Oof I almost forgot to post today XD It's been a hectic week but at least spring break's coming soon~

Anyway, thank you so much to the new people that followed/favorited my story, it really means a lot to me!

Thank you so much to Yuuko Aosagibi and Guest for leaving reviews! You have no idea how much I freaked out when I saw them XD. I'm glad you guys like how the story's going so far I hope not to disappoint!

Enjoy!

Chapter 2

It's the first day of school. Kuroo is a 3rd year now and he had been chosen to be the next captain of the male volleyball team. He is on his way to Kenma's house to pick him up for morning practice.

'This year is going to be different,' he thought to himself. 'We'll definitely make it to nationals this time.'

He rounded a corner and bumped into someone. A sense of déjà vu hit him, but he didn't think much of it. The person he bumped into had dropped her phone when they clashed.

"My bad, I wasn't paying attention," she said as she reached down to grab her phone.

As she stood up Kuroo noticed that she is tall, almost his height even. Then he noticed that she's wearing the Nekoma female uniform. Before he could apologize, she had already walked off and he heard a soft 'damn, the screen cracked.'

The first day is a half day and most of the classes had been introductions and students settling into their new circle of friends. Kuroo recognized a couple of familiar faces from his previous year but no one on his volleyball team. Clubs still had practice but today they get to recruit first years and club practice will be demonstrations. Kuroo hoped that they could get a few good first years on their team.

As he gathered his things to leave for the gymnasium, he noticed a familiar figure a couple of tables across from him. It was the girl he bumped into this morning. She was gathering her things as well when her phone rang. She grabbed her bag as she answered the call.

"Oi Kuroo!" Yaku hollered. "Let's go before the other clubs take all the first years!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm coming!" He replied.

Kuroo wasn't trying to eavesdrop but he was heading the same way so he can't help but hear her conversation.

"Yeah, I'm about to leave."

"Does the boss need an extra hand? I can come in early."

"Okay I'm on my way now. By the way, if it's busy then why are you on the phone?"

She then chuckled softly at the response.

"Alright see you," she hung up as she reached her shoe locker.

"Sakura-san!" a voice called.

She looked over and quirked her eyebrow. "Mei, aren't you supposed to be at practice?"

Mei pouted. "I was waiting for you to walk by outside my classroom!"

"My bad, I got a call from work."

"Boo, I was hoping we could chat on the way to the lockers since we're in different classes this year."

"Sorry, maybe next time." Sakura gave an apologetic smile. "Tell you what, I'll bring you your favorite tomorrow."

"SCORE! That's a promise, right? Don't you dare forget!" Mei did a small skip and pumped her fist in the air.

Sakura chuckled. "I won't, see you tomorrow."

"See you!"

The girls went their separate ways. Yaku, Kai and Kuroo were right behind Mei as they were all walking towards the gymnasium.

"Takahashi-san!" Kai called.

"Oh, Nobu-kun! What's up?"

The two started conversing leaving Kuroo and Yaku behind them.

"Since when did those two get so chummy?" Kuroo pondered.

"Apparently they're in the same class and they're both vice-captains for the volleyball team," Yaku answered nonchalantly.

"Ehh.. Should we try and set them up?" Kuroo asked playfully as he put on his infamous smirk.

"If you have enough free time to think of such nonsense you should focus on getting us a manager. We're gonna need all the help we can get." Yaku answered in irritation.

"Alright geez it's only day one, pretty sure we can find a manager amongst the first years."

The group reached the gymnasium and headed towards their respective locker rooms. The rest of their teammates had already started changing to their sportswear.

"Kenma, how's your first day?" Kuroo asked.

"Nothing in particular happened." Kenma replied.

"Hee.. Did you even try to make friends?" Kuroo nudged his childhood friend.

"Everyone was already in groups, it's too bothersome to try to talk to anyone in that situation."

"Geez why did I even ask." Kuroo chuckled.

The first week of classes went by like a breeze. Sakura and Mei were eating lunch outside under a tree. Mei was animatedly talking about how her classes were going.

"Can you believe I got partnered up with some dude who barely contributes any work!?" Mei complained.

"Did you tell the teacher about this?" Sakura asked.

"He thinks that I just don't like my partner since we haven't started on any projects yet," Mei replied. "But whenever we're supposed to have discussions he keeps saying 'Ah just write whatever and we can submit that' like SERIOUSLY!?"

"Well when you do start working on a project you can just tell him that you did all the work."

"But doing all the work is hard~"

"Well.. you're not wrong, but it does prove your point that he doesn't do anything."

"Urghhh that's true…" Mei slumped in defeat.

The bell rang signaling that lunch was over. The two girls headed for their respective classes to grab their gym uniform. They both had joint gym class and so Mei was extremely pumped that she got to spend more time with her best friend.

"Alright, the boys will be playing basketball and the girls will be playing volleyball," the gym teacher announced.

"Ehhh? Why can't we play badminton?" One of the girls complained.

"You'll play that next week," the teacher replied. "Now separate into groups and remember that participation counts towards your grade."

Everyone began dispersing into groups while Sakura went off to the side and sat down. Mei was being pulled in every direction since everyone wanted a volleyball player to be on their team. Mei told them to settle it with rock-paper-scissors and went to talk to Sakura.

"Sakura-san, are you gonna sit this one out?" She asked.

"Yeah, sorry." Sakura replied and gave a small smile. "Have fun out there for me."

"Don't worry I will~" came her cheery reply.

"Takahashi! You're on our team!" One of the girls called.

"Okay!" Mei ran up to her team. "I'm guessing none of you know how to properly spike so if you guys can at least set the ball then you can just leave the rest to me!"

"Well, if you insist." One of them replied.

