Karasuno's Queen of the School [Kageyama Tobio]

[16] Karasuno's Guardian Deity!

The following morning, I was relieved to see that my quick beating heart had managed to calm itself down and as always, was more than ready start my school day. While I picked up Kageyama's jacket and my own to take to school, I noticed that instead of my usual, enormous (and rather bulky) backpack hanging by my bedroom door, a smaller and actually pretty cute one had taken its place. A small note was taped to its side and I smiled as my dad's sloppy handwriting came into view.

Stop overpacking.

Love, Dad

It had been a struggle to leave certain things behind, but after an hour or so, I managed to keep what I needed and return what I didn't back on my desk. The difference in weight was incredibly nice, and I no longer felt my shoulder popping with each step. If anything, I felt a bit more... confident.

I supposed the feeling reflected on my face because during each class when usually I was left alone unless needed, a few came up to me and asked how I was doing. Of course, my answers came out as stuttering messes but nonetheless it was more interaction with people than I normally had in a month. Because of this light change of mood, by the time the school day had ended and I was making my way toward the gym, I had completely forgotten that Tsukishima was angry with me for telling him off last night. Smiling softly, I clicked open the gym doors with a hopeful notion and was instantly met with a ball straight to the face.

I had no time to react as my head snapped back, throwing me backward and onto the hard, stone hard cement floor that was behind me. My eyes shut in pain, tears beginning to leak as I felt a warm trickle of thick ooze begin to seep from my nose, distressing me even more than I already was. Blindly, I reached a hand out and the sound of shoes scraping against the polished wooden floor alerted me that someone was nearby and I was helped up to my feet.

"Here, take this towel."

My body winced as a cloth was shoved under my nose but I groaned in relief when I felt that it had been drenched in ice cold water. After a few seconds of leaning my head forward on the rag, I opened an eye and glanced up at whoever had rushed over to help me.

"If you hadn't surprised me by opening the door so suddenly, I wouldn't have gotten distracted and hit you by mistake," Kageyama snapped, crossing his arms, "I was about to hit the water bottle too."

"S-Sumimasen..." I mumbled, wobbling on my feet slightly as I stood back up, both hands holding the towel tightly on my nose,"I didn't think anyone would be here so early..."

Clicking his tongue, Kageyama rolled his eyes and opened the door, nodding his head towards the gym.

"Stop apologizing and go sit down so the bleeding will stop."

I felt a bit better once I had managed to find a spot to sit and eventually the bleeding subsided until no more red drops dripped out, much to my relief. Being as clumsy as I was, quick recoveries were a blessing. Now that I was feeling better from that awful mishap, I patted away at my school uniform to make sure it wasn't stained and stood up, pulling out my notebook and a separate binder which held what I had planned to go over with Sawamura-Kun, Shimizu, and Takeda Sensei before practice ended. Hopefully, they took a liking to my new idea.

Kageyama stood on the other side of the gym with an entire haul of volleyballs besides him, water bottle standing in place a few feet away from me and oblivious to the fact that I was about to begin his small, practice lesson. Having been given the liberty to check over their recent test scores, I knew their weak points and was ready begin assessing them.

"Kageyama!" I called out, waving my hand to get his attention. Pausing, he glanced at me from behind the volleyball he was holding out in front of him and raised an eyebrow. Curling up my fists to force the small jitters that had started to grow, I walked over to him along the sidelines and began to explain my new proposition.