Letizia Marciano, Vanessa Canavarro, Vienna Rosario , Daniella Pirelli, Dona-Marie Pirelli, Diana Pirelli and Clarisa O'Neil were standing side by side at one side of the basketball court facing their opponents. The star packed boys team.

The boys were also ready to fight standing determined at the other side. Alexander Rosario, Viggo and Vincenzo Rosario, Tristan and Trent O'Neil, Sebastiano Giovanni and Cain Rosario were looking at Stefano rosario with stony faces waiting for him to blow the whistle and let them get on with it. He was taking his time explaining the rules and that earned some objections from the boys.

Tristan spoke "Save it Stefano. I think we all know how to play basketball."

Trent laughed "Sure brother. We all know how its done. But the girls may not. Anybody gets into their team these days. Let Stefano help them out."

Stefano sighed " Listen up people. Don't forget once the time is up, it's over. This is not a real basketball game. We don't have time. Hardly 5 minutes. We have to get back to the event. Remember this game is just for fun..."

Vanessa spoke " Speak for yourself."

Stefano spoke " Of course, it's about winning honour and respect. I forgot."

Seconds later the games started. It was pretty fast for the boys. They earned a lead quickly with Tristan and Vincenzo scoring. The passing shots by Alexander and Trent helped too.

Stefano shouted " Half time."

The girls formed a circle at one side and boys at the other side.

Letizia spoke " I need us to play riskier."

Clarisa nodded "We need to even it out by any means and I mean by any means."

Vienna spoke " I agree. A loss is a loss and we must avoid it especially it looks bad if we lose when we have earned no points. We won't hear the end of it from the boys."

Vanessa spoke " So let's play harder. I suggest we try to get rid of Viggo."

Letizia nodded " Which one? Oh him. Their play maker?"

Vanessa nodded " He is the heart of the team. Block him somehow Letizia."

Dona Marie spoke " Sure. Also. He is nice because he is playing with girls. He is holding back here. Try to block him and he won't do anything."

Diana spoke " Sure. But also get Letizia and Vanessa the ball and hope they score.

Daniella spoke " Vienna, I think you should just defend. Sebastiano doesn't like attacking you and you know it. Try to block him instead of trying to score since Vincenzo gets the ball of you every time to prove a point."

Vienna nodded " What do we do with Alexander. He is quite tricky."

Clarisa spoke " I would fix him. I will distract him."

The girls then put their hands in the middle and Vanessa shouted " Who are we?"

The others shouted back " The elegant, the classy, the intelligent."

Vanessa shouted " What do we do?"

The other shouted " We go get them."

Vanessa spoke " Let's go, get them ladies. We can do it."

The girls lined up in their positions and boys also took their place.

What happened next shocked the girls. They were ready but so were the boys. They had readjusted their strategy and had made changes to how they played. They managed to score again and the game got too intense. There were fouls happening especially after Letizia managed to score from the middle if the field. Vanessa managed to score too. That was it. The game was closing just when the girls managed to get a reasonable score.

Suddenly Stefani shouted " Foul. A penalty for the girls."

The boys were looking at him with narrowed eyes " Back off man."

Stefano spoke " Enough arguments or I am docking points."

Alexander laughed " You really are going to get it Stefano. Wait till Monday. If you get extra laps from the captain, don't complain."

Stefano rolled his eyes. Tristan and Vincenzo were both captains. They took turns in each day. One day Vincenzo was captain and Tristan was vice captain and the other day their positions were reversed. The Monday that was coming up, was Vincenzo's turn to be captain. He was lucky. Since he was a Rosario, Vincenzo and Tristan never demanded cold showers from him and gave him just extra laps. But any one on the team who wasn't part of their group of eight high fliers whom were present on that very basketball court, had it tougher with the sadistic team captains that even the coach couldn't control.

The boys scattered as they murmured insults and threats at Stefano.

Letizia took the penalty and she scored. The score was 14-16 now. But boys were winning. Boys were shocked. They knew they had witnessed something special from the girls. Letizia was a great play maker. They had to watch their backs from now on.

Seconds later, Stefano blew the whistle. "Time is up." He shouted.

The girls were gutted looking at the boys celebrating.

Stefano blew the whistle and instructed "Now. Listen up. Since the boys won they get to have the girls as their cheer leaders for all of the home and away games. So the girls have to join the cheer leading squad which is struggling with recruits at the moment and it helps the boys basketball team that the cheer leaders hardly ever visit. This lasts for the rest of the academic year."

Tristan shouted " What the hell Stefano? You couldn't come up with something much more serious. What is this?"

