Chapter Text
"I-I think I'm going to need a bathroom!" I squeaked as my hands began to shake in my lap as I looked out of the back window of Koji's 73 Omega as we rode into the school parking lot. The crowd of people nearly tripled that of middle school not too mention the diversity of social cliques that were already noticeable. Countless times before, Izumi and Koji had warned me of the groups that were in highschool, but nothing could quite compare to the reality of this. Some of them looked dangerous, and some look downright idiotic. Some looked extremely smart, and some looked super preppy. However, this wasn't the reason I was worried.
"Hinata, you've got seven hours of the school day to get through. You can't spend them in the bathroom, you have to make a name for yourself...or at least get the teachers to like you so they'll have sympathy on you when exams roll around," Izumi sighed and scratched his head from where he sat in the passenger seat, "What's got you so scared anyway? They are people just like you, and they don't have a reason to hate you yet."
I laughed and pulled on the collar of my blue button-up that rested easily over my white t-shirt, "W-well...y-you guys..."
Koji glared in the rearview mirror at me, "So you're embarrassed at us, huh? What the hell, Hinata?!"
"No! No! Koji, you've got it wrong. It's just these people...everyone is so...tall. I look like a kindergartener compared to these giants! I mean these guys are in jeans and leather and they've got cigarettes, or their super cool and have nice cars, or they're super smart! Just look at them! They're so...different than I expected!" I looked in amazement at the height of everyone getting out of their car and watched the different demeanor of everyone as they flocked to people like them, but my moments of observation were cut short when we pulled into a parking spot and boisterous laughter erupted in the car.
I looked to Koji and Izumi and then back again, but they were just laughing while my cheeks grew hot. "W-What's so funny, you guys? C-cut it out!"
As their laughter devolved into breathy huffs and a tear dripped from Izumi's eye, Koji whipped around as he unlatched his seatbelt, "It's funny because they are only overwhelmingly tall to you! Everyone else had their growth spurt! Now come on, short stuff," he reached back and messed up my hair, "it's time to go make our first impression."
If it had been anyone else laughing at me, I would have started a fight right then and there. I knew I was short. I'd been tall in elementary school, but then one day everyone around me started growing really fast while I was stuck at a mere turtle's pace. From that point on I'd always been conscious of my height and the disadvantages it gave me, and occasionally, I was the target for bullies. Well, I was the target until Koji and Izumi had my back. For some unknown reason they were always respected in school, but I saw them as just two nice guys no different from myself...well...maybe six or seven inches different.
I eased out of the car and stretched my arms then my legs. While the ride hadn't been more than fifteen minutes, and I hadn't been cramped, I felt suddenly tense--I felt like I was being watched like prey, causing my insides to turn flips.
"Hey, Hinata, get your backpack. We're heading in," Izumi called, several feet away from the car. Koji was already halfway down the sidewalk leading to the main entrance of the large brick school, and if not for his old black backpack, I would have never picked him out of the crowd. He already fit it.
Nervously, I grabbed my bag from the back of the car and put one foot in front of the other until I reached Izumi. The queasy feeling that I had subdued was back again and I had no fight left to resist it. This is it. I'm gonna hu--
"Hey! Hinata, look at that car! Who drives something that nice to school?" Izumi pointed to a dark emerald-green 1969 Camaro with white racing stripes that purred as it glided into a parking spot.
I typically wasn't some car enthusiast, but I will not deny that at the sight of that Chevrolet pulling into the parking lot I became slightly--only slightly--jealous. Staring in utter curiosity to see who would get out of the car, I noticed that everyone else had fallen silent and was doing the same. It was as if he was the center of attention, as if his presence was suddenly more important than anyone else's, as if he were a king commanding us all to fall at his feet, and we were his loyal subjects.
The door opened slowly and, in what seemed like years but was only a few seconds, he stepped out. His footing, his posture, his entire demeanor asserted his authority despite having his back turned to the crowd that lotted the campus. Some people were unaffected by his arrival, in fact several of them were, but they didn't speak; they just made their way into the school. I yearned for their strength--and also height--but want cannot get you everything, can it?
