Tsukishima's POV
The owner of the cafe had invited me for some tea. I waited, seated on one of the booths, wondering what she wanted to talk about. She came out of the kitchen and placed two cups of tea on the table before sitting across me.
"How is she?" she asked. "Is Akira doing alright in school?"
"I just met her, actually," I said.
"Oh, well thank you for watching after her last night," she said. "She texted me, telling me everything that happened."
We both took a couple of sips from our tea until she broke the silence.
"I really feel for the poor girl. When I found her, she was just sitting on one of the swings on the park with a packed bag on the ground beside her. All of her things fit in that small thing!" she said. "She had no money and nowhere to go. All I could offer her was the room we had upstairs and she gladly took it! She even offered to work here at the cafe in exchange. She's such a hard worker too, putting her best into everything she does..."
"Miss, has she ever told you about some dream of hers?" I asked, wondering if she knew what Akira was talking about.
"Oh she would never tell us!" the lady said. "But she did tell me that her journey would begin soon! I'm so excited for her! It's a shame she never told us what it is, but she would always get this dreamy look on her face when she told us how hard she would work to get her dream to come true. I just hope she doesn't work herself to death! I'm so scared that she might just drop to the floor in exhaustion!"
So she really hasn't told anyone about this dream of hers. Interesting.
Kageyama's POV
It was morning and I was headed for class when I passed by the faculty office on my way.
"Please!" someone yelled. I took a quick peek through the open door and saw Akira bowing down to a teacher while stretching out the envelope that had the money from the mini-fair to her.
"Y-you actually did it?" the teacher in front of her said.
"Yes," Akira said, standing straight up. "This should be enough for everything."
"But how-"
"I sold stuff and worked some part time jobs and the volleyball team helped me out during the mini-fair," she exclaimed. She had a serious look on her face, like she was on a mission.
"Well," the teacher muttered. "You passed the requirements and you have enough people... I don't see why we shouldn't push through with this! Great job, Aki-chan! Tell everyone to meet up later so we can clean up!"
Akira looked surprised and was on the verge of exploding into tears. The teacher took the envelop and placed it on her table while Akira just stood there, frozen in place.
"Thank you!" she suddenly yelled. All the other teachers looked at her and smiled.
"Good for you, Aki-chan!" they greeted. She bowed at everyone with a wide smile on her face.
"Now go on and get to class," the teacher she was talking to said. "And don't you dare skip lunch!"
"I won't!" she yelled before running out of the faculty. She accidentally bumped into me and once she caught her balance and looked at me, she smiled. She suddenly hugged me and quickly released, still smiling. "Thank you!" she yelled before running off to class.
"What just happened?" Sugawara-san said, suddenly appearing beside me.
"I have no idea," I answered.
We stood in place as we watched Akira skip through the halls. Teachers who were passing by just watched and laughed or smiled at her, congratulating her.
"I guess the teachers love her," Sugawara-san said, laughing. "She sure doesn't act like a girl who skips lunch on a daily basis with all that jumping she's doing."
We went ahead and got to class. The rest of the day sped through rather quickly and it was already time for after school practice. We were practicing dives on the court. Ukai-san was tossing balls for us while Shimizu-san assisted him. Yachi and Take-sensei were in the corner, discussing the club funds.
"SHIMIZU-SAN!" someone suddenly yelled. The doors of the gym burst open and Akira stood there, panting but smiling widely.
"Y-yes?" Shimizu-san asked. "Wait, why are you running around?! You might get sick again! I told you to take it easy!"
"IT GOT APPROVED!"
Approved?
"W-what got approved?!"
"The thing!"
"WHAT THING!?" the entire team yelled, rather curious as well.
She approached the court and everyone gathered around her, including coach and Take-sensei.
"Ah! It finally got approved, huh?" Take-sensei asked.
"Wait, why does he know?!" Noya-san asked.
Akira showed us a piece of paper. It was a club application form for a badminton club with the word "approved" stamped at the bottom of the paper. She was squealing in place and was jumping up and down in excitement.
"Calm down!" Shimizu-san said. "We don't want you to catch a fever again or anything!"
"I know, I know, but do you know what this means? I'll finally be able to compete!" she squealed. "My dream is finally coming true!"
"Wait, this is your dream?" Tsukishima asked. "To restart the badminton club?"
"Restart?" I asked.
"I got to watch a tournament a couple of weeks before I took entrance exams to schools," Akira started. "I immediately wanted to play! But when I officially applied for Karasuno, I had no idea that the badminton club has disbanded some time ago and the school didn't have enough funds to approve one so I had to come up with the money on my own."
"So that's what the stuff you were selling were for," Asahi-san said. "That's actually amazing!"
"So you want to compete?" Hinata asked. "You'll play in a tournament and all?! That's great!"
"I know!" Akira squealed once more.
"Hold on," Tsukishima said. "You want to compete in badminton tournaments but you can't even take care of yourself?!"
"I can handle myself!" she replied with a pout.
"He has a point," Daichi-san said. "If you're going to compete, you have to keep a healthy lifestyle. It comes with any sport."
"And I bet a little twerp like you can't even remember to drink her vitamins," Tsukishima said, glaring at Akira. Her eyes went wide and she suddenly looked away.
"O-of course I remembered," she said.
"You stuttered," we all said in unison.
"I can handle it!" she whined. "I really want to do this..."
"Aki-chan," Shimizu-san said. "What did you have for breakfast?"
"Uhh..." she muttered.
"What about lunch?"
"Lunch? I uhh..."
"Exactly. Someone has to take care of you if you're going to compete."
"I know!" Akira yelled. "I just didn't have enough money to buy any food today since I still needed a little bit more money to get the club approved so I used the allowance I saved up... I've been fine until now... I can handle myself.."
She was suddenly looking down at the floor, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. Everyone else smiled. It was obvious that she was really passionate about competing.
"There's a tournament coming up in a month," she muttered. "Y-you guys can come and watch if you'd like..."
"Of course we'll be there," Sugawara-san said, ruffling her hair. She looked up and smiled.
"Cakes," she said. "I'll treat you all to cakes."
"CAKES?!" everyone yelled.
"Oh right, Aki-chan is great at baking," Shimizu-san said.
"YOU BAKE!?" Noya-san and Hinata yelled.
"Y-yeah, grandma taught me when I started working at the cafe," Akira muttered.
"She works at the cafe close to my house," Tsukishima said. "She lives there too."
"UWAA!" Hinata yelled. "You live in a cafe?! That's so cool! You can eat all the pastries you want!"
"D-don't get it wrong! I don't own the place!" she said, shaking her hands.
"Wait, shouldn't you be cleaning up the gym by now?" Take-sensei asked.
"R-right!" Akira said. "I'll see you guys later! Come to the cafe tomorrow any time!"
And with that, she ran off.
"Shimizu," Daichi-san said. "Did you know she played badminton?"
"Actually, I'm pretty sure she hasn't tried yet."
"How is she going to compete?!" Tanaka-san yelled. "And the competition is in one month!"
"And with such a frail figure!"
"Speaking of figure..."
"Okay, back to practice!" Ukai-san yelled. Everyone shushed up and went back to doing drills.
So that was her dream...
That's right people! The tiny girl's dream is to freaking compete for badminton! Yup! To be honest, I tried playing it safe and wrote about something I actually knew since I used to train for the sport (never competed or anything though) so I hope you guys like it anyways. The story won't be super technical or anything anyways!
Don't forget to vote for/fave this chapter and comment what you thought about it! I'm completely open to opinions and feedback!
Bye~
Maeswolf
