𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐝.

Chapter 1 - 'Call me Leo.'

Neymar da Silva Santos POV

This was it!

This was it! I had moved to Spain to play for the team I had always dreamed of: FC Barcelona, Lionel Messi's team. 

I took a shaky breath as I entered the Camp Nou Stadium for the first time. Oh my fucking God, this is amazing! 

I suppressed a gleeful whoop as I stepped onto the lush, manicured football pitch, the yellow plastic soles of my Nike football studs (cleats) crunching against the pavement.

I squint because of the bright sunlight; I could tell there were a few jersey-clad players doing some tricks. My eyes focused on a certain brown-haired football god: Lionel Messi.

I couldn't help but hold back a gasp of disbelief that I was actually standing about twenty metres away from my idol. The thought itself was so overwhelming, I ran a hand through my dark brown curly hair, exhaling sharply. Oh my God, it was Messi. Lionel Messi.

I tried not to burst into a celebration dance as I walked nervously up to the Barcelona team. 

"Hey!" The team chorused cheerfully, each giving a wave at me. I grinned broadly back, waving back.

"Um, right, we need to introduce ourselves. I'm Gerard Pique, but you can call me Geri." Said a tall, brown haired man with a neatly-trimmed beard and bright blue eyes. "That's Lionel Messi, but I'm sure you already know that." He smiled mischievously, gesturing to Messi. 

Woah.

My eyes widened at seeing Lionel up close. Just - woah. Who knew he was so... handsome? I snapped back to reality, whispering a "hey" which nobody could hear except me. 

"Call me Leo. Nice to meet you, Neymar da Silva Santos Jr." He smiled, the corners of his mouth tilting upwards.

"You too, Leo." I grinned, and I was soon introduced to the whole lot of them.

"So, um, I'm your captain, if you didn't know that, so I'll be leading the drills. Partner work, just do some simple passes and such for now. Good?" Lionel asked the team, who all nodded and did thumbs-ups. 

My new teammate, Luis Suarez jogged towards Leo and grinned.

"Hey, Leo. Partners?" Luis held a hand outstretched towards Leo, who laughed and took it. I smiled, before realising that now I had no partner - the group was odd-numbered. I sighed. Alone, once again, I thought bitterly. I grabbed a ball and began to juggle it by myself. I knew it, Barcelona would be no different. It's just a fancier football club, that's all. The people in it are no kinder. I drilled all my anger into the football, smashing the tip of my football boot against it and sending it high up in the air. I watched, dazed, as the ball whistled upwards, going 10-20-30-40 feet up in the air, plummeting 40-30-20-10 feet down.

"Neymar?" I heard a voice pull me out of my trance. Leo. "Um, do you, um, maybe want to, er, train with me and Luis?" He asked shyly, scratching the back of his neck. I couldn't help but break my face into a genuine smile.

Huh. Maybe they were kinder here.

"Yeah, why not!" I laughed and joined them. I got to know them better. Luis was from Uruguay, and Leo was an Argentine.

"Antonella is also from Argentina." He said casually, passing the ball to me. I halted. Was Antonella his... girlfriend? 

Wait, wait, wait. Why does that matter? I don't care... but then why did that hurt so much? Um, never mind. 

"Right. Yeah. Cool. So..." I distracted myself from this mysterious girlfriend of Leo's, and booted the ball to Luis, and it rocketed towards him, with way-y-y more momentum than it was supposed to.