Chapter Five: A Coward’s Anxiety

THE FIRST SET OF THE GAME WAS coming to an end. Kageyama and Shōyō's team was quickly closing the gap between points. The air in the gym was starting to get thick with inspiration after watching this game. Overall, even if things may not be going well for one team, they were still all allies here. Some of the revelations that are being made, especially that quick that Hinata and Kageyama can pull off, things were going to start looking up for the Karasuno team. With a first-year who could very well be the next Tiny Giant, a prodigal setter, and a giant blond, the first-years were stacking up to have quite a lot of potential. Their three-on-three game was displaying exactly how well these boys worked together and their own individual strengths.

Sakura, continuing to take some pictures if she felt like it, watched the game with a critical eye. Now, she isn't a sporty person, actually, she just about hated any and all physical activity, but she knew things about volleyball. Thanks to her brother. Before she had seen any of the boys play, she had a feeling that they had at least some skill. The older members were pretty good in their own rights, though these first-years were on a bit of a different level. Shōyō and Kageyama's combo attack was so amazing, for one thing. If they were to perfect it, then Karasuno would have quite the weapon for their games. Though what did she know? She wasn't a volleyball player, just a photographer.

"Wow..." Suga sighed out in wonder with his brown eyes wide. He stood beside Endo and Ennoshita by the scoreboard who were just as in amazement as the vice-captain. On the other side, Kinoshita also stood in astonishment of the newest club members with Sakura seated by his feet, idly watching the game in seeming indifference now. The shock of seeing the quick attack from her brother and the king had worn off just a little bit by now. Especially after seeing them mess it up a few times, which she found to be quite funny.

"They did it again!" Ennoshita exclaimed.

"They turned it around," Kinoshita said in awe as he fixed the scoreboard so it was in team Kagehina's favor. "One more point and they'll take the first set."

The third-year vice-captain nodded his head in thought, "His timings better, it's improving by the second, impressive."

"I never had any doubt in those two weirdos!" Endo laughed joyfully with a toothy smile which earned some deadpanned looks from the other second-years, Suga, and Sakura.

Kageyama then went to set up another spike that had gone to Tanaka instead, effectively tricking the other team's blockers. The first set then ended with Kagehina winning 25-23.

"Yikes, he better keep a close eye on Tanaka too," Ennoshita sweatdropped at Tanaka's shouts. Why was he on a team with idiots like this?

With the first set finally over with, each team of three was ready to have a short water break before they started the next one. Though, Tanaka certainly was going to use this time to boast about his win. He had already taken off his shirt in celebration and began to taunt Tsukishima, "How do you like me now, Tsukishima! Weren't you going to crush me and Hinata-kun?"

Hinata jumped along with him in the back like an excited puppy, "Yeah! Yeah!"

"Try it if you can!"

"If you can!" the orange-haired boy echoed.

Suga broke Tanaka out of his shouts, however. "Why are you bragging the most, Tanaka?"

"Exactly," Ennoshita agreed, "without the first-years, you never would have made that hit."

"Yeah, don't get all cocky."

Endo nodded his head and chuckled, "Your voice is annoying!"

"Keep your clothes on," Kinoshita joined in on the berating of Tanaka.

"Look, I don't need any more smart remarks from the peanut gallery!" Tanaka roared and pointed at the other boys angrily. Even if it was true, couldn't they just let him bask in this win?!

"You know," Kinoshita started as the older boys glanced over at the other three players. "Tsukishima's team doesn't have a lot of initiative on their side. So the best thing they can do is try to block all those aggressive attacks."

Sakura took a quick glance at them to see that he was right. The three other boys didn't seem to really be into this game, unlike their opponents. Sure they didn't have much riding on their win and wouldn't be punished if they lost like Kageyama and Shōyō. However, you would think that they'd be a bit more... into the game. Considering they are also suppose to be showing off how good they are at volleyball for the team.

From her perspective, she thought that Yamaguchi was doing a pretty good job. Sure, he's not the best at volleyball, but he's certainly not the worst. His nerves may or may not get the best of him at certain points during the game, but he knew what he was doing. Plus, there's always room for improvement. To be honest, she liked him far more than his friend, the stuck-up giant. Tsukishima was talented at volleyball, Sakura had to admit. His tallness gave him an edge in the game and made his blocking skills better than most. He was obviously good at the game, but he didn't put much effort into it. Sakura didn't know why, and didn't care. So what if he wasn't going to play to his best ability, as long as it didn't effect the team as a whole or Shōyō, then Sakura didn't care what he did.

The whistle was blown, signifying the end of the break and the beginning of the second set. "Time for the second set."

"Ready!?" Tanaka shouted as his team lined up.

The First-years, with the same amount of enthusiasm, answered, "Yeah!"

The game continued on with each team scoring at least a few points. Honestly, it was quite a close game between the two. At one point, Shōyō had ended up getting a ball to the face. Thankfully, Sakura had her camera ready and snapped a picture of it. Yet another snapshot of her brother getting hurt to add to her collection. The game picked up the pace, so much so that Tsukishima appeared to finally take it a bit more seriously. Perhaps he does care, thought Sakura.

"Whoa, Kageyama is pretty amazing," Kinoshita said, once again marveling at the first-years skills. "And man, all those precision sets? He's really gotta stay focused."

Ennoshita placed a hand on his chin analyzing the troublesome duo, "Not to mention Hinata-kun's running around more than usual."

"Yeah, but..." Suga started watching them with a small smile as Shōyō hit another spike with his eyes closed, "They're having fun." With that final hit over the net, team Kagehina had won! They were quite exhausted, but it was worth it. "Good game."

