Swallowtail: Mariposa Radiante

Making Amends

Swallowtail:

Chapter 21

Making Amends

Despite the ache in his arms diminishing, Kaikane still felt several other body pains. He wondered if he was actually coming down with something, but after a while, he just shoved some Advil down his throat and went about his day. School had been rather slow, especially with it being Review Week. As he had expected, Nino had decided to skip school again, and no amount of begging or asking would get her to budge. Eventually he just gave in and let her have her way. She was doing her work, so as long as she did, he didn't mind.

Everything around him was unnaturally tense. Not just due to the situation with Nino and Itsuki, but the exams as well. The Finals would be the last exams before the third year, after that, they wouldn't be taking midterms and finals. They would be taking college entrance exams and the National Mock Exam. Kaikane wasn't ready for either of those, as one would expect. He could easily pass to his third year, but college? And the National Mock Exam? Neither were in his radar.

Which was also why he needed to make sure his song was a hit with his father. Because if it wasn't, then his dream of going to Juilliard would be just that, a dream. He didn't know why he suddenly needed validation from his father, but for now it was the biggest hurdle in his life, one that he needed to overcome if he wanted to achieve true happiness with himself.

The bell rang loudly, throwing the students into a flurry of movement. The teacher's rant about doing homework and studying fell on deaf ears as everyone hastily packed their things. Kaikane remained seated, his pencil moving swiftly across the paper as he finished up the last of his problems. He wanted to make sure everything was absolutely right, considering what he was up against now. By the time he finished his work, the classroom was empty, and he was alone with the History Teacher, someone he had never really liked, even the man was impressed with him.

"I must say, Sakamoto-kun, you have come a long way from your first year here. I had heard rumors of you being a delinquent, and you even had an attitude. Now, you take your work seriously and have scored highly on every test, a sheer contrast to earlier this year." the man said, his buck-teeth glimmering a bit as he leaned back. "I'd like to know why you've changed?"

"No reason, sir. I just realized my life wasn't going anywhere if I didn't take my studies seriously. It was time to buck up or face the consequences." the blond boy replied, looking through his worksheets.

"A valid point. You used to have the lowest grades in my class, but now, you rank right up there. Though you are still outpaced by Uesugi-kun. Do you think you can strip him of his title?"

"Doubt it, he's always a step ahead of me, even when he's giving it his all helping other people." Kaikane explained, placing all of his worksheets in his folder. "May I get Nakano's worksheets? I'll give them to her when we meet up for our study group."

The history teacher nodded, stepping back to his desk to retrieve the work his colleagues had left behind for her. "I must say, I am impressed with Nakano's improvement, with all of their improvement. They had the lowest grades in the entire school, but they shot up almost overnight. Yotsuba had the lowest scores out of everyone, she even beat Ayato Sugimura-kun in that department. But to go from 149 to 82, it's impressive. I take it this is the fruits of your labor?"

"I only teach them English. It's Uesugi-kun who prepares packets and drills it into them. He's taken his job very seriously. It's thanks to him and to those girls that my own grades have improved." he said, shrugging as he took the worksheets from the man. He gave him a polite bow. "Thank you, sensei. I'll make sure she gets these done."