AN: This is the first time I have put an author's note before the chapter. Progress. Soon I shall be the ultimate annoying author.

Fair warning: This is by far the longest chapter there is. I've been working really hard on this, which is why I haven't updated for a while. I thought it was going to take a little longer to fine-tune it, but it was okay when I checked, so it's probably riddled with mistakes I missed. Oh well.

I thought it would be interesting to write about how (Name) became, and still is, the team's scout. I will admit the ending is a little rushed as I was quickly approaching the 9th page on Word, and I decided to wrap it up. Hopefully it's not too bad. Who knows? I'm biased, so my opinion-that this entire thing is trash- doesn't count.

I love my trash story.

This is long, so for those of you who read this during a class, read at your own risk. I am not liable if your teacher catches you.

That is all.

Hinata peered around the corner of the staircase and spotted (Name) leaning against the wall, examining some papers in her hands. Keeping his eyes on her, Hinata tried to slip past the stairwell without her noticing.

"Avoiding me?"

"Wahh! (Name-san)!" Hinata yelped, jumping back as the upperclassman stepped in front of him. (Name) quirked an eyebrow, smiling deviously.

"Are you … going to throw a ball at me?" Hinata leaned back, trying to see behind (Name's) back.

"Nah, that was a few weeks ago."

"But you threw one at me yesterday…"

(Name) leveled her gaze at the bright orange child. "And now you are aware of your surroundings, yes?"

Hinata nodded quickly.

Laughing, (Name) patted him on the back. "Volleyball's more than a game; you gotta be totally alert if you're gonna battle on the court. You wanna beat the Little Giant, right?"

"Right!" Hinata's eyes sparkled "I'm gonna be as great as him and play in the Nationals!" Punching his fist in the air, Hinata danced excitedly.

(Name's) eyes flicked to her phone. "You're gonna be late to practice if you don't hurry."

"ACk! I can't let Kageyama beat me to the gym!" Hinata declared before racing off. (Name) laughed quietly to herself. Fun kid.

… Now to deal with these papers.

Hinata bolted into the gym, out of breath. Looking up, he frantically searched, and darn! Kageyama was already practicing.

"I'll beat you here one of these days, Kageyama." Hinata muttered under his breath.

"Oh, Hinata! I was wondering where you were." A warm voice reached Hinata's ears. Sugawara approached him, smiling widely.

"Suga-san!" Hinata greeted cheerfully.

"Afternoon Hinata!" Sugawara grinned in response to his eager underclassman. "What kept you? Daichi wanted you and Kageyama to practice a new routine Yaichi and Kiyoko-san planned out." Suga tilted his head. "Where did he go? He said he'd be right here…"

"Huh? Oh, I was talking to (Name-san) and I guess I lost track of time." Hinata rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

A crease appeared between Suga's eyebrows. "Did she throw another ball at you?"

Forcefully shaking his head, Hinata backtracked. "I meant, I was talking to her after she spotted me causeIwastryingtosneakpasther…."

"Calm down, Hinata." Suga placated. "I was just asking. She means well, but she can get a little…intense."

"But she's good at doing her job, that's what matters." Ennoshita commented as he walked past.

Suga nodded cheerfully. "Right!"

"OH!" Hinata started. "I forgot!"

Suga smiled quizzically. "Forgot? Is this about homework?"

Hinata shook his head. "No, I had a question to ask (Name-san). Actually, Suga-san do you know?"

"If I knew the question, then maybe."

Hinata reddened. "Er, ah do you know how (Name-san) is still the scout? I mean, she gets in all kinds of trouble and…." Hinata trailed off upon seeing Suga's blank expression. It almost looked for a moment, like Suga was…scared?

"Hinata, we don't talk about that. Drop it, okay?" Suga advised, but his attention had moved elsewhere.

Cocking his head, Hinata watched Suga as he turned away to scold Tanaka for stripping. Again. Maybe he'd ask again after practice.

Time skip brought to you by Yamaguchi's tiny ahoge

"Alright! That's all for today, guys!" Daichi's voice thundered loudly, piercing the excited atmosphere in the gym. Giving instructions, Daichi supervised the team as they began cleaning up and heading out to the locker rooms.

"Calling it early today?" (Name) popped up next to Daichi out of nowhere.

"Ah, yeah." Daichi rubbed the back of his head. "Some big tests are coming up for all of us, so we're ending practice a little earlier to give time to study."

"How wise." (Name) commented dryly. "I got the scoop on Fukurodani's new play that you asked for. I'll write it up and give it to you tomorrow."

"You almost sound like a real scout, (Name)." Daichi laughed as he began moving towards the locker rooms. "You didn't do anything…"

"Unseemly?"

"Yeah. Nothing unseemly, right?"