The other orange-haired twin walked over to her brother as he shakily got to his feet. "You did good, Shō," Sakura said as warmly as she could to her brother and handed him a bottle of water. There was a small smile on her face, one that was only reserved for her brother as her eyes were shining with a sort of pride that always came about when she saw her brother do something amazing. And that freak quick was definitely amazing. She then turned to Kageyama, who also finally got to his feet after catching his breath, and her smile disappeared at an instant. "You too, King."

The boy scowled at her heatedly and roughly grabbed the offered bottle from her, "Don't call me that!"

"Hm," Sakura raised an eyebrow and eyed him for a quick moment. A spark ignited in her eyes before she smirked evilly at him, "I'll call you what I want."

He chocked on the water and growled as he tried to tower over the girl, in order to scare her, "No you won't." His intimidation didn't do anything. Nothing scared Sakura, especially not some temperamental teenage boy.

She clicked her tongue in amusement, "And who's going to stop me? You?"

That seemed to anger him even further as his face started to turn red in anger. Sakura continued to stare at him in a bit of amusement swimming in her eyes. As much as she liked not getting involved in anything, teasing someone every once in a while was a tad bit entertaining. So she couldn't help herself, especially if it was Kageyama. They may have gone on a little bit longer if it wasn't for Shōyō speaking up, "We should go shake hands with them."

He was referring to Tsukishima and Yamaguchi who were standing with each other in the corner of the gym. Neither of them seemed to be really willing to socialize with anyone else besides each other, at least not yet. That wasn't a good sign considering they were a part of the team now.

"Why?" Kageyama asked, finally taking his glare off of Sakura. "We don't have to."

"Yes, we do. All right. Let's go." Shōyō said firmly before walking over to the taller teens with Kageyama and Sakura following him, "Tsukishima."

The giant turned to look down at the little ball of sunshine. "What?"

"We're supposed to shake hands before and after a match. Though we didn't do that at first today." Shōyō started to explain with an outstretched hand before his face twisted slightly into a sour expression, "Besides, we're teammates now. Though that doesn't make me happy." Tsukishima stared down at him with an annoyed frown, obviously not willing to shake his hand in the slightest. It was something that he would never do in a million years! Shōyō saw he wasn't going to comply and started to whisper urgently, "Hurry up. Don't you know? They'll kick you out of the gym if you don't show team spirit."

Tsukishima blinked, "The reason why you two got kicked out was because you ignored the captain, started your own competition, and finally, blew the vice principal's rug off his head."

The troublesome duo went rigid at being called out, "N-Never mind the minor details."

"That's what got you thrown out?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow. She knew that they must have done something spectacular to be thrown out of the gym last week, but going as far as to knock off the vice principal's wig? That was definitely worthy of punishment. If only she had been there to see it. "Impressivly moronic."

"Come on!" Shōyō shouted as he tried to attack Tsukishima into shaking his hand, which the tall teen tried to avoid. "Shake hands!"

Tsukishima dodged each of Shōyō's attack as best he could, with Yamaguchi's help, of course. "Wh-What are you doing? Get away from me! Stop!"

A little further away, the group of third-years and Tanaka watched them continue to shout at each other with confusion. "What are those first-years doing?" Tanaka asked.

"Becoming friends?" Endo guessed while scratching the back of his neck with a chuckle.

Eventually, Shōyō had gotten his handshake from Tsukishima. This left the poor blond staring at the hand that had been forcibly shaken in disgust and shock. Behind him, Yamaguchi seemed to be in just as much shock as him, "Are you all right, Tsukki?"

Kageyama and Shōyō had already walked away from the other pair of first-years, satisfied with the outcome of their talk with them. Though Sakura hung back just a moment, she did her best to keep the chuckles that threatened to spill out of her the best she could. She finally cleared her throat to grab their attention and flashed them a fake smile, the same one she did the other day during lunch. "I told you he wasn't going to let this go, Tsukki." Sakura earned herself a heated glare from the blond giant with didn't affect her in the slightest. She just smiled back at him with her lips turned up in a mocking smile before walking away.

Who does she think she is? Tsukishima scoffed to himself. This shrimpy girl was infuriating Tsukishima to no end! She and her brother were both starting to become thorns in his side at this point. How annoying.

Sakura returned to Shōyō's side and watched as he fumbled around to find his crumpled up application paper. To be honest, Sakura had to keep the paper save, since she had a feeling that Shōyō would have lost it at some point. He always did that. She couldn't count the amount of times he had lost his homework one way or another. He and Kageyama then jogged over to their new captain.

"Captain!" Shōyō's shout broke off whatever conversation that was being had between Daichi and Tsukishima.

"What?" He asked and turned to find Shōyō and Kageyama holding out their applications to him. The captain took the papers from them and then called out to the manager of the team, "Shimizu. The stuff is here, right?"

"Stuff?" Shōyō asked with a tilt of his head.

The lady-manager then came out with a cardboard box. They all peered into to get a good look at what was inside as she opened it up. Once they caught sight of what was in it, the troublesome duo gasped.

Now, the newest members of the team were all wearing their brand new Karasuno Volleyball Club jackets. Well, all of them were except Tsukishima, who has to be a wet blanket about everything.

"The sizes should be okay," Kiyoko said, "but let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks!"

Suga walked over to Tsukishima, who still had yet to put on the jacket, "Come on. Put it on."

"No, I'll do it later..." Tsukishima tried to deny, though that wasn't going to happen with Tanaka jumping over to him.

"Are you shy or something?" Tanaka asked, "Come on! Just put it on!"

