MILAN | La Casa De Papel

ONE

"I welcome you..." The Professor started whilst writing "Welcome" on the black board in front of all of them, "and, I  wanna thank all of you for accepting this...job offer."

A guy a few rows in front of Milan chuckled. He looked around the room to see if anyone else was amused but before he could make eye contact she quickly looked back to the Professor.  

"We'll live here," The Professor continued, "Away from the maddening crowd. For five months we're going to study how we're going to pull off this heist."

"What do you mean 'five months' ?" an older man asked, who was sitting in front of the guy who had laughed just moments before. They looked similar, she was guessing 'father and son dynamic'.

"Look, people spend years studying to earn a salary, a salary which, in the best case scenarios, is just a salary, a shitty one."

That sentence made Milan roll her eyes. She didn't know what it felt like to study for years just to have a shitty salary. She had to drop out of school when she was 16 so she could focus on her "job". In a way, she kind of missed being able to go to school, wake up early and have fun with friends without having to worry about the future. Milan wanted that but she knew she would never be able to have a "normal" life, especially not after the fiasco that was going to take place.

"What's five months?" he continued, "I've been thinking about this...for much longer. So I don't need to work ever again."

The people around her all looked at each other with smiling faces. They were excited at the thought of never having to work again, but who could blame them. It was all very exciting.

"And neither will you, nor will your children."

Milan had always wanted children but with how she grew up, it made her think twice about bringing a child into this world.

"Alright, currently you don't know each other, and I want to keep it that way. I don't want any names, or personal questions, or, of course, personal relationships are forbidden." He informed them of the rules, unaware that each one of them would eventually be broken, much to her dismay. She didn't want attachments, She wanted to get the job done and then disappear so that she could finally live her life in peace.

"I want each of you to choose a name, something simple. It can be numbers, planets, cities..."

"Like 'Mister 17, Lady 23.' " the guy who laughed at the start asked.

"We're off to a bad start. I can't remember my phone number," the older man said.

"Well you can't even use one."

BINGO

They were definitely father and son. Not like it was hard to tell though.

"Planets?" a guy near the back of the row asked.

Milan looked up slightly so that she could see the side of his face.

"I can be Mars, and this one," he pointed at the smiley guy in front of him, "Uranus."

"I'm not Uranus, so forget it." The guys smile immediately dropped and he became serious.

"What's the matter with Uranus?"

"Sounds wrong."

"We'll use cities. Cities." The professor butted in.

And that was how she went from Marina Morales to Milan. She chose this because her mother used to always tell her about her holidays with her family when she was younger and Milan was always her favourite. 

She also chose 'Milan' because she had a necklace hanging from her neck with an 'M' on it that her grandmother had given her. She decided to just stick with it.

The one in the front of her row was Tokyo. A total badass but Milan would come to learn that she made very impulsive decisions and a lot of the time, forgot to think before she did something. 

The one looking at her ass was Mr Berlin. Wanted all over the world. 27 robberies. Jewellery stores , auction houses and armed vehicles. His biggest score: Champs Élysées in Paris. 434 diamonds. He's like a shark in a swimming pool. You can swim with him, but you're never calm. He in charge of the heist. 

The older man was Mr Moscow, who was a miner. He dug tunnels into shops a robbed them. Six fur shops, three watch shops and the Rural Credit Union of Avilés. He was an expert with any and all industrial tools.

The one behind him was Denver. His son. Drugs, busted teeth, broken ribs. He was the king of bar fights. A ticking time bomb...perfect for a heist.

Rio. The Mozart of computers. He'd been coding since he was six and knew everything about alarms and electronics. For everything else though, it was like he was born yesterday.

Then there was the twins. Helsinki and Oslo. Even with the most bulletproof plan, soldiers were always necessary. Maybe they could think , but we'll never know.

Nairobi. Hopeless but loving optimist. She'd been counterfeiting bank notes since she was 13. Now she was our quality control manager. She may be nuts but her humour made up for it.

"Realise that everyday the news will be talking about us." The Professor said while walking through the aisles. "Every family in this country will be asking themselves: 'What are we doing?', and you know what they'll think?" The Professor asked as he sat on his desk.

"Those motherfuckers. I wish I'd though of that first."

And this led us to the introduction of the Professor.

No criminal record. No registration. Hasn't renewed his ID since he was 19. For all intense purposes, a ghost. A very smart ghost.

"It is vital that we have the support of the public. We'll be fucking heroes to them. But the minute a single drop of blood has been shed, if there is one single victim...we'll no longer be Robin Hoods and just be a couple of plain motherfuckers."

"Professor," Tokyo said, raising her hand.

"Yes Miss Tokyo"

"What are we robbing?" She asked.

The Professor directed his hand toward the back of the classroom. Everybody turned in their seat to see what the Professor was pointing at.

"The Royal Mint of Spain."

Word Count - 1029

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

I'll try to publish the next chapter as soon as I can so the heist can officially begin!

Who's your favourite Money Heist character?

Until next time...

~El