"Right, right. I was good. A perfect lady."

"I don't know if that's a description that can be applied to you."

"Hey!" (Name) pushed Daichi playfully. "Well, I'll get going now. Let you get changed and all that. Besides, gotta study for these tests."

Nodding, Daichi stepped inside the locker room, leaving (Name) to find her own way home. As the door closed, Daichi was pulled by his shirt into the room.

Suga peered out the small window next to the door, making sure the coast was clear.

"Suga!?" Daichi exclaimed. "What's going on?"

"We have a problem." Suga turned to look at his friend. "Hinata was asking how (Name) is still the team's scout."

"Oh." Daichi's features settled into a blank mask as he recalled (Name's) vengeance. "Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the two as their minds worked furiously to come up with a solution.

"I guess," Suga ventured "we could just tell him…"

"Do we really want to do that?" Daichi mused "It's better than lying, but…"

"Yeah."

…

….

"Suga-san?" Hinata's muffled voice reached through the door. "Are you in there?"

Taking a deep breath, Suga opened the door and bravely faced the adorable ball of sunshine.

"What are you doing in there?" Hinata peered around Suga's frame. "Hi, Daichi-san!"

"We were talking about (Name)." Daichi responded to Hinata's query. "You were asking about how she became a scout, right?"

"Uh-huh! I thought you'd know since you were here before her!" Hinata grinned as he spoke, clearly happy to learn more about the history of Karasuno's volleyball team, and by extension, their scout.

"So you still want to know." Daichi nodded sagely. Suga was staring at him hard enough to bore holes through his head; Daichi figured that if he sounded like he knew what he was doing, he wouldn't need to fear Suga's laser-beams drilling all the way through his brain.

"Yup!"

Sighing, Suga gave up trying to fry Daichi's brain and sat on the floor. "All right. Well, it began when she first turned in her application for the team's scout last year….

Flashback brought to you by Suga's smile

BAM! The door to the gym slammed against the wall as the small figure heaved it open.

"I'm here!"

Daichi, Suga and the other Karasuno volleyball players looked up surprised. The girl marched inside, quite pleased with herself.

Firmly planting herself in front of the team, she brazenly called out, "Who's the captain?"

Hidemi Tashiro, the captain at the time, stepped forward. "Who are you?"

"I'm (Name!) I'm your scout!"

Blinking, Hidemi accepted the papers (Name) thrust into his face.

"I look forward to working with you!"

Flashback interrupted by Hinata

"So that's it?" Hinata broke in. "She's been scout ever since?"

"Well…." Suga trailed off, trying to figure out how to explain (Name's) role.

"She was for a while." Daichi stepped in. "Until she went too far."

"Eh?" Hinata turned toward Daichi, ready to listen.

Flashback brought to you by Dead-chi

"Arg! Suga do you have a pen?" Daichi threw his pen into the trashcan next to his desk.

"You wouldn't be so stressed if you did your homework last night instead of cramming it in this morning." Suga commented as he passed Daichi his pen.

"I tried but someone replaced the ink with invisible ink."

"At your house?"

"Are you really surprised?"

(Name) had been scouting for a few months, and while her reports were good, her pranks got a little out of hand. Replacing the air in the volleyballs with helium to "see how high they'd go", moving all the desks in the classrooms an inch to the right, replacing cafeteria utensils with spoons, etc. It was around this time that she began moving her tricks inside the houses of her teammates. She hadn't been caught, but it was rather obvious who had done it.

Suga sighed, "Someone's going to have to talk to her. One day she'll go too far and get in serious trouble."

"Why hasn't she gotten in trouble yet?" Daichi sat back, thinking it over.

"I think her family's rich? And they give lots of money to the school. At least, that's what I heard." Suga shrugged.

BZZZZZ

The bell rang, signifying that it was time to go to class. Moving quickly, Suga gathered up his and Daichi's things as Daichi began to scrawl down answers to his work.

"I've got your bag." Suga called over his shoulder. "See you in class!"

"Mm." Daichi responded to show he'd heard.

….

"Daichi?"

"Mm?" Daichi uttered

"Daichi, I can't get the door open."

"Hm."

"Daichi!"

"What?" Daichi looked up, hearing the rise in Suga's voice. Suga was pulling on the door, but it wasn't budging.

"Help me!"

Daichi moved towards the door, and pulled on the handle with Suga. But the door didn't move.

"Hey!" Daichi yelled, pounding on the door. "Hey! Can anyone hear me?"

"Everyone's supposed to be in class, right?" Suga asked

"Yeah, but the bell rang."

Pressing his ear to the door, Suga listened for any sign of life in the hallway. "I don't hear anyone."

"Did (Name) do this?" Daichi thundered

"I don't know. I don't think so; even she wouldn't go that far, would she?"