Vincenzo spoke " Back off man. We just wanted to teach these girls a lesson so they don't think they ever got a chance to mess with us. They learnt their lesson and we should be satisfied."

Trent laughed " That's way too easy Stefano. What is wrong with you?"

Stefano spoke " Nothing is wrong with me. Look over at that cabin and think, man. Who is there? Oh. I remember. Our fathers. We can't have any funny business going on. Do you really want to be the one your father takes out his wrath on if an alliance is ruined. I doubt it. I am the referee. I make the rules. If you can't respect my rules then off you go people or better yet, I am off and good luck finding someone the girls agree on to be the referee the next time you play. Any objections .... I didn't think so."

The boys were about to object more but a few guards showed up and delivered the massage that the boys must present themselves back at the cabin where their fathers were.

The boys complied of course but not before shouting at the girls that they would hear from them later in the day.

Vienna sighed " And if their egos wasn't big enough. We will beat them one day. Let's go get some drinks and we can go for a walk around the lake."

The girls nodded and all followed Vienna to the drinks table. As they took away their drinks, they started walking towards the lake side and the tree houses.

Letizia questioned " What is the big deal about the cheer leading prize. Why do you look so down? Clarisa and I are cheer leaders. It's not so bad."

Clarisa spoke " Ha. You don't know what cheer leading means in our school. When you attend the game as cheer leader you are at the team's disposal for alot of things. If any of the players of the team you are supporting demands it, you have to sit with them for lunch. If they demand it, you must change your routines for the team. They can even attend your practice and tell you what they like and don't like while you are committed. You must attend their parties too...."

Letizia gasped "Why? Where do these rules come from?"

Vienna shrugged "These rules mean that the cheer leaders are part of the team they support. Simple. If Clarisa commits the cheer leading squad that she is leading to commit to supporting the basketball team that means, her cheer leaders are part of the team. What the basketball team captain says goes."

Vanessa nodded "Until now, the cheer leaders refused to commit to supporting the boy's teams. They just support girl squads and the only all boy's team that gets cheer leaders is the volleyball team."

Letizia spoke "What is special about them?"

Dina Marie spoke " They are true gentleman. They are all British exchange students. They are just too shy to even notice us or demand anything.

Diana spoke "Sure, they are not hard to be around and it helps our college applications to say we are at home and away games with their team that's unbeatable."

Daniella spoke "But the party is over for us for the rest of the academic year it seems."

Vienna sighed " The party is over for the Volleyball team too. I feel sorry for the volleyball team. With our support gone, the basketball team could show up more often and trash their dressing room. They wouldn't speak up now with the student council."

Clarisa laughed " Of course."

Vienna sighed "We will make it through. Its just their high egos that we have to put up with and extra training for the cheer leading squad. So its goodbye to karate lessons. We have our own basketball practice to do."

Vanessa frowned "No. We can do that weekends. My aunt Georgina can be our teacher. We don't even have to do it in school. We can keep it secret."

Clarisa spoke "I don't know. My mother doesn't like your aunt very much. She wont let me have self defence lessons from her. I am quite sure."

Vienna spoke "Ask your father then."

Clarisa spoke "No. He doesn't even like me do any self defence courses anyways. It was easier to cover it up in school somehow if we locked the doors. I think i could only get away with it outside school, if your aunt came to your house. That way I can say I am going to see Vanessa for a few hours. My dad would ground me for sure when he finds out but its worth it."

Vanessa turned to Vienna "So every Saturday morning then. You coming too. Right?"

Vienna nodded "If Clarisa is going, I will too. Its better if I don't tell my father. He may say no and would tell Clarisa's father and she will get into trouble."

Dina Marie turned to her sisters and laughed " We are in too. We wont tell why we want to go to Vanessa's house. So we will be like what? A secret society?

Letizia spoke "I like the sound of that. I would come too but if my father forms an alliance and trust your family. But I think he wont have a problem with Vanessa's father. Georgio Canavaro gets along with every family and is a compromiser."

The next few hours were spent on studying for the girls in one of the tree houses on the ground and then when it was afternoon tea time, they made their way out.

As the girls started to leave, they noticed Letizia wasn't moving and was immersed in books.

Vienna questioned "Are you coming?"

Letizia spoke as her stare didn't leave the book "I am almost done. I just want to finish this chapter of the Maths book. Its the first exam right?"

Vienna sighed "They probably exempt you from exams for being new. Let's go."

Letizia looked up at Vienna "I am coming in a few minutes. Don't worry. I know the way back."

