How to fly with clipped wings (English ver.) HAIKYUU!! FAN FICTION

Chapter 20: The Preliminaries

Mikaela just wanted Friday to be over with. She was extremely excited for Saturday, so excited that she'd barely scraped by with two hours of sleep last night. She'd been too busy scouting the other teams online. Videos, social media, anything she could get her hands on. Her notebook (a new one ever since she completely filled her old one) had several pages dedicated to each team. But seeing them in person would definitely help.

This new annoying girl (Kanano? Konoha? Something like that) didn't seem to let up. Yamaguchi and Mikaela both laughed at the blond as he struggled throughout the day to get rid of her, but nothing seemed to work for him. He even snapped at her at one point, losing his temper, but she had taken it in stride.

The bell rang, and Mikaela started to collect her things so she could head to practice when someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Mikaela-san?"

She turned fast enough that she could've punched the girl before she even realized what was going on. God, people need to stop surprising me like that. It was the annoying girl from before- Kahana? "What?" she said sharply, her tone a mix of surprise and annoyance.

"Can I speak with you for a moment, if that's alright?" the auburn-haired girl asked softly, her cheeks turning pink. "In private?"

She was confused. "Sure?"

Mikaela followed the girl out of the classroom, waving Yamaguchi off when he shot her a questioning look. Tsukishima shrugged, uncaring, and he and Yamaguchi left to go to practice. "Kahano, are you coming?" one of the other girls called, and the black-haired girl nearly face-palmed. Ugh, she almost had her name.

"Later," she called back, and her friend nodded. Once they were in the hallway and safe from any eavesdroppers, Kahano turned towards Mikaela, sighing. "I hope you realize I'm really swallowing my pride to ask you this," she said.

The black-haired girl raised an eyebrow, trying to stifle a laugh. "I don't even know what you're going to ask," she admitted.

"I'm getting to that," Kahano said with a frown, furrowing her eyebrows. "Look, you're, uh... You're friends with Tsukishima-kun, right?"

"I guess," Mikaela said with a shrug. She didn't really know what to label their relationship as, but friends would do for now. "Well, acquaintances is more like it. He's horribly annoying," she vented, her eyebrows knitting together as more passion crept into her tone. "And very frustrating. And-"

"So you don't like him, then?"

"No," she said immediately, before pausing to reconsider. "...No," Mikaela said again, shaking her head. "It's not like that."

Kahano frowned. "You're blushing."

"Am I? No I'm not. What was your question?"

"Oh. Uh, I, well..." she trailed off with a sigh. "Look, you seem pretty close with him. I really like him, and I have for a while, but over the summer break I convinced myself to go for it. But... I don't quite understand him yet. Do you... Do you have any advice for me? Like, what does he like?" Kahano's face was bright red, and she was fidgeting with a pen in her hands.

Mikaela blinked rapidly, trying to comprehend the situation. Yamaguchi was right- this girl had a crush on Tsukishima. But she was asking Mikaela, of all people, how to win over the blond prick? Seriously?

"Tsukishima's a..." she huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. "He's different," she concluded after a moment of thought. "He likes pissing people off and getting under your skin. He'll do anything he can to make your life miserable, and he's an overall crappy person."

Kahano raised an eyebrow at her. "Seriously? Don't you have anything positive to say about him?"

"Nope. Anyways, he... Well, he gets annoyed especially when people tell him what he can and can't do," Mikaela said slowly, trying to wrap her mind around Tsukishima's twisted personality. "He's independent. He gets annoyed by people easily, especially when someone asks him for help, so pretending you don't know the answer to a question in the homework and asking him for help isn't a good idea," she said with a smirk on her face.