"Wear it! Wear it!" Everyone started to chant, sans Sakura who was amused at the sight, "Wear it! Wear it!"

Now every first-year had their jackets on, and they all looked quite good in them. Sakura would have taken a picture of them but didn't feel like it. She's lazy, what can you do? Shōyō seemed to be the most excited about his new jacket as he jumped around in it to show it off. The first-years were complimented by Tanaka, "Looks good on you."

Suga agreed with his signature wide smile, "Yeah, looks good. Looks good."

Now, the rest of the team stood in front of the new members with smiles on their faces. Daichi addressed them, "We're the Karasuno Volleyball Club from here on out... Ready, and..."

The entire team then exclaimed together, "Good to have you with us!"

Sakura stared at the little welcome ceremony that the team had for the newbies and was warmed at the sight. Up until now, she had never seen Shōyō be welcomed into something like this. Sure, in middle school he had the small team of six that he had been able to scrounge together for that one game, but it was nothing like this. He finally had something, a team, to call his own. For a moment, it made her think. A short thrill of fear stuck her for only a millisecond at that thought.

He had somewhere. A place that Sakura couldn't really be. He had a team now that wouldn't really need her like in middle school. So what would happen to her? She has nowhere else, no one else, not really. Well, she had the photography club now... Maybe she could find a place there, considering Shimada seems to really like what Sakura had already done. If she tried, Sakura could have someplace of her own, away from Shōyō. Though that terrified her to an extent. Still, only time would tell what would happen to her. Perhaps she was just exaggerating over something silly. Even if she could be quite a logical person, there were times where she just worried too much.

It seemed like Kageyama and Shōyō were thinking along somewhat of the same thing as Sakura had. Well, the thought that they had a team now, not her crisis. They shared a glance with each other before turning back to their new team, "Thanks!"

Now the four third-years gathered in a small group as they watched the other team members go on about the first-years jackets. Though it was more like Tanaka was going on about the jackets while Shōyō bounced around with him with a nearly unbearable amount of enthusiasm. His twin watched him with a raised eyebrow and minuscule smile. Though it slowly turned into a smirk when she said something to Tsukishima which caused the tall blonde to deadpan at what she said. Overall, they seemed to be getting along quite well.

Daichi sighed, "Anyway, got that out of the way." He turned to his vice-captain, "Suga, you and Tanaka helped them out, didn't you?"

"What?" Suga jumped and raised his hands in surrender, "No, not really."

"Oh~" Endo purred and slung an arm around Suga's shoulders and poked him in the sidws, "That's what your little secret was, huh?"

Daichi continued on, "Anyway, it all worked out. Thanks."

Endo, Suga, and Kiyoko all shared a look with each other before approaching Daichi. "Good job," The three said to the captain while Kiyoko and Suga patted him on the shoulders and Endo flashed him a smile with his thumbs up.

"What?" He asked, "Hey."

"Hey, Hinata, are you rested?" Kageyama called out to the orange-haired boy and picked up a volleyball. "You ready to go? Let's practice quick attacks again. Let's go it while you're still in the zone."

"Yeah!" Shōyō agreed and ran over to the setter to start practicing. Sakura eyed them in scared facination. She was used to Shōyō's seemingly never ending enthusiasm for things, as he was a volleyball freak, but to now have another boy like that was kind of freaking her out. The girl could already tell that the two of them were going to become good friend, which she wasn't looking forward to.

"Tanaka-san, please bring the balls."

The second-year blanched, "You're moving around already?"

Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, "The two of you never run out of energy, do you?"

"Perks of being a moron, I guess." Tsukishima spoke up from beside her. Sakura hummed at the comment but didn't say anything else. Once again, she wouldn't rise to any bait that the blond had laid out for her. The troublesome duo would have probably screamed at him for calling them morons, but Sakura was more reserved. So all he got was a slight eye roll and an indifferent hum. Frustrating him for yet another time.

Suddenly, the gym door bursted open violently as a man came in. He panted harshly which meant that he had just run to the gym. From the looks of it, he ran for some exciting news, "It's decided! It's decided!" The brown-haired, glasses wearing man flashed the group a large smile, "The practice match. It's against one of the top four teams in the prefecture. Aoba Johsai High School."

Everyone was shocked at the news for them. A practice match with Seijoh?! Whoa! Sakura thought back to whether or not she had heard of that school before. She believed that Shōyō had said it had one of the top volleyball teams in Miyagi, which is impressive. For a team like Karasuno to get to have a game with a team as pronounced as that was impressive.

Endo hummed at the news, a bit more indifferent to it than the others. In his time playing for Karasuno, he's never really played against Aoba Johsai. Sure, he's seen their games and was reluctant to say that they were quite a decent team. Though that was mainly because they had the Grand King as their captain, not to mention that pretty powerful ace of theirs. What were their names again? Eh, doesn't matter. Endo doesn't usually bother with remembering the names of peasants who don't matter to him. Still actually getting to play against them will be interesting.

"Oh." The man said as he approached the troublesome duo, "So you two are the controversial Hinata-kun and Kageyama-kun. I'm the volleyball club advisor starting this year. I'm Takeda Ittetsu."

"Hello," the two greeted him.

"I have no volleyball experience, so I can't help with your technique," Takeda explained with a smile, "but for anything else, I'll do my very best. It's good to meet you."

"Right!"

