A Year With Real Madrid

Chapter 7

Alice's P.O.V.

The next week was a busy one for us. The Champions League match was 3 days after the LaLiga match and the guys were hard at work.

Champions league meant a great deal for all of us and since Real Madrid were the reigning champions of the league since the past two seasons, they were more determined than ever to make it a third.

By now I was even able to attend training and after they were done with the actual training, the guys would try to teach me some moves, a few moves I learnt well, others, not so well. Overall it was great and a lot of fun.

The particularly amusing moments were in the dressing rooms where there was always music bursting and someone dancing. Mostly it would be Marcelo, Lucas or Sergio and obviously, I would join them, even though I have two left feet.

The day of the match came and the guys tried their best but they tied. 1-1, a penalty was taken by Cristiano and an own goal scored by Raphael. He took it very hard. Even though no one blamed him, he blamed himself for losing the team 2 points. Finally, after a lot of talks, he regained the positivity and swore to make up for it in the next game.

On 23rd October we played Eibar at the Bernabeu. We won with a 3-0 score. Oliveira scored an own goal in the 18th minute then the rest of the goals came from Marco in the 28th minute and Marcelo in the 82nd minute. Then came the match against Fuenlabrada and it's safe to say that even though Jesus got a red card, the new kids killed it! We got two penalties and Marco and Lucas took them and scored which brought us a 0-2 victory in the Copa.

Right now everyone was very glum because of the losing streak we were having. First, we lost to Girona 2-1. Isco got in an early goal but Girona came back harder and scored twice in the second half.

Everyone was annoyed with themselves for losing focus and 3 important points. But then came the heartbreaking moment, the away Champions League match against Spurs which we lost, 1-3. Everyone was just disappointed in themselves that's why after training they all were doing their own thing, 'getting their head back in the game'.

While I was just sitting cross-legged in the middle of the hallway thinking. Yeah, nothing weird at all...

"What are you doing Ally?" I turned and saw that Isco was standing behind me looking very amused.

"I'm bored."

He raised an eyebrow at me, "I kinda figured that one but why are you sitting in the middle of the hallway?"

I shrugged, "I couldn't decide what to do so I thought that I would just sit here until I make up my mind!"

He laughed.

 'Wow, he has a nice laugh!' wait, what? What the heck am I thinking?

"ALICE!" Isco literally shouted in my face and I let out a scream as I fell backwards on the floor.

"Omg! What is wrong with you Disco?! You gave me a heart attack!!" I screeched as I sat back up in my previous position.

Isco fell on the floor laughing, "You should've seen your face! It was hilarious!!"

"I'm glad that me dying amuses you," I muttered sarcastically.

Isco just chucked and sat in front of me, cross-legged. "So what's on your mind?" He asked snapping me out of my thoughts yet again. I shook my head at him and gave him a small smile, "Nothing."

He gave me a look, "You and I both know that it's not 'nothing' so spill." He said air-quoting nothing.

I didn't know what to say so instead I passed my phone to him. He looked at me questioning but accepted the phone and looked on the screen.

Soon his confusion turned to anger and frustration. "Seriously Ally? You're listening to them?" He angrily pointed towards my phone on which Twitter was open and my mentions were mostly filled with hate tweets from people saying that I was distracting the team and making them lose focus from football. It actually made me question the whole idea. What if it was true? What if me being around was a distraction for the guys but they were just too nice to say anything?

As if he had read my thoughts, Isco spoke up, "Ally listen to me, you being on the team is not a distraction, trust me on that. If anything, you're more of a breath of fresh air. Football is a game, it's a beautiful game but it is cruel sometimes. Everyone wins and everyone loses, it's the only way that the game works in. If you don't lose every once in a while, you don't learn anything new. That's what happens to us. We lose our way, we fight the odds and then we fight to get back on the top. That's what makes us the best club in the world. That's what makes us Real Madrid. So keep your head up and don't listen to haters cause you're a part of the club now." He said this with such intensity that my eyes watered up and I leaned forward to grab him in a tight hug, "Thank you so much Isco. I needed that."

He pulled back a little and smiled at me, "Don't worry about it. Soon people are going to realize what an amazing idea this was and how amazing you are and then they are going to love you. Just like all of us do."

"Now you're gonna make me cry," I said wiping my eyes.

"Well, what can I say, I am a charmer." He said dramatically. I laughed and pushed him, "You wish."

And that is how Dani, Marcos, Theo, Borja, Lucas and Jesus found us a few hours later, sitting in front of each other in the middle of the hallway with pizza boxes and soda cans around us.