As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.
— Henry Van Dyke
"Oh, look, Miyuki-chan, we're in the same class again!"
"Indeed! Here's to a good year, Kona-chan."
There were few students crowded around the board listing everybody's classes; most students had already found their name and headed to class to meet their new (or old) classmates. Being a new student, Maru was one of those students, leisurely scanning the board for her name.
"Class 2-2, huh?" Maru murmured to herself, finally spotting her name. "Hmm... I guess I didn't do as well on the entrance exams than I thought..."
She dragged herself to her class, well aware of the people whispering about how big her glasses were. She didn't blame them, really. Kids loved to gossip and her bug-eyed spectacles were just an exotic new thing that would likely disappear by the end of the day.
To be fair, my glasses must look really, really big on my face...
Maru stopped in front of her allocated classroom as she watched a black-haired scowling boy slap an orange-haired kid awake. The orange-haired boy, blushing furiously, yelled something at the other boy before standing up on his own and smoothing down his uniform shirt.
Orange...
"It's called STOMP," Maru said to Hinata, grinning with all her teeth. "Want me to teach you?"
Hinata looked like he was about to say yes, but faltered and chewed on his lip thoughtfully. "I don't know... my okaa-chan won't like me fighting."
"That's okay. I won't make you learn. Do you like anything else?"
"Yeah! Sports! Like running, and jumping, and—and I'm doing baseball right now!"
"That's cool. Sports I like are STOMP and volleyball."
"Volleyball?" Hinata splashed in a puddle, spraying water on Maru's socks. Her socks were already damp from the rain so she didn't mind. "Is it fun?"
"I guess. My family told me to play a normal sport in my spare time so I chose volleyball. I think I'm pretty good at it... I mean, all you do is hit it over the net without letting it touch the ground, right?"
"Uh huh. I think it was something like that. Volleyball sounds fun but I bet baseball is way more fun!" Hinata declared vehemently.
Maru giggled. "Don't be so sure! Volleyball is more interesting than it sounds."
"Whatever," Hinata said flippantly, "I don't think volleyball is my kind of sport anyway..."
Maru shook her head. Nope. Don't remember him. Seems familiar though. Maybe he has a relative. Orange hair isn't really all that common around here.
"Excuse me," Maru spoke up when she realized that the two boys were blocking the door. She sincerely hoped that they wouldn't cause any trouble for her. "Please let me through."
A blonde girl that Maru hadn't noticed before shook the orange-haired kid's arm. "Come on, Shouyo, you're blocking someone."
"Oh, sorry!"
"Hinata dumbass," the black-haired boy grumbled before pulling them both out of the way.
"Shut up, Bakageyama!"
"Thank you," Maru said simply, giving the blonde girl a wary glance before entering her classroom. Respond as simply as you can. If you're rude, you'll end up being disliked. If you smile too much, they'll call you a slut.
It was simple high school etiquette. The unspoken laws that one had to abide to if they didn't want to gain unwanted attention.
Of course, those rules only apply to those who are...
Maru gazed around her classroom. A group of pretty girls were clustered to one side, discussing a new music video. Three handsome guys stood at the back, laughing about something. A few more people were at their desks with their friends surrounding them.
Not attractive. People like me.
Girls who were too tall to be considered appealing. Girls who didn't take care of their hair and simply clipped up their bedhead hair in the mornings so that oily strands still stuck up in the air. Girls who wore round glasses bigger than their face with lenses thicker than their fingers.
Girls like her.
Rules of society, folks. Looks can only take you so far, but at this stage in life...
Maru chose a seat that wasn't taken in the second last row.
Looks mean everything. Especially power.
Everyone was inside within a few minutes, and Maru noted that Hinata and his black-haired friend (Maru presumed him to be 'Kageyama' due to him being called 'Bakageyama') had chosen seats next to each other at the back. Kageyama sat in the last row by the window while Hinata sat next to him in the middle section.
Right behind her.
"Hi, are you new?" Hinata asked her. "I've never seen you before. Well, other than before..."
"Hm?" Maru turned her body halfway in her chair so that she faced him. "Yes, I am."
"Cool! I'm Hinata Shouyo, nice to meet you."
She nodded shortly. "Nice to meet you."
"Aren't you going to tell me your name?"
Maru turned back to face the front. "You'll find out when the teacher makes the class do introductions."
"I guess..." Sensing that she didn't really want to talk anymore, Hinata struck up a conversation with Kageyama about volleyball of all things.
Volleyball, Maru silently mused, That's a fun game. He has good taste.
The teacher arrived and introduced himself as Jinsei-sensei (but asked the kids to call him Jin-sensei). Starting from the front, he called upon the students to introduce themselves one by one, even though most of them were already acquainted from first year.
After 'Minato Akira' introduced himself as a bipolar artist and sat back down, Maru stood up, making sure her face was perfectly blank.
She was far too aware of Hinata's curious gaze burning into her back as she introduced herself to her new classmates and teacher.
"Hi," she said, ignoring the watching eyes of her classmates. "I'm Saito Maru. I'm sixteen years old and I like lizards. Please take care of me." She gave a shallow bow before taking a seat.
"Lizards?" she heard someone mutter, already weirded out by her messy appearance and her introduction.
The introductions went on, Maru tuning out during the rest... until they reached the boy sitting behind her.
