A different Beginning? (Book 1 of Soaring Ravens) (discontinued)

Chapter 3

'thinking'

"talking"

normal

Author note/time change

emphasis

-_-_-_-_-_-

Hinata was storming through the halls, everyone keeping clear out of his way. He was the 'creepy silent kid' and no one wanted to be near someone like him when he was mad. Behind him trailed a desperate Tanaka.

"C'mon Hinata! Please, just try? I'll do your homework for a.. a.. Month! How about that?"

"I have no trouble with homework." Hinata growled.

"Wh-whaa? h-how-nevermind, hey we have um.." he scowled, "we have a foxy manager!"

"I used to train with the girl's team, I don't care for how women look."

Tanaka gasped.

"What?! Um... well... PLEASE JUST TRY?"

"N-"

"I'LL DO ANYTHING! WITH YOU ON OUR TEAM WE MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE A CHANCE AT GOING TO NATIONALS!"

"Won't the other teams make fun of you for having a short player?"

"Nah, our libero is shorter than you!" Tanaka grinned internally, maybe he was getting some headway in this?

Hinata stopped suddenly, and Tanaka almost ran into his back.

"I didn't see a libero shorter than me yesterday."

"well.. right now he's suspended...." Hinata snorted.

"You're hopeless." Then he turned to his locker, which they had just stopped by, and put away his social studies things. Tanaka had been bothering him all day.

"what class do you have last?"

"Free"

"So that's when you practiced? Can we all watch you practice today? We could say it's for the club and get off fine! I have dumb language arts anyway.. all those hard Kanji! ugh"

"Fine... I'm sick of all your blubbering, if I do can you stop?"

Tanaka grinned, and did a happy jig in his head, they were totally getting a new player soon! He was sure of it. "yep!"

A long time was spent in silence as Hinata gathered his stuff and put it in his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and walked towards the court. Behind him, Tanaka was texting the other Volleyball members

'Tanaka: hay guys, guess what?

Yamaguchi: What?

Tanaka: I think I'm on the right track to getting that amazing red head from yesterday evening to play!

Sugawara: I told you to stop bugging him about that Tanaka!

Tanaka: hehe... sorry

Daichi: so why are you telling us this now?

Tanaka: oh yeah! can you guys all call off your last class? just say it's for volleyball! that kid is going to practice and agreed to let us watch him!

Daichi: After how much blubbering...?

Tanaka: well.... After the first hour he seemed to be starting to give in...

Sugawara: have you been bugging him about this all day...?

Tanaka: well....

Sugawara: why do I even try..?

'Tanaka is typing...'

Sugawara: don't even try to answer that question Tanaka...'

Tanaka sighed and put his phone away as they approached the gym. When they entered, Hinata put down his bag, got out the balls, sighed when he remembered Tanaka, and started his practice with 100 serves. By the time he was done, the rest of the volleyball club had started to trickle in. Each of the second and third years seemed awestruck by the intensity and skill of Hinata Shouyou.

Hinata had started recieves against the wall, unconciously aiming it to go right where he wanted it, which didn't go unnoticed by the other players, who started talking amongst themselves, out of Hinata's range of hearing.

"Did you see that?"

"what?"

"he seemed to be aiming!"

"no first year is that good, probably just a lucky shot"

"hn."

"Look, there he goes again!"

"he is aiming!"

"how?"

"must be a genius or something"

"ha, yeah right.."

"seriously, he seems to be taking everything into account!"

By now Hinata had started to notice them talking, and walked over, scowling.

"what"

"jeez, we were just complimenting you.."

The red head scowled, before returning, now starting his setting tosses.

~~~~~~~~~~

Kageyama grinned, at least the shrimp wasn't better than him at his speacialty! No one was going to take his setting position now. Maybe he should show that shorty who was the better setter?

~~~~~~~~~~

Daichi focused on how Hinata hit the ball, he could've been a professional, if not for certain aspects, like how he stood, how low he was crouched, and because of the fact that he was playing setter all by himself with no one to toss to and only a wall to bounce the ball towards himself with.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hinata wasn't happy.

He had been practicing for about 45 minutes and the stares from the volleyball team were starting to get really uncomfortable. He decided he was going to start spikes soon.

Suddenly, Kageyama started walking towards him.

"Hey, are you a setter?"

"... No I like to spike."

"you fast?"

"What's your definition of fast?"

This gave Kageyama an idea... It never used to work, but maybe Hinata..?

"Try my quick?"

"..sure?"

Kageyama internally smiled, maybe he finally found the right person to execute his quick with...

He got into position and set the ball over to where Hinata was.

Hinata sped towards the ball.

He jumped...

and the ball grazed his fingertips.

"Argh, I thought he could do it!" Kageyama seemed extremely frusterated. Hinata, on the other hand, was in shock.

'I haven't missed a set in years! I even got the sets that weren't aimed right! But this guy... how? The angle of his hand, his momentum... the ball should have hit my hand! What is with him...?'

After a second of shocked silence, Tanaka spoke up.

"You were actually able to touch that? I can't even get close!" However, Hinata wasn't really listening. His face made it seem that he had swallowed something sour. Unconciously, he had started calculating what he had seen Kageyama do. Without realizing it, he started gradually warming up to the idea of the team. It gave him a challenge, to try to figure out how to hit a ball from Kageyama. He liked that...

'I WILL learn how to hit those, even if it takes me blood, sweat, and tears to do so.'

This thought shocked him, though. He wasn't really going to join the team, was he?