[Luca fanfiction] Love in Portorosso

Chapter 2

"Hey, Spew... Girl!" Alberto called out.

"Santa mozzarella." Gulia frowned shaking her head. She was getting tired being Spewlia and Girl.

Eimi turned her head to Alberto as he caught his breath She wondered why they came back, even though they are not from here. "Why are you boys here?"

Alberto nervously blushed to see Eimi but he said, "Congratulations, you're joining our team."

Giulia scoffed and called back. "I race alone."

Then Giulia's cart got stuck and she couldn't pedal. Eimi then tried to push, too but it was too heavy to push the cart. The boys ran over to her helping to push her bicycle and dart forward.

"But we could be under the dogs, too." the boy said as he pushed the cart with great effort.

"Hey, it's okay, Luca," Alberto said, playing it cool. "She'd rather do the whole race alone again. Maybe this time she won't throw up as much."

"Uh, hang on," Giulia said, offended. She fixed her gaze on the boys, like she was staring into their souls. "You wanna be on our team, eh? Let's see what you got."

Luca sat on Giulia's bicycle, which she had disconnected from the fish car. He was nervous yet thrilled to be sitting on an actual bike. The bike moved forward slowly catching him by surprise. He looked around and saw people walking around the piazza staring at him.

Feeling self conscious, Luca gulped and tried to ride. He wobbled a bit and glanced at his feet to see how he was doing. He fell over.

"All right, try jumping onto it," Alberto suggested.

Luca tried, and fell.

"No, no, no. You gotta show it you're the boss!"

"It can tell you're afraid, wrestle into submission," Eimi said.

Luca was unable to show the bicycle that he was the boss, and fell. Again.

"Santa mozzarella," Giulia muttered, annoyed, having had quite enough of this. "Eyes up. Looking down is what's making you fall."

That made sense to him, so he started to pedal the bicycle. This time, he looked forward, not down. To his great surprise, he was doing it! He was riding on a bicycle! And not falling!

"Whoa. Whoa. I'm doing It," Luca replied. 

"I was gonna said that, too," Eimi said. impressed. "You're doing great!"

Alberto turned his head to them. "So, can we be on the team?"

Gilula looked annoyed. "Aspetta." She turned her head to Luca. "Can you dodge obstacles?" Then Giulia imitated one and got in Luca's way. He barely managed to avoid her. "What if an old lady crosses your path? Can you withstand passive-aggressive verbal assaults?  "Nice bike, Number One and Number Two. I was kidding. Your bike is a disgrace." "

Luca cowered, but far kept riding.

"Finally, can you handle the course's fiendishly difficult terrain?" Giulia said, leaning some wooden planks and some barrels to make a very tight obstacle course.

"Silenzio, Bruno," Luca told himself

Eimi watched as the young boy pedaled beside the corner. He wobbled all the way but he was doing it. Well, he was until he looked down to hit his feet. That was the end of that, he went right over. 

"Oh, dear," Eimi said covering her mouth in shock. Luca stood and picked up the bicycle. He was going to try again.

"Stop," Giulia said to Luca. Then she turned to face Alberto.  "What about you? Can you swim at least?"

"Yeah," Alberto said, and Luca gave him a sharp tap with his elbow.  "I'm amazingly..... bad at swimming."

"Wait a minute? You can't swim?" Eimi asked him.

"No." Alberto shook.

Eimi frowned, not only because that this boy is not a good swimmer like she is, in fact, she's a good swimmer. She loved to swim though the ocean when she was at a young age.

"You can't swim, you can barely ride a bike. Siete un disastro," Giulia groaned. "I mean, where are you even from?"

"We're not telling you our secrets!" Alberto said. "We're runaways."

"Runaways?" Eimi wondered.

"I don't know, ragazzi..." Giulia muttered, thinking.

"Please?" Luca begged. "My family was gonna send me somewhere horrible. Away from everything I love. But if we win this race, well, we can be free."

Giulia looked at Luca and her face begin to soften. She face Alberto, who said, "My life's great. I'm just helping him out."

"Just give me one more chance," Luca pleaded.

"No. You guys want it just as bad as I do," Giulia replied. "You have the hunger. That's the most important thing."

"I'm definitely hungry," Alberto said.

"Perfetto!" Giulia exclaimed. "You eat, you bike, and I swim."

Eimi couldn't believe it. This might actually work.

"Underdogs?" Giulia said, suggesting a team name.

"Underdogs," Luca and Alberto cheered.

"Great! It's settled then." Eimi then joined in too.

"Now we just need money for the entry fee," Giulia said. "From my dad."