Looks can be deceiving (Mapi León x OC)

Chapter 1 - new beginnings

I nervously glanced at my watch again. The small, golden hands were now located at 5:52 p.m. I had already been standing in the hot Mediterranean sun for half an hour in front of the Joan Gamper sports complex, the training center of my new club, the one and only FC Barcelona Femeni. I wondered if I had been forgotten. But that was impossible, after all, it was one of the best football clubs in the world. Even in my former club, Bayern Munich, which I had left head over heels, the newcomers were always welcomed.

I was wondering whether I should just go inside, was I was told to wait outside the complex at 5:30 to be picked up. For the millionth time, I went to pull my cell phone out of my small purse to check if I'd been called, but it had gotten caught in my keychain. Shit. I aggressively tugged on the cell phone, but it wouldn't move an inch. When I finally pulled it out, a loud scream suddenly sounded from a small group of young girls who were also waiting in front of the entrance. Startled, I dropped my phone. With a loud bang it landed on the dirty asphalt. Annoyed, I bent down to pick it up, unfortunately realising that the process had cost me a nail. I brushed one of my long light brown hairs out of my face and was about to rise when a shadow fell over me.

"Emilia?"

I quickly straightened up and discovered the cause of the previous scream. No other than the Mapi León, arguably the best defender in recent years, stood in front of me with crossed arms, that were covered in tattoos, and looking at me questioningly. Her light blonde hair was tied back in a messy bun, and she was already dressed in the blue training gear of our club.

I hurried to answer her with a quiet yes while checking our her neck tattoo. Looks can be deceiving.

"Good," she said coldly without introducing herself. She probably knows that she's no stranger to me, but an introduction would have been nice anyway.

"Jonatan sent me, but I thought you'd be waiting inside. Come with me." She gestured briefly with her head toward the door and then walked away quickly. Hastily, I grabbed my gym bag and followed her through the large front door.

"Have you been here before?" she wanted to know.

"Hardly, I only got to quickly see it once when I signed the contract last week." I informed her as we walked down an endless, dark hallway. Pictures of current and former Barca players unsuccessfully tried to bring life to it.

Mapi shrugged. "That will have to do."

Oh God. Everyone had warned me about some of the Barca players' attitudes, but all I had wanted to do was leave my old club, so I ignored the warnings. Maybe I shouldn't have, because it seems that the rumors are based on true events, at least in this case.

"You're a defender, aren't you?" I tried to strike up a conversation, even though I obviously already knew the answer. She opened a thick door with the help of a badge, behind which it immediately looked much more colourful and livelier.

"Mhm. You?"

"I play mainly in midfield, but sometimes as a striker."

Abruptly she stopped and examined me with her sparkling brown eyes. I felt myself blush, which was probably all too visible on my pale skin and wondered if I had said something wrong.

"We already have enough midfielders" she snapped at me harshly. "We can't have a Princesa like you disturb this team. I don't understand why you're here anyway. We're a perfect team and don't need reinforcements. In fact, you could leave right now."

For a brief moment I looked at her, speechless, and felt anger overtake me. Princesa. (Princess.) It was definitely a reference to my appearance. Maybe I shouldn't have shown up in a flowery dress with black strappy sandals and makeup on my first day. But I had wanted to make a good first impression, which had definitely backfired.

"Oh yeah, you guys don't need backup? That's not what it looked last season." I tried to counter, but she ignored me and went to the next door, behind which a dressing room was located. Mapi pointed to one of the lockers. "That's yours. The training gear is inside of it. Training starts in half an hour, but we'll start warming up soon." With those words, she turned around and left the changing room.

Feeling slightly depressed, I opened the locker, and changed quickly, yet I was the last one in the dressing room. In a weak moment, I sank down on the bench and buried my face in my hands. With my whole heart, I had wished that this time would be different, a club without hatred and bullying. But it seemed that it would continue where I had left off. I felt tears start to well up in my eyes, but I quickly swallowed them and left the dressing room.

On the pitch, some of the team were busy stretching or passing a ball, the rest were running laps around the court. After brief stretches and warm-ups, I joined in. The sun shone down relentlessly, making me sweat more after just one lap than I had ever experienced during a warm-up. I just wasn't used to the hot, dry climate here yet and it wouldn't take much more before I'd be panting like a dog. That's why I didn't notice that I was no longer alone and winced in fright when I eventually realised. Running beside me was a tall woman with dark hair tied back in a ponytail. The woman laughed in amusement.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Her Spanish wasn't the best with a thick English accent coming through.

I quickly figured out that she must be Lucy Bronze and gave her a little smile.

"No worries, you didn't scare me. I was just preoccupied with my thoughts."

"All right then" she replied, still laughing. "I'm Lucy, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Emilia."

"I know, but nice to meet you too. We've all been super excited to meet you, you're the last new player for the upcoming season."

Excited to meet me? Well, I hadn't noticed that before.

"Have you been playing here long?" I wanted to know from Lucy.

She shook her head. "This summer marks two years. Where did you play before?"

"Bayern Munich" I replied, panting slightly. It was just too hot. I couldn't explain how Lucy didn't seem to be bothered at all by the heat.

"Oh, lovely, we played you guys in the Champions League two years ago, remember?"

"How could I ever forget? You beat us 7 - 0." I grinned.

Lucy laughed. "Well, you're on the right team now." She threw me a quick glance and seemed to notice my exhaustion. "Come on, let's take a quick break before practice starts."

We had just sat down on the floor next to the bench when I was tapped on the shoulder from behind and turned around in shock. Laura Freigang, who joined our national team 4 years ago, pulled me into a tight hug.

"I didn't know you were here too!" I exclaimed in German.

"It's only been a month "She replied.

I was about to answer when the head coach, Jonatan Giráldez, walked onto the pitch.

"Girls, come here. I want to introduce someone to you." He ordered. I knew what would be coming and sighed.

"This is your new teammate, Emilia Cortes. She's joining us from Bayern Munich. Please give her a warm welcome." Jonatan pointed at me, and the rest of the team applauded. Well, all but one. Mapi just scowled at me.

Afterwards, we were divided into groups of six players each, with someone as a defender having to try to take the ball from the five attackers. Should this succeed, the defender had to switch with the attacker who had the ball taken from them. I already knew the procedure from my old club and was therefore very optimistic, but unfortunately for me, Mapi was in my group.

Alexia Putellas, who I had obviously heard of before, had to take the role of defender first and managed to take the ball away in a second. The next player, who I believed to be Jana Fernandez, took much longer, but in a moment of carelessness she snatched the ball away from Mapi. Mapi's brown eyes flashed with anger and suddenly her eyes fell on me. At that moment Alexia passed the ball to me and Mapi stormed off. But thanks to her previous glance, I had seen it coming and was about to pass the ball back to Alexia, when, out of nowhere, I felt a resistance on my leg. As I fell, I just saw Mapi pull her leg back. A millisecond later, I landed on the ground.