Tsukishima had been looking forward to a nice, easy first year.
And of course, my goal was to make it hard for him. All of it could have been avoided if he hadn't done what he did on his first day.
~~~
"Lyn!" My friends yelled in excitement. It was my first day at a new school, and all my older friends were over-the-top excited to see me.
"Hey, guys." I say meekly.
One of the guys in my group looks me over. Several guys had done the same today. Perhaps wearing the boy's uniform instead of the girls' hadn't been the best idea. But at the same time.. Why not make a great first impression?
"Wow, Lyn. Interesting."
At that same moment that my friend said that, he walked over.
This moment would create my hatred for him and ruin any chance of friendship.
"Huh. Guys, look at this." The blonde says to his friends. "A girl thinks she's all tough by not wearing the girl's uniform." He smirks at me.
"Well.." I start, "It's not my fault, I can pull it off better than you can."
He frowns.
"Whatever. At least I actually deserve to wear this." With that, he turns and walks away with his friends following him. One of them turns around and meets my eyes. For some reason, he seems sorry. I glare at him and turn away.
"Who knew that a girl couldn't wear what she wanted?" I say while rolling my eyes.
~~~
To anyone else, that might have seemed like nothing. But to me, that interaction meant everything. This guy, who didn't even know me, thought that he could just walk up and insult me. Everything about that was messed up. Since then, both of us have spent every waking moment trying to ruin each other's lives. Shockingly, it was getting kinda boring for me.
Today, though, is going to make everything even better.
"Excuse me?" I asked the black haired volleyball manager.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering if I would be able to become a manager?"
She smiles at me.
"We always need more people to help! Thank you so much, you have no idea how helpful this is…" She keeps rambling on about all of the things I will get to help with when I become an official manager.
I just smile and nod. None of this matters to me. All that I care about is the fact that Tsukishima will not be able to get away from me. His life just got a whole lot harder.
The volleyball manager introduces herself as Kiyko Shimizu. I smile and tell her my name. She seems nice enough, I guess.
We head to the central office to get me signed up as the manager. The whole process seems more complicated than it should be, with me signing papers and all sorts of other things.
Then came the volleyball practice. That in itself would be amazing to go through.
As soon as I walked in, all of the boys' heads turned to me as if I were a magnet.
I smile and look each of them in the eye, saving Tsukishima for last. I give him a smirk and glare at him. His shocked face is what makes my day ten times better.
The little redhead walked up to me and looked me in the eye. Well, he actually looked down on me. Since I was only 5'0 "and he is 5'4", it seemed like he towered over me. I glanced behind the redhead to see Tsukishima snickering.
"Wow!" The redhead says. "We got another manager! I'm Hinata. Who are you?"
I smile. Hinata seems to be so full of energy. Almost like he had 3 Red Bulls beforehand.
"I'm Lyn." I say.
He smiles at me and bounces back to the rest of the team.
"Come on, Lyn!" He yells while waving me over to the team.
Introductions are short and sweet. Everyone seems nice enough. Well, everyone minus Tsukishima.
His introduction is "You already know who I am" with a smirk and a glare, just like I had.
I'm not at all shocked by his attitude. Of course, he wants to be mean to me. That's the whole reason I'm here anyway.
The rest of the practice goes by smoothly. All I had to do was chase after flying balls from them, hitting them too hard. Fairly easy. The only thing that went wrong was after the practice. Everyone had already left, even the other manager. She had wanted me to lock up on my first night so I could get used to it.
Naturally, I wanted to figure this whole volleyball thing out. So I grabbed the volleyball cart and started to grab a ball. Tossing it up in the air, I took a step forward and made contact with the ball at my highest point in the swing.
It went into the net. Over and over, I try. Nothing seems to work. I could not figure out what I was doing wrong, and it was insanely frustrating.
"Your wrist is too floppy." A male voice calls out.
All of a sudden, there is a breath on my neck. A pale hand grabs my wrist.
"Make sure it's stiff when you make contact. Be sure not to swing all the way through."
I am visibly shaking at this point. This could not be happening.
"Thank you… Tsukishima." I whisper.
He whispers in my ear. "Now show me that you can do it."
Stepping back, the warmth of his body leaves me.
I breathe in and prepare myself to try serving. The ball goes up, I make contact, and I keep my wrist stiff. The ball sails over the net. I shriek and turn to face him.
"I did it! I really did it!"
He smiles and runs over to me, his arms folding around me as he picks me up and spins me around.
My hair flies around me as we spin in circles.
Suddenly, he puts me down.
"Sorry about that." He says, a hand on the back of his neck.
A blush has crept up from his neck to his face.
I smile at my feet.
"Thank you so much," I whisper into the air.
"Why did you become the manager?" He says at the same time.
I'm left speechless.
"What do you think?" I ask with a frown.
Tsukishima frowns at me.
"I asked you a question. You can't reply with another question. But if you want to know why I think you joined…" He trails of while his gaze glides over me.
Suddenly, I'm pinned up against the wall with one of his hands above my shoulder.
He grins down at me as he sees how red my face is. What he doesn't know is that it's red with anger, not embarrassment.
"It's because you're obsessed with me." He whispers into my ear.
I shake my head.
"You're crazy."
He nods.
"You're the one who became a manager to see me more."
"That's not why I did it." I say through tight teeth.
"Oh really?" He says, angling his face towards mine.
Without thinking, I bring my hand up and slap his face.
He jerks back and stares at me. A red handprint is etched across his left cheek.
I brought my hand to my mouth, shocked that I did that.
"Tsukishima.."
"I have to go."
He stalks away, his hand pressed against his face.
My knees give out, and I fall to the ground. Sobs escape from my lips as tears gush down my face. Why had I done that? It was the stupidest thing ever. Things had just gotten out of hand.
"Lyn?" A small voice calls out.
I look up to see Hinata standing there. Quickly, I try to wipe the tears from my face. He reaches down and brushes my hair out of my face.
"What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it." I mutter.
He nods and hugs me.
"Whatever happens, it will be okay!"
I smile and continue to cry into his arms.