How to fly with clipped wings (English ver.) HAIKYUU!! FAN FICTION

Chapter 38: The News

The initial shock of having a classmate in a wheelchair made Mikaela the center of attention for at least a week.

Additionally, the fact that she only had one leg made everyone want to become her best friend.

It was true that during her fight with Yuka, she had blurted out that she had a metal leg, but that just sent rumors running rampant right and left. Showing up to school on Monday with only one leg, sitting in a wheelchair with her leggings tied up right under her right knee, the school practically blew up. Yuka had glared at her for a solid minute before breaking eye contact, but she was the only negative interaction that Mikaela had.

Nobody was really... mean, exactly, but everyone was a bit pushy and wanted to know what happened. Thankfully, Mikaela had gotten a bit of a reputation after punching Yuka in the face and nobody seemed overly inclined to question her more than they should.

November was coming at them in full swing, and the only good thing about the wheelchair was that Mikaela could wrap herself in blankets. She got a couple jealous stares, but honestly? She'd rather be walking.

It was the day that everyone was getting measurements for the Spring High that something lit the spark in Mikaela's brain.

Everyone was strangely competitive over things as trivial as height- Hinata had actually memorized how tall everyone was before hand so he could compete over who grew the most- but the most competition came from the run-up jump. Kageyama beat Hinata (if he hadn't, Mikaela would've held it over his head for days on end) but Hinata actually managed to reach as high as Asahi.

While Hinata and Kageyama were bickering and Mikaela was jotting down the recorded heights, Takeda entered the gym. "Gather round!" Daichi called.

She winced. She hated when he did that.

Every time Daichi called to gather around, there was a rush to see who would be pushing Mikaela's chair into the meeting circle. Hinata, Tanaka, Nishinoya, and Kageyama quite literally fought each other off for who would get to the chair first- they had a pre-established rule that once someone reached the chair, the fight was over- and Mikaela wasn't allowed to try and move.

"This one's mine!" Tanaka howled, lunging forwards.

Nishinoya tackled him. "Sorry, Ryu!"

Kageyama surged forwards, but Hinata jumped on his back. "Oi! Scrub! Get off me!"

"No way! You're not beating me this time, Bakayama!"

"Nishinoya! Stop biting me!"

"Mmph!"

"Oi! Stop!"

"Hey, Kaisha," Yamaguchi greeted casually, coming up behind her and grabbing the handles of her wheelchair. "Good to go?"

"Thanks, Tadashi," she said with a sigh, glancing at the four idiots as they grappled on the ground. Since they'd shifted to a first name basis, it'd still been a bit awkward, but they were easing past it. "I can't wait to get out of this thing," Mikaela grumbled, knowing she had a bit less than two weeks left.

He laughed. "Yeah, but then it'll be crutches, and they'll be fighting over who gets to carry you."

"Yes, but at least I have something to hit them with," Mikaela said with a grin.

By the time they'd joined the group, the Idiot Squad, as Mikaela so affectionately called them, realized she wasn't where they thought she was and that Yamaguchi had already brought her to the group. "Yamaguchi!" Nishinoya wheezed from under Tanaka. "Traitor!"

"Yamaguchi, you didn't say you were playing!" Hinata yelped.

"We aren't 'playing' anything!" Kageyama protested. "Get off me, you dumbass!"