Just because I'm a girl

Game 1

I block out the hum of the crowd, focusing on stretches and drills just in case I get called to stand in for Nisha. The game starts in 10 minutes. I am itching to play, but I remind myself that my turn in the spotlight will come when the skating season starts, and the Ice Queen returns to her kingdom.

"Gather up!" Daichi calls us together, as the warm up period closes. Silence fills the gym as we line up across the court. The whistle blows, and we all bow and shout, "Thank you for the game!"
The cheer for one of the schools competing is ringing in my ears. Go, go, let's go, let's go, Dateko! Coach calls us in for a final word.

"Listen up! At the start of the first game of the tournament, everybody is jittery! Nothing is going to be perfect right off the bat! The question is, who can shake off their nerves and get into a rhythm first! First things first, go out there and slam that first point home! Grab that momentum and swing it our way!"

"Yes, Coach!"

"Ummm...." we all turn to face Taketa-Sensei. "I'm not just saying this to be flattering, or because I'm trying to be encouraging. I mean it when I say you are all good! Karasuno has a very good team! Let's go out there and show this whole gym, that the clipped-wing crows have taken to the skies again!"

"Awesome line, Take-chan!" Nisha, please don't interrupt.

"Yeah, I've heard them more than once here already," says Ryu. "Those dumb nicknames."
...
These two are going to get us in trouble.

"Well, this time," Sensei continues. "We are going to tell them differently! Stand up proudly and say, 'Behold! That old warhorse, Karasuno, has risen again!"

"Yes, sir!"

I look over at Shoyo and see that Taketa-sensei's speech went over his head.

"War horse?" He looked up at Tobio, who was equally clueless. "I thought we were crows?"

Tobio shrugged. "Don't look at me."

"Actually," I grab their attention. "The term warhorse can be used to mean veteran warrior. Not just the animal."

"Enough chitchat," says Daichi. "Let's gather up."
We all huddle and put our fists together.
"Karasuno, fight!"

We take our positions. From the box, I can see two of the opponent watching Asahi nervously. In a way, they should be scared. Of a fluffball? Okay, putting it like that is not inaccurate. Wait, isn't that Daichi's friend? This'll be interesting.

The first set. Asahi receives well, and the ball goes to Tobio. He has a moment, trying to figure out who to set to. Honestly, I think it would've been a better idea to send it to Daichi. But instead, he sent it to Ryu. Not a terrible choice, but scoring a point made him and Nisha yell, which gave them a scolding from Suga and Daichi, who in turn got a warning from the ref. Not a great start to the season.

Now it's Ryu's serve. He sends a strong one, and Tokonami set up for a spike. Daichi jumps to block, and gets a one-touch. Nisha manages to pull it up, but I can see he's not happy.
"Cover!"
Daichi sends it to the left. "Asahi!"
"Get 'em, Ace!"
They prepare with a triple block. Fools. Perennial cupcake like yourselves trying to block our ace? What are you thinking? The spike is in. Nisha and Shoyo cheer him on, before some comments from the stands get to him.
"Wow, that's a full grown adult for you!"
Oh no. Not again.
"Hey, I heard that Karasuno has a guy whose been held back like, 5 times!"
"What, really?! Who?"
"That guy! The one with the goatee!"
"Asahi!" I call from my place. "Just brush it off!"

"Hah!" There's Coach. "Check out the power on our left side! But be careful. Those guys aren't our only weapons." Confused, I turned my attention to Shoyo. The energy coming from him made me almost laugh, wriggling around like that. He wants to spike, too.
"Shut up! I know!" Yells Tobio. These two have to get together, or I will make them go out. He gets his wish, and he doesn't just jump and spike, he flies and scores. We have a good momentum now, 3-0 to us.

*****************************************

It's now our match point, in the second set. Tokonami just scored their 14th point. Their celebration is not out of place, but then I hear their captain say something interesting.
"Karasuno's match point with a comfy lead. They probably don't care either way about that point."
Boy, I could tell you a thing or two.
"I'm sorry!" Nisha, please stop with the yelling. "That was my fault! I promise, I'll get the next one!" I look back at the other captain. He looks surprised. Oh. Oh yes. You may not be a strong team, but when you go against Karasuno,  all we see is another team. Powerhouse or cupcake, you're still competition to us.

The whistle blows. We won our first game of the season! We start packing up, and Coach tries to hurry us along. "The next team will be here any second, so hurry up and grab all your stuff!" Once we were done, we started making our way out to see who we were playing next.

Halfway, and I see Dad. And he sees me. His face breaks into a smile, and I run towards him.
"Dad! Dad, did you see? We won!"
He laughs and picks me up, spinning around a couple times.
"Of course I saw, Princess," he says, putting me down. "Yuu is really an outstanding libero and, not saying I want anything to happen to him, but I hope to see you play in a game soon."
"I'm still surprised you were able to make it," I commented as we walked down the hallway to catch up with the team. "Didn't you have some meetings today?"
"I did. But then I realized that seeing my daughter and nephew play in a real game for the first time was more important." He smiled at me. "The meetings were postponed." Dad, you're amazing.
"So tell me," he says. "When were you planning on telling me about my successor?"
"Oh, so you saw the freak twins special attack?"
"Sweetheart,  I saw the whole game and kept my eyes on Yuu and my old jersey. I'd like to talk to him, if I can." That...may not be the best idea.
"Well, you see-"
"Ah, there's Coach Nekomata. I'll catch up with you later, okay?"
Dad walked off before I could say anything. Oh, well. I hurry and catch up with the team.

Looking up at the board, I can't help feeling a little intimidated. That's when Shoyo states the obvious.
"Out of all 55 schools participating, almost half, 23 teams, are done after one game."

A tense energy ripples through the team. And then...
"And we'll win the next one, too!"
"Yes, sir!"

I take a closer look. We play Dateko, next.