Academy of Excellence in Academics (School)

Chapter 60: The "surprise"

"WAKE UP WAKE UP ITS 'TOMORROW' ALREADY!" Jenna squealed into Hailey's and Macey's ears, scarring them for life. Macey jumped up in shock and looked around. "WHAT? ARE WE LATE FOR CLASS OR SOMETHING?" She screamed back. Hailey covered her ears to prevent anymore damage to be done. "Well..." Jenna hinted to her by holding up the box that they had received from Sir the previous night. Hailey was just removing her hands from her ears when Macey squealed, "OMG YES LET'S OPEN IT!" Hailey groaned. All that ear damage!
Hailey pulled herself off the bed and grabbed the box off her dresser. "Okay...ready, 3,2,1!" Jenna screamed. Hailey slowly slid the lid off hers and saw a note tightly folded up with a single key in it. What was this for....? She slowly peeled open the piece of paper to reveal sir's handwriting scrawled all over the poor paper. A sticky note was pasted on the top of the piece of paper.  It read:

Hey Hailey! This is for you. Hope you like it. By the way, the key can only be used in my room. 

Removing the sticky note, she revealed a...timetable? A new timetable? What was this for? It showed that there were classes in the afternoon ...math practise paper....science mock exam....what? This was their surprise!? Hailey smiled a small smile. It was just what she needed, especially after the last incident during her last important exam in this school. Oh the torture! She had to prepare well for this exam. Beside her, Macey and Jenna were groaning in annoyance. "SERIOUSLY? UGH!" Macey shouted in annoyance. "Stop. Shouting." Hailey gritted her teeth and commanded. Jenna and Macey froze at how cold she became, and quickly apologised.
During breakfast, Macey and Hailey finally sat together with Kate once again. As they were walking out of the canteen, they heard some girls whispering, "look, they are so confusing. One minute Kate is their enemy, the next they are best friends and then enemies and now friends. It is so strange! I think they are fake." Kate clenched her fists in anger but bowed her head in guilt. She knew that it was her fault that their relationship kept changing. She had the horrible habit of keeping secrets and having a nasty temper. Seeing Kate like that, Macey quickly gave her a hug and Hailey reminded her to ignore them. Kate smiled. They truly were there for her.
The entire morning was torture. Of course, the Teachers had to keep reminding them that finals were coming up and that they had to prepare. So, they had once again revision after revision and practice papers in class. This was so much that they were completely spent and out of energy by the time lunch rolled around. They ate together, with Jenna in the other lunch room as usual. "So...how is your dad?" Macey asked cautiously. Kate shrugged and replied, "Well he is glad that I am sort of friends with Hailey but he is upset that I am hanging out with uh...you and Jenna. Of course I told him that you two were amazing and now he is starting to be more okay with you guys..." Hailey quickly changed the topic by complaining, "Ugh...now that it is exam period, my parents are probably expecting amazing results." This went on until after lunch, where Jenna and Macey and Hailey invited Kate to go over to their room. "Hey, come to our dorm. We can go off to study together at the library after that!" Macey invited. Kate grinned and nodded her head furiously.
The moment they entered their room, they saw a note on each of their beds, and a box on Hailey's bed. They immediately pounced onto the gifts and opened it. Hailey was the first to finish reading it and said calmly, "Kate, this box is for you from our sir, and umm we need to go to his office now. Well, including you Kate. We are all meant to bring our boxes." Kate's eyes were close to bulging out upon hearing that. What? Why her? Did she do something wrong? Besides, she had nothing to do with him! Sighing, she knew that she had to go if she wanted to find out, so she said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Macey and Jenna nodded before grabbing their boxes and leaving their dorm to head to sir's dorm.
KNOCK KNOCK. "Come in." Sir's voice rang through the hallway. Jenna led the group in with Macey clutching Kate's hand to give her comfort while Hailey stood behind her protectively. They sat down like usual and Hailey motioned for her to sit down as well. They sat down cross-legged waiting for sir. Soon enough, Sir appeared and called for them to sit at the sofa. "Girls, do you know why you are here?" He asked them, his eyes sparkling with excitement. They all shook their heads. "Well, I have a surprise for the four of you. Follow me!" Sir grabbed Kate's hand and motioned for the other three to follow along. Kate was startled and stumbled after him, while the others looked at each other curiously. Sir went to the book case and took out a key that looked like theirs. "Is this not the room we always go to for punishments?" Macey whispered. Hailey got scared and nodded. Sir motioned for them to keep quiet as he let them in.
