"I don't want to do the midterms!"

"Why are there so many exams?! I hate this!"

"I wanna go back to April..."

These midterms were our first proper challenge as E Class students. It was our chance to prove to the school that we weren't a bunch of failures. However, we were going to compete against 100 other students, and our class were filled with students that had no interest in exams, or participating for the sake of the class in general.

It was going to be a rough obstacle, where we'd sink or swim based on a handful of numbers. How was this fair at all?