Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student

We finished on Friday afternoon.

I didn\'t receive any texts from Kanako.

I decided to go over to her place to see how she went.

I made the short walk over to her grand apartment complex. Scanning my keycard, I entered through the large glass doors, which automatically opened. I took the elevator up to her floor and knocked on her door.

"Kanako, are you there?"

A few footsteps later, the door clicked open and I was greeted by her.

"Hey, Mizuhara."

"Can I come inside?" I asked

"Sure, I guess."

She let me in, and the two of us took a seat on the living room couch.

There was a brief moment of silence before I asked her the question.

"How\'d you go on your exams?"

She made her way into her room and grabbed her bag.

After bringing it over, she took the tests out and passed them to me.

English, 59%

Maths, 71%

Science, 43%

Humanities, 49%

Looks like she managed to pass them all. I guess I\'m safe.

"Good job, Kanako."

For some reason, she didn\'t seem very happy about it.

"Hey, Mizuhara, can I get a reward...?"

A reward?

"Um, do you want to go to the arcade or something?"

"Okay!"

I guess the arcade it was.

"Can you wait a moment? I need to fix up my hair~"

"Alright."

I waited on her sofa as she prepared herself in the bathroom. She did pass a few of the exams by the skin of her teeth. 4% less on her science exam and she would have failed. However, it was pretty nice that she managed to pass them all nonetheless, I assume that her father won\'t have any further issues with me as a result.

A few minutes later, she made her way out of the bathroom.

"I\'m ready, let\'s go!"

I got up and followed her down to the ground floor.

For some reason, she seemed to be a little less talkative than normal.

*

We went to the mall arcade which was probably one of the biggest in the area. Filled with bright colours and an endless number of games, it was a haven for children and adults alike. There was a very large entrance with a plentiful number of advertisements and signs to fill our eyes.

20% off when you put $50 or more on your card!

New game Ball Drop!

$10 for a game of Lasertag!

There were definitely lots of things to look at.

I followed Kanako as she led the way into the arcade. We made our way over to the counter and purchased our cards.

"How much money are we going to put on them?" I asked.

"How about a hundred dollars?" She said.

It was a pretty large amount of money, although I wasn\'t exactly broke anymore after her father\'s generous payments to me. In the end, I agreed, and the two of us put a hundred dollars each on our cards.

After that, the employee handed them back to us as we explored the forest of arcade games.

"Hey, Mizuhara."

It was so loud inside that it was very hard to hear each other, even when we were talking in relatively loud voices.

"Yeah?"

"Let\'s go play that shooting game!"

She pointed over at a little truck-looking shelter which housed a shooting game. There were two very large guns inside as we entered the truck. We took a seat and scanned our cards on the scanners near the bottom of the truck.

The game started up on a screen near the front of the truck, where the windscreen would usually go. From what I could see, there seemed to be some story about a group of people who ended up getting lost in a jungle. The jungle was filled with dangerous monsters from massive spiders to hordes of bees.

With the guns we were given, we need to shoot them before they whittled our health down. It was a decently-designed game which wasn\'t exactly all that interesting to play. After the first few minutes, the entire game was just practically the exact same thing in a slightly different setting each time. After a little while, we eventually got overrun, and our health went down to zero.

"Ah, we died," she said.

The screen showed a popup which said, scan your cards to refill your health.

However, it seemed that Kanako had had enough.

We got out of the small truck machine and made our way over to the air hockey table.

"Just to let you know, I\'m pretty good at air hockey."

She scanned her card, and the machine dropped a puck onto the table. With all her strength, she smashed the puck towards my side of the table. It ricocheted several times before I returned it to her side. It was pretty hard to follow with the eyes as it bounced around the edges incredibly quickly. However, it wasn\'t too hard to predict where it would end up.

A few minutes later, the score was 3-5 my way. Kanako seemed to have been hyped up as she hit the puck with even more power. It swiftly slipped past and slotted itself into my goal.

"Yeah!"

I picked it up out of a little hole near the side of the machine. Placing it back on the table, I smacked it to her side.

Our rally lasted a few hits as the puck bounced back and forth.

A few more minutes later, I managed to secure the win.

"Ah, so close~"

"You played well."

"Hehe, don\'t talk down to me." She furrowed her eyebrows.

The two of us looked around for a little bit before something caught her attention.

"Hey, Mizuhara, let\'s take a photo."

She pointed at a photobooth which was quite obviously for girls, just judging by the way the outside of the machine was designed.

"Uh..."

"Come on! It\'ll be so fun~"

"I guess."

The two of us walked inside, and she made a pose.

The machine flashed, and Kanako played with some of the different editing tools that it provided. After adding some effects, she printed the photos out. The machine spewed them out, and she handed one to me.

"Aha, your face looks so funny~"

She had added an effect so my face was slightly covered by a filter.

She slid the photo into her pocket before dragging me over to the next game she wanted to try.