The teacher then turned his sights onto the other student who he was not familiar with. "Ah, and you must be the photographer I heard about." He bowed slightly to the girl who looked identical to the orange-haired boy. The only real different was that she was about a centimeter shorter than her brother, but you could only notice that if you looked long and hard that the two. Plus, her eyes lacked that childish spark that Hinata-kun had. Perhaps she was more mature than her brother. Lord knows they would need more mature minds around to balance out the troublesome duo. He marveled at the similarities between the siblings, "Wow, you look identical to Hinata-kun!"

Sakura sighed at once again being compared to her brother again. At least this time, she was refurred to the photographer first before she was she was called Shōyō's sister. "I'm afraid he's my twin brother," she shrugged her shoulders indifferently, "nice to meet you, sensei."

Daichi and Suga then approached the teacher with confused expressions, "Sensei."

"Ah..." Takeda started off sheepishly with a hand scratching the back of his neck, "I've been running around everywhere setting up the practice match, so I haven't had time to drop in here."

"But, Sensei, how did you get a powerhouse like Seijoh to agree?" Suga asked with wide eyes.

Daichi then worriedly asked, "You didn't get on your knees and beg again, did you?"

"No, no." Takeda answered with a close-eyed smile, "I'm good at getting on my knees and begging, but I didn't do that this time." Both the boys then sighed at that as Takeda looked down at the paper he had about the match, "But they had a condition."

The boys perked up and tried to sneak a peak at the paper, "A condition?"

"Kageyama-kun must play setter the entire game."

Everyone was surprised with the announcement that came with the match. The most surprised was a toss up between Kageyama and Suga. As the official setter of the team, it was pretty jarring for Suga to hear that he wouldn't get to play in the practice match. Why would Kageyama be chosen to be the setter for the entire game? He was a first-year, and not really on the starting line up just yet. Then that begged the question as to why Seijoh would ask that of them. Some one knew that Kageyama was at this specific school, they knew that he was on the volleyball team, and most likely wanted to play against him.

"What's that about?" Tanaka asked scarily which caused the teacher to sweat just a bit, "Sounds like they're not interested in Karasuno. They just want to assess Kageyama. Are they underestimating us? Are they?"

Takeda waved his hand, "Well, that's not quite how it is."

"Sounds good." Suga interjected, gaining the attnetion of everyone, "We don't get chances like this that often."

"You're going to agree to that, Suga-san?" Tanaka asked in surprise, "You're the official setter of Karasuno, Suga-san."

"I..." the vice-captain started, "I want to see how effective Hinata-kun and Kageyama's attack will be against a top four team."

The troublesome duo were surprised at their senpai's words. He didn't seem to be upset at the prospect of not being able to play. Though Tanaka and Endo were both a bit bothered at the idea of Suga not being able to play in this upcoming match. After all, they're only ever played with Suga as their setter. Looks like they're going to have to get used to Kageyama as their setter now, at least for this practice match.

Daichi glanced at Suga for a moment and earned a head nod before turning to their advisor, "Sensei, may we have the details?"

"Sure. Um..." Takeda started to explain, "the schedule is rather sudden, but it's set for Tuesday next week. It'll be after classes, so there will only be time for one game. We'll rent a bus after school... So make sure you're not late."

Sakura tilted her head and watched the team crowd around the advisor. A practice match, huh? She thought, playing against such a skilled team as Seijoh will most likely be a challenge, especially for a team that only just got some new players. Though I'm interested to see how they do.

While Sakura wasn't exactly sure whether or not she could actually come with them, she was going to try her best to go with them. After all, this was going to be the first game that Shōyō has had since middle school. Hopefully, it would have a better ending than that one did. There were far better odds with their win than there were stacked against them. Sakura would certainly want to be there to see the game if they ended up winning.

After being told the last few details of the match, everyone nodded their heads, "Yes."

---

The gym was all cleaned up from practice now as they finished up. Sakura had grabbed her bike as they finished up putting away the last of the volleyballs and finished up mopping the floor. She met up with her brother once they were finished and found that they were heading down the hill to a convenience store at the bottom. So she was forced to go with them, since Shōyō hadn't wanted either of them to ride home alone. At least she would get something out of it.

"Suga-san!" Shōyō shouted as he and Sakura walked their bikes beside Tanaka and Endo. They were more than excited at what their captain was going to do with them. After all, free food is always a good thing.

"Suga-san," Tanaka called out, breaking the conversation between their two setters. "Daichi says he's gonna treat us to meat buns!"

"One thing though, Kageyama." The quartet approached the two and heard the last bit of the conversation between Kageyama and Suga. "Aoba Johsai is the high school most players from Kitagawa First go to, isn't it?"

Kageyama nodded his head, "Yeah, I think so."

"I just thought it might make things hard for you."

The younger setter glanced down for a moment but answered him confidently, "Maybe, if we were on the same team, but if they're my opponents, I'll fight them with everything I've got."

"I see." Suga smiled, seeing the passion in Kageyama's words. He certainly seems to have changed since middle school, which is a very good thing for them. "You're right."

"Thank you."

Tanaka jumped in between the two of them and looked frantic, "But are you sure about this, Suga? I... I kind of have trouble accepting it!"

"Yeah! You're our official setter!" Endo joined in with the second-year and grabbed Suga's shoulders. He pointed dramatically at Kageyama, "Not this gloomy king!"

Kageyama bristled and shouted at his senpai, "What did you say!"

"Of course, I don't like it," Suga said, breaking in between the two and pushed Endo's hands off of him, "but... we gotta show those guys that Kageyama has changed a lot since middle school."

Daichi then came out of the convenience store with two large bags filled with meat buns. As a good captain, he had decided to buy the team a treat after practice. Was it most of his money for the week? Maybe. However, the team deserved it, he thought. "Yeah." He handed off one of the bags to Shōyō who yelped happily at the sight, "We have to show them that they're up against more than just Kageyama. Right, Hinata-kun?"