The two looked at each other for a moment before turning to call for help and bang on the door.

Flashback interrupted again by Hinata

"Uuahh!" Hinata yelped. "Were you okay?"

Suga stared at him for a moment. "We're still here, aren't we?"

"Did (Name) lock you in?"

"Daichi hasn't gotten that far." Suga tried to explain.

Daichi cleared his throat and opened his mouth to continue.

"Oi, Hinata!" Kageyama called through the door, "I know you're in there."

Pushing the door open, Kageyama appeared scowling. "Why are you here so late? Oh!" He exclaimed, seeing Daichi and Suga too. "Uh, sorry. I'll go-"

"Kageyama-kun! Daichi-san and Suga-san are telling me how (Name)-san is still the team's scout!" Hinata jumped in, eager to share his news.

"Really?" Kageyama perked up.

"Yeah! You can listen too! Right, Suga-san?" Hinata turned to Suga hopefully.

"Sure." Suga nodded. "Sit down and I'll fill you in real quickly.

Flashback resumed upon Daichi's scowl

It took a few hours for help to arrive; someone had gotten out from one of the windows on the first floor and gone to get help. Daichi and Suga were rescued by a really old janitor who smelled of onions.

"Yer class's out 'n the lawn." He muttered before moving down to the next door.

"What happened?" Suga asked the old man

"Dunno. Some squirt put gunk 'round the frames."

Suga glanced at Daichi before turning to leave. "Let's…go."

Nodding, Daichi and Suga made the uneventful trip out to one of the fields where they reunited with their class.

Flashback interrupted by Kageyama

"(Name) did that?" Kageyama questioned.

Scowling, Daichi rubbed his face with his hands.

Laughing nervously, Suga took over. "Maybe it'll be easier just to summarize. Basically," he turned toward the two first years, "(Name)-san wanted to see how much of sticky things would make doors stick. Marshmallows, gum, glue, things like that. I don't think she meant any harm, but since the firefighters got called in to break down a few doors, she got in a lot of trouble."

"So now she draws the line when it comes to something that the authorities could get called in for." Daichi waved his hand dismissively.

"Then what?" Kageyama asked.

"She lost her official role as the team's scout." Suga answered

"She stayed that way?" Hinata cocked his head, thinking. "But she's official again, right? Or she wouldn't go to training camps with us? Or...?"

"No, she's the official scout." Daichi clarified. "She got the title back after the Plague."

"Plague…?" Kageyama's brows drew together. "I didn't know there was a plague in Japan."

"It's what some of the third-years then named it." Suga explained. "There wasn't an actual plague, but, see, (Name) decided she was still the scout, official or otherwise, so she continued to, well, scout, but there was a period of time, when the old Coach Ukai was training the team, that only people in official roles could do the jobs that were official…" Suga trailed off, trying to think of how to phrase his next words.

"(Name) decided that the administration needed to give her her position back, so the Plague began." Daichi picked up where Suga had left off. "The school was basically under siege of pranks, some harmless but annoying, some not so harmless. Everyone knew it was (Name)'s doing, but since no one could prove it, she got away with it."

"Wait, but (Name) gets caught all the time." Hinata interrupted.

"She lets people catch her." Suga replied.

"She lets them?"

Suga shrugged, "I guess she likes the thrill of it?"

"It's a mystery." Daichi supplied

"Right." Suga nodded

"Anyway," Daichi continued, "it got to the point that the administration was pretty much never safe; the pranks were everywhere but they weren't really obvious until someone tripped them. No one was really safe, like I said. After, like, a month? Yeah, about a month, the vice-principal announced that (Name) would get her position back if the pranks would just stop. And they did for a while."

"Wouldn't that make it obvious (Name) was the culprit?" Hinata asked

"You'd think so," Suga began, "but they never actually stopped. Other students tried pranking people about that time, staff and students alike, and some got caught. (Name) was one of them. And there never was anything that could be used as solid proof against her."

"Actually," Suga stopped for a moment. "That would actually explain why she gets caught."

"Huh?" Hinata and Kageyama leaned toward Suga eagerly.

"It's possible that (Name) let's herself get caught for small demeanors so no one can say the pranks stopped after she got what she wanted…"

Catching on to Suga's drift, Daichi continued Suga's thought "It's actually kind of genius."

"So (Name)-senpai annoyed everyone enough that she got her job back?" Hinata asked.

"That's what Suga-san and Daichi-san just told us, dummy!" Kageyama growled, smacking Hinata upside the head.

"Who're you calling dumb, Kageyama! I got a higher score in math!"

"By two points!"

"If I recall correctly," Suga leaned toward Daichi, "they both failed that class."

"Karasuno's victory relies on these two idiots." Daichi groaned.

