Chapter 2:
The next day class went by in a flash, maybe it was due to the fact that one of Mai's games was today.
I remember her telling me she had all away games after this one until the Championships.
Once the last class was over I made my way over to the Gym where the volleyball game is being held.
Once I got there I saw Mai stretching on bleachers.
"Hey Mai." I said sitting next to her.
"Oh Hana!" She said with excitement hugging me.
"So who are you playing against." I asked.
"Some players from a high school called Hatoful High?" Mai said.
"You sound uncertain." I said.
"Well it's a school that I never played before they just got a volleyball team...which makes sense since they are 0-8." Mai said.
"Oh so you should beat them right?" I said.
"Ehh probably anything could happen though." Mai said.
I stayed silent, sure I am expecting her to win, but there was always that slight chance that they could lose and lower their chances at the playoffs.
I heard a whistle from the coach, "Well that's the whistle to practice bye Hana." Mai said as she got up and ran to the court.
I just sat there waiting for the game to start, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, I still had to practice for the Normalboots v. Hidden Block Club tournament in a few days.
Dumbledoons Revenge...who would have thought that this game would be the game that could get me into the Normalboots club
I was playing for a while, well more so practicing for a while, until I heard a whistle and saw the Hatoful High players are here.
I put the game away and proceeded to watch the game.
It was a tight game, for a team that's zero and eight they are keeping the game close in scores.
That is...until they scored with 7 seconds left in the game...and Hatoful High won the game.
The Hatoful team were celebrating, for good reason, since they are no longer a 0-9 team...but it hurt that their only win was from us.
I said Mai...her head was hanging as she grabbed her bag and walked out the door without saying anything.
'She's taking this really hard, I should go talk to her.' I thought as I walked back to our dorms.
Back at our dorm room, I saw Mai faced down on her bed.
"Mai?" I asked and she didn't respond.
"Mai…" I said she still didn't react, I looked around for anything to get her attention...then I remembered.
"Hey Mai there is a new episode of Vavatar." I said as she shot up.
"What really?!" She said but she looked at me.
"Oh hey Hana." Mai said all sollum.
"You taking this harder than I thought you would." I said.
"Well if you lost to the worst team in the league then you'd feel that way." Mai said laying face up.
I climbed up and laid next to her, luckily her top bunk is massive, and hugged her.
"It's okay, and look at it like this you can still make it to the playoffs." I said hugging her shoulders
Mai then returned the hug, "Yeah...but it feels awful." Mai said.
"Well I watched the whole game, it totally wasn't your fault you got 3 out of the 4 points." I said as she laughed.
"Yeah well I didn't want you to be bored the whole game." Mai said with a smile.
"And don't tell Mimi...but she didn't do shit." I said laughing.
"Ooohh you said a bad word." Mai said in a teasing manner.
"Oh sorry, she didn't do anything." I said laughing louder.
"Yeah she isn't exactly the best volleyball player." Mai said, "That's why she's near the back so she can't possibly mess it up." Mai added laughing with me.
"So Mai...wanna watch that new episode of Vavatar?" I asked as she shot out of bed and grabbed her tablet.
"Hell yeah!" She yelled as she laid next to me again and we watched the episode turns out it was a double episode movie type season finale, meaning I fell asleep almost instantly.
The Next Morning, school was going on as usual, though Mai didn't have another game until Tuesday, but she did tell me that she needed me for something at the gym after school.
Class wasn't very eventful, aside from Ms. Shizuka talking about another rejection, and Jared arguing with Paul about how the Fashion Show is more important than the Class elections...again. I went to the Gym to meet with Mai.
"Mai did you need something." I said walking in.
"Oh you're here, great I need a practice buddy." Mai said in her uniform.
"Wait What?" I asked.
"Well no one wants to practice with me, saying they're all busy with school and projects, so I need your help." Mai said.
"But I never played volleyball...ever." I said nervous about this.
"Hmm...then I'll teach you." Mai said as she grabbed a volleyball from the basket.