They turned to find that Shōyō had already started to eat his food before them. Sakura munched on one as well next to him, though barely acknowledged them as she enjoyed her food. "Y-Yesh, shir!" Shōyō shouted while he stuffed his face full of meat buns.

Tanaka and Kageyama then ran at him and grabbed the poor boy by his shirt to raise him into the air. Tanaka shouted, "Why are you eating before the rest of us?"

"Don't screw around!" Kageyama yelled.

The convenience store clerk, a twenty-something-year-old man with died blonde hair and a cigarette hanging from his lips, then came out of the store and raged, "Hey, Volleyball Club! No trouble in front of my store!"

"Sorry, sir." Tanaka and Kageyama apologized.

Sakura watched the scene as she passed the bag of meat buns to Suga. "Are they always going to be like this?"

The third-year shook his head fondly, "most likely."

Sakura nodded her head, obviously already accepting this as a fact. This team was definitely going to be a handful. She placed her meat bun in her mouth and pull up her camera from around her neck to take a look at it. I'm going to have to sort through these later, she thought, I'll have to do it after my homework, we got assigned a lot today.

"Wow, these are some pretty good pictures, Hinata-chan." Sakura was startled slightly at the sound of Daichi's voice right next to her. Apparently, as she was looking through the pictures that she had taken, Daichi had approached her and peeked over her shoulders at her camera.

She flushed slightly at the attention but made sure to keep as much redness off of her face. At most, only the tips of her ears were a deep red in embarrassment. She cleared her throat and duct her head slightly, "Oh, thanks, Daichi-senpai." She rubbed the back of her neck, "They're only practice shots, I guess."

"Are you going to enter them into the gallery?" The captain asked while the team headed into the convenience store to hang around for a bit.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders sheepishly and glanced away from him timidly, "I'm not sure. I still don't know much about it, or even what to enter into it."

Daichi smiled encouragingly and patted her on the back, "Well, any of your pictures will look good in the gallery, I think."

"Thanks," Sakura mumbled out still slightly embarrassed.

Seeing the usually stoic(and sometimes scary) Sakura even a little bit embarrassed drew a few prying eyes, wanting to see what she and the captain were talking about. Tanaka also came over to look at over her shoulder, "Whoa, not only are you cute, but you also take amazing pictures!" He shouted, "Hinata-chan is amazing!"

Sakura scowled and pushed him away from her which caused him to fall to the ground, "back up."

Endo lumbered over to them slowly. He bent down slightly to be to look at the girl with a pout. Something seemed to bother him and whatever it was, Sakura didn't want to know. Endo was such a strange guy and it may or may not have scared her just a bit. He softly asked her, "You let them call you 'Hinata-chan'?"

"Not really," Sakura answered while backing up from the boy who started to invade her personal space. She really should have just headed home without Shōyō to avoid hanging around these boys. Sakura had more important things to do, like homework.

Endo pouted with his bottom lip jutted outward as he walked towards her forcing her to back away, "Why can't I?"

"Because I tolerate him," Sakura said blandly pointing to the captain and then at the shaved-headed boy, "Tanaka is on thin ice." She added with annoyance tainting her words like it explained everything. Which it kind of did. Tanaka was slowly but surely proving to be a pain, just as much as Endo. The third-year just unnerved her a bit more. Endo got on her nerves, what else was there to say? While Tanaka was loud and in her face sometimes, Endo could be the same and more. Like he had alternative motives for some of the things he did. What those alternative motives are was unknown to Sakura.

Honestly, she didn't really care whether or not someone used -chan or -san to address her. It doesn't bother her all that much. She found such simple honorifics were kind of stupid. However, for someone as annoying as Tanaka or Endo, she didn't want to be referred to in such a familiar way. She didn't want anyone to think that she was actually close friends with those two morons.

"Does that mean you don't tolerate me?" Endo asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him as she could see the shine of something else in his irises. He was thinking of something, there was more to this than simply her tolerating him like this. Why was he so butthurt over this? "Yes."

"Wah!" Endo started to cry and grabbed the small girl into a tight hug. Fat tears streamed down his cheeks as he started to sob loudly, " you're so mean, Hinata-chan!"

Sakura bristled and tried to push him away from her personal space harshly, "Were you not listening, you half-wit! Stop being so familiar! I'm Hinata-san to you, boke!" She fought against him harder, "Let go!"

It wasn't much use considering Endo just ended up picking Sakura off of the ground and swinging her around while crying. She looked like a ragdoll in his hold. Well, she was about as tall as a doll, in all honesty, she didn't have much strength either so she was at his mercy. Endo was then chopped on the back of the head by Suga who glared at the blond. He dropped the small girl to turn to his fellow third-year and whined like a child. "Suga! That hurt!"

"Don't attack Hinata-chan like that!" He shouted at him in a reprimanding tone. Honestly, he was just filling the role of the team mom more and more. He grabbed Sakura as well and made sure to steer her away from Endo. As much as Suga would love to see Endo pummeled into the ground by the feisty girl, they had a game coming up, and they needed everyone to be game ready. Though next time, he'd be more than glad to let Sakura at Endo for his behavior.

Though his commands didn't seem to get through to the drama queen, "even Suga can call her 'Hinata-chan'! Wah!"

