Only Tetsu was still the same as before. After returning to Eichi's side, he lowered his voice and whispered, "Eichi, that was amazing! Your Beedrill is really strong.
But seriously, I didn't expect you to be the top student among all the new freshmen this year!
I heard that on the theory exam, only three people scored 99 points: one from the Breeder Major, one from the Research Major, and one from our Battle Major.
That last one wouldn't happen to be you, right?"
Eichi quietly replied, "It's me."
Tetsu exclaimed, "Wow, you're incredible! The questions were so hard, but you still got 99 points. I only got 80."
Eichi said calmly, "Eighty is good too."
…
At that moment, Miss Joylin returned to the podium. "Alright, let's continue our class meeting."
The room was completely silent. Everyone sat quietly, which pleased Miss Joylin. She glanced gratefully at Eichi.
"I believe everyone has already seen Eichi's strength in battle."
As soon as she mentioned Eichi, everyone turned to look at him. He kept a neutral expression.
Miss Joylin continued, "Our Battle Major classes are divided according to entrance exam results.
For example, the first-place student goes to Class One, the second to Class Two, and so on until the fourteenth, which goes back to Class Thirteen. The order loops like that.
Since Eichi ranked first overall in the entrance assessment, he's in our Class One.
Now, I'll show you the top ten students in our class. Everyone should look up to them and learn from their example."
She turned on the projector, displaying a list that included each student's photo, name, hometown, and both their class and year rankings.
At the top of the list was Eichi's information:
Name: Eichi Yoshino
Age: 10
Hometown: Viridian Town, Kanto Region
Theory Score: 99
Practical Score: 40
Class Rank: 1st
Year Rank: 1st
…
After seeing the data, several students grew excited and started whispering among themselves.
The noise wasn't too loud, and Eichi stayed silent.
When he looked further down the list, Eichi noticed the second name and glanced at Tetsu with mild surprise.
Name: Tetsu
Age: 10
Hometown: Goldenrod City, Johto Region
Theory Score: 80
Practical Score: 40
Class Rank: 2nd
Year Rank: 26th
…
Next was Hirota, ranked third in the class and thirty-ninth in the year.
Not bad. No wonder he's so arrogant, Eichi thought. He's got some skill after all. But he still picked the wrong person to mess with, just bad luck.
The girl who had stood up earlier was named Kelly. She ranked fifth in the class. Her theory score was good, but she only got 32 points in the practical exam, which was a bit low.
After reading the list, Eichi turned to Tetsu and said, "You're pretty good, second in class."
Tetsu laughed awkwardly. "Haha, nowhere near as amazing as you."
Once everyone had finished looking, Miss Joylin moved on to the next topic.
"Alright, let's talk about your schedule. You should all have a copy of it in your dorms. I'm not sure if anyone's looked at it yet.
Our days are packed. Out of seven days, we study five, with Saturday and Sunday off.
There are seventeen known Pokémon types. Each one will have its own class.
The rest of the schedule includes physical education and battle practice.
Classes are held during the day, and students have free time at night. The academy also provides training equipment.
However, the facilities aren't open today. If you wish to train your Pokémon, you can go to the nearby forest.
In those forests, you'll find many training areas built by your seniors from previous years."
She paused and added, "But don't go too far. Some Pokémon colonies in the area are quite territorial."
Miss Joylin continued talking about other details related to Silver Academy, such as where different facilities were located and which rules must be followed.
After about half an hour, she finally reached the topic everyone was most interested in, the class officer election.
Since it was the first day and everyone was still unfamiliar with each other, they would only elect a class representative and a vice representative.
"We'll vote anonymously," Miss Joylin said. "The student with the most votes will become class representative, and the one in second place will be the vice representative. I'll give each of you a blank sheet of paper. Just write down two names."
She then handed out papers to everyone.
Eichi picked up his pen, wrote down two names, and walked up to the podium to hand his paper in. The rest of the class soon followed.
Miss Joylin asked two girls to tally the votes on the blackboard, writing down the names and counting the totals beside them.
The results surprised everyone. Eichi won by a landslide with 20 votes, while Kelly came in second.
Eichi himself was slightly surprised. He'd been rather harsh earlier, yet they still voted him class representative.
But it wasn't hard to understand. Earlier, when the classroom was noisy and Miss Joylin couldn't control the students, only Eichi's intimidating presence had quieted everyone down. Many felt he'd make a strong leader. On top of that, he was the top-ranked student, a true genius.
Tetsu also received quite a few votes, around a dozen, ranking third. Eichi teased him, "Tetsu, you're quite popular."
Tetsu grinned proudly. "Of course! I told you, I'm great at making friends."
Once the tally was done, Miss Joylin announced, "Alright, then it's settled. Eichi Yoshino will be our class representative, and Kelly will be the vice representative."
After the election, she said, "That's all for today's meeting. You're dismissed. Classes officially begin tomorrow."
As soon as she finished, the classroom buzzed with noise again as students hurried out.
Eichi told Tetsu to head back first, then followed the teacher out of the classroom.
Kelly noticed Eichi leaving and quickly got up to follow them.
He caught up to Miss Joylin and called out, "Wait a moment, Miss Joylin!"
The teacher turned, smiling when she saw Eichi. "What is it, Eichi?"
Just then, Kelly ran up too. "Teacher!"
Miss Joylin blinked. "Oh, Kelly, you needed to see me as well?"
Kelly looked at the two of them and said politely, "Let Eichi go first."
Miss Joylin nodded. "Alright then, you first, Eichi."
Eichi said, "It's like this, Miss Joylin. I'm quite busy, so I might not have time to handle class representative duties."
Miss Joylin looked surprised. "What? You don't want to be class representative?"
Eichi nodded. "Right, I'm too busy."