To My Dearest Roseanne- Chapter 32

"Get up. It's time for school!"

"Huh... What?"

Cho barely regained consciousness when Roseanne threw the uniform at her and kicked towards the bus stop. It was Friday. The last day to survive before the weekend.

The girl felt exhausted after the previous night. They stayed up for definitely too long.

She crawled her way up the school stairs and into Mr Orville's classroom. Emily was already sitting at her desk with her biker jacket on and a helmet resting on a window sill. She had bloodshot eyes and bone-dry lips, but she still smiled at the sight of her friend.

"Hello, Ch...ch is... is that charcoal on your stripe, Roseanne?"

"No, it isn't."

Cho sat beside Emily. They were alone in the classroom. As she was unpacking her coursebooks, Cho gave Emily an angry look for nearly blowing her cover. Emily looked away with a red blush on her cheeks.

Mr Orville has finished writing on the board and turned away.

"Oh, Roseanne. A woman of the hour I needed to see today!"

Cho raised her eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

Mr Orville approached her desk, holding a slip of paper in his hands.

"I have some good news and better news, which one would you like to hear first?"

"Uhm... the better news."

"You don't have to attend classes today."

Upon hearing this, Emily exhaled profusely.

"What's the good news then?"

"Instead, you are going to participate in today's interdisciplinary scientific decathlon organised by the Pathway to Excellence Foundation and the Ministry of Education. I apologise for such short notice, Roseanne, but I found out about the submission forms for schools just yesterday."

Emily tried the best she could to withhold a cascade of chuckling. Cho, on the other hand, immediately went pale.

"Thank you very much, Mr Orville. But isn't it a competition to which a student should prepare beforehand?"

"In theory, yes, but practically... it's impossible to master that amount of the material. The Ministry from the get-go expects you to be excellent at the humanities, languages, and science. It's a fool's errand, really. Of course, I don't want to stress you and put you on the spot, but I thought it could be cool to check your strengths. At the end, you get a certificate of participation, and if you win, you can get a single-term scholarship."

Cho thought for a while about the offer, and then she looked at Emily who was micro-trembling from Cho's indisposition.

"Okay, I can do this, but I think Emily should also check herself."

"My sentiments exactly."

"What?!" Emily shouted.

***

Half an hour later the two of them were sitting in a separate class together with half a dozen of other "fortunately" selected students. Some tall guy came in, he was wearing a grey suit and had tons of rings on his fingers and a golden watch. His face was so rectangular that it reminded Cho of that GigaChad meme.

The GigaChad imitation adjusted his tie and introduced himself as the representative of the organising foundation. In the course of the competition, the participants were to solve three one-hour-long tests and also have a discussion in a special interview panel with qualified lecturers. In total, the duration of the marathon, with breaks taken into account, was estimated to be five hours.

"I am going to kill you, and Roseanne too," Emily whispered, making the cut-throat gesture when the first batch of tests was passed around.

Cho opened the first page. It turned out to be a standard test from literature. She used to solve much harder tests in Korea. However, some of the questions about Po novels were a bit troublesome. Cho was familiar with Sir Thaddeus and The Doll, but other instances of the classic national canon were a mystery for her. In these cases, she just went with the flow and tried to provide opinions as generic as possible about the books she never read on the basis of passages and quotes included in the test.

"It's the end. I would like to run an obstacle course instead." Emily remarked as Cho was handing back her solved set.

"Silence!" GigaChad spat across the desk.

The second batch focused primarily on mathematics: quadratic equations and trigonometry, to be exact. Cho thought it could have been worse. She hated polynomials. In truth, she hated mathematics in general, but she tamed the monster by sitting each day in front of a coursebook for at least two hours and doing exercises. The theory was always on paper and she simply had to focus. Somewhere on the internet, she read that if she could concentrate on such a mundane thing as a box of matches, then she would be able to focus on mathematics as well. This was the approach that got her through SAT exam questions. Of course, she also attended cram school, known in Korea as Hagwon, and took extra math classes there.

Emily's bloodshot eyes were flooded with water. Tears came running down her cheeks, hitting the test harder than tropical rain.

"This is an assassination attempt on my generation. I'm never gonna pass the Maturity exam in two years' time," she whispered.

"Silence!"

The third and final batch was a walk in the park for Cho. She received standard questions checking the comprehension of English at B2 level. Three questions composed of listening, four devoted to reading, two for grammar, and one entirely about writing a conventional e-mail. As she was solving the tasks, her mind was completely at ease. Even Emily calmed herself down, though she had some trouble with listening tasks.