Smiling uneasily, Suga turned to leave as Daichi began berating the two first years. "I'll be going then."

Stepping out into the dark, Suga closed the door and turned around.

"Aauh!"

(Name)'s grinning face was next to Suga's. "Having fun?"

"(Name)! Don't sneak up on me like that! Wait, why are you outside the changing rooms?"

(Name) stepped back pouting, but the pout quickly morphed into another Cheshire grin. "I realized I left something so I came back to get it."

Suga crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "In the boy's changing rooms?"

"Yes?"

A quick stare down commenced with Suga as the victor thanks to his patented MomScowl™. Throwing up her hands, (Name) answered, "Ugh, fine. I was trying to plant sweet potatoes in Yamaguchi's locker."

"I thought you said you'd stop doing that?"

"I did. Those were yams, these are sweet potatoes. They look the same-ish, so I can still do it."

Sighing, Suga shook his head. "What is it with you and yams?"

(Name) threw her arms out in exasperation "Yamaguchi! Yamaguchi! How can you leave that alone? It's just begging for my attention."

"You've already recognized it, so leave Yamaguchi alone, okay?" Suga tried to protect the poor first year from (Name's) sense of humor.

Scuffing her foot against the floor, (Name) muttered "I just really liked that one."

"I know, but go home."

Shaking her head, (Name) grinned unabashed, "Fine, fine. I'll see you tomorrow, Suga-san!" And off she went into the darkness.

Heaving another sigh, Suga turned as he heard the door to the locker room open. Daichi emerged with two sullen first years.

"Was someone out here?" He asked Suga, looking for another person. "I thought I heard voices."

"Nah," Suga shook his head, "I was just talking to myself."

"Hm. Well, let's all get home. We've certainly been here long enough." Daichi moved past his teammates and headed out of the school. "C'mon, Suga!"

"Will you two be okay if we leave now?" Suga asked Hinata and Kageyama.

"Uh-huh!" Hinata nodded

"It's Hinata-boke you should worry about." Kageyama said with a straight face before getting punched by Hinata.

"Well, okay. Get home." Suga said, ignoring the mini-brawl the two had resumed. He turned and followed Daichi.

Kageyama and Hinata tried to fight, but the day had been long, and they were both tired. Picking themselves up, they gathered their fallen bags and walked past the gym to go home.

As they were passing the main doors to the school, Hinata's eye was caught by some papers he almost stepped on.

"Hey, is this…?" Stopping, Hinata crouched down next to the beaten paper.

"What are you looking at now, stupid Hinata?" Kageyama grumpily asked the orange child.

"Papers. They look familiar…" Hinata's forehead scrunched together as he tried to recall where he had seen them.

"All paper looks the same." Kageyama huffed. "Let's go."

Reluctantly, Hinata stood up and started walking towards Kageyama. The two made it as far as the school gates.

"UUAAAWHHHHH!" Hinata's exclamation nearly deafened Kageyama.

"What're you doing you dumb-"Kageyama's insult was put aside as he began chasing Hinata who was racing back to the papers.

"Don't run from me while I'm yelling at you!" Kageyama yelled.

"I know where I saw the papers!" Hinata gave a small yelp. "Here they are!"

"So?" Kageyama peered at the papers.

"(Name)-senpai was holding them earlier today!" Hinata explained. "She looked like she was thinking really hard about it."

"How do you know they're hers?" Kageyama looked around for anyone who could have dropped the papers without knowing.

"The volleyball!"

Kageyama's search was quickly ended when he heard the word. "Volleyball?"

Sure enough, there was a watermark in the shape of a volleyball. (Name) had ordered them for "official volleyball business", but the theory was that she just thought they were cute and splurged.

Kageyama's curiosity had been peaked, "What does it say?"

"Umm…" Hinata turned the papers over so he could see the words. "Always."

"What?" Kageyama peered over Hinata's spiky hair. "It's just one word. Give me that."

Yanking the papers out of Hinata's hands and ignoring the protest, Kageyama studied the word. He flipped the page to see the second one.

Stay.

Another turned page.

Alert.

"What?" The two looked at each other in confusion as they were suddenly hit by two volleyballs thrown rather hard, if they'd been asked later.

"Hahahaaa!" A familiar cackle rang out.

"(Name)-san?!" Hinata turned around, rubbing the back of his head, bewildered. (Name) grinned at the two first years.

"Stay alert!"

"You're insane!"

Yelping, Hinata and Kageyama ran towards the gate, occasionally being pelted by a volleyball thrown by the maniacal second year.

"I am doing. My. Job!"

The lights in front of the main doors turned on and the vice principal threw open the doors. "Who's making a racket out here! Why are there volleyballs….(NAME)!"

"Aw crap."