Karasuno's Queen of the School [Kageyama Tobio]

[24] Tsukki's A Bummer

"Come to think of it, Tomo-Chan... why aren't you in any of the college prep classes?"

Practice had already started and I was left in the corner of the gym, allowed to have some free time to do whatever before I started a round of surprise pop quizzes. Luckily, no one but Sawamura-Kun, Shimizu-Senpai, and Takeda Sensei knew about this, which would make the results much more reliable.

Pausing from going over my class notes, I looked up to answer Hinata's question.

A few feet down, Tsukishima glanced sideways at me as he continued to practice middle-blocking and I smiled shyly, adjusting my sleeves before responding. I didn't want to sound so patronizing since he was in those classes, but I supposed explaining it would certainly work out better.

"My schedule is a little different than that of a regular student," I said, tapping my pencil. Yamaguchi also stopped his practice to listen and I smiled.

"I leave half-way through the school day to tutor the college-prep classes and then help the Sensei's with any extra work they could have."

Abruptly, Kageyama stopped setting his volleyball to look at me with furrowed brows, perplexed.

"So that's why you always leave?"

I nodded.

"Well aren't you special," Tsukishima mocked, attention going back to his blocks. My cheeks reddened, eyes now locked back down on my papers.

"A-Ah... Tsukki..."

Interrupting Yamaguchi's soft protests, I saw Hinata raise a fist and Suga immediately hurried over to intervene, yanking him back before he could even try to stand up against Tsukishima.

"Why can't you be nicer to Tomo-Chan?!"

The historical period of when Tokyo became the capital of Japan suddenly seemed even more interesting to me and I further buried my nose into my notebook, view of the gym completely hidden. I heard a few scuffles and grunts some feet in front of me until a loud thump stopped any more movement, making me jump in my spot. A hand softly pulled my notes back down so I could look around and Shimizu smiled.

"We're going to start now," she said, using her thumb to indicate that Tanaka had taken care of the boys. He was sitting on Hinata and Kageyama was holding him down even further, struggling slightly since Hinata seemed to still want to go at Tsukishima.

"You tall bastard!!"

Tsukishima, though, couldn't care less.

"O-Okay," I said, standing up from my spot and brushing down the front of my pants. Shimizu headed back over to the sidelines and I hurried to pick up my papers to follow her, eyeing each sheet carefully.

If I didn't hold onto them, everything would slip out of my hands.

"C'MON BRING IT!!"

Nishinoya's booming shout scared the crap out of me and I misstepped, bumping into the Captain's back hard enough to actually move him a few steps forward and drop his volleyball.

"ONE SHOT!!"

I scrunched my nose as a few papers slipped to the ground and let my head fall forward, not even bothering to let myself get flustered or let the pain in my forehead bother me again.

"ROLLIIIIINNNGGG... THUNDERRRR!!"

Nishinoya tumbled across the gym floor, landing perfectly on his feet as the volleyball he had received flew upwards into the air, falling back down with several small bounces. Hinata's eyes sparked with admiration as Nishinoya-Kun walked away proudly, not even glancing back at us. I sighed and Sugawara cupped his hand around his mouth, a bit unsure of what to say since the gym had been stunned into silence.