Cho and Emily didn't know what to expect from the interview section, so they spent their break on pins and needles, sipping soda and checking time on their phones. Mr Orville came by to check up on them, but Emily drowned him in the cascade of complaints and self-wallowing. Mr Orville repeatedly assured his student that it's only a contest, not a test, and he always had faith in her, regardless of the score. Cho was sitting next to them in silence.

"Roseanne Juzynski!" GigaChad called her through a half-open door.

Her mind didn't even register going in there, but the next thing she registered was her sitting in front of a damn committee composed of three people. There was the aforementioned GigaChad, sweating like an Eskimo in a desert. Next to him sat a woman who was wearing a jacket, pencil skirt and high heels. With her clothing, she tried to show that she was at her prime, but her wrinkled face clearly said she wasn't. The trio was rounded off by yet another lady who didn't even try to hide her signs of natural decay. The committee and Cho were separated by a table with a bowl that contained random numbers in it.

"Is your full name Roseanne Juzynski?" GigaChad asked.

"Yes."

"When and where were you born?"

"On the 7th of July, 2008 in S... ugh." The wrong name of the city almost slipped. "...In Bydgoszcz."

"Which grade are you from?"

"2G: military profile."

"Good, please pick a number from a bowl, and I will give you an appropriate set."

Cho did as she was told. She picked number 9. GigaChad gave her a sheet of paper. It read: "Write an opinion essay about the best day you spent. The text length should be between 250 and 350 words. You mustn't exceed the word limit. You have 60 minutes."

"I thought we would talk. It was called an interview."

"Silence! Get to it."

Cho read the task again. Looked at the view outside the window for a while. Then, she grabbed a pen and started writing on the paper. The movements of her hand against the fabric of paper were light and hesitant at first, but when Cho realised what she wanted to convey, her handwriting became faster and more determined. She caught the idea and focused on it, like on a box of matches. In the meantime, Emily and the remaining contestants were also invited within a few minutes of each other. They picked a number and got their own essay topics.

A little before the given hour was up, Cho finished her piece. But still, she took her time and proofread the whole thing. When a small alarm clock rang on the committee's desk, GigaChad made a round across the class and collected all the tests. He had to forcefully pull it from Emily's hands.

"Scumbag," she muttered. "I hope testosterone needles serve you well."

"What was that?" He turned.

"Nothing. Just looking for my phone."

***

It was late afternoon already, many classes were already dismissed and even the principals clocked out early. Although the contest was over, they were forced to sit an additional half an hour for the results. Mr Orville continued to accompany them.

"It was a waste of time," said Emily.

"Don't say that. Don't you ever say that." Mr Orville extended his hand to her. "You did your best and I'm proud of your effort. It's only a competition, that's all. The maturity exams won't be that hard."

"You promise?"

"I promise, but you need to learn nonetheless."

Emily didn't think, but she acted on the spur of the moment and shook Mr Orville's hand as if they two had made a pact.

"I feel quite sleepy," Cho said.

At that moment, the doors opened and crashed against the walls because of a draft. GigaChad did not care. He, the desperate one, and the zombie came out to the corridor.

"In view of the authority bestowed upon me by the Ministry of Education, I hereby inform you all that the committee has checked all the tests. There is only one person at this school eligible for a single-term scholarship provided by the Pathway to Excellence Foundation. The student in question is Miss Roseanne Juzynski. Congratulations."

A murmur of applause spread across the hall. It was clear from the sounds of clapping that the only people enthusiastic about Cho's win were Emily and Mr Orville. But then again, Cho had to remember that it wasn't her win, but Roseanne's, even if in name only. She didn't mind that. It was the first time in her life that she received praise.

"In recognition of the excellent results from interdisciplinary tests and perfect opinion essay." Gigachad added, giving Cho a golden certificate.

Emily hugged her friend, smiling from cheek to cheek.

"You did it! We've only known each other for a brief time, but I knew you'd win. Rosie will be proud of you."

"Thanks."

Mr Orville approached Cho and shook her hand religiously.

"You continue to amaze me, Roseanne. I had a gut feeling in the morning that something positive would happen and I wasn't mistaken. Way to go."

"Thank you, Mr Orville. I must say that I wouldn't have written the essay without inspiration from you."

"Oh, really? How come?"

"Remember that old homework which I was to complete? The best day of my life? Part of me wanted to write something generic, but another part of me felt it would be like cheating, so I didn't submit it to you. But today, I felt ready and wrote the essay for the contest. I wrote how I spent the best day of my life with a person who is dear to me."

Gobsmacked by this revelation, Mr Orville stood in front of Cho for a good minute, still holding her hand.

Finally he said, "I'd very much love to read your essay someday."

Having heard this, Cho reached into a pocket of her uniform and took out a rough copy of her text, drafted with a pencil.

"How about today?" she asked.

They started laughing.

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