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Piper had to admit it: classic smarts just weren't her thing. Street smarts, a little. Sometimes you learned a thing or two after you've gone through some crazy things. But test taking skills? Well, that wasn't one of them. With most of her homework usually being something physical, this ghoul just wasn't ready to test herself on paper--much less about a holiday she didn't really care for at the moment.

Her average performance on the hills last time didn't help. Bracing herself, Piper went and took her seat, grabbed the candy-cane looking pen, and flipped the folder open.

Okay. Grammar and language. At least she knew some of that off the top of her head anyway. Face scrunched with concentration, she began to write down a few answers, underlining whatever part of the sentence she was asked, scratching her head about a few others. Well, this wasn't so bad...And that was of course when things did start to look bad.

Without warning, her pen flew from her hand.

With a jerk Piper looked up, scanning around for a perpetrator. Wasn't magic supposed to be on lock down or something right now? Who the heck did that?? Was it an elf maybe? She sent a sidelong look at the nearest one before locating her pen, which naturally had to have landed far away. "Jack damnit," she grumbled as she slid from her plush chair and went to retrieve it. Maybe she could steal one of these things in retaliation, it was really swank...

She didn't have time to really think about all these other answers--Jack, she was still stuck on the first section!--and merely scribbled in whatever looked good. Her reward? hitting the math section.

Groan.

As if hearing her plea for something better, a foxfire appeared out of the tube and landed in her lap. A distraction? A prize? She gave it a few pets anyway, not minding the time wasted. Fluffy things were always worth it, and definitely prioritized over stupid math things. Who'd even really use fractions in real life anyway?

Next...Oh great. Piper didn't really know a thing about Christmas places; maybe it had been a class she'd missed during her year away? Crap. To make matters worse, the tube nearby began to sing horribly off key, and that was one of the few things that could really get to the would-be pop star. She grinded her teeth as she wrote whatever came to mind, hoping they wouldn't take too many marks off for her creative licenses.

Once she finished, the elves cleared her table and presented some science looking things. Immediately she thought of Bren and wished he could just take this portion for her. The nerd. Although would he be good at Christmas science? Well, knowing him, he'd at least do way better than she was right now...Jack, who had moved her chair back this far?! Seriously, if someone was messing with her...

Finally, the section on Fear and magic. Piper was definitely better at a practical than she was at this pen and paper nonsense, but at least she knew some things. Maybe. She hoped. Jackdamn, this was harder than expected...

She left the test feeling a little more down than before. Was there time to fix herself back up? Maybe that'd make her feel better.

Quizzes were definitely not Alecto’s strong point. Intelligence? Academics? What was that? She should have let Megaera take over for this, but the ghoul seemed determined to do this on her own. At the very least, she managed to score very well on the first section. She thought she did anyways. Alecto couldn’t really tell until the scores actually came out after this was all over.

Math was. Well. Let’s not speak of math.

Ears pressed tightly against her skull when the pipe in front of her began to sing a Christmas song. It wasn’t even on tune. “Hnghhhh!” She whined, slamming her forehead to the desk and covering her ears with her claws.

“Mm? MM? MMM??” Alecto confused stared at her chair as it slid back. No matter, she would just have to keep trekking on! It was a good thing she wasn’t super tiny.

Alecto would just like to thank her whimsical personality for dragging her to Red’s class when she needed it most. Really.

Helmut whined a mighty whine. She hated tests so much.

Section one involved a lot of talking to herself. She read the sentences out loud and verbally muttered every option, choosing her answers based on the ones that sounded the most right to her ears. It wasn't the most scientific of approaches - at least that was her opinion on it - but it worked out for her anyway. It was slow going though, very slow going, and there were a few times she leaned back to stare into space, doing a mental coin toss over what her answer should be.

Section two was a complete bust, as by then her mind had checked out. She had tried too hard on the first section, and as such ended up focusing too much on how hungry she was. Her valiant effort on the first part needed to be rewarded with snacks. When would the snacks arrive? She could only hope someone would take pity on her, and her gurgling stomach.

