Music and laughter filled the whole place with small groups of people standing here and there, mostly near the food table or the improvised dj table dancing and having a nice time. No one would say they had to begin the school routine again in two days.

Aika and Sakura were both amazed with the atmosphere after finally arriving at the meeting place with the other new player. Apparently, her name was Ruka and it was the first time she ever played as well. She shared her bedroom with the libero's team two rooms next to theirs.

"I'm getting more scared every second" Aika just laughed at her new friend's words and Sakura couldn't agree more with her. The whole ceremony thing just felt a bit awful and she wanted to dissappear. "It will be fun!"

And, in that moment, the girls were greeted by their teammates. One by one, every group got even smaller, creating a circle and began explaining the whole initation/ceremony thing everyone was so hyped to begin. 

"Partnership's one of the most important things in a team sport. That's why first of all you'll have to blindfold yourselves with these scarves. Secondly, you'll be paired up with one of the first years from the boy's team with one foot tied up to the boy's foot (because mutual respect between teams is important as well) and then you'll have to cross the whole campus trying to avoid obstacles!" your captain, Mia cheered whilst the rest of the team just smiled looking at the three of you and your reactions. "Oh, don't worry, it isn't as difficult as it seems. However.. One of you is going to be paired up with the second year as only two new boys are in. Oh well"

Without further ado, the three of you got blindfolded by your teammates as they helped you get to your pair and tie you up. All the sport clubs gathered near the gym to watch the whole "obstacle race" and trying to guess who would appear first at the finish line, although the other clubs just ignored them, mostly because they found this whole ceremony a stupid thing to do but deep inside were curious as every year there was some fun anecdote.

"Ready?" Sakura felt an arm on her back and she slowly did the same. Though she didn't know who her pair was, being tied up and with an arm on each other would be more helpful to walk than nothing.

"I am definitively not ready" A small chucle could be heard next to her. Please don't get a fool of yourself again.

"Don't worry Koba-san" That voice. What if you have already made a fool out of yourself. TWICE. "It isn't as scary as it seems."

After the signal some of the couples started trying to run just to fail miserably, others were just stucked without being able to move an inch and just a few really managed to walk or move at all. Sakura was initially half dragged but decided to leave her thoughts and help Akaashi -in the end she was the new team member and not him.

After some tries, both of them found the best way to walk by basically almost singing 'out, in, out, in, there's something over here, turn around' and a lot of twirling when they reached the small forest.

"Wait do we really have to walk like this through a forest??" 

"Yes. I shouldn't say this however, they did put some signs to make everyone go in a straight line. They did the same thing last year." Akaashi's arm hold on tighter onto her. 

Oh. Well at least being paired up with him wasn't that bad after all. Or was it? I mean, she already embarassed herself twice on the first day and now she's stuck with him like this. Being careful as they walked and waving their arms to detect the trees made them spend a lot of time trying to go out. Noises from other pairs could be heard in the distance when suddenly Akaashi got tensed and a hoot was heard just in front of him and then it dissappeared.

"Was that a barred owl just now? I'll have to come back here then.." Sakura whispered the last part, oblivious that the boy next to her heard everything. "We should go on."

After some minutes more they left the forest and were close to the finish line. They did not know where the other pairs where and if they were the last ones, but at least they managed this small adventure well. Cheers were closer everytime and without even realising the pair finally arrived as they were stopped and got the scarves away.

"You are like the third pair to have arrived already. It's nice having a small podium after these years, uh" Mia was in front of you smiling and the whole team was cheering as well. "Despite the fact Akaashi was a second year and he knew but-"

"Hey hey hey! At last we get another throphy for the club! I can finally brag about us winning the ceremony" 

Akaashi smiled at you and then left alongside bokuto to meet their team as you did with Mia.

"I didn't know there was a prize for this" 

"Oh, dear, we have small competitions between sport clubs if we're not busy with the championships." Everyone on the team congratulated  you. "Welcome to the team!"