Kageyama's Queen of the School [Kageyama Tobio]

[4] Training Camp

In all fairness to Takeda Sensei, he could have never known that Tanaka would have tried to lift twice his weight on the bench press while we weren't looking and ultimately knock the wind both out of him and Nishinoya, who'd been the one spotting him but failed miserably to do so. You could never keep your eyes off of them because things like that would happen.

"You two are sure something," Dad mumbled as wiped down the machines, stepping over Nishinoya, "if you break it, you buy it."

Outside, I could catch a glimpse of Ukai pulling out a cigarette to smoke under the cover of the roof, talking to Takeda Sensei as they went over a sheet of paper that I guessed was the schedule for the following week. While Suga and Sawamura took care of our second years, us first years stood by the vending machines near the entrance, watching the chaos unfold in altering levels of interest.

"This is another waste of my time," Tsukishima muttered as he slipped his headphones back on, "let me know when we leave."

Yamaguchi glanced up at his best friend but decided against trying to convince him to join in the conversation.

"I can't believe he almost got to lift it up three times," I told them, hand at my chin. Hinata nodded alongside me and Kageyama shrugged, head leaned back against the wall behind us. It wasn't until the slam of Ukai opening the door to get us back on the bus did the attention of the tallest of us five shift, leaving Hinata, Yamaguchi and I to be the last ones to rush out of the gym and reach the rest of the club members who were already in their seats.

Just a quick visit to the building and everyone would be able to go home, get the sheets signed and hurry back for morning practice. The advantage of Golden Week gave us the free days of no school, which was more than what they needed to go against Nekoma. The Battle at the Garbage Dump wouldn't be easy to win.

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"WOAAAAH! THIS IS AWESOME!"

Night had fallen already and with everyone trudging along the side road, it was astonishing to see Hinata surging with energy that spilled out of him in short outbursts, even with his own heavy, overflowing bag. The trees hid the building from the nearest road and because of how deep we were into the woods, the bus could only go so far-- hence, why we'd been forced to walk the rest of the way, over branches, stones, and unpaved roads. My consolation and motivation to even move were that there was warm water, air-conditioning, and a clean futon waiting for me at the end.

Before Ukai could even announce that he was going to assign bedrooms as we all reached the front door to the slightly shabby-looking building, Hinata had already sped right past him into the building and begun slamming doors open left and right to get some sense of the layout. He left us in the dust, frozen still at his lack of judgment and excessive enthusiasm. Kageyama's fists clenched and I let my head fall forward.

Hinata's parent signature on the permission slip had clearly been forged and could not be any more unprofessional, with an erased mark that said 'mom' underneath his mother's sloppily written name, but the way he'd seemed so ready to start practicing gave me the push to allow his slip to pass into my files... though, at this rate, his initiative could lead to accidents and property damages.

"Oi, calm down a bit, will you?" Kageyama snapped, setting his bag down with a thump. I placed mine beside his and watched the two bicker, tired from both the trek and their illogical arguments, which had made one too many for that day.

"But I've never been to a training camp before!" Hinata protested with a whine, desperate to continue exploring. There was a snicker and we glanced back to see Tsukishima rubbing his finger along the top of a nearby table only to lift it back up in disgust seconds later. There was some dusting to be done, apparently.

"What's so fun about spending all day in this filthy place?"

Tanaka and Nishinoya suddenly popped out of a nearby room and scrambled towards us with their fists held high in the air, shaking them with such rage that I was scared enough to hide behind Kageyama before they could reach us.

"Oi, Tsukishima! You bastard, so long as Kiyoko-San is within a 500-meter radius, there's no way this place'll stink!" the boys shouted, taking turns giving Tsukishima nasty glares. Nishinoya stuck his tongue out at him as Tanaka flicked him off but he couldn't care less as Suga intervened with a pleasant smile that calmed Yamaguchi and me down.

"Shimizu's house is nearby, so once she's finished her work, she'll head home," Tanaka and Nishinoya fell face first on the floor at the news, "that's always the case, you know. Tomo'll stay though since she's opening up the gym in the mornings."

I held the keys in the air to emphasize my role and couldn't help but smile as the boys reluctantly stood back up. I'm sure they were still mourning over the newfound knowledge Suga had dropped on them, but the dinner bell ringing could've also been a factor in their abrupt rush to the mess hall.

And when I say mess hall, I meant it literally. Shimizu and Takeda Sensei had made us all ramen with pork cutlets on the side and not once had she been allowed to eat in peace because of the duo that thought the ground she walked on needed to be kept sacred and protected. Needless to say, it was also a struggle to eat myself, with Kageyama refusing to give Hinata space to sit by me until Ukai forced them both to sit across from me instead. It was fun to see them glare at each other as they slurped their noodles and somehow it became a competition to see who could finish them first, and I rightfully put my bet on Hinata. Kageyama choked after his second bowl.

"You caused this," he accused with fits of heavy coughing, mostly induced by the spices from the ramen. I wanted to apologize for something I didn't do since that seemed to be what would fix the problem although really not solve anything at all --besides make Kageyama feel better-- but Suga hurried us all out of the cafeteria once the place was cleaned up and started assigning rooms to us all when I opened my mouth to say 'sorry'.

"Tomo, you're sleeping in the room furthest down the hall," he told me with a happy smile, "we'll be sleeping in the rooms near the bathrooms."

Sawamura handed me a heavy futon, some blankets and a small bottle of water that made me my knees buckle underneath me with the weight combined. Seconds before I could fall, Asahi snatched everything out of my arms and Kageyama pulled me back up to my feet hastily, so swiftly I nearly missed the apologies the captain was hurrying to give me, tying in that he forgot how much smaller I was compared to everyone else and he should've realized I couldn't carry so much in one go.

We then made our way to my room once my legs could move again and as Kageyama and Sawamura-Kun helped me adjust, I smiled weakly and took a sip of my water.

This is where I definitely felt accepted, in the unexpected circle that tied together under the roof of a gym that had almost lost its way.

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I'm sorry for the short chapter! This was kind of a filler and you would not believe the things I've been doing this week, it's crazy! I'm in the process of redoing my room and ugh so much work. I'm also getting a kitten!

Anyways, thank you so much for your lovely comments!

Follow me on Snapchat! @ fxrnvndxx

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It was tough to write when nothing big goes on, so expect movement in the next one!

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As long as I'm here, you're invincible.