"Hey...he's a new kid right? One of the sophomores that are transferring over from the junior high?"
My gaze momentarily escaped the grand arrival of the school's newest nobility to focus on a silver-blonde haired-guy dressed in a peachy button-up that loosely outlined his figure and was tucked neatly under lightly worn jeans. The charcoal vest thrown over top would have looked atrocious on anyone else, except on him it only highlighted his small waist, giving him the mature yet slightly lanky appearance. He spoke, sounding as intrigued as everyone else was about the newest arrival--or well the newest arrival that anyone cared about--to a larger person with short clean-cut dark hair and olive skin. The latter wore a black, white, and orange Letterman's jacket over top of what appeared to be a band tee that I hadn't heard of, nor could I fully see the name print.
"I almost want to say he’s a junior, but I've never seen him around, Suga," the dark-haired person spoke before turning around, "We'll find out soon enough. Come on, or we'll be late to homeroom."
The silver-haired guy watched the newcomer with a pondering expression before turning around to follow his comrade, queuing my focus back on the guy in the Camaro.
His hair was short, raven-black, and slightly tousled possibly from riding with the windows down. I could make out that he was wearing a leather jacket which I hoped did not indicate that he was a metalhead, but considering he didn't drive in blaring music, the possibilities of that were slim. While I was lost in thought wondering what category he fit into, I missed the sudden jolt and the mass running away and carrying on of business when the kingly figured turned around on his heels, shut the door, and grabbed his backpack out of the back.
"H-hey, Hinata. L-Let's go, a-alright?" Izumi shook me lightly and jarred me back into reality; something was off about him as if he's been startled, but I didn't mention it, and instead followed him toward the entrance once I noticed that the stranger driving the nice car was gone. Skipping happily, I came to a sudden stop and looked at Izumi with a large grin, "Hey! Izumi! I'm not nervous anymore! It's a divine intermission!"
Giving a slight laugh Izumi shook his head, "Hinata, the word you are looking for is 'intervention'. You have your schedule right?"
I gave a nod, slightly blushing as a few girls who heard my slip-up passed by giggling, and pulled out the green paper my schedule was printed on. We had received our schedule two weeks ago, and to our dismay Izumi, Koji, and I had no classes together. Not even homeroom. It was upsetting to us all considering we were taking the same basic classes--with the exception of Izumi being in a few honors courses.
The classes would be filled with people I barely knew. I’d have to make new friends and get along with everyone and work together on projects with them. What if they think I’m lame? My hands began sweating, creating wrinkles in the paper my eyes were so closely fixated upon. Then, there it was again. My stomach began doing somersaults around my body and my mind grew fuzzy. Suddenly, I was dizzy and confused. I could see, but I wasn’t registering what was happening. I knew that Izumi had held the door open for me, and I had taken a step to go through, but somehow that caused immense laughter to erupt.
Suddenly I realized the worst possible thing had happened, and I’d managed to embarrass myself in front of the entire school before the first bell rang. The next thing I knew I was kicked in the head followed by an unconcerned, “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you were the door mat. Guess it doesn’t matter now though. Seems that you’ve taken its place.”
In an instant I jolted up, only to be sized up two times over by a tall blonde glasses-character and his evil, snickering sidekick.
The short-haired blond sneered with absolutely no emotion except satisfaction across his face, “What are you going to do, Shrimpy? Cut me with your safety scissors?”
Never was I one to over-react. I don’t care what people say; I never over-react. Needless to say, I responded appropriately by rearing back my arm and preparing to punch him in his tiny dick; however, my punch was caught by Izumi who gave me a glare. Seriously? Izumi you are worse than my mother. I rolled my eyes and let my hand fall to my side as I dusted myself off, “I won’t fight you now.”