"Welcome, to your 'finals preparation room'. Your study room is going to be a thing of the past at least for these last weeks of your stay here. Same for you Kate. Umm this is weird to say but your mentor quit his job so you would be with JHM from now on. Ok back to this tour, there are four tables here and bookshelves lining the wall. There is also a whiteboard in front and a projector. This is like our mini classroom. I have used the school tables so that you can get used to the examination format. How do you like it?" Sir said in one breath. It was exactly like a classroom, but a much smaller version. There were four hooks by the wall for them to hang their bags up, and everything that they kept in their study room had been moved here. By now, they had gotten used to their things somehow moving without them knowing. They nodded, but only Hailey was excited. She knew this was the way that sir would prepare her well fo the examinations. Meanwhile, the other three were kind of sad that this was their surprise. Surprises were meant to be fun! They did not say it out loud here though, seeing that sir went through all this for them. He had really became softer ever since he came to know them.
"Well, we are not done! Over here, there are four lockers. There are a few levels here. The lowest one is shoes that you can change into if you want to come here right after school. Then on the second level there are blankets and clothes to change into if you are feeling too hot or cold. The third level is where the fun starts. There are about 50 practice books and papers of each subject there. On the level on top is where you will hand in the worksheets. Every night I will come here to collect and mark your worksheets. Then on the highest level it is where I will return your worksheets to you. Oh yes, over here there are some files where you can keep all the done practices to revise. Is this not amazing?" Sir introduced the lockers to them. Kate was about to faint. She thought her mentor was strict enough by checking her homework every other day, but this was, ATROCIOUS! Looking at Jenna and Macey, they thought so too, but Hailey was smiling softly. Sir took them back out and told them, "some things you need to know. Firstly. The key in your box is to open the room and the lockers. Secondly. You will all wear usual school uniforms and eat in the normal canteen from now on since you do not have finishing school anymore. Thirdly, the schedule in the box I gave you is the time that I will give you practice papers to do, so it would be like a mock exam.
The other girls left the room the moment sir dismissed them, but Hailey stayed back. "Thank you sir..." she softly spoke as she hugged him. "I hope this will make you feel that you have prepared well for the exam and that history will not repeat itself." Sir said, although he was surprised by the hug and awkwardly used his long limbs to hug her back. She grinned, and sir was about to direct her to the door when she stopped him. "I will get going now! Bye!" She squealed. He nodded, but gave a confused look as she walked further into the room. She headed straight for the bookshelves and fumbled around with the key to unlock the door before heading into the room. Of course, Hailey ever the enthusiast.
Through the security cameras that Sir installed, he observed Hailey slowly. She looked around the room, amused. Then she headed to the lockers where she immediately noticed parts that Sir did not introduce to them. 'Smart girl...' he thought to himself. She had found a drawer of snacks, and another drawer of stationery. She grinned and took out a new notebook, grabbed some pens and stationery she needed, used the pencil case she found in the locker and walked back to her seat. She labelled the notebook 'finals preparation' and drew a timeline of the time she had before each exam, and planned out exactly what she wanted to cover before the exam. She even planned to do each assessment Book and practice paper provided by sir! He was pleased as she finished up and took out an alarm clock she found in the drawer. Setting the alarm, she quickly grabbed a practice paper from her bag and started on her homework. Sir knew, that she would be spending a lot of time in that room.
"Ding dong ding dong!" The bell rung, and Hailey was startled. She had spent the entire afternoon studying and doing practise papers? She was shocked! She quickly packed up, wrote a note and left it on sir's desk before scurrying out. She flopped onto the bed once she reached her dorm and saw the other three doing their homework on the bed. How did they focus? Of course they did not. They were barely done with their first assignment! Hailey sighed and woke them all up. They had obviously fallen asleep halfway. "Hailey! Where were you?" Macey asked groggily as she woke up from her nap. "Homework in the study room." She said calmly. Hailey was so thankful for the study room, and recalled the note she had given to sir. It had read :

Dear sir, this is Hailey. I just wanted to thank you so much for the room. It really helps. I have done three practices which is in my locker already, and I finished my homework, which is much to my surprise! The timer really helps too! Hope I can do well...

The rest of the day, she decided she could afford to rest and play with the squad since she had accomplished everything she had planned to do already. She could only wait for the next day, so she could work more on her preparation for her exams.
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1991 words if you wanna know
Hey guys! Yes i have finally updated. This is a much longer update than usual, hope you like it! Ahh will history repeat itself for Hailey? Comment below what you think! Sorry about not updating for these few days, I am really trying so hard! Thanks for everyone who has been supporting me throughout this journey and book. I realised this book is kind of confusing, so if I were to make a sequel (most probably), i would make it more clear and yea! Stay safe and healthy 😀  sorry about having so much dialogue in this chapter! Let me know if you are okay with it or you think it is annoying.
Peace out ✌️ 💓