My friends all looked at me with wide eyes.

"Didn't we tell you to google the players?" Peter said disapprovingly.

"Yeah, I meant to do that." I said, realizing that I forgot a second time. "Well tell me now."

"Only one of the best players in the world!" Alex exclaimed.

"Brazil's hope of winning the World Cup." Peter added.

"Insane skills."

"People call him the next Pele."

"And on top of all that, he is hot. Extemely... hot!" Marina added, fake-fanning herself.

Both Alex and Peter looked at her disapprovingly.

"What? He is!" She answered their look.

"And he's already here?" I asked.

"Yeah. But I don't see why. If I was him I'd stay in Rio, partying." Marina said.

"He is a professional athlete about to compete in the World Cup. He doesn't need distractions." Peter said.

"Oh, some distractions are good for you." Marina said winking. We all, even Peter, burst into laughing.

I walked to the kitchen to get my lunch.

~

"Okay guys, are we ready?" Mr. Jones asked after we summed up.

"Yes Mr. Jones." We all said in unison, like school children.

"Alright. On to the meeting with the coaches."

We followed Mr. Jones to a conference room, smaller than the one where we had our first official meeting. In there, two men were waiting for us. They both looked to be around 30, one had blue eyes and dark hair and the other had hazel eyes and light brown hair.

"Hello guys, I am assistant coach Mario Tandres and this assistant coach Luis Santos." The dark haired man said.

We shook hands and then we all sat down.

"Today we are going to talk about the goalkeepers and defenders. I am the head coach for our goalkeepers and coach Santos is the head coach for the defense. Tomorrow you will meet with the head coaches for the middle and attack zones as well, in order to be ready to start when all the players are here." Coach Tandres told us.

We talked about the goalkeepers first, there were three in the World Cup squad and the starter was Julio Cesar, who was also the goalkeeper when Brazil won the Confederations Cup last summer. We talked about strategies in the main game and about penalties as well. It was very interesting to learn all those things. There was so much work and thinking into everything that I was unaware of before, as a spectator.

Then we moved onto the defense. There was even more strategy to talk about there and this one took even longer. We talked about the players individually and I was really excited to see Thiago Silva play. He was one of the most valued defenders in the world and the captain for the Brazilian team. And even if I wasn't following football the past few years, I heard a lot of names that sounded familiar. Brazil must have a really good team.

The meeting ended a good three hours later and we were all pretty exhausted. We ended up going to dinner immediately but to Marina's disappointment Neymar wasn't there.

After dinner I was pretty exhausted and when the others decided to take the bus to Teresópolis, instead of staying in the compound I decided to stay in. They invited Mr. Jones to go and to our surprise he agreed. Alex once again asked me if I wanted company but I refused.

I walked with them to the gate and when they left to take the bus I decided to go look at the pond I saw yesterday more closely. I still wondered if the water was clean to swim. The sun hadn't set yet and the sky had a nice orange hue to it. I descended towards the pond. The water reflected the sky so beautifully that I decided to take a photo. I wasn't much of a social media girl, but I would post the occasional scenery here and there. I posted the photo on Instagram writing "Granja Comary..." in the description.

"Taking a selfie are we?" I heard a voice behind me. A familiar voice.

"Juninho." I said turning around. "Hi."

He nodded. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I do work here." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And you live here too?" I asked, wondering if his room was in the coaching dormitory as well.

He nodded again. He sat on the grass looking towards the pond and I joined him.

"Is it safe to swim here?" I asked.

"You do know there's a pool, right?" he asked me, that smug look on his face. How I hated that stupid inside joke of his!

"Yeah, but a. it is closed and b. the pond is better."

"A. there isn't only one pool here. There's the indoors pool too. But not for you. And b. why exactly is the pond better? More romantic?" He winked.

I wanted to hit him. "Well A-" I started to answer.

"Enough with the As and Bs." He cut me.

"Okay then, answer my question." I said.

"I don't know." He said, looking ahead.

"What do you mean you don't know?" I asked.

"Noone's ever asked." He said looking at me.

I nodded and turned my eyes towards the pond again. "It's beautiful." I said.

We stayed there for a little while without talking when suddenly he stood up and grabbed my hand pulling me up too.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Come with me." He said.

He was still holding my arm, practically dragging me towards the compound. I had to run to keep up with him.

"A little out of practice, aren't you?" he commented when we reached the top.

"I did beat you in football though."

He let out a chuckle. "Please. We played for two seconds."

