Through the Dark

Here I was, in Camp Nou with Antonella seated beside me.

The boys were the first to arrive and soon the others would too.

“Daniella should be here by now,” Antonella sighed, looking around the stadium for her friend. “Oh, there she is! Dani, up here!” she called.

Wow.

Daniella was gorgeous.

She had a perfect body topped off with gorgeous blue eyes, dark hair and a killer smile.

She grinned and walked towards us. She gave Anto a small hug before turning to me.

“Hi! You must be Ariana! I’ve heard so many great things about you from Cesc!”

I grinned and immediately took a liking to Daniella.

“It’s really nice to meet you to, Daniella. Cesc told me such great things.”

I stood up and gave her a small hug and she moved over to sit next to me so I was in the middle of two WAGs.

“So, Ariana. Got your eyes on any of the players?” Daniella joked, making Anto and I laugh.

Yes, Gerard Pique.

“Nope.” I grinned, popping the ‘p’.

“Really? Coz I’m pretty sure Gerard Pique is checking you out.”

When she said that, I nearly felt my stomach leap to my throat as I checked the field for him. There he
was, passing the ball back and forth between him and Thiago.

He turned his head to glance at me and when he noticed that I was staring at him too, he turned away quickly.

“Ooh! He likes you.” Anto and Dani cooed at the same time, making me roll my eyes at them.

An hour and a half passed and I felt like I’ve known Daniella my whole life. She was so kind and so funny, no wonder Cesc liked her.

It was now 6:30 in the afternoon and practice was wrapping up. “Alright, boys! Good job. See you next month!” Pep Guardiola grinned.

Yep, next month.

The boys were having a long break and Leo was ecstatic that I would be staying with them.

“Ana! Come down here!” Leo yelled from the field, making me groan.

“Are you gonna play?” Daniella asked me with a huge grin on her face, “Yeah, I have a pain in the ass for a brother.” I joked, walking down the sidelines and finally meeting Leo.

“I don’t feel so good. Maybe next time?” I lied.

“Too late.” Leo said, passing the ball to me.

“Ari, pass over here!” I heard Xavi yell three yards down. I stepped back and kicked the ball, it launched high up in the air and landed two feet away from Xavi.

I heard Dani and Anto whooping from the bleachers, making me giggle.

“Let’s play.” Leo suggested. He turned to look for some of the players that were available to play with us.

“Thiago, Cesc, Geri, Neymar, Dani, Andres, Cristian, Puyi, Victor and Marc. This should be enough.” Leo spoke to himself, calling the boys over.

After Leo separated us into two teams, me being with him, Puyi, Andres, Victor and Thiago.

The other team consisted of Xavi, Geri, Cristian, Cesc, Dani and Neymar.

“Well, shit.” I mumbled to myself, tightening my ponytail.

“First goal wins!” Cesc called out from the other side of the pitch, "I'm hungry." he added.
Leo agreed and soon enough, the game started.

I ran forward, careful not to get tackled by anyone. Leo had the ball in his possession, he passed it to me and I weaved through the defenders and passed it to Thiago. He almost lost the ball to Neymar and
Dani but he quickly faked right and broke left, passing the ball to Puyi.

I was pretty sure we were going to win already since Carles was close enough to kick the ball in, but he passed it to me instead.

When I was close enough, I whispered a silent prayer and kicked the ball in as hard as I could.

I grinned when it flew into the goal, Gerard, who tried to block my shot, cursed but smiled at me anyway.

It felt like time slowed down, his blue eyes staring into my brown ones.

Then, I felt Leo hugging me tightly. I turned and chuckled and hugged Leo back. I got tackled into a
group hug consisting of my teammates.

Then, I heard someone clearing his throat.

Quickly breaking out of the boys’ grasp, I pulled away to see Pep Guardiola looking at me.

Holding in a huge gasp, I stood in front of him in a simple blue shirt, shorts and dirty yellow cleats.

“Hi, I’m Pep Guardiola.” He smiled at me, extending his hand. “Nice to meet you, I’m Ariana Messi.” I smiled back, shaking his hand.

“Messi? You’re related to Lionel?” he smiled at me.

I nodded, “I’m his twin sister.” I replied.

“Ah! Well that explains your excellent style of play. Listen, Ms. Messi—um, can I call you Ariana?” he grinned at me.

I nodded with a smile. I could feel someone breathing down my neck and I instantly knew it was Leo.

“I would love to recommend you to our female team, Club Femeni Barcelona, playing for the Primera Division.”

My jaw dropped and all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears.

Pep freaking Guardiola was going to recommend me to FC Barcelona Femeni. The female counterpart of FC Barcelona.

I was freaking out inside.

“That’s amazing!” Leo burst out from behind me. I turned to see that Thiago, Cesc, Gerard, Andres, Puyi and Neymar were listening intently.

Pep grinned, “I’m pretty sure they’d love to have you! Now, if we can just exchange numbers, I can pass it on to the manager of Femeni and they’ll schedule a try out for you…if you would like.”

“Yes! I would love to!” I grinned.

He nodded and handed me his phone. I typed in my phone number and handed it back to him.

“Wonderful! I’ll see you soon.”

“Thank you so much, Mr. Guardiola!” I gasped.

“Please, call me Pep.” He grinned.