Try Your Hardest | Ushijima Wakatoshi

Year 1: Part 3

Iriye knew everyone, and that really wasn't an understatement.

Ushijima was surprised when he found out everyone in his team knew who she was, some knew her from middle school (he had no idea she also went to the same school as him back then), her and Ohira knew each other well because he had friends in the swimming team, Tendou didn't formally meet her until she had an interaction with her through Ushijima. They got along really well even though Iriye was the sweetest person in earth and Tendou was probably the biggest degenerate.

He noticed her more during school hours and she was always talking to different people, but he noticed she looked annoyed at times.

Must be the repercussions of being popular.

Ushijima himself was very popular, but he didn't know it. No one approached him either, he was more the 'woah that guy is a national athletic star, he's so scary!' instead of 'woah he is so cool I want to be his friend' type of popular. Iriye was the latter.

She spoke formally to different people and he later found out that she came from a family that owned big pharmaceutical laboratories and provided most of Japan's medical supplies. It must be to maintain good relationships with families who the company was associated with.

No wonder she's smart.

"That new chapter was so crazy, right?!" Tendou eccentrically waved his hands in the air while in the cafeteria. They were talking about Naruto. Ushijima didn't know much about it except that the main character was blonde and loud.

"I know! This fight is getting so intense!" she ate her own food.

She started talking more to the two volleyball players during lunch time. After half the school year had passed by, you might be able to say that Ushijima and Iriye had become friends, or were at least accustomed to one another.

Their routine still went on, but now Elder Iriye would invite him every so often to eat at the house and Iriye would talk to him during school hours instead of only after school.

He met an old friend of hers who was on the swimming team and ironically the two had the same personality. Stoic and serious, but Eri Hamura (was her name) was much more menacing than Ushijima. It was enough to make Tendou shut up most of the time, which was quite a feat. The four of them somehow ended up in each other's company often.

"Eri-kun I think you could learn a thing or two about kindness and friendship from Naruto if you just gave it a try!" Tendou loved to push her buttons.

"No thanks, and stop calling me that," she shook her head.

"You know Wakatoshi-kun there's this character who's just like you! He's all serious and is super about winning and being the best! Except you don't try to kill people like he does," Tendou laughed.

"You mean Sasuke?" Uta cocked her head, "Ushijima is nothing like that! I think he's more like Itachi," she wondered.

"Oooh you're right actually. Strong and silent, probably has a lot of secrets, probably is a pervert," Tendou nudged his giant friend, he didn't react to it.

Iriye sweat dropped, "I'm not sure about the last part."

"Ushijima doesn't have enough brain cells for that, all of them are too busy playing volleyball," Eri said blandly as she drank her miso soup.

Ushijima literally pictured his brain cells playing volleyball. Neurons looked like little stars, so they had arms and legs that could pass around a ball.

"That's probably true," it was one of those rare moments when Ushijima smiled just a little.

Whenever they had lunch together, things usually went that way. Tendou and Iriye did all the talking, Eri and Ushijima quietly ate, but tuned into the conversation at times.