Chapter 9: A parcel from home

A date.

He had asked her, and she had said yes.

Daichi's mood during the next week was superb, he was smiling constantly, and his best friends caught him whistling a happy tune several times before, during and after training. But none of them – neither Suga nor Asahi – new why their Captain was so damn happy. The suspected it, but Daichi as well as Yona did not give anything away and the number one of the team was great in eluding certain questions- Asking Yona what had happened during their run was a no go for them- after all, they had no wish of doing extra laps.

Yona was happy as well. First, she had been asked on a date, second, she didn't fail her literature-test – thanks to Takeda-sensei, who had given her some advice on how to cope with her English-Japanese-translation-problems – and third, her friendship with Yachi bloomed more and more because of the joint study sessions and the planning of the training weekend. The timid blonde was happy to get to know Yona better and she had fun tutoring her. All in all, it was a win-win situation that Yona had joined the volleyball club.

Daichi and Yona saw each other in school everyday, but they didn't show any big affection to each other on campus. However, there were the quite moments during training – the secret smiles, the glances, which further increased the good mood of the teens.

On Friday it was Yona who was whistling. The whole day she had carried a parcel with her, still unopened, and had evaded the questions of Hinata who, curious as always, had pestered her about the contents of the package. After all, it must have had something to do with volleyball, otherwise she would have left it at home or would have used the contents during the school lessons. During lunch she had promised him to call for him when she opened it, but even that did not stop him from asking one question after another on their way to the gym after school.

"Is it a special outfit, did you get your old volleyball shoes?", he asked, skipping at her left side. On her right, Yachi was walking with Kageyama slightly behind.

"No." It was like a game to her. Normally, she would have shown him some boundaries, but she was too good-humoured today.

"Then it's your favourite ball!"

"Nope."; Yona let the p in her answer pop lightly.

"Hinata, don't you think this parcel is too small to have a ball inside?", Yachi interrupted his interrogation, but he shrugged.

"You can inflate the ball after opening, so there could be one inside, deflated."

He had a point there, Yachi thought and asked loudly: "Yona, when are you going to open it? I can't imagine that it's fun to be pestered with questions the whole day."

Her friend smiled and walked up the two steps to the door of the gym. "I'll open it right away." Turning to Hinata, she added: "So go change quickly, I don't want to wait for too long!"

With a delighted squeal he scurried off, only to be back during the next five minutes. Together with Yachi and Shimizu, Yona had started to fill the water bottles, and she couldn't help but take her sweet time with them, so it was Hinata who had to wait now.

When she entered the gym, her glance crossed Daichi's, and while he turned around with a grin, she looked down on the floor, blushing. Tomorrow at two in the afternoon, he would pick her up. She didn't know any details of his plans, but he promised her a nice afternoon somewhere in the city.

She put the water bottles down next to the bench and picked the parcel up. Getting some scissors out of her schoolbag, she cut through the adhesive tape on top of the package, put the scissors down again and opened the lid of the box.

There they were. A smile spread over her face. Next to a box of chocolates, there were three notebooks inside. She pulled them out gingerly, only using her left hand.

Hinata was leaning forward to catch a glimpse. "Books?", he asked disappointed. "There are only books inside?"

Giggling, Yona shook her head yes. "No, there is also some chocolate inside and a letter, but I was waiting for those three." She held up the notebooks. One had a green sleeve, the other two were bound in blue. "My dad… my dad used to write down several of his training sessions as well as the ones he planned himself, and these are his notebooks. I asked my grandpa to send them to me… If Daddy was one thing, then he was specific in his plans. I hope to find some inspiration for future trainings with all of you."

Yachi asked curiously: "So your Dad played Volleyball as well? And was a trainer?"

Yona smiled at that. "Yeah, kind of. That's why I got into it, he got me hooked quite early and I never stopped playing. It's kind of my heritage from him, you know? The two Volleyball-nerds of the family." She hugged the notebooks to her chest and reached for the letter still inside the small package. She opened and read it, smiling at the contents. Looking up at Hinata and Kageyama, who had joined them as well, she said: "Greetings from grandpa – I'm supposed to share the box of chocolates with you after one of my – quote – gruesome trainings."

"Did someone say chocolate?", Suga asked, coming over from the entry of the gym.

Hinata jumped up into the air. "Yona's grandfather send some! She'll share it with all of us!"

"You forgot a thing…", Yona added to Hinata's explanation. "I'll share it after a gruesome training." Raising one eyebrow, she looked at him and his darkhaired setter. "Maybe I should order you to do 50 quicks in one hour, then you can have some chocolate."

Kageyama shrugged. "Fine with me. Maybe he'll be able to hit it better after that."

"Whaaa? Kageyamaaaa!" With that, another argument between the two commenced. Yona watched them with a smile. Of course, she'd share and she'd share the sweets today. But she couldn't help herself, she just had to push those buttons of the first-year duo. Sometimes, they were like a pair of hungry kindergarteners before lunch.

