Tsukkishima was at a loss. For one of the smartest 1st years at Karasuno, this AP biology test was kicking his ass. Most of this unit was difficult, biochemistry was not his strongest suit. Because of his smarts, he was able to join a higher-level class than most of the 1st years.
He tapped his pencil on the scan trone looking back and forth from the paper and the questions. He rubbed his eyes from under his glasses with a sigh and continued to fill in the bubbles.
"Pass it to the front."
The other students passed the paper to Tsukki. He could see their messy handwriting but didn't care. After waiting another 3 minutes before the bell rang for lunch, he left to meet Yamaguchi and eat.
Timeskip to the end of the day, the volleyball team was doing their usual Wednesday practice...all except Kageyama. He was nowhere to be seen and most didn't see him during nutrition break or lunch. The team took a 10-minute bathroom and water break, meanwhile, Hinata was wondering where he went.
"Hey, suga."
The setter was talking with Dichi and Enoshita when the little ginger called for his name. Suga turned his head in the direction of the voice.
"What's up Hinata?"
The boy looked up at his upperclassmen with a face of concern. God forbid Kageyama got sick, the team had a game coming up soon.
"Do you know where Kageyama is?" he asked
Suga had no idea, thus making his lips form a line on his face. Diachi chimed in knowing exactly where he was.
"He's getting some extra tutoring from a student, apparently the kid's a genius."
Suga smiles, finding out his underclassmen are taking care of his academics. Tsukkishima overhears this from the spot on the floor with Yama.
"The king is doing his homework for once? How surprising." He murmured
"Didn't you just fail that test you were talking about this morning?"
Tsukki shot his best friend a 'Wtf' face, Yama shrugged and continued to drink out of his squirt bottle. Ya....Tsukkishima got a 42% on that test. He really hated biology but wanted to take a more challenging class so it would look good on his transcript. The blonde scoffed thinking about how much he sucked for not studying enough.
"Unlike him...I actually do my homework, that test was just hard. Besides, the class is difficult in general." He tried to prove a point, which worked for the most part.
"But is the homework correct?" Yamma asked, giving the salty bean polo a side eye of wonder.
Tsukki paused for a moment.....he was really being tested
"For......the most part." He hesitated.
It genuinely was a hard class, lots of note-taking and labs to finish in one class period. It was hard to keep up, especially since no other 1st years in his other classes take AP Bio. Not easy to find help or a study buddy. He preferred to work alone, by himself, and not anyone else.
He ignored the thought and went back to practice after the break. Not even 5 minutes later Kageyama came walking into the gym door in a PE uniform ready to practice.
"Kageyama! How did it go?" Diachi paused for a moment to talk to him.
The others went on practicing, Tsukki on the other hand couldn't help but get a little noise. He could only hear bits and pieces from who this tutor was. A guy named Y/n, who apparently was extremely smart for a 1st year student.
Y/n helped Kageyama with Math and English, more of the stuff he really needed help with. Tsukkishima attempted to ignore the conversation, but kept getting drawn back to it. Why? Kageyama and Diachi parted and got into positions and went on like normal.
After practice, Daichi thought the team did great and wanted to buy them all meat buns. The sun started to set and the wind was a chill breeze. Sakanoshita Market was being run by another employee at the time so it worked out perfectly.
Some of the team sat at the benches and ate their meat buns while some left to go home. Kageyama was explaining to Hinata how the tutor actually helped, and how the smaller boy needed to set up a study session. Which....caused them to yell because Hinata thought he was being called dumb and yada yada yada.
Yamaguchi was listening in on the two other 1st years ramble. Tsukki paid no mind but that's how he always is. He had his headphones playing some of his music. Yama tapped on the headphones to get attention, Tuskki lifted one side to listen to his friend.
"You should ask him about the tutor, maybe he could help you in Biology." Yama looked at him with an 'I told you so face'
Tsukki cringed at the idea, he didn't want help...even if he needed it. But he couldn't let his grade fall, having a tutor would help no doubt, even after failing that test. He thought for a second before shrugging and putting his headphones back on his ear.
The team finished up and started going home, Yama waved bye to Hinata before catching up with Tsukkishima. The pair lived relatively close to each other, so taking the same path was no problem.
They walked quietly and parted when they had to go in different directions. Tsukki made it home, Upon entering his mother was cooking dinner, and his brother Akiteru watching TV on the couch.
"Hi Kei." His mother smiled.
"Hey, mom."
"Sup man, how was school?" His older brother asked
Tsukki was hesitant to say what happened, but it was good for the most part. Of course, he can't lie to his family, he could, but his mom would scold him.
"Good mostly."
"Oh? What happened?" Akiteru asked, his mother looking over from the pot she was cooking ramen in.
"Didn't do so well on a test, nothing much." He kept it brief.
He doesn't share his feelings and keeps a monotone voice. Akiteru was intrigued, his younger brother who was practically smarter than him failed a test?
"What was your score?"
"....42" He said softly, trying to keep his voice as low as possible but still saying the grade.
He raised bows of his eye browns, his mother didn't hear and was still questioning.
"Come again?"
"42%, biochemistry is hard." He stated in a more stern voice this time.
Akiteru couldn't give him too much shit for that, he to took that class but was in his 3rd year and it was hard. Still, he should've studied more if he knew it was gonna affect him so much. His mother also heard the score and looked at her son with sorrow in her eyes.
"Sweetheart, what happened? Was the test really that difficult?" She's asked, but not in a mean way.
His mom wanted him to be the best he could be, and with that failed test (which was certainly his first complete F), and as a caring mother, she wanted to help in any way she could.
"I'm not much of a science person, I'll study more next time." Kei took off his shoes and took his bag upstairs to his room. Akiteru and his mom looked at each other, nothing they could do would help Kei become more social. Even with his own family sometimes.
Tsukki put his bag down and got a change of clothes to take a shower. After the refreshing shower, he lay on his bed scrolling through Instagram notifications. A certain notification stood out to him, by a user named "BunBon_Y/n"
'Weird name....' He thought, but clicked on the page anyway. A lot of full of pictures of this guy white and tan flop ear bunny, which was cute. Others were of the guy in different clothes and outfit styles along with gym photos, and one of him and his friends in a Karosuno High School hoodie.
The hoodie caught his attention so he looked at the post, some girls were fawning over him while the "homies" just said the most random things. Kei's got off the post and clicked on his story which was 4 hours ago.
The story had the SpongeBob theme, a heading that said "He hates this 💀", @Kage_Vball, and a video of Kageyama banging his head softly against the table, then the camera flipped showing the other guy laughing his ass off to the point there were tears in his eyes.
So this was the tutor, not for Tsukki though. He was the more serious type, especially when it came to academics. He followed the guy and went to check out Kageyama's page, just a bunch of volleyball photos, and Kei could see himself in the background of some of them.
In the end, he followed both of them and set his phone down for the night. Later while he was trying to sleep, he kept getting notifications for Kagyama.