Thank you to Osora98, LadyIcel, Iaeoris, quietcomedian, Artistpoppy, minnatarek, phetty. viet, and YomuHime for your support :)

Mikaela stared at the sheet of paper in her hands, studying her printing over and over again before she handed in to Shimizu. "Here," the manager said, trading her the form for a black stylish jacket. "You're a part of the club now."

She opened the jacket up. It was wonderfully styled, black and with beautiful printing on the back. She grinned wildly and immediately put it on, over her white t-shirt.

Hinata whooped loudly. "Two managers! We look really professional now!"

"And they're both female," Tanaka said with a dreamy look in his eyes. Nishinoya, Tanaka's partner in crime, had the same starstruck look. They were smacked on the back of their heads by Sawamura.

"Welcome to the club!" The team cheered loudly, sporting their own jackets. Mikaela grinned wildly. This was going to be fun.

It was when she was leaving the gym with Shimizu after the boys had all left when she overheard the teacher- Takeda-sensei?- taking with the coach. She hadn't formally been introduced to the coach yet- Coach Ukai, apparently- but he was certainly not his grandfather. "I intended to borrow one of the school's buses for the Tokyo trip," he was saying. Mikaela frowned. She remember them saying something about the Tokyo trip. Shimizu said that they were going on a trip soon, and she was more than welcome to join them. She had shrugged. Was this it?

"But it doesn't seem like we'll be able to," she heard next. "It overlaps with a few of the other clubs. It looks like we'll have to pay more than we first thought."

Mikaela frowned. There was nothing she could do about that- right? Then her eyes flitted to a poster on the school wall. Posters lines up next to each other, advertising everything from school clubs to certain sales at nearby stores.

Posters. Advertisements.

The gears in her brain spun as she kept moving, until she was 'attacked' by Hinata. "Mikaela-san! Mikaela-san! You're our official manager now, right?!" he cried loudly, bouncing around.

She nodded. "With Shimizu-senpai, of course. And just Mikaela is okay."

"We're glad you joined," chimed the buzz cut guy, Tanaka. "When you're here, Kiyoko-san talks a lot." The libero nodded along in agreement.

"What sort of reason is that, morons?!" Daichi cried in exasperation and he clonked them both on the heads. Mikaela smiled nervously. After the quick revelation that they knew of her talents, it made things a bit awkward. Sugawara murmured his apologies.

Mikaela smiled. "You guys seem to be a lot of fun. I don't really play volleyball anymore, but I asked Tobio to look out for a position for me if anything volleyball related came up."

Sawamura nodded, smiling. "So, you came from Niiyama?" she nodded. "Why the sudden change?"

"Niiyama just wasn't working for me," she admitted, which was partially the truth. Kageyama snorted quietly and she shot him a glare. "And Kageyama and I were really close in Junior High, so he offered for me to come here."

"So you know all about his kingly actions," snorted the tall blond guy. He had headphones covering his ears (so how was he listening to the conversation?). The shorter boy, Yamaguchi, was walking next to him. Kageyama glared heavily at the boy, irritation clearly written all over his face, and Mikaela came to a quick conclusion.

This boy was an asshole.

"Of course," she snapped, her eyebrows knitting together as she glared at him. "In fact, I should take some of the blame for his difficult standards."

He lowered his headphones from his ears, staring at her with disinterest. "Oh?"

"I could hit those sets," Mikaela said coldly. "Mostly because I can read Kags really well and knew what he was going to do before he did it. But I could." She didn't really like bragging (and it was only half true- she could hit most of what he set, but some of his stuff was just ridiculous), but this god damned asshole was just really making her angry. And he hadn't even said much yet.

"You could keep up with his Majesty and his royal sets?" the boy said in mock surprise. "I'm surprised."

"Why?" she asked. The volleyball team had just been watching, afraid to step in. Their eyes flitted back and forth, like their argument was an interesting tennis match. "Is it because I'm a girl?"

He shrugged. "No."

"Then why?"

The blond glared at her, and she returned his glare with one of her own. "Well, you're the one who said you didn't want to play volleyball, didn't you?" he mused, cocking an eyebrow at her. "I don't think that someone without the same level of passion as that crazed moron could come anywhere close."

You don't know anything.

Her temper boiled over. This arrogant asshole was also an absolute moron. She took a step forward to his mocking face when someone grabbed her right arm, holding her back. "Kaisha."

She swiveled. It was Kageyama. "Not now."

"Fine," Mikaela scowled, shaking her arm out of her cousin's grip. "I'm leaving. I don't... agh!" She stomped away angrily, fists clenched, face red. Why did he have to be such a... such a... Ugh! Next time, she was going to punch his lights out, and Kageyama wasn't going to stop her. That stupid asshole.

The Karasuno volleyball team watched her go and turn the corner of the street, her footsteps heavy. She didn't look back once. Kageyama almost wanted to laugh- at least she was back to her old personality since the accident.

"She's got quite the temper," Tsukishima mused.