"But I won." I pointed out.

He raised his hands in defeat. "Okay follow me." He said and I followed him inside the compound. We passed the living room which was empty and the restaurant and we reached the gym.

"Are we allowed to be here?" I asked as he dragged me through the equipment.

He motioned me to follow him. "What is it that you do here exactly?" I asked again. "Because errand boy doesn't seem like a job description."

We passed the locker room and he stopped in front of a big red door.

"Stop it with all the questions." He said. "C'mon." He opened the door and in front of me was one of the biggest indoors pools I have ever seen.

"Wow. Juninho, are you sure we can be here?" I asked looking around.

Instead of answering he started taking of his clothes. "No, what are you doing?" I almost yelled.

He stopped in the middle of taking his shirt of and put it back on to look at me. I did manage a glimpse of his torso though. Since when do errand boys have abs like that?

"We are in a pool." He said looking at me like I was crazy.

"We shouldn't be here."

"And yet we are." He said finally taking off his shirt. I looked away. "Seriously?" he asked laughing. "You are going to be around footballers for the next two months. Maybe you should get used to shirtless dudes." He said still laughing.

My mind flashed back to a few years ago. Another shirtless guy in front of me. Another football jersey on the floor. I quickly pushed the thought away.

I turned around to look at him hoping  my cheeks wouldn't turn red. I tried to find something smart to answer but instead I blurted: "You're not a footballer."

"Oh this is how it is?" he said approaching me his face darkening. "If I am not a footballer I am not good enough?" He touched me chin with his finger, making me look at him. "Suit yourself." He said and turned around, diving in the pool.

"That's not what I meant." I said when he emerged. Wet, shirtless Juninho looked even better than shirtless Juninho.

"What did you mean?" he asked, swimming towards the edge of the pool.

"Nothing." I finally conceded. "Okay don't look." I said.

"You're coming in?" he asked finally cracking a smile again.

"Yeah, turn around."

"Why? Are you taking everything off?" he asked playfully but still turned around.

"Of course not! Just the pants." I said. I wasn't wearing a bathing suit below my clothes.

"If it's just the pants then why should I..." He started saying, while turning around to look at me so I quickly dived in the pool. And landed on top of him!

"Ouch! Why are you trying to injure me?" he asked.

"It was an accident." I said innocently. I smiled widely. Water was my element. It felt so good to be in the pool. I started doing a lap.

"Wanna race?" he asked me approaching.

"Why is everything a competition with you?" I asked him

"Why not? It's more fun that way!"

"It's not fun! It's stressful."

He swam close to me. "It's all about how you look at it. What you do with your fear."

"What do you do with it?" I asked.

"I use it." He answered. I thought about it for a second. The whole point of me coming here was to get rid of my demons.

"Okay, let's race!" I said.

He giggled and followed me to the edge of the pool.

"One, two, three!" I said and we both started swimming like crazy. I was a very good swimmer, it was my favorite physical activity, but Juninho was faster. Wow that guy is crazy fast! I was rarely beaten at swimming. But as we finished the first round I started catching up to him. By the end he finished only half a second before me.

I swam towards him, we were both trying to catch our breath. I approached him and whispered in his ear: "You're fast but you don't have stamina."

He grabbed both my hands before I could move. We were so close, our bodies were almost touching. I was staring right at him and he starred at me. He bit his lip.

What was he doing? What was I doing?

I pushed him back so hard it startled him. I started swimming towards the stairs.

"I have to go." I said as I walked out of the pool. "I have to wake up early, the players are coming and we have to talk about the midfield and the attack and my friend Marina wants to go stalk some guy, Neymar I think is his name, and we have to set up our equipment too before the practices start and..." I stopped realizing I was talking non-stop.

"Neymar?" he asked.

"Yeah." I turned to look at him. "He is one of the footballers. Some kind of football prodigy." He looked amused. As he should be. I had pushed him and walked out so quickly and I was rambling now. He must think I am a total weirdo.

"Olivia are you messing with me?" he asked, his face suddenly serious.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was confused now.

"Why didn't you go with your friends? I saw them leave for Teresópolis."

"I didn't want to go. Is that so weird?" I asked. Of course it was. I was a loner. And I pushed him away like some sort of prude. I was a weirdo.

"No, it's not." He said smiling again. "Well, see you around then." He said and started swimming another lap.

 I stood there for a second not sure what I should do. I was a mess. And it had nothing to do with Juninho. I picked up my clothes and walked to my room.

~*~

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