How hard can it be to fall in love with a football player when you're afraid of footballs...?
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Helping out her best friend by playing the lead in that music video project for university had seemed like an easy enough feat for art student Lorelai...
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Wednesday came and with it Lorelai's hour of doom — Ms Medina's class, »artistic creation«.
Try as she might, Lorelai hadn't been able to come up with a subject for her assignment. So it was only natural for her to feel uneasy as she sat in the stuffy class, where the odour of paints hung heavily in the air. Her face was hidden behind one of the tiny metallic easels in the art classroom as she listened to the other students name their topics: dancers, theatre actors, musicians, skateboarders, cars, people had come up with all kinds of stuff, some weirder than others. Lorelai didn't really listen to them as they explained their project outline for the whole year. Her mind was working full-speed to come up with a last-minute brilliant idea — unfortunately with not much luck.
Disturbing images kept interrupting her thinking. Well, not disturbing in the literal sense of the word, but the images in her brain got Lorelai worried nonetheless.
Stupid Neymar. Prancing around in her head with that stupid football of his, and his stupid smile. Stupid video. Stupid filming on the beach. Stupid press and even stupider people posting and reposting pictures. Stupid. Footballers.
»What was that, Ms García?« the voice of Ms Medina interrupted her musings.
Oh no, had she said that out loud? »Huh?« was all she could say in this moment.
»You just said ›footballers‹,« Ms Medina elaborated. Oh, good, so at least the ›stupid‹ part she had kept silent about then. »Is this your project?«
Only now did Lorelai realise her teacher was standing right next to her, colourful scarves aplenty around her neck. Medina gave her that infamous look of hers — the look that made students squirm in their seats, clueless as to how to please their teacher and make her go away. Naturally, Lorelai did exactly that: squirm in her seat. Damn, was it her turn already? What a sucky timing! »Uh... actually, I wasn't—«
»Because I like the idea,« Ms Medina interrupted, a smile on her face. Huh? What idea did the old coot conjure up now?! »It's something else. Something that isn't your dogs for a change. Do them.«
Snickers throughout the room. Lorelai's mind went blank. »The footballers?« she asked. The snickers continued, someone whistled.
»Grow up, students,« Ms Medina reprimanded, a dark look marking her face as she looked around the room, completely ruining the usual picture of the otherwise bright, shiny and extroverted teacher with her motley scarves. So, so many colourful scarves around her neck. Always.
»Uhm,« Lorelai finally said, contemplating her apparent topic for the semester with heartfelt misery. Dammit, brain, work! Why couldn't she come up with something else, and quick? »I, ah.... Will a single one do?« She sighed, finally giving up.
This time her fellow students couldn't hold back and laughed full out. People needed to get their minds out of the gutter. »I'm sure she has a particular one in mind...,« Lorelai heard someone whisper. It was a voice she recognised, but really, really didn't want to acknowledge right now.