"I wouldn't have been surprised if she hit you," Kageyama said plainly, watching his cousin storm off. "She can be exceptionally aggressive when she's angry."

The team's eyes widened. Tanaka and Nishinoya were still staring at the spot she had been, half apprehensive and half something else Kageyama couldn't make out. Daichi and Sugawara had wide eyes but calm faces (...maybe just because Kageyama had used such a big word like 'exceptionally' in a sentence). Yamaguchi looked downright terrified. Hinata had stopped jumping, pondering his words.

Tsukishima, unwisely, snorted. "She could try."

"I only stopped her because it would've ended up bad for everyone," he justified, not wanting Tsukishima to think for one second that he did that to help him. "Next time, I won't."

Tsukishima didn't say a word. If he did, Kageyama probably would've lashed out. The setter waved good bye to the startled members of the volleyball team before he took off after his cousin, praying to God she hadn't broken anything quite yet.

Mikaela's third day of school was pretty much the same as the first two.

It was when she was thinking of posters and advertising the volleyball club when she accidentally bumped in Yachi in the hallways. Yachi, a short, sweet girl with blonde hair had been her tour guide on the first day of school. The girl was incredibly bubbly and Mikaela had been impressed by the organization of her notebooks and artistic designs of the covers. Yachi had mentioned that her mother was a designer.

"Oof! Sorry, Mikaela-san," Yachi said in embarrassment. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"I was looking for you," she said immediately.

The blonde's eyes widened. "You- You were? Why?"

Mikaela pursed her lips. "...Can you help me out with something?"

Yachi's lips parted and she listened to Mikaela in rapt attention, drinking in every word. She nodded feverishly when the black-haired girl had finished. "Yes, I'd love to help! That sounds like fun!"

"It wouldn't be too much trouble, right?" she questioned.

Yachi shook her head furiously. "Not at all! When can I stop by and take pictures?"

"Tomorrow," Mikaela replied in relief, "for their practice game."

She flashed Mikaela a big thumbs up, smiling brightly. "Thank you for the opportunity!"

"No, thank you, Yachi-chan," she replied in relief.

The sweet, talented, smart blonde girl had agreed to help design posters to advertise the Karasuno Boys' Volleyball Club. Mikaela didn't have much experience with friends, but she realized just how kind some people could be.

She started in complete disbelief at her father, unbelieving and completely dumbfounded. There was no way. But Kageyama was avoiding her eyes. Somehow, some part in her mind knew it was true, but with all her heart, she wanted to believe it wasn't.

"You're lying." She stated it, plain and clear. "I love volleyball. It's practically my life. There's no way..."

Her father met her eyes, his gaze full of sorrow and hurt.

"Tobio," she murmured. "Come on, look at me."

He did. He tilted his head up quickly, his frozen poker face studying her painfully. "Kags. It's not true, is it? There's nothing that could stop me from playing volleyball. Right?" She grabbed his hand, which had been resting on the edge of the bed. She squeezed tightly. "You were going to be the best setter. I would be the best spiker. And that can't happen if I can't play volleyball. But I can."

"Kaisha," her father whispered, head studying the ground. "It's been a day and a half since the accident."

Her head spun. Thirty-six hours? Why was she unconscious so long?

"Do you know what happened to you?" he continued quietly.

She frowned. "I don't care. Broken legs and ankles can heal." She knew it wasn't her arms, because they were free of injury and bandages. "Scars? That's fine. They'll heal. I pulled a muscle or something? Just need some time. I'm not a libero anymore, so bruising my legs constantly isn't too much of a big deal."

"Mikaela."

Her father used her last name. He NEVER used her last name.

"You should see your leg."

Kageyama bolted upright, tearing his hand out of her grip. "What? She shouldn't-"

"If she's going to accept it," her father whispered tiredly, in too much emotional pain to speak louder, "she needs to see it."

"I can stomach it," she assured Kageyama. But then, why was his face so deathly pale? Her cousin was almost shaking. The numbness in her legs was cold. What exactly had she done?

Her father moved to the layers of blankets. Now, it was Kageyama grabbing her hand, and both of the cousins sat together, panicked. Mikaela's head was spinning.

Her father lifted the blankets.

Kageyama's free hand flew to his mouth in shock and horror, but he was unable to tear his widened eyes away. He, evidently, hadn't seen her leg yet either. Sweat dripped down his skin.

Mikaela looked down. She was not prepared for this.

"My..."

Then she screamed loudly, and then nurses were running in to see what was wrong, and she was sobbing uncontrollably into Kageyama's shoulder, who was squeezing her tightly as if the pain was his own. Mikaela couldn't stop screaming and sobbing, but as hard as she tried, she couldn't wipe the images from her head. Her volleyball-driven motivation, her pride, her passion, seemed to rot and die.

She really wasn't ever going to play volleyball again.

No. No, she had to.

I'm blown away by the lovely support so far- so many follows in only two weeks! Thank you all so much, you have no idea how much this means to me.

Hope your holidays are going well! See you next week!~