'What?!' the teacher exclaimed inwardly. 'He finished the test in fifteen minutes? Impossible!'
Rudy went back to his seat and stared at Alice with a smile on his face, but that made Alice anxious. She couldn't concentrate or think straight when her crush was looking at her.
Meanwhile, the teacher was left speechless.
'If I remember his name correctly, his name is Rudy.'
The teacher was only a week old, and it was his third lecture in the class today.
The last teacher was on maternity leave, and he was selected as a substitute.
'Wait a minute. He said he finished the test. But that doesn't mean he actually attended every question,' the teacher thought. He looked at Rudy's answer sheet and muttered, "Let's check it."
The teacher was hoping to see an empty answer sheet with only a few words written, but he was baffled after seeing Rudy had written all the answers— even the ones that were optional.
The teacher turned the pages and wrote every line properly to confirm they weren't just random words. However, the more shocked he got, the more he doubted Rudy.
'Impossible! There is no way anyone can finish the test in 15 minutes! Even if he knew all the answers, it's impossible to write them down in such a short amount of time!'
The teacher was correct, and it was truly impossible to write a 30-page answer sheet in 15 minutes.
However, Rudy was superhuman, and he could do things ten times faster than a normal human. That too, without trying hard.
The pen Rudy used to write also stopped working because the point of the ballpen was handled roughly.
Usually, Rudy would have held back and tried to finish the chapter at the same time as others. But his mind was occupied with Alice, and he forgot about everything else. And before he had realized, he had finished writing the answers.
That wasn't enough for him, so he even submitted the answer sheet. Only after that he realized he had messed up a big time.
Rudy facepalmed himself and thought, 'I am sure he will think I cheated or something.'
'No matter how I look at it, Rudy cheated. But how? There is no way that the questions were leaked, so he couldn't have gotten the answers ready beforehand.'
The teacher could help but rub his head after thinking of various possibilities as to why and how Rudy completed the test so fast.
'Let's assume that he got the questions somehow, and even the answers. But there is no way he could have written everything in fifteen minutes. It's practically impossible!'
The teacher glanced at Rudy and thought, 'Unless… he already had the answer sheet ready…'
The teacher inspected the answer sheet properly to confirm it was fake or altered using cheap tricks. But after checking it and making sure it wasn't fake, the teacher was even more confused than before.
He thought about it until other students also started submitting their answer sheets. However, most of them submitted because they gave up on the test.
Once everyone had submitted the answer sheets, the teacher left, and the next lecture started.
Soon, all the lectures ended, and school was over.
All the students slowly left the class. Eric had club activity, so he left too, leaving
only Rudy and Alice behind in the classroom.
Alice glanced at Rudy, but she averted her gaze when she noticed Rudy looking at her.
"So… you said we will talk about this after school…" Rudy uttered in a low voice, making sure not to be forceful or persistent.
"Umm…" Alice wanted to say something, but she got embarrassed and couldn't say it. She stood up and said, "Let's talk about it while walking home."
"Okay."
Rudy and Alice steadily made their way home.
'Even though we walk home almost every day, it feels so weird today…' Alice thought to herself.
She placed her hand on her lips and thought, 'That kiss… I still can't forget that feeling.'
'But… why did he kiss me? Was it by mistake?' she thought.
After walking for a while, they reached the park. But it wasn't on purpose.
Rudy was following Alice's lead, so she was the one who brought him to the park.
"This…is…" Rudy glanced around and asked, "Why are we here?"
Alice didn't say anything but simply stared at him with a flushed face.
'I can't use telepathy on her since she is not thinking anything currently…'
Rudy had a faint idea as to what Alice was trying to convey but couldn't put them into words. But he wanted to confirm. After all, he didn't want to mess up again.
Rudy pointed his finger at the vending machine and said, "I will go get something to drink. What do you want?"
"Mango… juice…"
Rudy walked to the vending machine and bought lemon juice for himself and mango juice for Alice.
"Here." he handed the mango juice to Alice with a smile on his face.
"Thanks…"
Rudy glanced around to find an empty seat, but most of them were either occupied, and some of them were half-occupied— not leaving enough space for two people to sit.
They stood under the shade of the tree where no one was around.
After drinking a few sips from his juice, Rudy looked at Alice and smiled at her.
'She is acting normal again,' Rudy sighed in relief.
Alice gathered up her courage and said, "Do you… want to drink my juice…?"
"Uhh… before that. I want to apologize for kissing you in the morning," Rudy said with his utmost sincerity.
"Why are you apologizing?" Alice asked in a low voice.
"Well, I kissed you without your permission and took your first kiss too…"
"But it wasn't my first kiss, though," Alice muttered.
"...!" Rudy was surprised to hear that. 'Wait, what….'
He was having a reality crisis.
'Did things go differently in this world?! Who is that piece of shit who laid hands on Alice?!'
However, Rudy had forgotten that Alice had kissed him once before when they were kids. So he was cursing none other than himself.
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Thanks, @Exoloty, and @Degenerate_Panda, for the gift!