Receiving Test Paper

Going inside, there was a bunch of school hall lockers piled right on the left, I walked along the hallway and noticed a few students passed by. When our eyes matched, they started to chatter and mumble with each other, saying gospels about me.

"Is that Alfie? The one with rumors?"

"Shh...let's keep quiet, he will hear us!"

"Don't worry, he can't hear.....Ouch!"

While the students were talking, one girl was not paying attention on the road and accidentally bumped into a dark brown scruffy hair boy. The girl apologized immediately and walked away. Ignoring other students, I found my locker. Someone called my name suddenly.

I turned around and saw a dark-haired boy and light-yellow eyes walking near me. The boy waved his hand and his black rubber bracelet revealed in the air. He tried to say hello but he was interrupted by a sudden arrival of another student.

That boy opened his mouth and said, "Yo. Alfie."

I looked back and saw a boy with brown spiky hair and black eyes drinking a paper packaged drink behind me. He was wearing the school uniform with an improperly tied red tie. To tell the truth, the first time I saw him I thought he was only a background person but now I was willing to travel back in time and gave a heavy punch to my old self. This guy was Philip Stephenson who was the ruler of the class.

"Good morning, Philip. What's the matter?" I greeted him politely.

Philip stopped drinking and grabbed my shoulders hard, some of the liquid from the pack packaged drink was squeezed outside to the air. His head lent closer and questioned softly, "Ah, it's nothing. You see, the teacher is going to give us back the math test paper, right? I just want to make sure that you-"

"Don't worry." Before Philip said anything, I quickly interrupted him and continued, "I did as you told." My eyes shook a little when I responded to Philip, my voice was weak and fragile. I couldn't imagine what did I look now.

Luckily, the school bell rung and we walked to the classroom.

In the classroom, a short black-haired man with black eyes strolled into the classroom, he was holding a pile of papers and a blue plastic notepad on his left hand. As soon as the man came inside, the noisy classroom became quiet instantly. The man put down all his stuff and stood behind the teacher's stand.

"Everyone, please sit down. I am going to make a roll call." he said. Everyone listened to the teacher and went back to their own seats, so as Philip. One of the male classmates who sat on the chair, raised his hand and asked.

"Mr. Weaver. How's the scores of our math test?" As if they were echoes, other classmates followed the male classmate and asked the class teacher the same thing, they were all anxious to know about their scores.

The teacher sighed a little and I heard him mumbling why his class was so impatient and couldn't wait for just a moment. He held on to the papers and stated, "Alright then. I'll give you guys the test paper and take the roll call at the same time."

A girl felt excited and asked, "Mr. Weaver! Who got the first?"

The boy who sat next to her who was playing his stationery rolled his eyes and argued, "Why do you need to ask that? It is going to be Philip anyway. He's always the first."

The teacher smiled wickedly and giggled at the boy secretly, imagining what his face would look like when he heard the news. He cleared his throat and answered, "It is true that Philip is excellent in Math but we got a dark horse today.........."

My eyes stopped blinking when I heard the words 'dark horse', wondering did I had heard it wrong. My heart was beating fast. I had a bad feeling about this.

Dark horse? Please don't tell me it is............

Ignoring my intensions, Mr. Weaver took out one paper and sentenced.

"The first place goes to........Alfie! With a total score of 93 points. Let us give some applause."

Ah.......It's over.

Today is such a bad day.

The teacher called my name, I had no choice but to stand up and get my exam paper. As I went past the narrow gaps between the tables, each step I took was extremely heavy.

"What?! Alfie got the first?"

"That bookworm beat Philip? This is unexpected!"

Stop it........

"If I remember correctly, Alfie always gets good results right? But every time Philip was always better than him, so we didn't pay much attention to him."

Stop it..........

"Is it? If that's true, it is amazing."

"Hey. What are you guys talking about?"

"Ah, we are talking about Alfie."

"Alfie? You mean the one you talked about at the lockers earlier, right? The one with rumors? I'm surprised that he can beat Philip."

Stop it........stop it.........stop it! Argh! Why do you guys need to keep on talking about me?

Please stop talking! You guys are only adding more oil on someone's fire!

"Congratulations, Alfie. Keep up with the good work." a voice suddenly disturbed my thoughts.

Huh?

Before I was able to realize it, I was already standing in front of the teacher.

Mr. Weaver stared at me, he seemed distressed and disquieted when he saw there was not any smile in my eyes, he didn't understand why I was so bothered.

Feeling strange, he asked, "What's wrong? Why are you unhappy?"

I was startled by his question, I tried to smile to pretend nothing had happened. But even though I didn't have a mirror, I knew my smile was just too fake.

"Err....ah...I'm not unhappy. I am just a bit tired that's all." I lied. Mr. Weaver remained silent and didn't ask any further. Instead, he reminded me I shouldn't force myself too hard. He continued announcing the results, with Philip being the second.

"Congratulations, Philip. Keep it up." said Mr. Weaver. Philip returned a smile and turned around and called me suddenly, "Alfie, you're amazing! I was surprised that you beat me. But I won't lose next time. Let's both do our best."

"Ah......sure." I nodded and saw Philip was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Yet, his smile was more like a nightmare, like a hunter who was looking down on as his prey. But everyone in class didn't seem to notice Philip's strange smile, they were all praising Philip's generous character.

But I knew this was the worst situation I could think of.