Chapter 62: Stars in Your Eyes

                                    

                                          

Nakano awoke to the sound of her phone alarm chiming on her bedside table.  She reached over blindly to grab it, and instead felt something long and thin resting there.  A pencil, she thought blurrily, why is there a pencil on my night table?  She ignored the thought for the moment, locating the feel of her phone under the pencil and mashing around with her fingers until the device shut up.
She burrowed back into her covers, eyes tightly shut against the world, but brain beginning to come alive.  Sixteen, she thought, I'm sixteen today.  Caught up to Kei at last.  She giggled aloud, amused at her own apparent concern that for about six weeks her boyfriend was technically a year older than she was.  A lot has happened in the past year, she realized.  A lot has changed for me, and all of it for the better.  Her thoughts dwelt upon the sassy blonde middle blocker who had become the very center of her world, and everything he'd done for her.  If it weren't for him, she considered, there is no way in heck I ever would have had the courage to wear those braces out of the party room.
For indeed, she had.  After receiving the team's incredible gift, they'd all insisted she had to try them on.  She'd balked, caught in her own head between wanting to make her team happy and feeling like wearing something so bold on her legs was simply asking for trouble.  She knew if she put them on, there was absolutely no way her team would let her change back to the black braces before they left the party room - they'd insist she wear them out into the world.  She wasn't sure she was ready for that.  But then, Kei had taken her hand and squeezed it, making her look into those incredibly awesome toasted golden honey eyes of his.  Eyes she couldn't look away from, eyes she couldn't help but fall into, eyes she could deny nothing.
As the team cheered her on loudly, Kei had spoken so softly to her she was certain no one else in the room could hear it.  "You are amazing.  You are strong.  You've beaten the odds, more times than I can count.  You deserve to show that to the world.  Don't hide anymore, Roses.  Show them how awesome you are."
Before she knew it, her boyfriend was helping her wind the new braces into place, securing them around her legs as the boys clapped and encouraged her.  She had to admit, she liked the way they looked against her Karasuno orange leggings.  They did make her feel kind of...badass.  She grinned, remembering back to the feeling she'd had when she'd stood up, showing off the braces to everyone.  She'd heard people call her a badass, and it felt good.  She'd liked it.
But feeling like a badass yourself was on a completely different level.
And so, she'd done it.  She walked out of the party room and into the crowded diner, Kei holding her hand and her team chattering around her excitedly and Yamaguchi wearing his new hoodie and her wearing her new braces, and she'd held her breath as she could feel the eyes on her and she'd hoped beyond hope that no one would say anything.  
It was a diner full of teenagers.  Someone was bound to say something.  And they'd say it loud enough to be heard, because people were like that.
When it came, it wasn't what she'd expected.  A bunch of guys at a table as they'd all gone by.
A throaty chuckle.  "Check out the volleyball dorks."
"Hey!  That's Karasuno!  They made the Nationals."
"Really?  Guess they must be celebrating."
"Damn, lucky guys.  Three lady managers...a hottie, a cutie, and a badass."
Nakano's head had spun a bit at that.  The hottie was certainly Kiyoko.  The cutie had to be Yachi - lots of people described her that way.
Did that mean she really was a badass?  The thought had shocked her.  Especially since the description had come from someone who knew nothing about her but what they could see.