The giant asshole gave a dry laugh, “You couldn’t fight me if you trie--”
“Oi,” a voice interrupted him, “Glasses guy, making a show out of others who are weaker than you only shows your absolute insecurity. I advise you to hurry up and get lost before you make an even bigger ass of yourself than you already have. That goes for your silent puppet of a friend, too.”
My eyes caught sight of a guy with raven-black hair that fell slightly into his stormy eyes. He was several inches taller than me--not that it was a new sensation--and crossed his arms over his chest. His t-shirt was charcoal gray with orange sleeves and wasn’t tucked into his worn jeans. He glared as if challenging the two until the tall one shrugged and left towards his class, followed closely by his silent companion.
This guy! This cool guy is standing up for me! He has to be my guardian angel! An appreciative smile swept over my face, but before I could speak, he turned his glare to me.
“Look, dumbass, if you think that you can get by in high school by making a complete idiot of yourself, have at it. I’ve seen all kinds of people, but you are by far the most pathetic. If you want to survive with the big dogs, you’ve gotta’ bite like them.” Once finished, he quickly turned on his heels and stormed off.
Nevermind. I did not like that guy. No matter who he was or what he did or what car he drove or what classes he had, I did not like him. Dick. I shoved my hands in my pockets and ignored the calls from Izumi behind me. I’ll show you who is strong. Who does he think he is? Calling me a dumbass. He’s the dumbass! Before I realized it, I had stormed right into my homeroom class and ended up bumping into the teacher.
At first she looked at me like I was an idiot; I had made her papers spread across the floor, but then her face softened, “Oh, I’m sorry honey. Are you here looking for your sibling? Where do you go to school?”
That was it. I hated high school. Drawing in a long calming breath, I sighed, “Miss, I’m in your homeroom, and I’d appreciate it if I could simply grab a seat? I apologize about the papers, but it’s been a rough morning.”
Not much was said after that. I didn’t wait for her approval. I didn’t wait for her to assign seats. I didn’t wait to see who was sitting on either side of me, but I wish I would have. Instead I put my head down and silently told myself that I hadn’t screwed up. It wasn’t like everyone had saw, and even if they did, hopefully they’d focus on the confrontation between Glasses and ‘Grr Face’ and ignore my blunder.
The door closed shut and the loud commotion of the room that I hadn’t taken notice of suddenly fell to silence as the teacher began to speak, “Listen up. Pay attention. Each morning you report here for twenty-minutes for morning announcements, so I don’t have any incentive of assigning you seats, so for the rest of the year, you’ll sit where you are now.”
Oh, whatever deity before me, please let me have sat somewhere nice. Beside people who are either going to ignore me or help me. Please let them be good people. Please. Please. Please.
Slowly, hesitantly I raised my head up ready to meet Lucifer on both sides of me, but to my first great surprise, the seat to my left was vacant.The seat on my right was taken by a disinterested-looking character who was playing some handheld game not giving any attention to anything else. This is my lucky break!
I peered over at the game he was playing and recognized it to be one of the Super Mario games that was released a few years ago. Before speaking I studied him. His black roots were showing, but they blended well with the rest of his blonde hair. His eyes were slits of amber. He reminded me of a cat, but not one of those fluffy house cats, the kind that runs the alleyways and hisses if you get too close.
"Do you...need something?" He questioned dully as he continued to focus on his game, expertly pressing the buttons with a quick precision.
Crap. I was noticed! "No, not really. I just noticed that I have the same game. I like to play it when I get home sometimes, you know? It kind of relieves stress, but then again if you fail a level you just want to take it and throw it across the room; you know that feeling too, right?" I had finally managed to immerse myself in conversation with a stranger, or so I thought.
"Well...not really." He blinked and shoved the console back into the pocket of his pants. At first, I thought he would say more; instead, he ended up twirling his thumbs in his lap.
I swallowed. He already thinks I'm weird. Oh God. "Well...I'm Shoyou Hinata! It's my first day of high school. I must admit that I wasn't exactly ready for all of these tall giants to be roaming the school, but it's not that bad I guess."
