"You know… the other guys on the team don't like you very much. In fact, I think they kind of hate you man."

"So?"

Beat kept on casually eating his lunch, not caring one single bit about what the boy across from him just told him. Gregor sighed and shook his head. The senior had noticed Beat's skill even back when they were in middle school. He was pretty good at just about everything, but when it came to setting he was downright amazing.

If only he didn't have such an attitude problem.

Gregor had known that when he had come in as a freshman he was bound to rub a few people the wrong way, and despite his warning he had done exactly that. Needless to say, his fellow seniors didn't like some freshman coming in and calling them out like he did. Even if he did have the skills to back it up.

"I'm just saying that you could try and be a little more… agreeable. You do know that I'm not gonna be here to cover for you forever right?" Gregor asked.

Beat shrugged his shoulders. "It's not my fault most of the starting line up are slackers. I mean we've got some good spikers on the team, but you can tell they're not running or even jumping as high as they can. It's annoying," he said.

"Yeah, but you can't just not set them…"

"Why not?" Beat asked, narrowing his eyes. "What's the point of me giving them the perfect set if they don't do everything to get the point? I mean that last game was just… how could he let that guy block him one on one? My set was perfect. There's no way he shouldn't have hit that right over that guy."

Beat knew how this game worked. There was no such thing as a shutout in a real volleyball game. You were bound to get blocked or scored on sometimes. But what pissed him off was when they gave up easy points. Points they could, and SHOULD have gotten. Whenever he sent up a perfect set, and his spiker just didn't deliver as well as he could have, it irked him.

If you did your best and just couldn't get the job done, then fine. But if you didn't then… well, what the hell did you expect? He would take five bad players giving it there all over five good but lazy players any day. He put his all into his sets, and he demanded they're all in return.

Gregor sat back in his chair. "I get where you're coming from Beat, I really do. But you do understand not everyone loves volleyball as much as you right? It's not really fair to expect people to take it as seriously as you," he said.

"I didn't say I want them to take it seriously. I said I wanted them to try their best. You don't take Pokemon seriously, but you do your best to win when you play, don't you?"

"...Pokemon? That's the analogy you went with? I mean I guess you're right, but really?"

"I'm not easing up on my sets. If they stop slacking they'll hit them, and they'll score. If they don't, then they can go to hell." He didn't care if they complained, or if he got benched for it.

Gregor clicked his tongue. "Right, okay then…" He knew this was how this talk was gonna go down, but he told the guys he was going to at least say something. At the very least he didn't have to worry about getting benched. The coach had told him he didn't have any plans of sidelining Beat.

In fact he was talking about sidelining some of the guys. Said Beat was demanding more from them, and he should have. That was gonna be a real shock. He guessed it was just gonna come down to who gave in first. "I have no idea what's gonna happen next year dude. I won't be able to cover for you," Gregor said.

"I don't care about you covering for me. I'm just worried I'm gonna be on a team full of slackers," Beat said simply. Gregor was one of the only players who always put everything into every play. He was his go to guy on the court whenever he was in a sticky situation. It was gonna suck not having him around. "You're one of the only guys on this team that's worth anything."

"Well, I'm touched," Gregor said, chuckling. "But don't be too sad about it. Who knows, maybe next year you'll come across somebody as nuts about the game as you are."

"Doubt it…"

Beat raised an eyebrow as he watched the black haired boy tossed the ball up into the air and serve it across the net. It had been an hour since practice had ended, and usually he was the only one who ever stayed here this long. But this new kid had hung around and didn't seem like he was leaving anytime soon.

He grunted before making his way over towards him. "Hey you," he called. The boy stopped and turned towards him. "What was your name again?"

The boy smirked back towards him. "Olivier. But some people just call me Olley," he said, waving towards him. "And you're Beat right? The setter. I heard you were on the starting lineup last year. You must be pretty good to make it as a freshman."

Beat had quickly decided he wasn't going to get along with this kid. He was too… positive. But he did seem like a good player, so as long as he kept it together on the court they wouldn't have any problems. "Yeah, thanks. You're not half bad either. What school did you go to before coming here?"

Olivier hummed. "You probably never heard of it. Me and my family moved here from France," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Have you heard of Adrien and Marinette Agreste?" He usually ended up getting the same reaction when he mentioned his parents, so he wanted to hurry and get it out of the way.

"Nope," Beat said simply. "Should I have?"

Olivier looked caught off guard for a moment. "Uh, the model and fashion designer?"

"Not a big fashion guy, so no."

Olivier hummed once more. He didn't know too many people who had never heard of his parents. Then again he was in a new country, so it might not have been that weird. He actually smiled. The thought of not having his parents' reputation come before his own was sort of nice.

Beat looked at him curiously. What was with that reaction of his? "Whatever. Your old team must have been pretty good."

Olivier nodded. "Yeah, the guys on my old team were pretty awesome. I'm gonna miss them. But the guys here seem pretty cool too," he said.

"They're a bunch of assholes," Beat said matter-of-factly. Olivier looked a little surprised at the very blunt and harsh insult, but then Beat shrugged his shoulders. "But they can play pretty well, so I got no real complaints. Anyway, what are you still doing here? It's getting late. Shouldn't you be like… going home or whatever."

Olivier chuckled. "Well, I always like to get a little extra practice in. I'm guessing since you're still here you do too. Sorry if I'm taking up your usual space or something."

He was, but Beat didn't want to seem rude. "It's fine. I'm not sort of surprised. Nobody else ever stays this way," he said before picking up one of the balls. "But since you're here, you wanna help me practice my sets?" He wanted to get a better idea of just what type of sets he should be sending him in actual games. He had a feeling this guy would make the starting lineup soon enough, so he might have seen what he was dealing with.