---

The next morning was somewhat similar to all of the previous ones. Shōyō woke Sakura up at an ungodly hour of the morning, forced her to get breakfast, and then ushered her to get on their bikes to ride to school. Sakura huffed and puffed as they biked along the road, she cursed herself for choosing to go to Karasuno with Shōyō. She could have picked a school that was far closer and within walking distance. But no! She had to follow Shōyō to a school over thirty minutes away because she couldn't be without her brother. How pathetic.

Once they got to the school they quickly made their way to where they usually put the bikes for the day. Shōyō was more than happy to have another day at practice. This was mainly because they'd have to discuss more about the upcoming practice match. There just seemed to be only one problem.

"Ne, but imouto-!"

Sakura cut off Shōyō as they finished up putting their bikes away, "I said I'm not going to your practice today."

"Why!?" Shōyō shouted and looked to be on the verge of tears. His twin not coming to his practice!? That's never happened before! What was happening?!

"First of all," she started to explain, "there's no point in me going since I am not actually apart of the club."

"But-"

She continued to speak as if he didn't just try to interrupt her, "And I'm meeting up with Shimada, I have to ask her about the gallery that's in a little bit."

Her twin perked up, though he was obviously downtrodden to see that Sakura was adamant about not coming with him to practice. "Oh, yeah! I heard a few people talking about it." He tapped his hand on his chin, "I guess it isn't that popular except with a few clubs."

Sakura shrugged her shoulders and started to walk away, "Either way, I think I wanna enter a picture into it."

"You should!" Shōyō cheered and bounced in place, it seemed like he radiated as brightly as the sun. He surely lived up to their surname. "It'll be really cool to see your pictures on display in a real gallery thing."

The shorter twin scratched her cheek bashfully. "Yeah... I guess." The neverending enthusiasm that her brother had about everything was both annoying at times and amazing. He had such positivity in him while she was filled with basically only negativity. Opposites they are. You probably wouldn't find another pair of twins who were as different as the Hinata twins.

"See you later then!" Shōyō shouted before parting ways with his twin and headed to the gym while Sakura went off to find the photography president. They would meet up after his afternoon practice and her club activities. The pair of twins weren't in the same class at Karasuno. Actually, they never really have been. That was thanks to Sakura's talent when it came to academics. She would never really like to admit it out loud, in fear of sounding conceited, but she found school to be easy. Which was most likely why she was placed in class five this year. Studying came easy to her, something that she liked to point out to Shōyō every once in a while. Sure, Shōyō was far more athletic than Sakura, but she had her academics to make up for it.

Though that wasn't something to think about right now. The orange-haired girl found that it took a little bit to actually find the older girl. Sakura had searched the club room and found nothing, then she checked her senpai's class and once again didn't find her. Shimada was certainly far more elusive than Sakura had thought. After a fifteen-minute walk around the school grounds, Sakura magically came upon Shimada outside in the courtyard.

She was talking quite animatedly with some other students. Whatever it was the brown-haired third-year girl was quite passionate about it. Sakura debated for a moment whether or not it would be a good idea to approach her now, but didn't have much of a choice.

Shimada caught sight of Sakura a little ways away and seemed to vibrate in place. Before Sakura could even attempt to run off, once the older girl caught her in her sights there was no way Sakura would escape.

"Ah!" The president bounded over to Sakura and basically ditched whoever she was talking to, "If it isn't our best photographer ever!"

Sakura stared at her with pinkness starting to crawl up her cheekbones. "I'm not that good senpai..."

Shimada chuckled loudly, "No need to be bashful Hinata! You're very skilled."

"Right," the younger girl said trying to pull the conversation in the right direction. "Well, I wanted to ask about the gallery coming up."

Shimada jumped at that as stars entered her eyes. It was quite obvious that she was passionate about this. Sakura had seen this look before. It was the same look that Shōyō had whenever he talked about volleyball. Just another person who had something that they valued to an unbearable amount. Though, as Sakura thought about it, isn't it a good idea to be obsessively passionate about something than have nothing at all. "Yes, yes. I'm more than happy to explain anything." Shimada drew Sakura from her thoughts, "We have a gallery nearly once a month, twice if we feel like it. It's a time for photographers and artists to show off their skills for a few days." Shimada scratched the back of her neck and chuckled sheepishly, "I'll be honest, it's not been as popular as it used to be, but it's still fun!"

Sakura took in that explanation and tapped her chin in thought, "What sort of pictures should I enter in the gallery?"

"Well, anything really." Shimada started, "Usually, we pick a theme for galleries, depending on the month. Like in August it's a sort of fall theme, October is usually scary things or something, December is Christmas and so on."

"Interesting," Sakura clicked her tongue in thought. It made sense, she supposed. Honestly, even if Sakura has been a bit of a photographer for some time now, she had never really been to a gallery or anything. So this was new to her.

"Yeah, the gallery that we're having next week is all about new starts!"

Sakura tilted her head with a brow arched, "What does that mean?"

"Well, the new school year started up, I thought that choosing something like new start, new inspiration, something that just means rebirth would be a good gallery theme, don't you think!"

It seemed like a good topic, Sakura thought. She understood it considering it was the start of the new school year, and as she kept reminding herself, high school was all about reinventing yourself. "I guess."

"We'll talk more about it at the next club meeting," Shimada said with a wave of her hand, "that way everyone knows what we'll be doing!"

"Hai."

The day dragged on like normal after that. Sakura took notes, did her classwork, and idly spent her time with her peers. While she had no other choice but to socialize with these other first-years, Sakura didn't make friends with them. She never really had the ability to make friends, that was Shōyō's thing. He was the one who had the skill to talk with people, to make friendships. Of course, Sakura had the ability to talk to other people, but she didn't have the skill to make lasting relationships. It was sad to think about it.