As the girls left, Letizia read through the chapter and then got up. She exited the tree house and was about to walk away when she heard a voice "You kept me waiting long enough."

Letizia turned around and saw Vincenzo leaning to the wall next to the door. She shrugged "Why are you here? I told Vienna I can make my way. Did she send you?"

Vincenzo shook his head "No. I came here to talk to you alone."

Letizia spoke "I think I will pass. I don't have time for you. My friends are waiting. I am afraid, you have to wait longer." Letizia turned around and took a step away only for Vincenzo to grab her hand and pull her to his chest.

Vincenzo spoke "Don't walk away."

Letizia narrowed her eyes and her kick boxing moves came next to shock Vincenzo. She kicked him and was about to punch him when Vincenzo grabbed her hand in a painful grip and spoke "Stop right there or I will teach you a lesson about not to take me on."

Letizia bit her lip and nodded. As Vincenzo let her hand go and spoke "I was saying..." She kicked him again and started sprinting away chuckling.

Letizia heard a whistle from behind her as she started to run and then after running a few meters into the trees she came to a halt and froze in shock. She found herself surrounded by about a dozen dogs. She now understood. Vincenzo had blown that whistle. These were his dogs. They were looking into distance at where foot steps were heard waiting for instructions.

Letizia slowly turned around and found a smirking Vincenzo walking slowly towards her "You ran into the wrong direction by the way right into the playground of my dogs.

Letizia narrowed her eyes "You are crazy. These are dangerous dogs."

Vincenzo laughed "No they are not. I have much worse ones in cages. These ones are mostly for blocking run ways not injuring. Don't worry. They wont attack you unless I tell them to."

Letizia put her hands on her hips "Oh that's reassuring."

Vincenzo smirked "It certainly is. Isn't it?" He then walked slowly towards her and stood in front of her. He looked into her eyes " You fight well but you hit the wrong man sweetheart. I don't forgive and forget unlucky for you..."

Letizia spoke "What do you want? An apology?"

Vincenzo spoke "Yes. Of course. I want an apology or I would leave you here to spend some time with my dogs. They are here on stand by to catch trespassers and they are very unfriendly if I am not around. So do yourself a favour. Apologise. If you don't then I am not going to tell the dogs to go away. I leave you here for a while. They don't like it when strangers are around. Especially the ones that move. They are there to halt trespassers. So you will have to stay frozen there if you don't want to have a dozen dogs jump on you."

Letizia spoke "You cant keep me here. I don't apologise., You were not very polite. I only respond to boys when they talk politely. You are no gentleman. You wouldn't dare leave me here,"

Vincenzo spoke "Try me sweetheart."

Letizia spoke "My father would break the alliance he is about to make with your father."

Vincenzo gave out a dark chuckle " Do I look like I care?"

Letizia sighed "Call off your dogs. I have a phobia of dogs. Its quite bad. "

Vincenzo noticed her shaking hands. She definitely had a phobia. He had heard she did from her father in the cabin. He had specifically said to keep dogs away from her that day. He wasn't one to follow the rules of course.

Vincenzo spoke "You seem fine to me."

Letizia gritted her teeth "Get the dogs out of here. I have a phobia. Its just gets worse if they are around me longer.... it brings bad images in my head... Please..."

Vincenzo raised an eyebrow "No."

Letizia closed her eyes "I am sorry."

Vincenzo spoke "Ah. Not that kind of apology."

Letizia opened her eyes and then found him standing too close to her in her personal space only a few inches of her as she was shaking affected by the dogs being at close proximity of her.

Letizia spoke "What kind of apology then?"

Vincenzo spoke "You see. I liked you when I saw you first. Now I am quite impressed with how you hit me. Not only you look so fine, you are strong too. A fighter. I like that. You keep the boys away and not too friendly. I like that too. That is why to forgive you, I just ask for a kiss."

Letizia spoke "Go to hell." She then kicked him to the ground and jumped on top of him trying to punch him but Vincenzo switched their places pinning her to the ground as his dogs were barking now.

Vicnenzo blew a different whistle and they quieted down.

Letizia spoke "Get off me. I am not giving you my first kiss you arrogant, crazy jerk."

Vicnenzo was looking at her with admiration. " Tsk Tsk. I can see you going pale. The dog phobia is real, I see. What a lovely coincidence. I have a passion for collecting dogs. We are a good match. Don't you think? They say opposites attract."

Letizia spoke "You are the most evil and twisted person I have ever met."

Vincenzo spoke "You are the most beautiful and honest person I have ever met. I told you ... opposites attract."