Olivier looked excited as Beat tossed him the ball. "Sure! No problem!" he said as he backed up and got ready.

"What type of sets do you want?"

"I can work with pretty much anything, but I guess I prefer a high one, third tempo," he said as he got ready to toss the ball up. "How about we try a quick first though."

"Got it."

He tossed the ball up before using an underhand pass. It went right towards Beat, who got ready to set as Olivier rushed forward. Beat was surprised. "He's fast!" He jumped into the air, and Beat once again found himself surprised. "He's got height!"

Though he had been taken a bit off guard, Beat smiled and jumped up to set the ball. "This position!" He sent the ball towards Olivier, who brought his arms back to swing. "This timing!" Olivier was surprised at just how fast the ball had gotten to him. It was like it just appeared in front of him, and then just stopped. "This angle!"

Olivier swung.

"It's…"

"Perfection!"

Olivier spiked the ball across the net, right over the block and to the ground before the other team could even react to it. He landed and then balled his fist up, cheering before turning towards Beat. "Yeah!"

"Hell yeah!" Beat shouted back excitedly. The two of them high fived before jumping up and bumping chest. It was their first game of the year, and Beat had insisted that Olivier be allowed to get a chance on the court. Some of the others had taken issue with a new player getting off the bench so soon, but his skills had spoken for themselves.

From the moment he stepped on the court, he had been unstoppable. Hardly anybody had been able to keep up with him.

Beat had seemed more lively than usual as well. Probably because he had finally got to put all the practice he and Olivier had been doing to good use. Beat had learned how to set for a lot of different types of spikers, and while Olivier had his preferred sets, he could hit just about anything.

Quicks, third tempo, back attacks. Whatever the situation called for, he could send up whatever he felt was the most appropriate for it and know Olivier would maximize on it.

And Olivier was excited just to be playing. Though he did have to admit, there was something about Beat's sets that made the ball just so much easier to hit. It was like they had this synergy when they were on the court. It was awesome.

"Hope you got some more energy in the tank Agreste. We got a few more points to go before we put this one away," Beat said, walking over to take his place so he could serve the ball.

Olivier laughed. "You might end up taking the last few ones yourself. But don't worry, even if you don't I'm ready," he said, looking ready to go.

Beat let out a breath and then began tapping the ball against his forehead. He was gonna try and put this thing away here and now. He had been working on her serves a lot and even Olivier had a hard time receiving them. And if he did, then getting past these chumps would be nothing.

"Let's go!"

"Hey, isn't that the new guy on the team?" Olivier asked.

Beat looked up from his lunch, and sure enough, it was the tall lanky freshman who had joined the team earlier this week. It looked like some more rowdy freshman were badgering him. Newt looked nervous as he tried to avoid eye contact with the other guys who were snickering and poking at him. He looked like a giraffe being stalked by hyenas.

"For crap's sake…" Beat muttered annoyed. "Wait here."

He got up and made his way over towards them. He cracked his neck as he got closer, and one of the boys seemed to notice him. "Oh shit, it's that crazy kid!" one of them said. They turned to scurry off, but Beat reached out and grabbed two of them back the back of their shirts.

"Nah, where are you guys going? It looked like you were having a party over here? How come I wasn't invited?" Beat asked, shaking the two of them roughly. "You invited my new teammate over here but now me? Why not? That hurts my feelings."

The two boys looked panicked. "Look, we didn't know man!"

"I don't care whether you knew or not. You shouldn't be doing it in the first place." He reached up and grabbed both of their ears, twisting them and causing them both to wince. "If I catch you messing with the walking tree over here again, I'm gonna hurt you. In fact, if I see you messing with anybody, I'm gonna hurt you. I'm gonna use your heads to practice my serves, you get me?"

"Okay! Okay man!"

"We're cool!"

Beat let them go, kicking one of them in the ass as they scurried off. He then turned towards Newt, who gave him a nervous thankful nod. "Uh, thanks for helping me out." He had been pretty surprised Beat had come to his aid. From what he had seen from him in practice he pegged him as a… well, a pretty mean guy.

"You know they're not gonna stop picking on you unless you stand up for yourself, right?" Beat asked, narrowing his eyes at him.

Newt flinched. "I… ugh…"

"You're like twice their size. You should be able to throw those chumps around like nothing. And even if you couldn't, at least make it hard on them. C'mon dude," he said, holding his arms up. "I'm not always gonna be around to bail you out, you know. Straighten up that long ass spine of yours."

The freshman rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, I can try. But I'm not a fighter. I'm barely even a volleyball player," he explained.

"Nobody's anything until they start learning how to do it. You might as well start now," Beat said simply. "But if those chumps do mess with you again, you tell me and I'll find them and bash their heads together."

Newt nodded. "Thanks. I owe you one."

"No you don't. We're teammates," Beat said, turning back around to go to his table. He sat down, and then scowled at Olivier. "I don't want to hear it."

"You're a softie…" Olivier said, smirking.

"I'll hurt you."

"Ah, no you won't. Softie… OW! Hey! You kicked me!"

"Told you so."

Beat got back to eating his lunch as Olivier rubbed his leg. If he was being honest, he didn't care for that lanky nerd. Seeing him not standing up for himself and being so timid ticked him off. But what pissed him off even more was seeing somebody picking on his teammate.

If there was one thing his folks taught him, it was that you looked after your own. Whether it was your family, your friends, or your teammates.

A/N: Some more character on Beat! He may be a prickly S.O.B, but if you mess with his friends or family he won't think twice about throwing hands. He can not like his teammates or be annoyed with his siblings, but you can't! He also probably would never be friends with Olivier if it wasn't for volleyball lol. He really thought he would be too cheerful and annoying to be around, but their so freaking obsessed with volleyball and they were in sync when they were on the court, so they ended up vibing.