He paused and made a face faintly showing that he was pondering something, "Shoyou...Hinata.... You're the doormat from earlier, right?"
I'll never live this down, will I? As my embarrassment suddenly took hold, I rubbed the back of my head before speaking, "Well yeah...but...it was all an accident! It's not like I wanted to be the doormat or anything. I mean who does that? I was jus--"
"I'm Kenma Kozume, a junior." He said quietly without anything else to say.
He's a junior? I started analyzing my neighbor. His skinny, lithe form was small in size compared to most of the people that walked the halls, but he was still bigger than me, and that was no fair. I watch him as he stood up and gathered his things. He moved without purpose, seemingly relying on instinct alone. He really was a cat, wasn't he?
"Shoyou? Hey...the bell rang, it's time for you to find your first period..." he uttered as he slid his red backpack over his shoulder and continued out of the door.
While sitting there and contemplating on my unfortunate height, I had completely forgotten that I had no idea where any of my classes were...or what they were for that matter. I pulled out my schedule and then began the long journey that would soon become my daily, cringe-worthy routine.
The first four classes passed quickly, and I realized that I probably could have taken honors classes after looking at the course overviews. Before lunch, I managed to get English, Biology, Algebra, and History over with. The rest of the day consisted of Lunch/Study Hall, Physical Ed, and some Home Economics and Culinary class. Culinary was food right, so I'm basically getting a grade to eat, what more could you ask for?
Lunch went by way too fast. Kenma invited me to sit with him where I met his boisterous squad, and for the first time that day my short-lived career as a welcome mat hadn't been brought up. My next class was P.E., and I'd always been pretty decent when it came to athletics, so naturally I was looking forward to it. That was until Glasses, whose name I found out was actually Tsukishima, was also in that class. To make it worse, we wouldn't be playing any sports until the next month because the coach was on vacation still, so I was stuck doing worksheets of the musculoskeletal system for nearly an hour.
The next class brought more information I was unaware of prior to signing up for it: Culinary did not mean you would eat food, but instead learn how to make it, and computers make mistakes too I learned. According to the teacher, the two classes used to be separate until the classes kept getting smaller, so now both Home Economics and Culinary were combined. That was fine by me, but...the computer glitched and the entire class was full of guys, and apparently there was a family planning lesson. The teacher said we'd address it later when the time came. I took the seat next to the guy in the peachy button-up I saw earlier; he seemed friendly enough; plus, he didn't witness my fall.
As I set my backpack down by the foot of the table, I gave a friendly smile, "Hi."
He looked up from his notebook which he seemed to be drawing in. A friendly smile graced his face, "Hey. You're the sophomore who got caught up in a brutal fight this morning, right?"
Shocked and slightly embarrassed that even the seniors knew about the incident, I nodded, "I guess? But it wasn't exactly a fight. It all happened by accident and then the two others joined in. It wasn't anything special."
"Is that so? Well, whether you are a thug or a golden child, I hope we can get along. I'm Koushi Sugawara, but most people call me Suga." He turned to put his notebook back into his backpack before looking at me half-expectantly.
"Suga, huh? Well, I'm Shoyou Hinata, but most people call me Hinata...or now, "the guy who got in a fight the second he stepped, or tripped more so into high school." I shook his hand as more people spilled into the classroom before the bell.
A few moments passed before either of us spoke another word, but then Suga asked curiously, "So, besides me, how many people do you know in this class?"
Observantly, I looked around the classroom taking note that Kuroo was in this class, currently getting asked to remove his feet from the table. There was this guy in my English class that butted heads with me when the teacher said we'd play a game, but it wasn't a bad kind of opposition. His name was Inuoka. Nobody else seemed familiar enough to say I knew them, so I shrugged, "I know two of them. The guy in the black tee and red athletic pants is a senior named Kuroo, and the guy with the weird-colored hair and overly-positive attitude over there is Inuoka."
