Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous.
Chapter 2
Adrien's POV
I chuckled as I saw Marinette's eyes widen at my jersey. The Cats knew all about the Ladybugs. Ever since I came to this team that's all Plagg seems to talk about. His girlfriend/ex-girlfriend (it's complicated), Tikki, is coaching Marinette's team. Although he's been telling us about how good this team is, I think ours is just as good.
1- Chloe (middle blocker)
2- Kagami (setter/right side hitter)
4- Alix (right side hitter)
5- Max (setter)
7- Mylene (libero)
10- Nino (outside hitter/left back)
11- Lila (middle blocker)
13- Adrien (outside hitter/left back)
I went back over to the Cats' side of the net and began peppering with Nino. I smiled at the thought. Nino and I became fast friends especially since we play the same position. We trust each other. I know that if I'm hitting he'll be right behind me covering, and if he misses the block he knows I'm ready for it to come over.
Tweet! "Captains!"
Nino and I walked over the down ref to see which team would get the serve. Turns out, Marinette and her friend are the captains for their team. Her friend seemed uncomfortable around Nino. Weird.
"Heads!" Marinette called. The ref flipped the coin over to reveal… heads.
I smiled at Marinette as she went back over to her side of the court. "Gather 'round children!" Plagg said somewhat sarcastically, "we've been preparing for this. Don't forget what I've told you about this team, okay? Cats on three! 1, 2, 3, Cats!" We went to our starting serve receive. I looked across to see Marinette as their first server.
I recognized a lot of the people on the Ladybugs, but some are new faces. I chucked at the memories of playing volleyball with some of them a few years ago. I scanned the court to see Ivan as their starting middle. I thought for a moment, "Ivan is a better blocker than Kim so since I'm starting front row, I really have to hit around the block."
Tweet! Bam!
Marinette sent a nice jump float over the net. Mylene got the ball perfectly to Max.
"Outside, outside!" Nino yelled. Max sent a set over to him. I winced as the ball was set to far in which forced Nino to not hit exactly as he wished. A red headed boy for the Ladybugs in left back dug the ball up to Marinette, their setter.
She jumped up like she was going in for a quick set with the middle, and Ivan was coming in fast when she sent a shoot set over to her friend (whose name I learned was Alya). Lila had already jumped with Ivan so it was up to Kagami to block this ball. Unfortunately, she was a millisecond too late. Alya ripped the ball down the seam between Mylene and Max. Neither one even touched the ball.
After several points, we were up 18 to 15. Marinette was currently front row and I just made it to front row. I smiled at her from the other side of the net and tapped her foot. She looked at me confused, "just because you're back in town doesn't mean you get to be all buddy-buddy right now. We're playing a game Adrien." She giggled at her own playfulness. "It's a nice way to reconnect."
Before I could get another word out, Marinette had turned to her team. Juleka shanked the pass slightly too far to her left. Marinette sprinted past Kim in the middle to meet the ball. Obviously, I thought, she was going to set the outside, Alya, because that's the best option for the situation at hand. I shuffled back to my defensive position for an outside hit.
But boy was I wrong about this play. As Marinette planted her feet for the set, she jumped up and dumped the ball behind her. I dove and reached out as far to my left as I could. I laid there in shock; the ball was 5 inches from being out.
Marinette just ran, flung her body backwards in the air and shot a ball almost 20 feet behind her at a trajectory that barely cleared the net and dropped so fast that I barely had time to react. This was going to be quite the game.
The Ladybugs took us to the 3rd set. Although we won the first set, the Ladybugs came back swinging in the second. It was 13 to 13; each team only needed 2 more points to win. Again, I was face to face with Marinette, "so if I win, you owe me a date."
"A d-date?" Marinette stuttered then turned red. Then again, we were furiously sweating so it could've been that. "Yep," I continued, "we haven't seen each other in a while, so let's catch up over ice cream after this." I winked as she turned back toward her team.
Two more points guys. Only two more points.
"Outside!" I yelled. Max gave me the most perfect, high 5set that he's ever executed. I did my approach toward cross court, but right as I was contacting the ball, I turned my body to hit the line. The ball hit Marinette's right hand, but went out of bounds. I smiled to myself, one more point. Nino served a deep top spin which Rose received. She overpassed just slightly, forcing Marinette to jump up for the ball.
It was a joust between us. As she went in to get a swing on the ball, I, being taller than her, stuffed the ball back down into her court.
We just won against the Ladybugs.
After the high fives, I went over to Marinette who was shuffling through her bag. "Good game Adrien. It's been a while since we've played volleyball together." I laughed, "Yeah it was nice, but we used to be on the same team." We both chuckled at this as we reminisced about our prior volleyball days. "So," I continued, "how about some ice cream?"
I'm doing my best to do this in a way that non-volleyball players can understand the game situations, but it's a lot tougher to put that into writing! Hopefully you guys are liking the story thus far!