Yachi stood very still. The apartment always felt bigger when she was alone.

Her mother, Madoka, had found Shimizu's crudely-drawn flyer right before leaving for work. Yachi revealed that she had been invited to be a manager for the boys' volleyball team. On her way out, Madoka had delivered harsh-sounding criticisms, and left without giving Yachi a chance to respond.

But Yachi knew that her mother wouldn't dwell on the one-sided conversation, and so Yachi tried not to either. Instead, she picked up all her belongings in the living room and padded into her bedroom. The homework that was due the next day had already been done. With a few hours to spare before bed time, she decided to refine the notes she took during class that day. Yachi mindlessly settled down at her desk and got to work on her math notebook. Geometry wasn't that hard once she had gotten used to it.

Didn't Karasuno's volleyball team make it to nationals before? It's a strong school, right?

Madoka's criticisms wouldn't be so easy to forget after all.

Shimizu told Yachi that the team was going to Nationals again. The magnitude of their goal was almost too big for Yachi to comprehend. She thought about what it meant to represent Miyagi Prefecture in a national tournament, to be strong enough to stand among the best high school volleyball teams in Japan… To be standing among them… Among even more scary tall guys… The thought alone made Yachi feel queasy. It was the same kind of queasiness she felt when she met the boys' team the day before.

Do you even know anything about volleyball?

Yachi felt her cheeks get warm. Her mother's words wouldn't stop bombarding her. The more she tried to ignore them, the more she thought about them. Sure, Yachi didn't really know anything about volleyball's finer details like position names and such, but at the very least, she knew that the ball had to touch the floor on the opponents' side to win a point… maybe. She never got the chance to properly learn about volleyball herself, so she didn't know for sure.

Yachi wished she knew more, but she was also somewhat glad that she didn't. In her mind, sports tended to have a plethora of rules and regulations that could be difficult to memorize. On top of studying for all her classes, learning the ins and outs of volleyball could've impacted her grades. But if she didn't learn, how could she become a manager for the team?

The overwhelming chain of thought led Yachi so far away from her work, she accidentally highlighted the Pythagorean Theorem in blue instead of purple. Yachi frowned at her careless error. She wanted to fix it right away, but the ideas rattling around her mind were a bit too much to handle. Her mother's parting words couldn't be forgotten so soon; she shut her notebook in defiance and flopped onto her bed. The unending echoes of Madoka's voice wouldn't allow Yachi to turn in early. She flipped open her cell phone and scrolled to her recent calls. At the top of the list, Hinata's name stared back at her.

Before she left school with Shimizu earlier, Shoyo Hinata and Tobio Kageyama had begged to exchange phone numbers with Yachi. The two boys - extraordinary freshman players on the volleyball team - had terrible grades, and if they failed their finals, they wouldn't be allowed to attend an upcoming trip to practice with other teams in Tokyo. Though she already said she would help them study at school, Yachi was still surprised when they asked for her number so brazenly. Hinata in particular was very kind and easy to get along with.

As if on cue, Yachi's phone vibrated in her hands. She had to take several deep breaths to slow her racing heart before she opened the text message.

"Yachi-san! Thank you again for sharing your number with us, and for helping us study! I'm excited for you to join our team!"

Yachi couldn't stop herself from smiling. Hinata really was a good friend, and he truly believed that she could be a manager for the team. His unlimited optimism infected her. Yachi quickly typed a simple "you're welcome :)" and hit send. Maybe it wouldn't be so scary to be a manager. It might be fun.

That's fine and all, but joining passionate people when you aren't going to give it your all is the rudest thing you could do.

Who was she kidding? "Fun?"

Did she really want to be a manager, or did she just want to feel needed? To feel like she was a part of something? The whole reason Hinata and Kageyama asked for her number to begin with was to help them get better grades. Better grades meant being able to go on the Tokyo trip, to practice with other schools and become strong. Their intention to get stronger was so desperate, they asked for the number of a girl they'd only known for two days. When she watched the team practice after school, she could see it on their faces - the players, the coach, even Shimizu - they were all trying so hard. She wondered if she could try ever that hard.

Yachi had never been passionate about anything in her life. Sports were too scary to participate in, and she never felt the urge to pick up a hobby. On weekends she would help her mom run errands or watch cartoons. Her goal was to work at a designer firm like her mother, but was it her dream? If she never took anything seriously before, why did she accept Shimizu's offer to become a manager for a volleyball team, when she knew nothing about volleyball? Why would she be a manager of a strong team when she herself wasn't strong? Above all, despite all of these facts stacked against her, why did she still feel the tiniest sliver of desire to be a manager?

Yachi jumped out of bed, flicked off the light, and ran back to hide under the covers. Her eyes closed and she wished her deep breaths would slow down her mind as much as it did her heart.

Maybe her mother was right.