Suga nodded and pointed with his pencil to a table where two people sat, "The shorty with the wild hair and leather jacket is a force to be reckoned with. His name is Yuu Nishinoya. The man-boy beside Noya with the long pulled-back hair is Asahi Azumane... Asahi or sometimes wimp; despite his occasional moments, Asahi is a hopeless romantic child stuck in a thirty-year-old's body." Suga pointed his pencil at the table in the far left, "The guy sitting there, we call him Tanaka. He's a fiery guy, so don't get on his bad side. You'll have a bad time."
Suga and I continued to talk about ourselves as long as the teacher wasn't saying anything important. His aura was the exact thing I needed at the end of a long day, and despite my cooking skills being limited to instant ramen and my sewing skills were a completely different story, I had a new hope in the form of a well-dressed, benevolent senior.
The school day drew to a close rather quickly, and at the sound of the bell I said my goodbyes and thank yous to Suga before dashing out to meet Izumi and Koji.
"So, I signed up for both P.E and Physical Tra--" Koji was interrupted by Izumi once I ran up.
"Hey! Hinata! How are your classes?" Izumi smiled, obviously content with the day's progression.
"Well, you know it wa--Wait! The car! That Camaro! I can see who drives it!" With no further preamble, I pushed through the crowd that flooded toward the door and dashed out to the parking lot looking to see if I could find it, but the slot where it had been parked was already vacant and there was no sign of it being anywhere nearby. As the frustration built up, I frowned and sighed before sitting in the grass. Footsteps approached me from behind indicating that Koji and Izumi had already caught up.
"You always run off without thinking or asking, " Koji sighed, "If you really want to know who driv--"
"Hey! It's Suga!" I jumped up and my head connected with Koji's jaw, knocking him backwards, but I was unaware. I was what they called thick-skulled...or was it numb-skulled?
Suga turned around and waved with a slight smile, and I took the opportunity to run over and join him with the guy known as Asahi along with the short dark-haired guy from that morning. I realized a bit too late that I wasn't the type to typically run and join a group conversation...especially with people I had just met.
"Asahi, Daichi, this is Hinata. He's the sophomore who started the fight that's been the topic all across the school." Suga smiled and leaned against the black Ford Thunderbird that he apparently drove.
So...Daichi is the short-haired guy's name. "I-It's a pleasure to meet y-you!" I said a bit too quick and nervous.
Daichi let out a hearty laugh before patting me on the back, "Don't be so nervous. We may be seniors, but I assure you that we've already accepted our human sacrifice for the year." His words made the other seniors laugh, but even though I know they were a joke, I suddenly got more nervous.
"Hey! Hinata!" I heard Izumi shout my name from across the parking lot full of cars that were trying to pull out, "Koji said he's leaving! If you don't want to walk you better hurry over here."
No way am I walking fifteen miles home! "Ah! Sorry for uh...I gotta leave!" It was definitely the most awkward thing I had said all day, but I wasn't particularly concerned. They didn't seem like the type of people who'd hold it against me.
As Koji pulled out of the parking lot, Suga watched after the car and sighed with a thoughtful look on his face.
Daichi took notice of Suga's pondering expression before smirking, "You're thinking of inviting the small one aren't you, Suga? You've got that ‘I'm thinking intensely’ look smeared across your face."
Asahi looked at Daichi with slight concern, "But isn't he a little short? And kind of...well...sporadic? Would he even sit still long enough to learn the rules?"
Suga turned around, asserting himself with both hands on his hips, "Sometimes, Asahi, you don't have to teach someone how to do something. It comes completely natural to them. I'm getting that kind of aura from that little guy. It's a complete gamble, and I'm not saying that if we did ask him to come along he would. I'm just saying I've got a gut feeling about him. But as for now, we have Kageyama who's probably already there, so let's go see what this other sophomore has to offer. Right?" Suga opened the driver's door and slid into the seat with a content smile on his face before starting the car. "Let's go play some volleyball."