play stupid games, win stupid prizes

Second-First Impression

Tobio loved winning. In fact he didn't just love it, he desperately needed to win anytime he had a chance.

This amount of ambition came with problems. Many of them.

The first time he realized he had a problem was when he was nine years old. It was a sunny Tuesday, almost a week before summer break. Everyone in his class was excited to finally take a break from school,even a little sad to leave their friends for three months but that didn't stop them from playing around like they usually do.

This particular day, Tobio and his friends decided to race -it was his idea of course.- The rest of them would buy ice cream for the winner, which was everything they could ask for considering the current weather.

All of his friends were normal about it, Tobio was a little too excited. He could feel his heart beating loudly as if it were about to pop out of his little body. He could see his hands shaking and he struggled to calm himself down. This wasn't anything unusual for him, he would go berserk every time he was about to compete with people. He didn't think anything of it, everyone gets excited, right?

The sun was hitting the top of his head and his dark coloured hair was heating him up more than anyone else. He was sweaty and shaky.

Everyone lined up and got ready to run. It was starting.

After a three second countdown, Tobio heard the ear-bleeding whistle which was his -and everyone else's queue- to start sprinting. So that's what he did.

He was running as fast as he possibly could, he felt like if he ran just a little bit faster he could start flying.

But he wasn't fast enough, he could very clearly see his friend Riku right in front of him. He had to pass Riku but he was running out of time. Riku was getting closer to the finish line every passing second and he was about to win.

Tobio couldn't lose, he had to win.

He held onto Riku's shirt and pulled him onto the ground as fast as he could. He watched as his friend collapsed in front of him. Riku was injured so the teachers immediately rushed him to the nearby hospital. His left arm was broken, he had to stay home for most of his summer break.

Kageyama felt like shit for hurting his friend. He apologized many times but that didn't help with the guilt.

—-------------

The events that took place when he was nine years old were sort of similar to what got him expelled from school this year.

Getting expelled from Shiratorizawa wasn't really what bothered him, he didn't care which school he went to. The volleyball club was the important part and Shiratorizawa was good. They were even better because he was on the team –losing Tobio wasn't a really smart move on their part– but the academy didn't care whether he was a good volleyball player or not. Rules were rules.

After getting expelled, none of the fancy schools wanted him so he had to enroll in Karasuno. The school didn't suck, neither did the volleyball team, in fact, they were really good. Not as good as Shiratorizawa, obviously. But good enough.

His first day in Karasuno was okay, a few stares, some whispers about him being expelled... That was all. And none of those bothered him.

He was fully convinced everything would be okay in this new school. That was before he set foot in the gym after school.

Most people at school didn't know why Kageyama got expelled but the Karasuno volleyball club did. And they made sure to let him know that they knew.

As soon as he opened the door, he was greeted by fifteen sets of eyes staring at him. Soon enough, staring turned into whispering at each other. Gossiping about someone was shitty in itself but to do it right in front of him? That's just brutal.