CH- 5, ENTRANCE EXAM

Sandhya understood that Lola must have felt disappointed. So, she apologized, "I am sorry. Even though I had dreams like this before, they were never this long and their effects weren't this big as well, so I didn't think about them much and took it as a side effect of my training."

Lola said, "Still, I am not only your teacher but also that person whom Serena has entrusted you. Do you know how I felt when I came to know that you were suffering all of this by yourself?

She continued after a pause, "If you found it difficult to talk about it to me I understand but at least you could have said about it to Sere. You have no idea how worried and scared she was when she came to your room and saw you in that state. I was busy preparing lunch when I saw her run to me all anxious and pulled me with her so that I could tell her what was happening with you. When in reality I am learning about it right now. Sandhya, I am really upset about it."

She turned her head towards Serena who was silently listening to all of this, "I am sorry Sere. Looks like I wasn't able to gain her trust as your best friend and as your family member. I am sorry I let you down."

"I… please don't blame yourself. It's just that…  I didn't think that the situation would escalate this big. That's why I haven't informed you. I am sorry for making you worried about me. This will not happen again."

She tried to explain but Serena and Lola could see that this is not the only case but none of them point it out.

After a moment's silence, Serena clapped to turn the other two's attention towards her and said, "Okay, let's end it here. Now that we know what has happened and since Sandhya is fine let's move on to our next topic. And our next topic is… any guesses here? No? Our next topic is… to congratulate Sandhya! Since she lifted the holy sword this shows how powerful our Sandhya is! And that's why…"

She brought out a small bag which was decorated beautifully.

"This gift is for her!"

Sandhya was startled seeing the shining bag in Serena's hand. Just after that Lola also brought a small bag out behind her and gave it to Sandhya.

Sandhya looked at the two hands holding gift bags towards her. she looked at them dazed. She accepted them and opened the first bag given by serena.

In the small box there was a beautiful teardrop-shaped crystal pendant and in the other box given by Lola was a small pink brooch sitting beautifully on it. Sandhya was speechless seeing these expensive gifts. Well, she knows that for Lola and Serena this is nothing but to her those two are the most expensive things she got after her learning materials.

She held the two boxes in her hand and said in her hoarse voice, her eyes were almost teared up, "This… you didn't have to do this. If you wanted to give me something then just train me so that I can become strong. I don't want anything else."

Serena and Lola looked at each other and sighed helplessly.

Serena said, "This girl… your improvement is already threatening enough that we are struggling to catch up. And yet you are saying to train you more… Do you want us to go mad? If you want to train harder then, just read and absorb as much knowledge as you can. So, you don't have to struggle in keeping up with your classmates. That would be more than enough."

Lola also nodded in agreement.

Hearing the word classmates Sandhya remembered something.

"Talking about studies, I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"There's going to be an entrance exam in a month for your academy isn't it?"

Serena was surprised. She replied, "Yes, after two weeks. We will be choosing a total of 15 students for junior high, middle-high, and high school sections. Why are you asking about it?"

Sandhya said, "Is that so? Only fifteen? Sounds tough. Can't you tell me the exact date? And also, can you give me a mock question paper? I want to know which type of questions I have to face in the exam.

Serena was stupefied and she looked at her dazed.

"Exact date? Mock question paper? Sandhya, are you planning to appear in the entrance exam?"

Sandhya shook her head.

"How? Sandhya you can't? If you tried to take your admission using our entrance exam you can never pass? It's been only four months since you have just completed your foundation of magic and you are still trying to understand our language. How can you cover everything till high school in just two weeks? I won't allow you."

Hearing Serena's refusal, Sandhya's eyes dimmed.

"Sis, you don't believe that I can pass it?"

Serena panicked when she saw her sad expression. She tried to explain to her, "No, no it's nothing like that. It's just that at least for this time I don't think you can pass through the entrance exam. Not to mention you can't give a practical exam. So, you can only try the written one. If somehow you managed to score above 80% in that then you can take admission to our academy without giving the practical exam. But let me warn you no one till now has been able to score more than 60% in our written exam. That's why our entrance exam is one of the hardest in our whole continent."

"That's why I have asked you to give me a mock paper to see the level of the question. So, I can prepare accordingly."

"Sandhya, you are the one who is not understanding the situation here. We never give questions from only books in our exam. We can prepare questions from anything as long as it falls under our education syllabus. We can even give a question using the knowledge that requires a person to be experienced in magic. And Sandhya you are not at all experienced."

Sandhya finally remained silent so Serena thought that she was able to convince her to drop the idea of giving the entrance exam. But Sandhya's next sentence proved her wrong.

"If that is what you are worried about then how about you do a small test right here and now to see if I can give the exam or not. If you feel even the slightest that I can then I will give the exam or else I will give up the idea and take the admission with your help. How does that sound?"

Lola who was silently watching all of this from the sidelines thought that she must open her mouth now. She agrees with Serena but that doesn't mean she wants Sandhya to refrain from giving the exam. She doesn't know about passing or failing but it could at least give her a good experience. So, she is with Sandhya.

She said to Serena, "Sere, I agree with her. Why not just do a simple test? Everything will be crystal clear then. Besides you can still admit her even if she fails in the exam."

Hearing her friend sided with her, Serena had no choice but to agree. Since it was already past lunchtime, they decided to have their lunch and then do the test.

Serena asked a total of 20 questions in which Sandhya got 15 answers correct with an astonishing result of more than 60%. Serena and Lola were speechless and almost felt their mind going insane.