Soon it was the day for the actual performance, Jun Yang’s group did… well, there was no way around this but to admit that their performance left much to be desired.
The best actor in their group by a long mile was Feng Qi. Even though he no longer had the real life emotion charging his performance, he held up quite well on stage. At the very least, he remembered his lines and knew when was his turn to enter and leave the stage, which was already much better than his other group mates.
Even though Feng Qi was a runaway star, his lone effort was not enough to salvage the overall tragedy. It was not that Feng Qi was that good of an actor compared to the rest but it was simply because he learned to relax and unwind enough to enjoy the performance.
Cindy and Jun Yang were too self-conscious on stage, which was a no go for an actor. It was clear throughout the performance that they were rehearsing the upcoming steps and lines in their heads which made their actual performance clunky and stilted. They stumbled over their lines and at one point, Jun Yang even had the unfortunate experience of running into a prop. Pei Ling, on the other hand, could not have cared less about how this stupid assignment turned out. She was pretty much tuned out for most of the performance even though she was technically the female main character.
Thankfully, they were not up against professional actors but normal students. In other words, none of them were good enough to put on a good show. Therefore, in relative to the others, Jun Yang’s group did passably well.
The assignment was equal time torture for both the students and the teacher. Before this, some of the staff suggested that they should invite other students and staff members to come enjoy the plays put on by Mr. Sam’s class. Thankfully, Mr. Sam had the foresight to reject that idea at its nascent stage. If not, he could imagine the drag of a day becoming an even bigger drag than it already was.
After all the plays had been performed and the curtains drawn, Mr. Sam stood up to clap and to thank his class for their effort. Then, he went back to the office to write a report on this whole exercise. In conclusion, it was an unmitigated failure, this idea given the headmaster was not going to work. The students preferred and were more familiar with a written test.
Mr. Sam knew that his report would probably close down an avenue for the students to express themselves, meaning there probably won’t be any more plays in the future but he did not think he had done them a disservice. After all, he did not think any of his students would want to pursue a future career in the performing arts. Based on what he had observed, most of the students’ family had charted down a path for them to become business owners and company CEOs. He finished typing the report and emailed it to the headmaster, drawing this part of the story to a close.
…
After the play came another momentous event of the school year, one that was anticipated by some but dreaded by most. Yes, it was the final examination.
Jun Yang had been studying hard in preparation for it and after their relationship had been made official, Feng Qi appeared at school more often than he did in the past. Jun Yang hoped that it meant the studies had more or less rubbed off on the young man somehow. He really did not want his boyfriend to fail the exam.
However, while Jun Yang was worried about Feng Qi, there was something that had been causing him concern regarding the imminent exam as well. Naturally, it had nothing to do with the studies, he had that part down perfectly. Not to brag or anything, but Jun Yang had confidence that he would be able to ace the written tests easily with all the preparation that he had done.
The thing that concerned him though was the physical test. Unlike the middle year examination, the final had a part where the student’s physical ability would be assessed. This included going through some tracks and fields exercise, nothing too complicated or straining.
Nevertheless, Jun Yang’s result for these tests had always been slightly above average. While Jun Yang exercised semi-regularly, it was mainly to maintain a healthy lifestyle, not for training or to keep up an appearance.
Normal exercise like running tracks the young man could handle but core exercises like push-ups and chin-ups were his Achilles’ Heel. Unfortunately, push-up was one of the segments tested during the exam. The result was decided by how many push-ups the student was able to do within a 5 minute period.
20 was poor, 150 was average and over 250 was excellent.
Last year, Jun Yang scored 161 on this test, like I said earlier, slightly above average.
Perhaps this was the perfectionist side of his personality showing through, this year, Jun Yang wanted his physical test result to be as perfect as his written tests result. To have that a reality, Jun Yang knew he had to put in a lot of time into core training but the young man was not sure whether he had the determination to pull through or not.
One day, with the exam approaching, Jun Yang shared the concern with his boyfriend and Feng Qi said, “Why don’t you let me help you? We can train together.”
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