The pencil snapped in her fist and a piece of led went flying.
Akira's eyes widened as she pushed herself away. Emiko's body was shaking and she was being unnaturally quiet ever since the Sensei had denied her request to change seats.
Was she going to transform? Physically, no, but mentally she had assumed her ultimate form and the Sensei had died 358 times.
"Do you need another pencil?" Akira offered.
"I need you to leave me alone," Emiko murmured through clenched teeth. She then turned to her desk mate with an over-exaggerated smile. "Nope, I'm done the work for the day."
She peered over to take a look at the paper sitting on her desk. "But you barely finished the first question. And there are forty-two left."
Emiko blinked. "Sensei!" she shrieked, "Please let me move back to my seat by the window. I need the sunlight, please."
"The sunlight is reaching you plenty over there."
"I can't photosynthesize properly if it's not directly near me."
"Suzuki you're thinking of plants which is the answer to the second question. Please continue your work."
She dropped her head on the desk with a loud bang. Everyone in the class laughed. At least, before her metaphorical death as a flower, she could contribute some humour to this treacherous garden.
"Oh, that's the answer?" Akira said, "I wrote down combustion."
Emiko had the sudden urge to use the tie around her neck as a noose. Unluckily for her, she couldn't reach the ceiling. She closed her eyes, running out of options.
The Sensei wouldn't move her back beside Hinata. She asked nicely, she begged and grovelled, she tried annoying her seat mate, but Akira was taking it as a sign of friendship and would brush off her comments and glares as playful bonding.
"Stupid," Emiko grumbled. "damn useless weed."
She spent the rest of the class with her head on the desk, grumbling under her breath and making terrible allusions to plants. As soon as the bell rang to signal lunchtime, she grabbed her books and sprinted out the door. Something was clawing its way up her throat as she made a beeline for the girl's bathroom.
She pushed the doors open and locked it behind her before anyone else could enter. Then, she dropped to her knees (do not recommend in a public bathroom) and screamed.
"What the hell?" Tsukishima looked over, to the sound of screaming coming from the girl's bathroom.
"Oh, that's Emiko." Hinata walked over.
"Is she okay?"
"Not really, our Sensei made her switch seats and I think she hates her desk-mate."
"Yeah but she hates everyone," Kageyama said as he approached the two.
"Oh, and how do you know Coach's niece?"
He glared and shoved his books into his locker. "Junior High."
"The new first-years are coming to practice today, right?" Hinata asked. "What do you think they'll be like?"
"Ennoshita talked to them yesterday. He said they were quiet."
"As long as they're not like you two," Tsukishima flicked Hinata's forehead. "We deal with enough madness as is."
At that moment, Tadashi and Mirae walked out of their classroom together. She waved goodbye to him, intentionally ignoring the rest of the boys who were standing two steps away from them, and then walked down the hall.
"Is she okay?" Tsukishima nodded towards her. "Why'd you stay behind?"
Tadashi's cheeks flushed as he approached the team. "Oh, she wanted to know which class Yachi was in. They're meeting up for some managerial duties."
"Oh, I should be in on that meeting." They looked down at where Emiko had pushed herself into their circle. "Haven't you heard? I'm your third manager!"
"No you're not," Kageyama grimaced.
"Don't you need Ennoshita's signature on the form?" Tadashi asked. "He didn't mention anything about that to me."
"Well I had Karasuno's greatest decoy sign my application. Now you guys have three managers, how cool is that?"
Kageyama's face paled. "No, no, no, no," he muttered, grabbing his head.
"Tobio, we get to spend so much more time together!"
While Emiko grinned at the idea of teasing and provoking her old friend, Kageyama panicked. He was beginning to feel odd emotions and he couldn't stop thinking about her too much as it was. The only freedom he got was when he was playing volleyball.
But now she was going to infringe on his practice and game time. He was going to lose his mind.
"What do you guys think of her?" Tsukishima asked.
"Of Mirae?" Hinata questioned. "Her sets are amazing and she's really patient."
"Yeah I agree with him. She's got really good technique."
Tadashi sighed heavily. "Not this again."
"What not again?"
"Tsukki thinks that the new manager is hiding something."
"Like what?" Hinata asked.
"Her nudes."
Ladies and gentlemen, two words you should never say to a group of boys in the middle of a school hallway.
Their faces burned a shade of red and Kageyama elbowed Emiko in the side. "I told you to stop saying that!"
