Some Lucky Strike

5.

- CHAPTER FIVE -

"Aurea"

As soon as we land, we walk out of the plane throughout the finger, which leads us directly inside the Adolfo Suárez airport. It is way more busy than London, and there is a ridiculous amount of shops with skyrocketed prices. Although I've lived in Spain my entire life until moving to the UK, I've never been to Madrid.

We head to the outside, where our assigned bus is waiting to bring us to the hotel. After two good hours of flight, my eyes are a little swollen, but the tiredness from the night before is completely gone. 

Before I can even realize it, the group is standing in front of the Santiago Bernabéu, the Real Madrid's field. It is almost 7 p.m. and it is getting dark, so the lights are all turned on. On huge screens across the outside of the stadium, the faces of their players are projected, and the official shop is opened, full of people inside buying merch. But not any more people than the outside. The amount of people with white and red-blue football t-shirts is breathtaking, and the queue to get inside an hour before the game is unbelievable. Flags, scarfs, shirts, caps can be seen all over the place.

Us class, as we are V.I.P., have a separate entrance to get inside. And luckily, because to get inside with that much people would be impossible. Before heading to the stadium, where we have to be half an hour before the game starts, we head to our hotel, which is right in front of the Bernabéu.

We check in, as we observe the beautifully decorated reception, full of sofas, pillows, air diffusers, pictures... kind of in a retro vibe. And the best part: it has a cocktail bar and café incorporated.

I turn around to look at ruby, gasping dramatically as we both see the bar/club. "I'll put that one on my checklist."

"Oh, yeah."

After the lady at the entrance gives us our cards and the floor we need to go to, we both get to the adventure and try and find our residence place.

"What number is our room?"

"Thirty... four. Woah... is it normal for a hotel to have so much staff? Look at that..."

She's right, after we get to our supposed floor, number 2, I look around, and there is more staff wandering around than usual. All of them wearing a black uniform with the hotel's name: Aurea. 

"Maybe that's because of the match, a lot of people are going to stay here." Ruby wonders.

"Yeah, probably, but... if you were to watch a match, a 4-star hotel wouldn't be your first pick, right? I would go to a lower rating one just to stay one night. And, either way, that's too much staff, even for a clásico night." I frown, confused. "Would it be rude to ask-"

Before I even have time to finish the sentence, she heads to the nearest staff member. 

"Uh, excuse me...?" A middle-aged blonde woman turns around, kindly smiling.

"Can I help you with anything?" She asks, with a strong Spanish accent.

"May I ask why are there so many employees in the hotel tonight?"

"Oh, sure, darling... see, tonight there is a clásico. If I'm not mistaken, the Real Madrid team will be staying here for a couple of days." She smiles, kindly. "My teammates are just getting their rooms ready, they can arrive at any moment when they come back from the match. Oh, and don't be scared if you see some security agents, they will be around too."