"Hinata Shouyo!" Hinata introduced himself, smiling but also squirming a bit nervously under everyone's stares. "Um, ah, I like volleyball, meat buns, shonen manga, and Kageyama is my best friend...!"
Kageyama was the last to be introducing himself. "I'm Kageyama Tobio and I like volleyball. My dream right now is to play in nationals again."
Jinsei let his students talk among themselves for a few minutes before class officially began so that they could get a feel for each other.
"Saito-san?" Hinata tapped her shoulder.
She turned, staring at him rather intently with her large yellow eyes. Hinata noticed that her eyes were reminiscent of some of the volleyball players in Nekoma: her pupils were slanted slightly.
"Yes?"
"Well, uh, we're going to be seeing each other a lot now, so..." Hinata trailed off, a bit unsure of what to say to her.
"Okay." Maru turned back, having nothing more to say to him. I wonder how Levi and Bean are doing? They must be excited for lunchtime. I packed a jar of crickets in my bag just for them.
"Shouyo!" Once again, Miku glomped her boyfriend when he and Kageyama came out of the classroom to eat lunch before heading to volleyball practice.
"Hey, watch it," Kageyama muttered when Hinata nearly slammed into him. Looks like she's sitting with us... again. Kimura Miku wasn't a bad person per se, but Kageyama would be lying to himself if he thought that she wasn't annoying at times. Does Hinata ever feel like that when Sumire's around?
Ah, Makoshima Sumire, an interesting specimen indeed. She and Kageyama had been seeing each other since last year, having met after fighting over the last packet of potato flavored potato chips at a twenty four hour mart. They'd gotten off a rocky start but managed to make it through the months without strangling each other to death, so that was good, right? She was a third year attending Kitagawa Daiichi, but she frequently (see: every day) commuted to Karasuno to have lunch and practice volleyball with Hinata and Kageyama.
Miku... was nearly the exact opposite of Sumire. He couldn't really explain how, but she just was. Miku was loud, warm, and friendly to everyone. Sumire was quiet (most of the time), cold, and aloof when it came to interacting with people she didn't know very well.
Maybe if it was just his preference for girls that led him to be irritated by Miku's behavior at times. She could get a bit... clingy.
"Can I sit with you today?" Miku asked, hanging onto Hinata's arm. "My friends are studying in the library for midterms already and it's only the first day!"
"Sure, but studying already?! Your friends must be really smart!"
"I know right?! Oh, can you do that quick set thing with Kageyama-kun again?! It's so cool and when you jump up and go bwah, and gah!" Miku made a number of smacking motions with her arm to get her point across, speaking at a hundred miles per hour.
Kageyama nearly snorted in disbelief. Those two are made for each other. Two boundless balls of energy...
Hinata agreed to Miku's request and the three headed outside to their usual lunch spot near the vending machines. Hinata and Miku sat down first and Kageyama went over to his drink machine, considering his options. He inserted his yen and was about to do his signature double-button press when a third hand snaked below his arm and pressed a totally different and irrelevant button.
"Oi!" Kageyama turned to glare at Sumire, who was grinning as she watched a fizzy soda roll down the machine and be collected by Kageyama.
"Thank you, Tobio, I was feeling extremely thirsty," Sumire said, snatching the soda from him.
"Don't you have a roller coaster to be banned from?" he said sardonically, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"Don't you have some tree branches to walk into?" she shot back, crossing her arms. "I'll buy your milk for you, by the way. I'm not a total asshole." She inserted the amount of yen needed to by some strawberry milk and gave the carton to him.
"I could have wanted a different flavor," Kageyama told her as they both cracked open their drinks, Sumire chugging down about half of the soda in one go. "... Fatass."
"I have a few more years left in me before I have to actively watch what I eat, so shut it. Let me enjoy what little time I have left, bastard."
"Forget that, you're going to get cavities from all the sugar you consume, you fucking dumbass."
"Hey! I brush every night! Stupid Bakageyama..."
He shoved her to the side, making her stumble and glare at him.
Then they both sat along the little brick wall with Miku and Hinata.
"Hi, Sumire-chan!" Miku greeted with a smile. "How are you?"
"Oh, I'm fine," Sumire returned politely. "What about you? Are you and Hinata in the same class?"
Miku rubbed the back of her head and laughed. "I wish! We're all second years now... we're going to have to study pretty hard."
"Noya and Tanaka never study," Hinata pointed out. "And they're doing okay... I think."
"Hinata, do you really think you should be following their example?" Sumire inquired dryly, Kageyama silently agreeing with her. His mother had been making him hit the books lately in order to improve his terrible grades. "If—no, at this rate, it's when—they flunk their college entrance exams, you'll be forced to open your third eye."
Hinata grinned and laughed sheepishly. "Heh, well..."
"Oh, Shouyo, our classes have clean up duty this afternoon," Miku suddenly remembered, a gleam in her eye.
"Do we? I haven't checked the board."
Miku cleared her throat. "Y-yeah, uh... can we go this way for a sec?" She got up and yanked Hinata away by the arm, the orange-haired boy yelping at the sudden change of momentum.
"Five hundred yen says that they're taking the next step in their relationship," Sumire suddenly blurted.
"You're on," Kageyama immediately agreed. "Want to practice receiving with me?"
Sumire flinched away from him, sweatdropping. "Eh?! Again? The bruises on my arms have bruises...!"
A/N: Changed the names of the lizards to Levi and Bean. My god, I put a bunch of references in this...