Foolish one

Chapter 7

The rest of the week was very uneventful. I went to every practice and for the first time in a while I played without the sleeves. I still had no idea how I would be doing when it was time for games. Would I be playing without the sleeves to make a statement or with them to be comfortable? This weekend we were all free from football and me and my sister had decided to make a trip to visit my brother. My bag was packed with everything necessary. "Can you drive? Sofia was up all-night crying, I don't know how you slept through that, but I'm exhausted." Daniela asked when we walked out the door. She was pulling Sofia in her stroller, and I was pulling our two bags behind me. "Of course." I said while loading everything into the car. I got into the driver's seat while Daniela and Sofia sat in the back.

The drive was long when I was the only one awake. I couldn't play any music because I was scared of waking the two sleeping beauties. We pulled up outside my brother's house just in time for lunch. The greetings were quick, since we all were hungry. As always, I sat in between his children. They were eight and six and both loved the attention of their favorite tía. "Li, dad told us we could come and watch your game next weekend." Maria said with a smile. "He did! I can't wait to have you there." I answered her an even bigger smile. "He told us that after the game we should ask for your jersey." she continued. "You should do that, maybe I can even get some other players to sign it." I told both her and Alicia at the same time. "You don't have to do that Elisa." Felix said to me. Clearly not wanting his children to overstep any boundaries I might have. "It's no problem, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested it. And you know that." I told him sternly. His children were almost like my babies, I loved them as much as I loved Sofia.

I remember when I had a day of and could borrow my sister's car. I drove all the was to Tarragona and spent the day at the beach with Maria and Alicia. We played football, ate ice-cream and just enjoyed our time together. It wasn't the first time I did something like that. Once I brought them with me to Camp Nou to watch the men's game. We have gone to Barceloneta, the aquarium and the zoo. The two of them enjoyed it as much as I did. Felix always wanted to 'compensate me for the inconvenience' and I never let him. I enjoyed hanging out with them, even though they were a lot younger than me. I don't know if that was how Felix and Daniela felt when I was growing up.

We all decided to head to the beach after lunch. I put on a light blue tank-top over my white bikini and I wore that with a pair of beige shorts. Alicia and Maria had the cutest bathing suits with dolphins on them and only wanted to wear shorts over it. Felix complained about it while I just laughed and told them I thought it looked great. A privilege of only being their tía, because I never had to take care of their complaining and inability to follow the rules. The two young children always follow the rules I set up for them, if they didn't, I told them that if they did, they would get ice-cream. It always worked and in the end we all had our ice-cream.

Going to the beach with family always took longer than going with friends did. First Alicia had to go to the toilet. Then Felix had forgotten sunscreen. Then Sofia needed a diaper change. We also had to bring the tent, to protect Sofia from the sun. The walk which should take fifteen minutes took us forty-five and when we got there everyone was tired. Me and the children went down into the ocean as soon as we got there. We spent almost an hour playing together. For a while we were mermaids and sometimes, we just swam with the waves. Daniela took photos of the entire day.

Together we all went to get Ice-cream, I got chocolate and lemon. An underrated combination if I can say so myself. Felix had really grown into the whole dad-vibe and got pistachio. The girls got strawberry ice-cream and we ate it on our blanket. We played games, in which we let the girls win. The downside of being a very competitive adult was that I hated losing. Even if it was on purpose.

When we got back from the beach everyone showered while Felix cooked some paella for dinner. I watched Frozen with the girls while snacking on some chips and chocolate. Much to their father's dismay. They went to bed at around ten and that was when I decided to make an Instagram post.