"Let's go team!" Mei cheered.

The game began and right off the bat Mei's team scored a point with her spike. It was clear from that point that this was going to be a one-sided game. Initially the opposing team didn't really care about the outcome as participation counts towards their grade. However, with each spike Mei scored her team grew cocky and started playfully mocking their opponents. This got on their nerves as they began to get frustrated at their inability to do anything against Mei. Mei was oblivious to all this as she was just having fun and for once she's not the setter of the team. She was on a roll and felt like nothing could stop her. While the teams were taking a short water break, Mei jogged over to Sakura. Sakura chuckled seeing a slight hop in her step.

"Nee, Sakura-san."

"What is it?"

"Is this what it feels like to be an ace?" Mei asked jokingly with fake tears streaming down her face.

"Pffft," Sakura held in a laugh. "I guess so."

A loud thump was heard and everyone brought their attention to the boys' side of the court. One of the boys fell face first to the ground.

"Oi, are you alright?"

The boy that fell slowly got up. "Urghh, I think I stepped on my shoelace and fell."

"Seriously?"

"Oi, his nose is bleeding, someone call the teacher!"

"Sensei, this idiot's nose is bleeding!" Kuroo hollered.

"Damn you Kuroo! I'm not an idiot!"

"Everyone, continue with your game, I'm taking this idiot to the nurse's office," the teacher announced.

"Why is sensei calling me an idiot too!?"

"Because only an idiot wouldn't tie their shoelace while playing a sport."

While the teacher was away, the game continued and Mei's opponents grew even more frustrated over the fact that Mei kept spiking over them.

"No fair! Why do you guys keep giving Takahashi the ball?" one of them complained.

"Obviously cause it's a definite point whenever we do," one of the girls on Mei's team replied.

"Urgh, fine then! Hey guys!"

The boys on the other court looked over.

"Not all of you! Just the tall guys! Get over here and block for us!"

"Hey that's not fair!"

"Of course it's fair, we're evening the playing field."

"YOSH! I'm up for the challenge!" Mei was getting fired up.

"Ehh, sounds like fun. Let's help out," Kuroo suggested to Kai and so they both walked over to the other court.

One of the girls on Mei's team did an underhand serve which Kuroo received easily. Kai set the ball and Kuroo spiked. The girls on Mei's team ran away not wanting to get hit by the ball but Mei dived as if her life depended on it. The ball was still in play.

"Someone set the ball!" Mei yelled.

"I-I got it!" One of the girls replied and sloppily set the ball. Mei quickly stood up and ran to spike. As she jumped and spiked, Kuroo easily read her and blocked her. The ball slammed straight down to the floor on Mei's side of the court.

"Arghh! Damn it!" Mei yelled out.

"Kuroo, nice block." Kai said as he high-fived Kuroo. Kuroo gave out a small laugh and directed a cheeky grin towards Mei.

Mei was fuming and muttering to herself. Sakura thought it was adorable that Mei took this game seriously. The game continued in a similar fashion. Kuroo was marking Mei consistently and this fueled her rage even more. Mei's teammates kept complaining about how this isn't fair. Mei herself was more frustrated that every tactic she tried didn't work against Kuroo. She knew Kuroo is excellent at read-blocking but she had never experienced it first hand. Sakura saw the look on her best friend's face and she could tell her gears were grinding trying to figure out different plays. Sakura knew that with her current team the plays they could do were limited since none of them were skilled players. Sakura felt sorry for Mei but knowing her, she would never blame her teammates and would most likely just be frustrated that she couldn't carry her team like she promised.

Wanting to ease her best friend's worries, Sakura stood up and shrugged off her jacket. She walked over to one of Mei's teammates and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Mind switching?" Sakura asked.

"Tch, whatever." The girl walked off the court. "It's a losing game anyway."

Sakura walked over to Mei seeing as she was too deep in thought to notice the player change.

"Mei, why don't you cool off and set the ball this time?" Sakura suggested.

"Eh? What are you doing here Sakura-san? Also, who's gonna spike?" Mei asked, confused.

"Leave it to me."

Sakura's words sunk in and Mei immediately understood. A girl from the opposing team did an underhand serve. Some of the girls on Mei's team were about to receive when Sakura swiftly ran past them and perfectly received it.

"Mei!" Sakura called.

"Sakura!" Mei called back.

It was the toss that she perfected just for Sakura. The exact height and distance from the net that Sakura favored. The toss that she never thought she'd make again. Sakura's muscle memory kicked in. She had not spiked since the incident. In fact, this gym class is the first time she's played volleyball since then. Sakura jumped. Kuroo on the other side of the net also jumped ready to block her.

"Hmph," Sakura gave a small smirk and slammed the ball.

Kuroo not expecting such force was literally blown away and landed on his behind. Everyone gasped. Mei ran towards her best friend.

"SAKURA-SAN!" Mei hugged her from behind and began twirling her around with tears of joy streaming down her face. Whether it was from scoring a point or her doing a spike Sakura didn't know but she laughed at how ridiculous they must look.

Kuroo thought back to the spike. He was sure she purposely aimed it at him or more specifically his finger tips. She wanted to literally blow him away. The smirk he saw on her face made him all the more sure that she purposely did that because he had blocked her friend earlier. Either way, that level of spiking wasn't something he expected from a random game like this. Kuroo was still on the ground dumbfounded as he looked up at the girl who was finally put down after all the twirling shenanigans. Confusion and intrigue filled his mind as he thought to himself,

'Who are you?'

There you have it guys! Their "first" confrontation XD.

Again, I'm not that good at writing action scenes but let me know what you think! I'd like to know how I can improve and make it more enjoyable for you guys to read!

See you next week!