Jade Sky

Scouted

"Haru, wait for me!" I said, running out of the house and almost jumping on top of him. I stretched my arms.

"Almost three years of high school, and yet you still have trouble with mornings," he laughed, ruffling my hair.

"I'm not a morning person," I said, rubbing my eyes as I walked beside him.

"Here's the other 'not a morning' person," said Haru, looking down the street at Hajime, who was rubbing his eyes too.

"Good morning, Hajime," I said smiling at his sleepiness.

"Morning, Reika, Haru," he murmured as Haru laughed and we continued down the street together.

"Candy?" I asked, holding it out to Hajime.

He shook his head as Haru looked at it with an eyebrow raised. "Did you steal that from me?"

"I asked you. You might've been half-asleep but I still asked," I clarified.

"You two really do act like siblings," said an amused Hajime, who appeared to be waking up.

"It gets tiring telling people I'm adopted whenever I say we're siblings though."

"How about you try telling them we're fraternal twins?" asked Haru.

"A lovely idea. Sadly, I look like neither of our parents," I said, giving him a withering glance.

"We're here," said Hajime, as we entered our school and headed to our class.

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"I'd forgotten third year students would be bombarded with exams," I said, staring at the exams to begin next week.

"Well, you shouldn't have much trouble," said Haru, staring at it with me. "Well, if it wasn't for math."

"If it wasn't for math," I repeated with a sigh.

Misaki threw her arms around me and laughed. "At least you didn't fail."

"Of course not. Haru would kill me if I did," I said as Haru nodded. "Oniichan's been tutoring me after school almost every day."

"Lucky for us all the geniuses are in our class," said Misaki, looking at Haru and Hajime as we headed back to our seats.

The class representative ran in out of breath. We watched as he panted and said, "Principal. Coming. Now."

Misaki and I whistled softly together as the class erupted into chaos.

Thirty seconds later, our teacher and the principal walked in, as silence fell over the class like a gentle covering of glass.

Misaki and I shared a look of amusement, as did Hajime and Haru.

The principal nodded to the teacher, who wrote a question on the board. It was only then I realized we were in math class. The principal headed to the back of the class and leaned against the wall like a gangster admiring a fight.

"Yayoi?" called the math teacher. Haru and I both stood up and stared at each other.

"Reika," the teacher amended as Haru sat down and I walked up to the board, having a very weird sense of deja vu. She handed me the chalk piece as I wrote the answer. She stared at me and I sighed, almost knowing what she was gonna say. Haru ducked his head to hide his laugher, as Hajime raised an eyebrow at him.

"Right answer—"

"—wrong formula," I sighed. She smiled with amusement and rubbed it off, as I wrote it again using a different formula.