The Hamster Race

It happened in Year 2, in semester one a few weeks before finals.

"...Why are there two hamsters on Miura's desk?"

Gakushuu blinked slowly, wondering if he had a concussion.

Miura, a short girl with pigtails gave a nervous laugh. "We're conducting an experiment."

Gakushuu stared at her for a moment, and then at the hamsters—one of them was a spotted brown, the other grey—and then he looked at Ren and Araki who shrugged. There was a rolled out racetrack in the walkway of the desks with a scoreboard drawn up on some paper on the floor; currently one of the hamsters, Masa, was winning.

"...I see." 2-A's leader replied slowly, taking a deep breath as the other students waited in bated breath. "And, what may I ask, does this experiment involve?"

Juba, who was the same height as Miura, pushed his large glasses up. "It's a race."

"...A race?" Gakushuu repeated slowly.

"A hamster race to be more specific," Araki commented, holding up a whiteboard. "We started a betting pool." He pointed at the two names on the board. "The grey hamster is Masa, which is Miura's, and the spotted one is Sora, which is Juba's."

Gakushuu stared at him blankly.

"We're racing them based on the two different nutrition diets we have been feeding them," Juba added.

Miura nodded, holding up a notebook. "We want to see how the different  diets have effected stamina and speed."

Gakushuu let out a deep sigh. "And you've chosen to do this as school, because?"

"We're busy afterschool!" Miura and Juba replied.

"Finals are coming up so we have to study hard!" Juba said firmly.

Well, he could agree with that, but still...

"Pets aren't allowed on the school grounds," he replied sternly, causing the group of them to tense up and grow on edge. "More importantly, why am I just being informed of this now?"

Miura ducked her head, shifting on the spot. "...Because we knew you'd say no."

Obviously.

Gakushuu sighed, rubbing his eyes. Sometimes it felt like he was babysitting. "What made you think this was a good idea?"

"It's for science!" Juba insisted.

"Y-yeah!" Koyama stammered, fidgeting when Gakushuu glared at him. "We wanna see who's right."

Seo sneered, crossing his arms. "I was against it."

"I said it'd be a bad idea," Tanaka commented offhandedly.

"No, you didn't!" Miura started to look upset.

Gakushuu sighed. "Alright, that's enough. There's no need to fight." He walked over to the hamsters and scrutinised them. He then looked at his classmates who still appeared nervous. As they should. "Hm." The whole thing was childish and stupid but...

Miura's eyes shone in what most people described as a puppy dog look. "Please, Asano..."

Ugh...

He felt a rise of annoyance at how immature they were being. It was like he was the only one in class who actually had common sense—which wasn't surprising since they were all embarrassingly co-dependent but still...

He scowled, sighing. "...Just keep them out of sight before lunch."

Everyone's faces lit up with either surprise or joy.