[ nou ] in which things go wrong

"Am I her favorite player?" Sergio asked from the other line. Marc could already hear the grin in his voice. When a girl liked Sergio, he liked to tell everyone about it. Marc knew he would need to make sure to watch his friend around Ashley or else his plan could end up completely wrong. What if Sergio ended up putting the moves on Ashley? Knowing her love for Real Madrid, he couldn't let that happen. Then all his effort would have been for nothing.

"Uh...no." Marc said, opting to tell his friend the truth. "She wanted Ronaldo, you were her second choice. But I am not friends with him. And a favor like that could cost me a lot." He explained, thinking of the fact that her favorite footballer was Ronaldo. He was willing to do anything for her, but there were some things he just didn't have the contacts for. If it had been Messi or even Neymar, he would have no problem getting her to meet them. They were team mates in Barcelona and good friends. Even someone on the national team would have been easy, as was her request to meet Sergio.

The smile in his voice dropped when he learned he had been a second choice to Cristiano. Sergio liked meeting his fans, especially if they were females. But he still had his pride. "Hm..." The Spaniard thought about it. He was a bit hesitant. "I'll do it. But...I can't believe I was her second choice." There was a hint of disbelief in his tone.

"Gracias Sergio." Marc said, grateful.

The two talked for a bit longer, catching up on the time they hadn't spoken. And before their call ended, Marc made sure to give Sergio the details about the meeting with Ashley. The Madrid footballer would arrive in Barcelona the following Monday, a day after Marc's date with her. They would meet up at a small, local cafe close to Ashley's house to ensure that the press wouldn't be around. And to thank Valerie for all her help when he was trying to win Ashley over, Marc was going to help her meet Sergi. But that would be another day.

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Sunday came around quickly for Marc, and having passed his football game with a loss, he knew Ashley would tease him about it mercilessly. Madrid had won their game and he was sure she would get her revenge after all the teasing he had done to her.

Marc was woken up that morning by the sound of someone ringing the doorbell. He groaned loudly and brought the covers up over his head. He ignored it and tried to go back to sleep. If it was the neighbor, complaining about Nina and her barking all night, he didn't have the patience to deal with that so early. Marc wasn't a morning person. But when the ringing went on for over five minutes and sounded like it would continue, he was forced to get out of bed.

He made his way toward the front gate, rubbing his tired eyes, and was surprised to see Toni Kroos on the other side. Toni Kroos was the last person he expected to see. "Hallo Marc." said the German footballer. He looked awkward standing there, with sunglasses covering his eyes and a backpack slung over his shoulder. 

"Hola Toni." Marc offered a hesitant greeting with his hand. His eyes looked over the German's shoulder, expecting Sergio to be there. But there was no one, Toni was alone. Making a hand sign to the Real Madrid footballer, he told him in his attempt at speaking english, "Can you give me a second? I need to make a quick call." 

Toni nodded, clicking away a text message on his iphone. His foot tapped on the ground impatiently as he awaited a response to his text.

Marc went a few feet away, just out of earshot, and brought his cellphone out. Quickly dialing his friend's phone number, he awaited an answer which came seconds later. "Ah! Marc, I knew you would call." Sergio's voice boomed a little bit too loudly.

"What is Toni Kroos doing here?" Marc half-whispered into the phone, looking beyond the front gate to the waiting footballer. "Ashley asked for Sergio Ramos, not Toni Kroos. Now she'll never go on a date with me. Why are you trying to ruin my life, Sergio? I thought we were friends." Marc added a bit of exaggeration. He wanted to make his friend feel guilty about not showing up.

"I had some personal things to take care of." Sergio responded innocently. "You should be grateful I was able to send a replacement on such short notice. I asked all the other guys on the team, Isco, James, Javier...they were all busy." The footballer explained from the other line, and Marc found he sounded sincere. "Toni was the only one who could make the trip to Barcelona. But I told him the meeting with your girl was on Monday. I don't know why he would go today. Maybe he misunderstood me, Toni's spanish isn't great, but he tries."

Marc groaned in frustration. "Alright. I just hope Ashley doesn't mind."

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Marc was going to modify his plans to include Toni that night. Sergio had promised the German footballer that he could stay at Marc's house while he was there. Marc didn't want to be rude, leaving a guest alone at his house, and he invited Toni to accompany him to see Ashley. Toni insisted he would be fine on his own, and Marc almost wanted to accept the offer, but he decided manners were as important to him as the opportunity to date Ashley. He would just need to keep Toni busy, to prevent him from interrupting them. He thought to call Lionel and Gerard to babysit Kroos, but that would have been going a bit too far.

When Ashley stepped out onto the front porch and looked at the nervous Barcelona footballer standing there, she wondered why he seemed upset. She became confused when she saw a young man with blonde hair sitting in the front passenger seat. "That doesn't look like Sergio Ramos." She pointed out. "And weren't we set to meet tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Marc scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he explained, "Sergio wasn't able to come, so he sent Toni in his place. And Toni doesn't really speak Spanish, he thought the meeting was today. I'm sorry this all turned into a huge fiasco." He apologized, the corners of his mouth turning down into a frown. He was certain Ashley would cancel their date now that everything had gone wrong.

He was proved wrong when she spoke. "That's fine. I like Toni Kroos too, he's a weltmeister. And maybe Valerie could come with us so Toni won't feel lonely." She made a suggestion.

The young woman with sun kissed skin and jet black hair headed back into her house to invite her friend. Valerie was sitting on the couch, lounging with a bowl of fruit on her lap. She was watching old FC Barcelona football games that she had on her DVR. Though she knew the outcome of all of them, she still liked watching as though it were the first time. Her golden blonde hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail and she was dressed comfortably, a pair of pajama bottoms and a t-shirt that had the words 'i love fcb' written across it.

"Oye Val," Ashley started, getting her friend's attention. Valerie's blue eyes met her friend's dark brown ones and Ashley continued, "Marc and I were wondering if you would like to come with us."

The blonde was quick to shake her head. "Its your date, not mine." She pointed out.

"He brought someone and we don't want him to feel awkward." Ashley explained.

"Sergi Roberto?" Valerie blurted out, suddenly interested.

"Uh...no." Her friend replied, making Valerie's excited smile drop. "Its Toni Kroos from Real Madrid."

"Oh." Was all Valerie said. She sounded all but interested. 

"So will you come?" Ashley sounded hopeful.

Again, Valerie shook her head in response. Before Ashley could even ask her why, Valerie offered her explanation. "You have your opinion about Barcelona boys, I have my opinion about Madrid boys. Besides, Toni Kroos has no emotions. He's always alone and awkward too. He's like a stone. No thank you."

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes in annoyance. Things were becoming much more difficult than they had to be.

-

poor little marc. everything he planned seemed to backfire. but at least ashley was understanding about it. now the one being a bit difficult is valerie who doesn't want to make toni company. i hope you all like the update. there are two more chapters pplus the epilogue. then there will be a spin off. which will be called 'madrid boys'. haha. me and my spin-offs.

anyway, thank you you for reading. it means a lot to me.

i love you.

-clary xx