The Villainess Reika-sama

[53]

Right after the athletics carnival was the mid-sem exams, and thanks to my remedials and cramming, I somehow made it back as far as 16th place. I let out a secret sigh of relief. With this, the teachers should trust me again.
But Enjou and Kaburagi are at the top as always. This time it was Enjou that was 1st place though.
I bet it's because of that, right? Kaburagi was too busy training for the cavalry battle. I wonder what on earth makes him so obsessed with that.

Our next class was in another room, so I was walking with the friends in my class when I noticed a girl walking our way with her head hanging.
Hm? Wasn't that girl in my remedials? What was her name again?
As she got closer, I noticed a group of girls laughing from behind her. When the girl noticed, she left with hurried steps.

"What was the name of the girl who just walked past us, again?"

"Who knows. I've seen her face though."

"That girl is in the same class as Ayame-san, isn't she? Remember? The one who messed up during the great skipping rope event."

"Aahh, that girl."

"Great skipping rope event? Speaking of which, I do believe I heard something about a big failure in Ayame-san's class for that event."

"Apparently she practised quite a bit, so Ayame-san was frustrated as well, wasn't she."

I see. So that's the girl who stacked it?
The girls behind her seemed to be in the same class. I wonder if she's finding it uncomfortable to be there.

"Ah, Mochida-san. She's being isolated in class at the moment."

At lunch break, I tried asking Oomiya Ayame-chan about the earlier girl, while we were eating together.

"Isolated? Why?"

"Everybody practised really hard for the event, so when she messed up at the very beginning and disqualified us, she earned a lot of ire. My class had quite a bit of confidence that we would do well, after all."

Ehh~ Because of something like that?

"When it happened I was angry as well, but of course I am not angry any longer. Only, the problem is that it wasn't just the skipping. She stumbled during the three-legged race as well, and even injured somebody else."

"She injured somebody?"

"It was simply a scrape on the knees, but the issue is that the injured girl belongs to Tsuruhana-san's group."

Tsuruhana Maki. The leader of the gyaru group, huh. What terrible luck to injure a girl from that group.
I did the three-legged race too, but the girl I was paired with said "Reika-sama! Let us pace ourselves loudly!" and pulled me along, so we managed to run smoothly until the end.
If I remember correctly, one of the contending classes for top suddenly dropped in rankings. So that was Mochida-san, huh~

"Ever since then, Mochida-san has been eyed by Tsuruhana-san's group."

"Is she being bullied?"

"I wouldn't say that. But I do hear them bad-mouthing and blaming her."

Isn't that bullying then?

"All this just because of the athletics carnival?"

"I understand what you mean. To us, simply watching Kaburagi-sama and Enjou-sama's exploits is enough, but Tsuruhana-san's group is a lot more athletic, and seem to be enthusiastic about sporting events like that."

Aahh~ Yeah, there are girls like those too, huh.
The girls around me started to heatedly discuss the Two Tops.

"The dead heat during the relay!"