Silent Connection

xiii.

I sat down at the table in the clubroom. I was waiting for Hinata and Kageyama to join us. It was a little awkward with just Tsukishima and I sitting here. We had been waiting for at least fifteen minutes. I drummed my fingers against the table to try and drown out the silence between us.

"Can you stop that?" Tsukishima said casting a glare down at me.

I moved my hands off the table and dropped my head. I started fiddling with my fingers, trying to think of something to say, but I couldn't think of anything. We sat there in silence for a few minutes.

"Listen, (Y/n) I'm-" He was cut off by the door swinging open. Hinata, Kageyama, and Yachi walked in. Hinata smiled brightly at me.

"We're ready to learn!" He shouted as he sat down beside me at the table.

"Tch."

We all looked over to Tsukishima. He glared at Hinata before sitting down across from me. Yachi and Kageyama made their way from the door and sat down at the table. The boys unpacked their bags, pulling out their notebooks and a couple pages of questions I had given them yesterday to work on.

Did you have any questions over what I gave you yesterday? The robotic voice played my message.

They looked down at their papers and then started asking me any questions they had.

"How'd you get so good at English?" Hinata asked after I helped him correct his spelling.

I while back I decided that I wanted to learn it. I got really into this American show, and it became difficult to read the subtitles when so many people were talking at once. So, I decided to study it on my own. My mom found out about it and asked her friend in America to tutor me.

"That's amazing (Y/n)!" Hinata shouted.

I smiled at him. It was just something to do when I couldn't do anything else. Plus, it was interesting to learn how their sentence structures were so different from our own. Once I got an idea in my head it was hard to give it up until I completed it.

"Are you fluent?" Yachi asked.

I thought about it a moment before answering her.

I'm not fully fluent, but I'm closer to being fluent than not. I shrugged as I pushed play on the message.

"So, you don't even need to pay attention during English class. You're so lucky." Hinata beamed at me.

Tsukishima let out a chuckle, we all turned to look at him. I gave him a look, one that said 'what?'.

"Nothing. She just got in trouble the other day for not paying attention." He smirked at me. I glared back at him.

The others turned to look at me, but I waved them off. I pointed back to the papers in front of the boys. They began working again, asking questions here and there. They were struggling less now, but still had a long way to go.

The rest of the days went on about the same. Tsukishima, Yachi, and I helped the boys study after practice was over. Yachi and I even helped a few times during lunch. Tsukishima didn't bother helping then, opting to eat instead.

They were working hard to reach their goal, and I was proud of them for that. They asked questions and were starting to understand the material better. It didn't help that Tsukishima kept making snide remarks towards them, but he still helped, nonetheless. I just hoped that we were able to help enough for them to pass and go to the training camp.

The day came for us to find out whether they scored high enough on their exams or not. I was waiting in the gym, anxiously tapping my foot. I was really hoping that they passed. I started chewing on my thumbnail. I wasn't good at the not knowing. I needed to have all the answers out in front of me or I couldn't feel complete. Anxiety was gripping at my chest.