Chapter 5: Squeezed Dry (1)
Wet and messy, Vinny Dictiff ran out the school gate.
She felt ashamed of herself, for even thinking of beating Noele up, not to mention that she went ahead with it.
Countless streams of tears flowed down her eyes.
By the time she got home, the rain had let up, and the sun was peeking through.
She faced her old and dilapidated house. The metal sheets that acted as the roof were a rusty brown, while the wooden floor was full of cracks.
As she stood in front of the doorway, she squeezed her hair and uniform dry.
'My little brothers shouldn't be home by now. In any case, I still need to keep quiet.'
She carefully pulled the door open. All of a sudden, the hinge fell off and the door came crashing down.
Vinny looked around to see if she had attracted anyone's attention.
As expected, not one of her neighbors cared, which made her both relieved and dismayed.
She closed her eyes and exerted her mana, slowly raising a slab of earth from the ground.
'...This should act as a makeshift door for now.'
Even though the floor was made of unpolished and rough wood, Vinny lied down on it to rest for a bit. After using much of her mana in throwing rocks at Noele, just raising the thin slab to cover her doorway was enough to make her pant heavily.
'...Everyone is compatible with the Earth element anyway, they should be able to lower the slab down even without me.'
After a while, she stood up and headed to a room.
On the east of the room, there was a sink and a stove, and on the west, there was a humble table with four chairs. Straight from the doorway was the way to the bathroom, and in the center of it all was a thin futon.
"Aiya, those rascals forgot to switch the light off. Tsk, tsk, tsk, waste of electricity."
Vinny headed for the desk beside the dinner table. She quickly changed her wet clothes before grabbing a notebook from one of the drawers.
On the front cover was a title written with a fading marker.
"Borrowed money".
She flipped the pages until she reached the middle section of the notebook.
Money from Noele
August 26: $10.00
August 27: $25.00
August 28: $15.00
.....
November 24: $50.00
November 25: $75.00
November 26: $50.00
Vinny weakly wrote another entry in the notebook.
November 27: $100.00
"...That already adds up to about two grand... How am I ever gonna repay this?"
The thought of forgetting about it and never giving Noele back his money had never crossed Vinny's mind.
After all, his money had gotten her family through tough times in the past. Many times, a single part-time job wouldn't even give as much money as Noele provided for her in a day.
'But... this 100-note isn't enough.'
As she flipped through the other pages, she shivered in fear just by seeing names other than Noele's. All of a sudden, a couple of papers slipped out of the notebook.
'Ah, the water and electricity bills.'
Vinny's head started to hurt, thinking of all her problems.
She furrowed her brows, gently massaging her own forehead.
'Grr, not now, stupid brain! I can't afford to get sick.
'I really... can't.'
After a while, the pain subsided. She started to think of prospective solutions.
'Hm, the exams are over anyway. I should skip school for a week at least, and spend all day working part-time jobs.'
Thinking of Noele's state in the rooftop earlier, Vinny was filled with guilt. '...No money from Noele for now. I won't be going to school anyway, so I won't be meeting him.'
With this thought, she closed the notebook and leaned on the chair. The light bulb hanging above the table flickered as she closed her eyes.
-----
The weekend passed by in a flash, and it was now Monday.
Noele had pretty much recovered from his injuries as he walked into his classroom once more.
'Sweet. Vinny's not here yet. I have a bit of time to rest.'
He rested his head on the desk and closed his eyes.
Soon enough, the teacher arrived, carrying stacks of papers with floating earth slabs.
"Here are all your tests. We have checked everything, all you need to do is tell me your score when I call your name.
Kurass, please distribute the papers."
The female student named Kurass stood up and walked, her twintails bouncing in the air. She stood beside the stack of papers as she read the name of the paper on top.
"Aarvin, Faust S.,
Abele, Seile P.,
Abgonn, Walton Eddie G., ..."
With every name she spoke, a gust of wind would blow away the test paper and deliver it to the owner's desks.
"Dictiff, Vinny."
"She's not here yet!" "She hasn't arrived yet."
Kurass sent her paper to the teacher's desk.
"Menst, Noele Undal E."
Noele's paper soflty landed on the top of his head.
"Peore, Felum R."
Felum grabbed the floating paper before it landed.
"The last one, Raycosa, Landy D."
Landy's paper landed right on her desk.
As soon as she finished, Kurass headed back to her seat. She didn't look at her own paper's score earlier and was eager to check.
The students started discussing their scores.
"Ah, what the hell? I'm so low!"
"Really? What did you get?"
"91/100."
"..."
.....
"Heh, I did better than you, pay up."
"What? I don't believe it! I got 53 today!"
"Well, I got 54. Give me your $10, dumbass."
.....
"This... I'm sure the correct answer here is D!"
"No, it's B."
"No, everyone who answered B just got lucky. It's D!"
"You are the only one in class who got this question wrong, Rovert."
.....
Felum intended to approach Noele, however, the teacher stopped him in his tracks.
"Okay, class. Quiet down, quiet down. Please state your score when I call your surname."
The teacher sat down and opened his laptop.
"Mr. Aarvin." "84!"
"Mr. Ah-bel? Ay-bel? How do I pronounce this again?" "Sir, it's Ah-be-le, and my score is 63."
"Mr. Abgonn. Abgonn? Walton..." "Ah, it's 42, it's 42."
.....
"Ms. Dictiff... Ah, it's in my hands. Do you guys wanna know Vinny's score?"
Aside from Noele and Felum, who stayed silent, the entire class answered with a resounding "yes".
"Okay then. Her score... is 95! Wow, she's the highest in the class so far."
"That Vinny? Getting a 95?" "Wow, you'd never expect that from a gal like her." "Maybe we should let her 'tutor' us." "My mind is going a direction I don't like..."
With the preceeding tests, Vinny had already proved time and time again that she was more than capable of passing the exams. Even with that precedent, it still felt surreal to most of the class that someone who appeared as frivolous as her could get such a high grade.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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