Sky Ball

I. Hello

Disclaimer: I do not own Haikyuu in any way, shape or form. I do not own any characters/settings... you get the point.

I felt like dissolving into my shoes. If it was possible, I would have. While I had almost been excited for high school, after forcing myself to realize the facts, high school was always stressful. You always had to watch what you were doing, making sure not to tick anyone off. Not only that, but food was expensive. Classrooms were hot. People were pushy. Teachers had no mercy. What was there to like?

No matter what, middle school was easier. I didn't have any friends, but I wasn't bullied either. It was more like I was just... there.

I was walking to school in the morning. Though I was walking with the soles of my shoes scraping against the ground, there was no sound of footsteps.

I continued my silent stroll when I came across a group of girls chatting. Honestly, there's nothing worse than that kind of group who screws up the entire sidewalk system by refusing to disband. There were three girls walking side by side, taking up the entire width of the sidewalk. They didn't notice I was right behind them, as no sound of footsteps could be heard, and, without fail, they didn't 'shrink' to make room for anyone to pass. Was this a 'chicken' kind of thing? 'First person to move loses!'? They should have disbanded.

"Oh my gosh, right? She totally deserves better," one of the girls commented to another in her group.

Even my sacrifice of waiting for them was in vain. They were talking about something irrelevant. It seemed like rumors were already starting.

The natural thing to do in this case was to say 'excuse me'. After all, I wasn't blessed with a voice for no reason.

When I thought of that scenario, however, two likely situations appeared in my mind:

One, where they apologized for taking up the sidewalk space and let me through.

The second, they would roll their eyes and ask, 'What's with her?'

Either way, there was a positive and negative to each situation. As to not disturb them, I chose neither of the choices and continued walking behind them, even at the tortoise-pace they had been going at.

At this rate, I would really be late for school.

"Hey, who're you?" One of the girls finally noticed me, and turned to address me. She began scanning my outer image. I became really self-conscious of this fact.

"My name is Aozora Kotori." In my ears, I sounded calm enough.

"Oh." She replied flatly. If she had just said, 'are you trying to get through? Sorry!' This whole situation would have been over.

"You know, she's not ugly, but she's so not hot, either. Pretty flat, actually," the second girl whispered to the third. I was a little peeved that they were remarking on my bust, but I didn't say anything.

"You know, I think I've heard the name 'Aozora' somewhere around here before... I think she's a first-year?" The first girl claimed.

The three girls began to exchange a series of facial expressions to try and remember where the first had heard my surname.

The third gave a sudden look of disbelief. "No way."

"What? What is it?" The second asked.

"Aozora Kotori! Her family's totally rich. Her mom's from an aristocratic family. Her dad's even in charge of a police squad, I heard, and they're really overprotective, from what I hear."

Why.

Those were all just misunderstandings that had somehow sprouted. My family wasn't aristocratic, but we were more of an upper-middle class house. We made more money than average. This was almost a given, since my mom was a financial adviser and my dad was a surgeon. They were both well-paying jobs. As for the police squad rumor, it was because of the time when some kids were trying to egg our house during Halloween and my dad's tongue slipped and said he'd call 'our police' instead of 'the police'.

"Um..."

As I was about to correct her, I was rudely interrupted by the first. "Oh, yeah, I knew I heard that name before! Are you really Aozora Kotori?"

"Um, yes, but—" I made another attempt to clear up the situation.

"Obviously it's her. Did you even need to ask? She already said so at the start!" The second one rolled her eyes. "It's nice to meet you! You're small, but really cute!"

Huh. That was kind of ironic, in a way, as she was making fun of my barely-B size earlier. Furthermore, I wasn't that short. Each year, I was the smallest possible height for average height each year. This meant that since the height average for my age group was 150cm to 170cm, I was 150cm. So I'm technically average height. Either way, their opinions changed of me quickly with the misconceptions they'd made up.

I looked at my watch and realized I was going to be late. It seemed that a conversation took too much of my time. I guess it was finally time to interrupt them.

"Can I get past you guys? I'm going to be late." I phrased it calmly, but it sounded almost rude in my ears. I internally scolded myself, and figured I'd apologize. Should I start off with 'sorry' or 'I meant...'?

"Oh, yeah. See you, Aozora." They made way for me and began to gossip in their small clique again. I didn't want to interrupt them, so I just continued on my way.

I was mostly used to this kind of behavior.

When I said at the beginning that I 'didn't have any friends', I guess that technically wasn't true. I had friends, but they were just like that—the kind of 'friend' who would notice me when I was walking near them (which was a feat in itself) talk to me for a bit, and then leave. So it wasn't that bad of a life, since being 'hard to confront' also meant you wouldn't get bullied. So things could've been worse.

Didn't mean I was happy with it.

At the end of the day, I shuffled out with the rest of the class. It was the same as yesterday, the day before that... the same as everyday. Like usual, the gaze of people passed over me.

Most people think that having rumors that aren't negative about you make you popular, but my entire existence seemed to prove this wrong.

I was leaving the classroom when I heard the guy beside me say, "The work today was really hard! I've got tons of history homework..."

To double check, I looked at my stack of homework to find my own history workload. It soon occurred to me that it wasn't there. I could've sworn I put it in my folder, though...

