Volleyball

Chapter 1: Sign Ups

A tallish boy with purple hair bolted down the hallway, almost slamming into everyone shorter than him, apologising along the way as he caught up with a shorter white haired boy "Akairo!" he called out, panting lightly as he had to sprint halfway across the school to reach Akairo's class before the bell went.

Kohaku beamed as his childhood friend appeared in front of him "Saki!" he beamed as he hugged the taller boy, hanging off of him playfully "Today's the day isn't it?" Iro asked as Saki was trying to regain his breath. Saki beamed as he set the current captain of the volleyball team down on the ground. "Yep! Today's the day we get to decide which of the first year's will join our cult!"

Iro laughed before playfully punching Saki "Don't be like that, your declaration of our club being a cult is what made us only get two members last year" Iro laughed. "Hey, I'm not the one who started it, Coach did" Saki declared. "Oh I know, but as much as I want to go, I can't until next month, so please fill in for me Ace" Iro smiled as he looked up at the taller boy. Saki's grin dropped "But Iro... Don't you wanna meet the first years?" The white haired boy nodded "Of course I do, but, I don't want to permanently lose my position for going against the dean, just tell me everything okay?"

Saki beamed and nodded "Got it, oh that's the bell, see you Captain!"

Iro smiled softly as he spoke quietly as he raised his arm as a goodbye "See you ace"

During lunch Akairo glanced over at the gym and peered through the window, he beamed when he saw Watanabe and Saki practising together, and over in the corner he saw Ethan and Akiyama catching up, he chuckled softly as he was tempted to go in but was startled by a voice behind him.

"O-Oh I'm sorry... I-I didn't mean to... scare you... I was just um..." the green haired boy stuttered, causing Iro to laugh "You must be Nakahara-chan, I'm the Volleyball team captain... Or will be next month, call me Iro-kun" He beamed "I-I th-thought that fi-first years couldn't be the captain?" Nakahara was confused as the apparent captain was barely taller than him. There was a pause followed by a laugh "Oh, I'm not a first year, I'm a third year" Nakahara immediately panicked "O-Oh I'm so sorry Iro-Senpai, please don't be mad" He begged.

Iro laughed more "Oh please, it's nothing, I get it a lot, especially in comparison to the rest of my team, just try to avoid calling Watanabe-chan"

Nakahara felt his eyes widen "Wh-Why?"

"Oh, It's nothing, he's just... tiny and adorable" He beamed "Now I've gotta go, see you later Nakahara-Chan" and with that Iro left.

Nakahara was very confused and worried, had he offended the captain of the volleyball team? "I hope not" he muttered softly as he walked up to the gymnasium's doors. Once inside the gym he immediately caught sight of a boy much shorter than him, 'Possibly another first year?' hitting the ball with a much taller, possibly third year boy. Realising that no one had heard him enter, he knocked on the door shakily, his knees were wobbling like jelly, his light green bangs covered his eyes as he avoid eye-contact with everyone. "Hello?!" He called out, his voice being louder then intended, causing the redhead to miss and the ball ricocheted off of the purple haired boy's finger tips right towards Nakahara, who, in a moment of pure reflex jumped up higher than he thought humanly possible and hit the ball before it struck the gym's heater/air-con.

Stunned, the gym fell into silence as the ball bounced on the ground. The silence was almost immediately broken by a boy with purple hair that Nakahara figured was another third year. "That was so cool! You're the first year joining us aren't you?" he asked with a smile. Nakahara nodded slightly, still a little stunned by his actions as his hand started stinging from the impact with the ball. "Ow..." He muttered slightly as the blond haired boy who was sitting on the bleachers next to a black haired boy rushed over to his aid, and in broken Japanese spoke "Are you okay?" Nakahara nodded as he smiled lightly, pride quickly replacing the pain that he felt. The blond let out a sigh of relief "Good."

The purple haired boy suddenly called out "Alright everyone! Fall in!" as he did the other boys lined up in seemingly no particular order, but when Nakahara got a better look at their jersey numbers he saw them lined up by number, the red head boy in 2 was first followed by the much taller blond who wore number 3, he was then stood next to by the purple haired boy in jersey number 4 followed by a boy with light red hair wearing number 6 who had just come out of the storage room, next to him stood the boy with black hair who was the last to line up, which didn't seem too bad considering he was wearing jersey number nine.

Nakahara smiled and waved to them all shyly. "Thank you for joining us" the purple haired boy bowed, the rest of the team followed suit "Thank you for joining us" even more nervous then before Nakahara gulped and shakily said "H-Hi, I-I'm uh... Nakahara Taiki" The purple haired boy stepped forward and spoke clearly "Nice to meet you Nakahara-chan, I'm Hamasaki Kaito, though most people call me Saki" he beamed and gestured for the boy with bright red hair however the light red haired boy spoke up "Don't mind our Libero's intense silence, it'll wear off once he gets use to you. My name's Yukihira Geiju, though most call me Yuki, this floof of a Libero is Watanbe Giichi, though we call call him Giichi, because that's what he's asked for." Yuki explained as he spoke on behalf of Giichi.

The smaller redhead nodded as if to vaguely confirm what Yuki had just told Nakahara. The black haired boy cleared his throat, startling the first year. "My name's Akiyama Toshi, though most if not everyone call me Toshi, however if I catch you calling me 'Tosh' you'll regret ever meeting me" Toshi had come up to threaten Nakahara's face with his fist, only to be pulled back by the taller blond haired boy who hadn't spoken much. He pulled Toshi away from the first year before walking over to him and shaking his hand. "My name's Ethan" he spoke in broken Japanese "I'm a transfer student, forgive me if my Japanese isn't very fluent" Nakahara nodded, figuring that he'll ask Ethan what his native language was just in case his parents had tutored him in it.

Saki then piped up, clapping his hands together he called out "Alright everyone, time to get back to practice,we have a practice match again Nekoma in two months and they are no push over, let's get to it!" the other members (excluding Giichi who had his eyes trained on the new boy) screamed in hype. Nakahara walked up to Saki and quietly asked "Wh-What position would you li-like me to play?"

Saki seemed to think on this before Giichi seemingly teleported behind the vice captain and shoved the ball towards him. "I know what I said Giichi-chan, and Nakahara-chan and I will happily set for you, won't we?" Nakahara squeaked before stuttering out "I-I don't know how t-to set"

Saki laughed it off, "No worries, this will be a great teaching session then" the purple haired boy beamed. Nakahara let out a sigh he hadn't realised that he was holding in as he felt the ball being passed to him "alright, let's d-do this... right?" he questioned, his eye never leaving the ball. There was a muted squee of glee and excitement as the short redhead bounced happily and raced over to the currently unoccupied net. "Giichi's right, I should probably set so you can get a feel for spiking, after all, Middle Blockers not only block, but they also spike" Saki winked before getting into position.

Nakahara took a moment to process this before a soft smile curled his lips and he walked onto the court, ready for practice, hopefully this time, it would be fun.