head over heels

14 ~ you just got me started

[A/N - i've been listening to an unholy amount of troye sivan while writing this. The vibes just match.]

Evan waited for Kei outside the courts. It was his supposed first spike practice day. He sat on the steps, but after a moment, he realised people were staring at him.

It was absurd really. They eyed him, then didn't look away when they realised he wasn't Ethan. They kept fucking staring. He was not used to it at all. Was this what it was like for the rest of the team?

Just walking down the hallway with Kei had at least a few girls tripping over themselves to talk to him.

He thanked everything that he wasn't as disturbingly hot as Kei. He didn't think he could deal with that. Almost as if they could read his thoughts, a group of girls eyed him, moving towards him.

"Hey," one started, "It's Evan right?"

Without a word, he stood, turning and almost running into the gym. He barely even had time to catch the baffled look in their eyes as he shut the door behind him.

He took a long breath. Okay, so maybe one didn't have to be as hot as Kei to be accosted by women at all hours.

It wasn't looking good for him.

He trudged into the changing rooms. Swiftly changing. The rest of the full team got changed around him, preparing for afternoon practice.

"Hey Ethan—" A guy he didn't know called towards Evan, then he paused, "Wait—"

"Evan," he mumbled, shooting a tight lipped grimace in the boy's direction.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and left the changing room, bringing his headphones with him. He quickly glanced at his photo of the timetable Coach had given him. Instead of team practice today, he'd be spike training with Kei in one of the smaller gyms.

The sports facilities at Lakewood were ginormous, with the volleyball courts taking up the most space due to the team's success. They were one of the main courts for the national tournaments.

The centre court for the tournaments sat in the middle, and two adjacent buildings with training courts that housed five side long courts each. The main building had three floors, with gyms, weight rooms and practice rooms on the higher floors.

Evan headed to the upstairs practice rooms.

The practice rooms were like high ceilinged cubes with half size nets strung up in the centre. They weren't meant for games, just individual practice for two people at most.

He glanced at the number on the door, shooting off a text to Kei.

@evan - i'm in practice room 7

He got a reply almost immediately.

@keisasaki - be thr in 10 :)

He grinned, putting his headphones on. He scrolled through his music, putting on his favourite playlist and sliding his phone into his pocket.

Every practice room had a stack of volleyballs held in a basket, so he made his way over, dragging the wheeled basket over to the centre of the mini court.

He remembered his old spike drills as well as Coach's ones. The problem was that as the setter, he was always the one throwing the ball during those drills.

Before, in middle school, for training, he'd only practised sets, throwing them to Ethan or Theo. He winced. God, even now he couldn't even think about him.

He grit his teeth. It wasn't like he couldn't spike, he just wasn't very good at it.

With his music playing, Evan threw the ball up then ran for it, smacking it down over the net. It thwacked onto the other side of the net, but he could just tell his form was all off.