Nobody took pity on her and her gurgling stomach, so she moped and pouted over it for a very, very long time. Her answers on this section were half hearted and scribbled, but there was still some straining thought put to it at least. A lot of the places on the test were places she had eaten things in though, so she found this part to be quite the easy one. She would always remember everything she ate. Always.

It took her a minute to realize what the test wanted her to do next. Science? Tubes? Things? She pushed the folder aside and dragged the tray closer, not wasting any time trying to be quiet. It screeched loudly on her desk, irritating the students immediately around her. Needless to say she hadn't the foggiest clue what she was doing, but she mixed and matched to her hearts content, with little to no explosions!!

Why hasn't anyone fed her yet? She was dying. Literally dying. She could feel her FEAR slipping away she was so hungry. It was lucky that this section was all about FEAR, really. It was treated like a last will and testament, if the last will and testament was actually a confession on how fear was used and how she had used hers, in case anyone wanted to know about it once she had inevitably faded from existence from hunger.

There were no more pages left to fill in? In her hungry state, it took her a moment or two to realize what that meant, and once it clicked she raced off, scarfing down the prize cookie and nearly choking on the ribbon as she ran to go find something to eat.

Tests. God damnit. Why did there have to be tests? Mac groaned as he took a seat, took a deep breath, and then picked up his pen.

Section one was easy enough. It involved a very bored stare as he penned in the answers he thought was right, though he didn't notice how he accidentally written one part in the wrong section. He just wanted this over with. In fact, this test was so boring he glossed over the math section, and instead wondered what was at the cafeteria - then even better, he wondered if Hel would make herself useful here and make them some stew or something. Her cooking was great, and since she was here harassing him anyway…

Section three started with a lot of really awful singing. He cringed, squirmed, and eventually pulled his hat down over his ears, which blocked out just enough of the noise for him to concentrate. Geography came fairly easy to someone with an eidetic memory, after all. What was difficult was trying to science with the chair too far away, but he didn't really think to push his chair back in. Instead he just tried to reach, which screwed up his measurements just enough to cause some small problems.

The last part was terrible. Not a total bust, but not his strong suit: he blamed it on not having attended classes in about a year and a half, and all the time before that, not actively paying attention. When he finished though, he was simply glad it was over.

He hated tests.

This should have been Jory's event. He was a smart boil, studious, on the honor roll. He did great in all his classes. This quiz should have been a breeze to him, but...it wasn't.

From almost the moment he took his seat it seemed fate was against him. Stretching an arm out to grab his pencil, the boil let out a startled, ungainly yelp when a faux snow tube situated beside his seat sputtered, stopped, and suddenly blasted the boil right in the face when he'd leaned over it to give it a curious look. It was blinding, fake snow getting into his eyes, his nose, his mouth. He coughed, wheezing, as he struggled to see what exactly he was reading, and then answer accordingly.

Math should have been easy, but he was still having a hard time seeing after getting a face full of the fake snow. He continued to try, at least. Filling in his answers as best he could, blinking away tears that gathered at the corners of his eyes. This stuff kind of stung a bit...

Even if he had been able to see well, geography still would have been a problem. The questions didn't make any sense, or at least what Jory could read of them. Scary place? What were they even talking about? Letting out a small, anxious whine, the boil slumped over the desk, staring at the quiz page in forlornly. He should have been better than this, what was wrong with him? How had he done so well in the obstacle course, but was doing so poorly here? It just didn't make any sense.

At least with science he sort of had an excuse for his poor performance. He was just reaching for the tray when a rampant ball of fluff leapt up on the desk and sent the equipment clattering to the floor. Jory keened, long fingers curling into his hair as he lay his head down on the desk.

But it wasn't over quite yet.

There was some improvement here, in the Fear and magic portion, but still. It was a rather mediocre performance over all. The afanc was down right depressed as he rose from the desk and attempted to leave, drawing as little attention as humanly possible. Unfortunately the elves spotted him, and they hurried over to stuff a medal into his hand before letting him slink off in shame.