In this moment, the coach entered the gym and shooed the boys to run laps and Yona sat down on the bench with the notebooks. She had already told Ukai that she wanted to skim the notebooks to find a nice exercise. Her personal goal was to improve the blocks of the team. There was no way that they could become a second iron wall, but there was lots of room for improvement. During the first half, Ukai oversaw the training, and during the second half, she took over and had them position two vaulting boxes next to the net. They formed two teams, facing each other. Whoever had the ball would play a simple offence to get the ball over the net – but the team of the other side would only receive and keep the ball. Instead, two players would be standing on the vaulting boxes and spike a different ball back over the net, so that the blockers would have to block without being able to slack in concentration – otherwise they'd have no chance to block at all.

It took them a while to get the hang of it, but after training, they had at least managed to block some of it, and they were drenched in sweat – again. Grinning, Yona opened the box of sweets and positioned herself in the exit of the gym. Whoever left the gym stopped by to choose some sweets out of the box.

The last one to leave the gym and head towards the locker room was Daichi. He didn't even look at the chocolate bars, he only had eyes for the girl. "So… I'll pick you up at two, okay?"

She blushed again and nodded. "But… My brother will be home. He'll probably want to meet you, I hope that's okay?"

Daichi shook his head yes. He had thought about this, too. He wanted to meet the famous brother of the girl and introduce himself. After all, he was going out with the little sister – and the brother took the role of the parents for her. "That's fine with me. So… see you tomorrow afternoon. Have a nice evening." He gave her a little bow. "And thanks for the sweets."

She smiled at him and watched him leave, then went back inside the gym, where Yachi was still waiting for her with Shimizu, Ukai and Takeda. Yona offered them some chocolate bars as well, then she choose one for herself.

"That was a nice exercise, Sadai-san.", Ukai praised. "We'll repeat that in the future."

Yona nodded happily. "I think it will help them coping with surprise attacks. Nishinoya-san is an amazing libero, but they all need to get a hang of receiving tricky attacks without him as well. I'll read through my father's notebooks to find other exercises."

"Did your father write them down in English or Japanese, Sadai-San?", the teacher asked.

"In English." Getting the idea why the teacher had asked this, she laughed. "You think that it's another way of practicing my Japanese: Translating volleyball-exercises."

"Sounds like a good exercise to me!", Takeda-sensei grinned cheekily.

"Again, thank you for your trust." The girl bowed. "I can't thank you enough for this opportunity." Raising into her full height again, she said: "It even helps me academically."

"And we have to thank you for helping the boys. You even get those first years to look into their schoolbooks sometimes.", Ukai joked. "But we must close the gym now, I'm on night shift in the store. Will you lock the door, sensei?"

With that, they said their goodbyes, and the girls headed home. They shared a part of the way until Yachi had to take the bus. First they talked about school, but soon, Yachi broached a different topic:

"So… tomorrow?", she asked.

"Yeah, tomorrow.", Yona echoed.

"Are you excited?" The blonde girl watched her friend closely.

Yona shrugged. "Partly excited, of course. But more… nervous? He will meet my brother before, and Tomoya can be… I'm nervous he'll scare him away."

"Your brother? Yona, you're kidding. Whenever I see him, your brother is really polite and nice. Why should Sawamura-San be scared?"

Looking up at the already dark sky, Yona shrugged again and crossed her arms. "Well, you know… Tomoya sees it as his duty to… ward me like a princess from bad stuff in life. And Daichi is the first boy to enter our house because of a date… with me. I'm not really sure how this will go."

Yachi shook her head no. "I really can't imagine your brother being mean to Sawamura-san. Also, why should he be mean, we're talking about Sawamura-san here… Relax, Yona."

But her friend couldn't help it: Whenever she thought of the next day, she got nervous – and it was not because of the date itself…


Hello dear reader!
Thank you again for reading this chapter, and also for giving this story a fav or following it. You always make my days when I see new numbers in the stats 3

As you could see, the date will take place soon - in chapter 10- but I needed this chapter to get a few Yona-Details out into the Fanfic-world. Next chapter will be THE chapter - Daichi + Yona somewhere in the city...
I've already written chapter 10, so if I'll find enough time during the week to write down chapter 11, it's possible that you'll read chapter 10 next week already.
Until then, here's a little teaser of the rough draft for you:


At exactly two minutes before two in the afternoon on Saturday, the doorbell rang.

Yona, having spent the time waiting in her room, shot towards the door to use the opener and call Daichi up, but she was too late. Her brother stood there already and – with a slightly mean grin towards his sister – pushed the button of the door opener at this very second. Yona passed her older brother an evil eye and said: "Please… behave, big brother!"

Tomoya's grin deepened when he answered: "Of course, sweet sister. I'll be on my best behaviour, of course."

Watching him open the door, Yona thought: "And that's exactly what I fear…", but she didn't answer loudly, because she could her Daichi's steps on the stairs already and knew that her voice would be carried down the staircase.

tbc


So, tell me what you think will happen in chapter ten, as well as how you liked chapter nine.
Until next time, take care!

Katily