Field of Dreams: Year 1

Before the match

Paige's POV:

"Mom!" I shouted. "I'm heading to the library to study with Liv for an upcoming Math exam!" I finished my thought. "I cannot tell her that I am going to a football match. I mean, if I don't even like it, there's no point in telling her where I really am going," I thought to myself. "And, besides, there is no test coming soon, so I won't be nervous that I'm not prepared for it!"

"Okay, honey, be safe," she said and hugged me tightly.

"Okay," I just nodded and opened the door. "I'll be back before 11:30," I reassured her and closed the door behind me.

***

"Here's your scarf," Liv told me and put the scarf around my neck before I could even react. "If you were beautiful before, now you're marvellous!" she said, walked back a bit, and watched me like I was a masterpiece pairing, and she was the artist.

"What do you mean?" I asked, totally confused of what she had said. "Did she just call me what I thought or...?"

"I meant that you were pretty before putting the scarf on, but after adding it to your outfit, you became magnificent!" she explained. "I cannot take my eyes off you!" I could sense the joke in her voice, and I started laughing. Pretty hard. "And you were saying that you wouldn't like it here," I could see, through my laughs, that she put her hands on her waist just like the teachers in the movies, trying not to laugh, but not succeeding.

"I was talking about the match itself. Not our mental conditions before it has even started," was all I could manage to say before she grabbed my hand and, still laughing, we made it to the entrance of the stadium.

                                           ***

As we bought some food and water, we found our seats, sat, and started waiting for the match to begin.

There weren't many people yet and nothing was going on, but Liv still had insisted to be on our seats one hour before the kick-off. Was it even called like that?

Liv was sharing something with me, too enthusiastically if you ask me, but, honestly, I was more focused on the food I was eating than the things she was telling me.

"So they-" Liv suddenly stopped talking, and I looked at her, realizing that she understood my game. "Are you listening to me?"

"Uhm..." I ate a little more popcorn before answering. "Genuinely, no," I confessed. "I mean," I started excusing myself because I saw her getting upset. "I was listening to you in the beginning, but I didn't understand anything you were saying!" I stressed on "anything". "So I decided to just eat and watch how people find their seats," I looked at her again after turning my gaze to the stands, at the direction of which I was watching before, to show her that I was telling the truth.

"Okay," she shifted on her seat, turning to me. "I'll start again," I just looked at her with an you've-got-to-be-joking expression. "Tell me if you don't understand something," I nodded, putting some more food in my mouth and getting ready for an inhumanly long lecture.

"So," she started, wrapping her scarf around her neck. "Do you know who the main Barca players' names?" she asked me, and I kind of choked.

"Wait," I started, trying to catch my breath between coughs. "Do I have to know them?" were my words while reaching my water bottle.

"Of course, you do!" she kind of laughed? "How are you supposed to know what's going on if you don't know at least their last name or pseudonym and their number?" she asked, I feeling the irony and rhetoric in her words. "First up, we have the goalkeeper. His name is Marc-André ter Stegen," she stated. "A few important things you should know bout him are that," she started numbering the statements on her fingers. "He is German. He's thirty-one years old. And he is also number one in the team," Liv looked up to me. "You still with me?"