"That hurt," she whined, holding her breath and leaning into Hinata. "I'm going to kill you."
Tsukki shook his head. "I don't think it's... that."
"Oh yeah, what could it possibly be then?"
"Well, she panics any time I ask where she comes from-"
"Because you lean into her and interrogate her-"
"And if she rarely played volleyball, how did she learn to set like that?"
"The giant is right," Emiko stated. "She's too pretty not to be a model. I mean, who in their right mind wouldn't take advantage of their looks and become Instagram famous?"
Hinata frowned. "If she is hiding something, it's not in our place to pry into her life."
"Yeah," Kageyama agreed. "She's joined our team to help us. I want to learn from her sets, don't ruin it for us with your overthinking." He pushed past the group and began walking down the hall. Tadashi and Hinata shared a look and followed him.
Emiko blinked and looked up at Tsukishima. "Since when was he the Alpha?"
"He's not. The King's just blinded by her skill to know that secrets like that could cause problems."
"What type of problems?"
He shrugged. "Say we run into her old teammates at a game."
Emiko gasped. "Damn, that is a problem. We'd have to defend her, right?"
"First we have to know what she's hiding." Tsukishima glanced down at Emiko. "Hey, you're pretty confident with social media, right? Do you think you could find out about her?"
Emiko tilted her head, hesitating. "I'm not sure that's morally ethical."
"We're not going to do anything with what we find out. It's just so we can be prepared in case something happens."
"Something like what?"
"Don't worry about it. Can you do it?"
"Can I do it, he asks," Emiko slapped his arm. "Of course, I can do it. Doesn't mean I'll tell you what I find out though," she sang and quickly ran away.
Unlike the mission that Emiko had decided to accept, Mirae was focused on what duties a sports team manager had. She walked into the gym, attention focused on her phone and as her fingers moved across the screen two things happened.
First, Nishinoya toppled backwards as he yelled "Loose canon!"
Second, Mirae took a volleyball to the face.
Whack!
The room fell silent as the volleyball dropped on the ground and rolled away. Then, Yachi screamed and made a beeline for the first-aid kit.
"I'm fine," Mirae winced. Her face felt like it was on fire. A memory awoke from that time she tried to block one of her sister's spike, but Rina had aimed it at her face perfectly.
Just like that time, the heavy bruise was beginning to turn purple.
Tanaka brought both of his hands up and grabbed at his head, repeatedly apologizing.
"Is there blood?" Tadashi cringed, "If there is, I'm going to be sick." He clamped his hands over his mouth and closed his eyes. Yachi handed Mirae a pack of ice and pushed Tadashi away.
"I'm fine, really." She removed the ice pack for them to see. They cringed, which made her change her answer. "Okay, maybe I'm not."
"Her face is literally purple that's disgusting." Emiko gagged as she walked into the gym.
Kageyama heard her comment and frowned. He walked towards her and elbowed her side.
Coach Ukai whistled a merry tune as he entered the gym. Once his eyes settled on the team though, he froze. "What's wrong?"
"We're being abused by your volleyball players," Emiko shrieked, glaring at Kageyama.
Coach Ukai ran in and winced seeing the bruise on Mirae's face. His own niece was cradling her side and her jaw dropped when he completely ignored her.
"Oh, yeah, please, completely ignore me, why don't you!"
"Mirae, are you okay?"
She winced. "I'm fine, really. It just took me by surprise."
"Oh glorious angel, what have I done?"
"It was an accident," Noya cried out. "Oh heavens, don't punish us."
Ennoshita apologized profusely. He turned around to ask the team to give her space, and that was when he noticed their three first years standing by the entrance.
Once their eyes met, the shortest one took a step back and the other two flinched.
"Please, don't run away," Ennoshita raised his hands in surrender, "we don't always attack people."
Emiko glanced over and jumped towards them. "Run! Run while you can!"
The team stared at her with an exasperated look.
"Shut-up you twerp!"
"Do you see this abuse? Run children, run I tell you! Don't make the same mistake that we-" her voice became muffled as Kageyama clamped a hand over her mouth and hugged her into his chest to restrain her.
"... we can come back later..."
"... once you've figured this out..."
"...bye."
Coach Ukai turned to his niece with a murderous glare. He stalked towards her as she struggled in Kageyama's arms.
"I swear," he peered down at her, "if you just cost us our players, your phone is mine."
Emiko nearly passed out.
|Note|
So... who is excited to meet the first years?
Please vote and comment, we'll see you next update!
|End Note|