A few days later

Since Annabelle’s practice game with the team, she’s been coming to Camp Nou with her brother each day.  She does practice drills on her own by the bleachers while she waits for the team to finish practice.  Not only have they been letting her join their practice games after their practice sessions, they have also been teaching her new playing styles.  Her control of the ball has been getting better and she can now keep up the ball for over 50 kicks.  Her mind started to wander to Marc and she accidently kicked the ball too hard and it lobbed over the bleachers.   She curses to herself as she runs over behind the bleachers just in time to see it hit someone in the back of the head.

“Oww!” the man cried out as rubbed his head with his hand. Not only did he already have a headache, now it just got worse.

“Oh my god!  I am so sorry!” she yelled as she jogged over to him to pick up the ball.

“Damn… what do you think you’re doing kicking balls around like that?” he growls as he turns around to look at her with a frown. 

“I said I was sorry… It was an accident,” she groans as she stands up to meet the stranger.  Their eyes met and they stared at each other, both not expecting what they saw.  Annabelle was distracted by the man’s beautiful eyes while the man stared at her dumbfounded that a girl kicked a ball at him with so much force.

“That was some accident… I swear I thought I was being hit with a rock since it landed on me with so much force,” he continued to frown at her and she was immediately out of her daze. 

“I already apologized.  What else do you want me to say,” she snapped back at him.

“I want you to be more careful in the future.  Stop randomly kicking balls around where people are walking,” he retorted before walking off towards the locker room.

“Who the hell was that?  Ugh, what an attitude…  He may have pretty eyes, but he’s such a jerk!” Annabelle growled to herself as she turned her heel to walk back to the field just as Marc jogged over to her.

“There you are Bella!  Where’d you go?”

“Oh, I was just fetching the ball.  What’s up?”

“Coach is ending practice early today because of some announcement he wants to make.  So we wanted to see if you wanted to come run some drills with us before we wrap up for the day,”

“Can I?!” she perked up with excitement.  “The coach is still there.  Are you sure?”

“Yeah, come along.  It’s not like he doesn’t know you scrimmage with us every day after practice,” he winked at her and she smiled back.

Annabelle jogs over to the team and falls in line behind everyone else, getting ready to take some shots at the goal.  One after another the Barcelona players take a shot at the goalie, Victor Valdes, and he blocks almost every single shot.  Afterwards, the team split into two groups, one on each side of 3 pairs of cones and began passing drills.  After a couple passes, Annabelle’s foot slipped and her ball knocked over a cone and rolled down towards the sidelines.  She starts to jog over to the ball but stops when she sees the same rude man from earlier kick the ball back at her with so much accuracy that the ball rolls right up to her feet.  He smirks at her while he walks towards the rest of the team.  She glared at him and turns back to the team.  It was then she heard the coach blow the whistle.

“Bring it in!” their manager, Tito Vilanova shouted as everyone jogged over to him.  “I’m sure you have all heard about our recent acquisition of Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior.  I want to officially welcome him in person to FC Barcelona!” the team clapped as Annabelle just rolled her eyes at him the newcomer.  The said, Neymar walked up to the team to shake hands with everyone as the coach continued.  “We have high hopes for him and we can’t wait for him to start practice with the rest of the team but let’s call it a day for now!  I’ll see you all bright an early tomorrow,” he shouted before he trotted off the field.

Some of them started packing up while the others were engrossed in a conversation with Neymar.  Annabelle ignores him as she helps Gerard pack up the balls.  Out of the corner of his eye, Neymar checks outs the only girl on the field.  He had to admit that she was attractive but her manners were completely opposite.

“Hey Leo, who’s the chick?”

“Oh, that’s Gerard’s younger sister.  She trains with us sometimes,”

“I see…” he says as he directs his attention back to the rest of the team.  They were all arguing about a place to have dinner when Gerard and Annabelle walked over to them.  Neymar watches Annabelle as she laughs along with Leo and Xavi. 