I hoped this wouldn't turn into something that happened frequently as I headed back to the classroom. As I was about to turn right into the room, I was met by a familiar face.

His eyes widened for a second, but instead of bumping into him like I would have, he backed to the side quickly. "Oh, sorry."

Even if he was short, that didn't dictate his fast reflexes.

"No, it's my fault. Sorry, Nishitani-kun." I apologized to him.

He stared at me for a few seconds, but then looked confused. "Nishitani...? Ahh! No, it's Nishinoya."

Eh? But... eh...? The kanji in his name reads Nishitani*! I hadn't talked to him, but I'd read his name on a lot of occasions. I still didn't bother to correct him. After all, he knew his name better than I did.

"O-Oh, I'm really sorry." I bowed to him slightly as a form of apology before heading into the classroom.

The only person in there was Tanaka Ryuunosuke, who quickly walked up to his friend. "Oi, oi, oi. That girl you just ran into. Don't you know her?"

Nishinoya looked at me, clearly not knowing anything about me. "Uh, Aozora... something-or-other?"

Tanaka shook his head. "Aozora Kotori! Her mom's nobility and her dad has their own police squad. They're super rich and protective."

"Oh, really," Nishinoya replied casually, but sounded as though he genuinely didn't care—or that was my own misconception. He looked at me for a few seconds.

"Well, we better get going. Daichi isn't gonna wait forever, you know," Tanaka said.

"Oh! Yeah, right." He turned his gaze away from me and they started heading out to wherever 'Daichi' was. Wasn't that the name of a third-year? Weren't they on a sports team?

I looked in my desk for the history project I had apparently forgotten, which was rare for me, but I couldn't find it in my desk, either. I looked back at the pile in my arms, and found it stuffed in-between my agenda, and not in my history folder.

I sighed at my stupidity, and walked out of the classroom.

When I walked into class 1-2 the next morning, I was greeted with, "Morning, Aozora."

I looked at Nishinoya in amazement. Some people gave him a stare, while others paid no attention or didn't hear. He looked unaffected, though—still remaining with a small grin at me.

I looked at him for a few moments, just to process the fact that I had received a friendly greeting. It wasn't that rare, but the difference was that I didn't even go near him, nor did he ever say hello to me until that point.

"Good... morning...?" I probably sounded very confused. He turned his attention away from me and continued to talk to one of his friends before homeroom started.

But he knew. He knew about the rumors, and unlike everyone else, still decided to talk to me.

That day, the only thing on my mind was that 'Morning, Aozora'.

For the next few weeks, the same routine happened in the classroom—when I entered, he would go out of his way to say 'hello' or 'good morning', and I would always reply likewise, with a neutral expression.

When I went home one day, I did my normal routine: worked on homework while letting the TV play in the background.

"Kotori, did something happen today?" My dad asked while preparing dinner.

I stopped doing my homework and looked at him. "Eh...? What do you mean by that?"

My dad shrugged. "Well, you've been smiling a lot more often lately."

I blinked a couple of times. I suddenly became conscious to the fact that I was smiling. But why was I smiling...?

Ah, it must have been Nishinoya. Since I never had many friends, the fact that he, alone, said 'hello' to me every morning must have made me really happy.

"So I was wondering if anything happened..." my dad continued.

"No, it's not really... anything special." It wasn't a lie.

My father eyed me carefully. "So it's not a boy or anything."

"Well, it's a boy, but I don't like him. Ah, wait, no, I like him, but not in that way... if you know what I'm saying... well, we're more like acquaintances." I hadn't even tried lying my way out of it.

"Okay, but you shouldn't be interested in guys. You need to prioritize your studies so you can get a future." My father seemed strikingly serious.

I said I understood. Why is he still telling me that? "I know. Of course."

Then again, he said it as if a guy would actually like me. That was a joke.

"Well, even if you do like a guy, he might just be taking advantage of you."

Taking advantage of me...?

At first, I didn't understand. Why would someone take advantage of someone like me?

The rumors.

It was the only thing that really made sense. I mean, why would he only start it after learning the rumors about me, when all year I'd been in the same class as him? If that was the case, then 'good morning' would have had no special purpose. Nishinoya would have been the same as everyone else. It wasn't genuine at all.

I decided that I shouldn't encourage his behavior, especially considering the rumors weren't true. If I did, I would have wasted his time, and caused trouble for both him and myself.

this story takes place during nishinoya's first year. In other words, kageyama and hinata don't come in until next year. It's not too far off, though. since we know nothing/very little about what happened last year, i just put him in Class 1-2 since it's mentioned that class 1-4 and 1-5 are college prep classes, so he wouldn't be there.

*西谷: i read this as "nishitani" when i was reading the raws, and found that it was really easy to mix up, since it can be pronounced 'nishi' and 'noya'. nishinoya, i assumed would be 西之谷. i was wrong.

anyway HAHA! it's volleyball season at our school and to get myself pumped I decided to watch haikyuu. it filled my intentions. and more.

so i fell in love with haikyuu!.

i hope you guys enjoy this story, and i hope i don't fall into a haikyuu hiatus.

favourite, follow, review, whatever you feel like doing.

#ssb