She then lifted it up and hit it with the palm of her hand.
"So that's how you serve in volleyball, there is another way to serve but that's the official serve method." Mai said as the ball landed in the center of the other court.
"So when the ball is in the air there are two things you can do, an underhand pass." She said as she cupped her hands and swing up with her fore arms.
"Now you can't hit too hard because if it hits the ceiling it's the opposing team's point, but you have to hit it hard enough for the ball to go over the net, if not then it's also their point and their serve." Mai said.
"You want to use the underhand pass when the ball is not above your head you'll see why in a second." Mai said as she demonstrated the underhand pass.
"Now it may sting at first but you'd get use to it." Mai said grabbing another ball.
While she was talking I was taking mental notes, I felt my phone buzz in my vest pocket but I ignored it.
"Shouldn't you get that?" Mai asked.
"Hmm...Nah it's probably not important." I said as Mai raised an eyebrow.
"It could be Normalboots." Mai said still remembering about the tournament soon.
I looked at her, and knowing she won't be convinced otherwise I took out my phone...she was right it was from Shane.
"Hey Hana: keep in mind our tournament is on October 13th." Said the text.
After reading it I went back to Mai.
"Was it still nothing?" Mai asked.
"Well it was from Normalboots but it was just the date of the tournament." I said.
"When is it." Mai asked.
"Octobre 13th." I said flatly.
Mai paused for a moment, "Oh okay that's good, Volleyball season should be over by then, so that way I can watch you in the tournament." Mai said with her trade mark smile.
"Great and I'll go to your finals." I said.
"Well I wouldn't say that now...but yeah!" Mai said with enthusiasm.
After that she went back into tutorial mode, "So this is a overhead pass." She said as she threw a ball in the air.
"What you want to do is when the ball is above you put your hands in a triangle formation and cusp the ball, once that happens you can boost the ball upward to the opposing people's side or to set up another player for a spike, which is an advanced technique where you jump as high as you can and deliver a hard downward swipe on the ball causing it to hurl down to the opposing team's area to score." Mai said.
"Mai have you ever considered being a volleyball coach?" I teased as she blushed.
"S-Sorry lost myself there." Mai said, I laughed.
"Anyway! Wanna try it." Mai asked.
"O-Okay…" I said still kind of nervous but at least I know what I'm doing sorta.
"Alright show me your overhead pass." Mai said.
A few hours or something along those lines of practicing with Mai, I did border line awful.
"You did good." Mai said tossing me a water bottle, "Though you're spiking could use some work." Mai said wiping sweat off her forehead with a towel.
I was practically drenched in sweat from running after the ball so much so much so that I took off my jacket and vest leaving my white button up shirt.
"That's stretching the truth." I said chugging my water bottle.
"Well you did good for one person, normally you have like six people." Mai said.
"Really?" I asked, I in all honesty thought there was more in a team.
"Yeah but we barely have any backups, in fact we don't have any left." Mai said.
"Wait what?!" I asked, you'd think there'd be at least two or three backups.
"Yeah the reason we don't have any left because some of us left for family matters, actually Mimi was a backup." Mai said...no wonder she sucks so bad.
"..." I-I have no words.
"Anyway let's head back it's like seven thirty and the Janitors need to clean up." Mai said I nodded and followed her back to our dorm rooms.
It was eight o'clock and I actually wasn't feeling tired, Mai however was nodding on and off again, it was Jon and PBG's show to day PB&J.
After a few minutes of listening in to their podcast radio show hybrid I heard super loud snoring...I figured it was Mai.
I looked at her and she fell asleep on her desk.
Not wanting to leave her there, I decided to carry her into my bottom bunk for reasons being that I could not carry her to her top bunk...though she is surprisingly light.
After I planted her on my bunk and put my pink blanket on her torso, I decided to throw caution in the wind and do it.
...I planted a small kiss on Mai's cheek.
I ran up the ladder quickly uncertain if Mai was awake or not and went to sleep.