‘She does have a pretty smile though,’ he thinks to himself as he watched her completely immersed in her conversation.  At that very moment, Marc watched Neymar as he stared at Annabelle.  He couldn’t help a sense of frustration as he saw Neymar gawking at her.  He then walks over to Annabelle and throws one arm of her shoulders and she looks up at him a bit shocked.

“So Bella, what did you want to eat for dinner?  It looks like none of them are going to make up their minds anytime soon,” he asks as she blushed.

“U-Um… I don’t know…” she muttered as she tried to hide her blush.  It was then Gerard recommended a restaurant he suggested Neymar tried and everyone agreed.

~*~*~*~

At Dinner

Somehow Annabelle ended up sitting between Marc and Neymar.  Not only was she frustrated to be stuck next to the jerk, she was also frustrated that she was letting him ruin her time with Marc.  Everything that Neymar said got on her nerves.  Every comment seemed arrogant coming out of his mouth and she struggled very hard to tune him out.

“Bella?” Marc placed a hand on hers and stared into her eyes.

“Y-Yes?” she squeaked as her eyes darted back from his hand to the worried look on his face.

“Are you alright?”

“Oh!  Yeah, I’m perfect.  You know, waiting for my food as always,” she smiled at him as he takes his hand off of hers.

“Okay.  I just wanted to be sure since you look like something is bothering you,” in truth, Neymar’s presence was bothering her, but there was no way she could say that to Marc.  She shook her head and reassured him that she was fine.  Her face lit up again when the servers brought their food.  She smiled in excitement as she reaches over to grab the ketchup but Neymar snatched it up before she reached it.  He seemed to be completely unaware of what he just did and she frowned at him, trying to contain her frustration.  He felt her stare and turned over to her.

“Is there something wrong?” he asked innocently and she just gritted her teeth.

“Nothing,” she turned her attention back to her food and this time snatched the ketchup from between them and angrily squirted a blob on her plate.

“So your name is Bella right?” he asked as he sticks a fry into his mouth.

“It’s actually Annabelle,” she growled as she continued eating her food.

“Oh, sorry.  It’s just that I heard Marc call you Bella so I assumed,”

“Well next time don’t assume,” she snapped as she continued eating.

‘Well there she goes with her poor manners again.  So much for starting a conversation,’ he snorts mentally as he returns to his conversation with the rest of the table. 

After dinner, the team splits up to do their own things while Gerard, Leo, Marc, and Neymar remained together.

“Ger, why is Neymar still here?” Annabelle whispered to her brother as he just looks at her quizzically.

“He doesn’t know the area yet so Leo and I volunteered to show him around,” she groaned at the thought of being stuck with him for the rest of the night.  “Why are you being so rude Anna?”

“Me?!” she gasped at him.

“Yes you.  I saw you during dinner.  What’s going on?” Annabelle frowned as she explained the situation to her brother.  However, not only did he not agree with her, he lectured her about being hospitable and not holding Neymar’s first impression against him. 

‘UGH!  He just met him and he’s already sticking up for him!’ she screamed mentally as she angrily crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Well if you’re going to show him around town, can I go home without you?  I’m tired and I want to shower,” Gerard was about to answer when Marc stepped in and suggested that he can take Annabelle home if he needed him to.  Gerard sighed as he nodded and thanked Marc.  Annabelle smiled instantly as Marc led her away from the rest of them towards his car in the parking lot.

~*~*~*~

“So is Marc and Annabelle together?” Neymar asked while Gerard drove them back to Neymar’s place.  Leo and Gerard both chuckled before Leo responded.

“No way.  Annie is definitely sweet on Marc but I don’t think it’s anything serious,”

“Really?” Gerard and Neymar said in unison and Leo stares at Gerard.

“Seriously Ger?  You didn’t know?  Sheesh, you need to pay more attention to your sister,”

Neymar just laughs as he thinks back to the way Marc wrapped his arm possessively around Annabelle’s shoulder.  He certainly disagrees that Marc’s feelings towards Annabelle are purely platonic.  Then again, she was super attractive.  Even her angry face was adorable.  He definitely needs to try harder to win her over.

~*~*~*~

A/N = Neymar's interested in her!  Yay!  How will he make Annabelle fall for him?  Stay tuned!