Chapter 71: Hinata: Jump

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Man, this has been a really tough week.  

I mean, it's not been, like horrible, or anything.  Nobody died.  It's just been...well...more lousy than good.  The kind of week where I wish I could go back and start it again, and see if I could do it better.  That kind of tough week.

It started out okay, I guess.  On Monday, Tsukishima finally got to get back to practicing without any bandages or splints on his hand or anything anymore.  That didn't really have much to do with me, one way or the other, but I gotta admit I really enjoyed watching Tsukishima and Nakano that day.  She worked him super hard, making him do extra stretches and special exercises for his hand, and then working all of us on our blocks.  Nakano kept checking on Tsukishima's hand, and he kept telling her it was fine and getting all blushy about it, and she kept telling him to stop being an idiot and let her do her job.  Naka-chan is extra fun when she's making Suckyshima blush like that.  But I could tell how much he was really enjoying all her attention, even if he'd never admit to it in a million years.  I mean, who wouldn't love getting all that attention from their girlfriend?  Nakano and Tsukishima are a pretty adorable couple, when you get right down to it, but the best part is watching her reduce him to a total blushing mess.  She doesn't do that very often, at least not at practice, so it was really fun to see.

But then things kinda went downhill from there, at least for me, anyway.

On Tuesday, since Tsukishima's hand was all healed, Coach Ukai finally made us do all the measurements and stuff for the Nationals program.  They include all sorts of stats about the players for the program, including how tall we all are, and our best vertical leap, and stuff like that.  So we had to get those things to send over to the officials.  I guess they need that stuff pretty early.  The Nationals are like at least six weeks away still, but they wanted all that information as soon as possible.

I was pretty sure I'd grown since my last height measurement.  In fact, I was sure I had.  And I was right!  I was an entire half an inch and little bit taller than I was back at the start of the year!  I even beat Kageyama, who was only a half an inch taller - I grew more than he did!  HA!  I knew I could beat that guy!

And just when I was feeling pretty good, Suckyshima came walking out from the nurse's office.  All smug looking.  He'd grown too - like he needed any more height, that stupid four-eyed jerkface.  To make it all even worse, he grew more than I did - seven-tenths of an inch!  Since the start of term!  It's just not fair!  He's already the tallest player on the team, why did he have to grow more than I did and be even more taller than me than he already was!?

To make matters worse, Naka-chan grew that much too!  She'd seen him getting all uppity about being taller and having grown more than any of us, so she went in to get her height measured too.  Turns out, she grew seven-tenths of an inch, just like Tsukishima.  She'd started term exactly six inches shorter than him, and she's still exactly six inches shorter than him.  It's just entirely unfair.  Even a girl grew more than I did, and Naka-chan's already tall for a girl.  But I can't be as mad at her because at least she doesn't act like she's so much better than I am just because she grew more than I did.  Stupid Suckyshima!

Well right after that, we went into the gym to do our running jump measurements.  I can jump.  And I know it.  So I knew I was gonna be the best at this one.  I even bet Kageyama that I would beat him.  Because I knew I was gonna win.  Jumping is what I do.

But I couldn't beat Kageyama.  Heck, I didn't even beat Tsukishima!  How can they both jump higher than I can?!  And now I have to buy that stupid Bakayama curry buns because he jumped higher than I did.  I couldn't believe it.  I was so close!  Four centimeters.  He beat me by only four centimeters!  And Tsukishima beat me by only one, which is nothing.  That might have even been Yachi not quite holding the tape measure right.  But Kageyama beat me, the stupid pain in my neck!

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