Sakura didn't really have anyone besides her family. In middle school, she had Shōyō's friends to hang around with, but nobody to really call her own friend. It was always Shōyō's friends, Shōyō's hobbies, Shōyō's life. There was never anything for just Sakura. She never minded, why would she? All she's ever had was Shōyō, so why would she want to leave what she knew? Sakura didn't like uncomfortable situations, and leaving Shōyō was equivalent to leaving her comfort zone. Leaving his side meant abandoning what she knew, leaving her twin meant having to make new connections, new friends. As much as she liked the idea of creating her own friends or interests, she was anxious about it. After all, she's spent the passed fourteen-years with Shōyō and she doesn't know what she would do if she distanced herself from him now.

Though that wasn't important at the moment. She'd rather focus on the present and not her own existential crisis. Sakura was currently making her way towards the Boy's Volleyball Clun room at a lazy pace with her hands stuffed deeply into her pockets. She didn't want to think about how socially inept she was. All she wanted right now was her brother. Maybe then her heart would stop hurting so much or her blood would stop burning in terror. Just being with her would reassure her that everything was fine because he was still there.

"Ah, Hinata-chan." Sakura turned at the call of her name and found that Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were heading the same way she was. Most likely heading to the volleyball club room like her. It was Yamaguchi who had called out to her, well, it certainly wouldn't be Tsukishima to greet her, "Good afternoon."

"Pipsqueak." Tsukishima simply said with a smirk aimed down at her. Ah, there was that snide expression on his face that Sakura did not miss in the slightest.

"Hello, Yamaguchi-kun." She nodded her head in greeting the taller boy kindly before setting her eyes on the one next to him. Her eyes narrowed a fraction, as she turned from them and continued to walk, "Bitchy, blond giant."

Tsukishima's smirk dampened slightly at her name-calling. He sneered just a little bit but made sure to keep his tone indifferent, "Hm, someone seems bothered, eh? Paparazzi-chan?"

Sakura sighed softly and didn't even give him the satisfaction of looking back at him. She just continued to walk off with them trailing behind her to the club room. "I'm not bothered by anything, just annoyed that I had to run into you." She liked hearing the scoff that she got from him in response.

"Are you going to come with us to the practice match?" Yamaguchi asked.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders non-committedly, "I'm not sure."

"It would be nice if you did, I think..." Yamaguchi said softly and glanced away shyly. Sakura took a quick peek at him and found that he was blushing just a little bit, it made him look cute. There was no way she could deny that.

She tilted her head, "Really?"

"We don't need another shrimp hanging around the gym at the match." Tsukishima cut in with his differing opinion. He didn't like the fact that Yamaguchi had decided to be so nice to her. Though his friend was quite the softy when it came down to it. A good reason why they were probably good friends since they were somewhat opposites of each other and balanced each other out. Still, that didn't help the fact that Tsukishima liked seeing Yamaguchi warming up to the annoying girl. This could only mean that she would end up being around him more if she and Yamaguchi became good enough friends. Still, he doubted that Sakura would actually try to be friends with him, she was far too attached to her brother to actually make friends. He didn't need anyone to tell him that as it was quite obvious.

"And I don't wanna be around a snide asshole like you, but we don't get what we want, do we?" She said calmly, though they could tell that she was being snarky with him. Sakura paused for a moment and pursed her lips in thought, "I think it would be cool to see all of you play though."

Yamaguchi shook his head in depression, "It's not like I'm going to do much, I'm nothing but a benchwarmer." All of the other first-years were special in some way. Kageyama is a genius setter, Hinata-kun could jump super high, and Tsukishima was extremely tall. Yet Yamaguchi didn't have anything special about him that the team could utilize.

"Hm?" Sakura hummed before waving her hand in dismissal, "You'll probably do fine, Yamaguchi-kun. Even if you aren't on the starting line up." She chuckled slightly, hoping that what she was saying was lifting his spirits. After all, she hated when people got sad or anything of the like. "If anything, Shōyō will most likely do the worst."

Yamaguchi eyed her in surprise, "Really?" Shouldn't she have more faith in her brother's volleyball abilities?

"He gets extremely nervous easily, especially right before a match." She explained as she remembered what it was like at his game in middle school, "I have no doubt he'll crack under all the pressure."

Tsukishima clicked his tongue, "Not a very good player then, is he?"

"My brother has skill, I know you can't deny that." Sakura stared with half-lidded eyes looking up at Tsukishima through her orange bangs. He stared right back with his golden eyes and neither of them seemed as though they were going to let up their staring contest. "He just doesn't have the nerve that comes with playing matches, at least not yet. Once he gets over it, he'll be fine."

"Tch." Tuskishima finally looked away from her and used his long legs to walk ahead of her. Sakura didn't mind and just let him lead the way. Let him sulk, she thought, he's beyond annoying. The trio made it to the building that housed the many club rooms and walked up the stairs to the Volleyball Club. They just rounded the corner when another orange-haired teen ran into Tsukishima. "Oh, I'm sorry." The giant apologized, though it was obvious that he was not since at all, "You're so small, I didn't see you down there."

Sakura was quite sure that he had bumped into Shōyō on purpose but didn't say anything about it. If anything she was more worried about why her twin was holding his stomach as if in pain and why his eyes looked sunken into his skull.

"Oh, right..." Shōyō said hollowly before waddling off slowly repeating the same phrase over and over. The pressure was definitely getting to him already, and the game was tomorrow. "I must not goof up. I must not goof up. I must not goof up... I must not goof up." The other first-years watched him go before Sakura sighed heavily and followed after him.

