A week later

Pre-season training had already started for Gerard and Annabelle found herself spending a lot of time either at home alone or up at Camp Nou with her brother and the team.  Watching the team during their scrimmages inspired her to want to play harder when her season started.  Today they were doing passing drills and Marc was paired Dani Alves, another defender on the team.  It fascinated her how in sync Dani and Marc were.  They dribbled down the whole field and made at least 13 successful passes, she had lost count after that because she was too distracted by Marc’s smile.  She felt her face heat up and she brought her hands to her face. 

“I need to distract myself!  I can’t keep sitting here…” she gently smacks her face with her hands and jumps off of the bleachers with her ball in her hands.  She figured she did some drills of her own instead of wasting time drooling over Marc.  She started with a warm-up as she played “keep it up” with herself.  She tried her best to keep the ball in the air for more 50 kicks at a time, switching with each foot from the sides to the top.  She could never do more than 30 since she gets tired and loses control of the ball.  Gerard was right about her lack of control, as much as she hated to admit it. 

In mid-thought she kicked the ball too hard and it flew onto the field towards the team.  She stared in shock as her brother turned around to look at her immediately.  He shook his head at her and she sighed inwardly.  Frustrated, she climbed back onto the bleachers and plopped herself down.  It was just as she sat down that she saw that the coach had already ended practice.  The team was stretching and from the looks of it, ready to play a practice game.  A few of the players lined up while others shuffled quickly off the field.  They seemed to be discussing something, what she assumed were the terms of the game.  However, what surprised her was when the lined up players all turned to look at her.  She sat up and stared back in shock as Marc ran toward her.

“What happened Marc?”

“Oh, nothing happened.  We’re just short one player and we thought it’d be a fun for you to come fill the spot,” he beamed at her as he gestured her to go onto the field.

“WHAT?”

“Yeah!  It’ll be much more fun than you sitting here by yourself and besides, we convinced Ger that it would be good training for you,”

Annabelle continued to stare at him with her jaw slightly dropped.  Of course it would be great experience playing with the team… However, she was worried she’d make herself look like a fool if she slowed everyone down.

“U-Um… I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she finally said as she slowly climbed off the bleachers.

“Oh come on Bella.  It’d be fun!  Besides, you’ll be on my team against your brother.  Wouldn’t it be hilarious to see his team lose?” he laughs as he opens the gate and takes her by the hand, pulling her towards the team before she even got the chance to answer.  “So Bella is going to be our team!” he announced to everyone and they cheered.

“That’s awesome Annie!” shouted Dani.

“Yeah, I can’t believe we haven’t seen you play yet.  I heard you’re doing well on your university team,” agreed Xavier Hernández, another senior midfielder for the team.

“X-Xavi… Please don’t have such high expectations of me,” she smiled sheepishly.  “I’m still just playing at university level, nothing close to professional ball yet,”

“Don’t worry Annie, you play with us more and you’ll be well on your way,” said Leo.  She smiled at everyone and nodded in agreement.

Annabelle felt super nervous as she put on her cleats and got into position on the field.  She usually played center-forward for her team but today she chose to play right-wing instead.  She didn’t just feel nervous, she was nervous to the point her stomach churned and she felt like she could vomit in an instance.  Marc seemed to have noticed as he walked past her to midfield and stopped to smile at her.  He leaned toward her and patted her on the head.

“You’ll do great Bella,” he whispered as he heads back towards midfield.  She smiled to herself and felt a bit better already.  Marc has never even seen her play but already has such faith in her.  She couldn’t make a fool of herself.  She got ready and as soon as the whistle sounded, she was already in the zone.  She watched Pedro snatch the ball from Leo and dribble down the field.  Annabelle followed suit to support him.  As he got close to the goal, he was pressured by two of his opposing teammates and he quickly passed the ball to her.  She caught the pass on reflex and quickly made a shot on goal.  The ball curved around Gerard and slipped between the goalie’s arms as he dived for the ball.

“GOOOOAAALLLL!” screamed Marc as everyone runs over to her to give her high fives.  She laughs while returning their high fives before they all returned to their positions.

The rest of the game went quick.  Annabelle completed 15 passes and had 4 assists.  She was no longer worried about being on par with the rest of the team.  As soon as the whistle blew, it was as if she was in a trance.  Everything became instinct to her and nerves became nothing but an adrenaline boost.  It was obvious to her that everyone was going easy on her and tried not to be as aggressive in the play, but she took that to her advantage.  She was merciless and charged through their defenses.  Only Gerard really made an effort to guard her offences.  As she made another attempt at the goal, the frustrated Leo charged at her.  In his attempt to slide tackle the ball away from her, she tripped and land flat onto the ground over Leo. 

Everyone froze as if waiting for Gerard to scream at Leo for tackling his sister but he didn’t. Annabelle and Leo laughed it off as they quickly got on their feet and were fighting for the ball again.  At that point, she could tell the rest of the team got serious.  Clearly she wasn’t as delicate as they thought.  Her opponents become more offensive and eventually caught up with 2 goals.  First by Leo with a head goal and the second with Gerard assisting Leo in a corner shot.  They were down to the last minute and Marc intercepted a pass from Gerard and passed it over to Annabelle.  She bolted down the field dipping past two defenders and made a sharp pass over to Pedro who made their finishing goal.  Her team cheered as they all ran over to Pedro giving each other high fives and bear hugs.

“That was such an amazing game Bella!” Marc exclaimed as he ran over to her and picked her up in a big hug.  When he finally put her down, she was struggling to catch her breath from the game and from just being in Marc’s arms.  The rest of the team came together and all smiled at her.

“Damn Annie, that was one hell of a game you played!” panted Xavi.

“Yeah! Ger, you really sure she needs more practice?” Leo asked while elbowing her brother from the side.

“I’m sure she can be better,” he responded but still gave her a reassuring smile.

“Thank you guys so much for letting me play!  I had so much fun!” she beamed.

“Of course!  You can definitely come play anytime.  Especially since you play almost as well as these guys here,” Leo laughed as he tilted his head towards his teammates. 

“I think we can call it a day then?  I’m starving,” Xavi said as he started to pack up the balls on the sidelines.  Everyone agreed as they cleaned up the field and headed towards the locker room.  Annabelle waited for her brother outside so she can hitch a ride home to shower.  She lied down on the bleachers and stared up into the orange sky caused by the setting sun.

 She smiled to herself as she thought back to the fun game she just played and how Marc wrapped his arms around her just now.  “It’s really turning out to be a great summer after all,” she thought to herself.

~*~*~*~

A/N = Another chapter done!  I promise she'll meet Neymar soon.  =)