She finally stepped down the last step to approach her brother who looked as though he was going to puke at any second. "Hm, you alright there, nii-san?"

"I can't goof up, Sakura..." He turned to her with his face a dark blue and his stomach rumbling.

Oh, boy. The pressure was getting to him at a fast rate. She may have only really seen him get this anxious at the one game in middle school, but she already knew to stay a good few feet from him to make sure he didn't accidentally throw up on her. She pinched the bridge of her nose, "Geez."

"Hinata!" They heard Tanaka and looked up to the club room to see their upperclassmen had run out in only his underwear. "You're wearing my jersey pants!"

Shōyō looked down to see that he was in fact right, as the pants he was wearing were far too big. He was far too distracted to notice he took his senpai's pants by accident. At least he didn't walk out wearing his jacket as pants as he did in the club room. That would have been even more embarrassing!

"What are you doing, Tanaka, you pervert?" A girl from the tennis club shouted in disgust. She had the unfortunate luck of being just outside the club room when he came barrelling out. "What are you, stupid? You creep!"

Tanaka deflated at her words and slowly lumbered back into the room to wait for Shōyō to come back. He was wounded, how could a girl think that of him? Sakura hummed with her nose scrunched up in displeasure, "What a disturbing sight." They were able to hear Endo's obnoxious laughter from within the club room as he made fun of Tanaka. Yeah, Sakura thought to herself, these guys are definitely something else.

---

Nighttime had finally fallen on Miyagi and now the Hinata family were getting ready to sleep. Sakura had already finished up all her work for the night and her nightly studying to settle in her bed. All comfy and cozy under her blankets, sleep was about a millisecond away from taking her into unconsciousness. Sleep was the best part of her day, the one thing that she really looked forward to at the end of the day. Though her peace was broken by her idiotic brother.

"I can't sleep!" Shōyō suddenly shouted and started to toss in turn in his bed, "I can't sleep! I can't sleep! I can't sleep!"

The youngest Hinata, the cute and small Natsu, barged into her older siblings' shared room with annoyance. "Shōyō be quiet!"

Now half on his bed and half on the floor, Shōyō had the decency to look a little bit sheepish up at his baby sister. "S-sorry..."

"Honestly," Sakura scowled at her twin from under her blankets. Shōyō shivered at the sight of his angered sister and tried to hide in his bed. An angry Sakura wasn't a good Sakura. "Try to get some sleep. You'll have no energy for tomorrow's game if you don't!"

"Right!" He exclaimed and buried himself into his bed to appease Sakura. After all, he wouldn't want to anger her anymore. Sakura was one scary girl when provoked. Something that Shōyō was quite familiar with.

Sakura sighed through her nose and turned over in bed. She understood Shōyō's inability to go to sleep. He was excited and nervous about tomorrow. His first real high school game was going to take place tomorrow. Not only that but it was against Aoba Johsai, quite a powerhouse of a school. So she understood why he was nervous, why he couldn't sleep. However, he needed to! Not only for his sake but for hers as well. If he was going to be like this before all of his games, she should just move into Natsu's room. At least then she would know that she would get to sleep peacefully every night.

---

Sakura yawned loudly as she lined up next to her brother and the rest of the volleyball team. She found out that she technically was allowed to go with the team to just about any excursion that they had, as long as it didn't interfere with any important Photography Club business. So it was good news, Sakura could join Shōyō just about anywhere he goes with the team. All she had to do was take some pretty good pictures of their game and she was free to do what she liked. Plus, she had to be there for Shōyō! What kind of a sister would she be if she wasn't there to support her brother at his first game against a team like Aoba Johsai, even if it was just a practice match.

"Line up!" Daichi called out.

Everyone then bowed to Takeda, who had gotten them a small bus to ride to Seijoh. "Thank you for your help!"

"Okay," He smiled brightly and ushered everyone over. The group all boarded the bus with their gear and were rearing to go. Each of them was at least a little bit excited about the match. There was even a chance Tsukishima was excited. Though it would be pretty hard to decipher that, the tsundere bastard was hard to read.

Sakura's brown eyes swept over the seats on the bus and found that there were only two seats left open. One was in the back, right next to her brother while the other was towards the front next to Kageyama. The boy himself looked to be concentrating on his thoughts quite hard. Something troubling was on his mind, and the expression on his face would scare just about anyone. Not, Sakura though. So seeing it as her only choice, she plopped herself down in the seat next to him.

Kageyama was broken out of his thoughts when the girl sat next to him. His features were twisted into a nasty scowl as he glared at Sakura, "Shouldn't you be sitting with your brother?"

"No." Sakura simply answered and pulled out her camera to check it over. She had made sure to keep her camera charged and with an extra lens.

"Why are you sitting here?" He growled out hoping that she would take the hint and move seats.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "It was the only open seat."

"There's one next to Hinata-kun."

"And?" She asked and glowered lightly at him for the interrogation, "there's no way I'm sitting next to him."

"Why?" Kageyama asked harshly. Well, he wouldn't want to sit next to Shōyō either. That idiot would probably just bother him the entire ride there. Though he would have thought that the Hinata twins would want to be beside each other as much as they could.

"What?" Tanaka suddenly screamed from the back of the bus as they heard Shōyō heaving next to him. When they realized what had happened, it was certainly building up their confidence in their decoy. "Stop the bus!"

Now everyone was realizing just how badly Shōyō was cracking under the pressure. He was sick because of the nerves! This was even worse than they thought! Sakura sighed heavily through her nose and clicked her tongue, "That's why."