***
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📍 Sevilla, Andalusia

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***

Parking could be a bitch.

Especially on matchdays. Despite Real Betis Femenin B being a smaller division in comparison to the other female B teams across the country, the public games pitch their home games were held in always seemed to populate well.

On a day like this, where Betis were fixed against Barcelona Femeni B, it was bound to grab some extra spectators.

Anyways, the car park outside the pitch was packed, and parking has always been Sophia's least favourite aspect of driving. She remembers getting a minor fault on her driving test for inaccurate steering while reverse bay-parking.

Thankfully she wasn't alone, though.

"How's that one over there?" suggests Pedri from the passenger's seat, peering over a row of cars in the next line. "In between the blue Honda and black Volkswagen?"

Sophia nods, "Let's see." She waits at the giveaway for oncoming cars, and sees one finishing up its parking. How she wishes that was her. Sadly, when she turned the corner into the next line, the space Pedri thought he'd seen ended up being occupied.

"Damn, that's one low roof." Pedri says. "No one in a ten-yard radius could've seen that."

Sophia clicks her tongue. "Excuses..."

Pedri scoffs, but something grabs his eyes enough for them to widen. "Is that a Porsche? Has someone actually brought a Porsche with them to a football game?"

"That's probably Nadia's dad, the holding midfielder for Betis. He's well known for embarrassing her with his loud engine." Sophia lets her eyes wander over for a second, just because a lot of people were passing by at this pedestrians crossing she was stopped at. One of them was the big brother of the Betis team's left winger, who Sophia went to school with, and he waved excitedly at Sophia on seeing her halted at the crossing. She could've sworn she saw him double take, too, at who Sophia's passenger was...

She could tell there were gonna be a few stares near her today.

Pedri sat up immediately. "There's literally a free bay over there," he says. "Like, right now. Dios mio, Sophia, look!"

Sophia's eyes widen, before relaxing in relief. The people had crossed, and nothing was stopping her from zooming her navy Seat to the empty bay.

"You beauty," she murmurs.

"Appreciate the compliment, Verdiblanco."

"I was talking about the parking bay, Palmero," Sophia muses, manoeuvring into the parking bay. It elicits a snicker from his lips.

Sophia lifts her handbrake. Oh, how she hated parking.

When they left the car, Pedri and Sophia joined the group waiting to enter the pitch. Anyone, had they averted their eyes and came across the young pair, would've noticed the limited distance between the two, arms almost linked by an invisible string as Sophia said something that made Pedri laugh. She was wearing her Real Betis home jersey tucked into a pair of white mom jeans, sunglasses shielding her eyes from the sun surrounding them. Pedri was in a plain navy T-shirt and denim shorts, a blaugrana Barcelona cap dangling from his hands. It positively amused Sophia when he got into her car wearing the merchandise, but she figures, no harm done. It was his team her own was playing today after all.

"Twenty euros, por favor," says the sales vendor at the ticket office.

Sophia reaches into her card holder, but was beat to it by Pedri, handing over the cash without a beat of hesitation.

"Pedri," says Sophia.

He winks at her. "Pay me back with a drink after the game."

That grudging smile overcame her face as she accepted the ticket from the sales vendor, giving her thanks. They walk away, immersed amongst the crowd, when one specific voice stood out to her.

"Sophia Adams-Diaz, as I live and breathe!"

A pleasant smile overcame her features as Sophia came faced with the voice that called out to her. It was the same boy that had waved to Sophia at the pedestrian crossing, the brother of Betis's left winger.

"Dani?" She remarks. "Oh my god, it's been too long!"

"Only because you don't come to games anymore," Dani joked.

"You know I feel guilty easy."

"You're good, Soph," Dani laughs. "How's Barca?"

"Really good," Sophia grins, "Moving back in a few days. What about you, you stayed at home, right?"

"Yeah, I got that job apprenticing with the coaches in the Betis under-15s team. We actually got to meet the first team not too long ago which was mental. Borja Iglesias complimented my goatee."

"I don't know if you could call it that," Sophia says with a menacing grin.

Dani rolls his eyes, but with a smile in Pedri's direction, observes, "I see you have brought a Culér with you today."

"Yeah," Sophia put a hand on Pedri's arm, "Managed to pick up a stray over here."

"A stray?" says Pedri. "You practically begged me to go on this date with you."

"Date?" Dani's eyes widen. "Soph, how do you manage a date with a Barca player?"

"Why does it shock absolutely everyone that I can get a date?" says Sophia.

"It's more to do with the fact you're living the dream of many teenage girls right now."

"Hear that?" Pedri smirks. "I'm the dream."

Sophia rolls her eyes and loops her arm in Pedri's, ready to drag him away. "We'll see you during the game, Dani. Glad you came by."

"See you, Soph," Dani smiles. "Good to meet you, Pedri."

"You too, hermano," Pedri grins as he walks with Sophia into the pitch, easily finding two seats near the dugout. Both Betis's and Barca's Under-21s female teams were on the pitch warming up, readying themselves for the impending ninety minutes of game time. Despite Sophia's engrossing description of the Betis team — detailing all the players from wingbacks like Clarissa in her french braids, jogging with her teammates, to forwards like Dani's sister — a few people, in their venture through the bleachers for seats (for seats usually unassigned and the best seats were first-come-first-serve) had recognised Pedri. A few had even asked for a picture, which Pedri gave without hesitation.

It wasn't long after that that Sophia had taken her own phone out in front-facing camera and motioned for Pedri to join her in the picture.

"You feeling jealous, Verdiblanco?"

"It's for my mum, Pedri," Sophia rolls her eyes.

"That's what they all say." Pedri teases, but places his arm around her shoulders as she moves in closer with their faces in the camera frame, temples brushing, faces grinning brightly. Sophia in her bright green and white jersey, Pedri in his clearly blaugrana cap. What a pair.

"Send it to me," he says afterwards.

Sophia cocks her head to the side in an incredulous response.

Pedri shrugs. "It's for my mum."

"That's what they all say," Sophia echoes his previous words.

He laughs, and they feel a new presence by them. Before Pedri can ready himself for another fan picture, Sophia recognised the girl instantly.

"Maddie!" She greets the girl with light brown hair, standing to embrace her. She was clearly younger than them both, however matched in height, with a bright grin on approaching them, blue eyes shining in the late summer sun.

"I didn't know you'd be here, Soph," says Maddie.

"Neither," says Sophia. "I didn't know you were into Betis. Is your family not full of Sevillanos? Your brother made it very clear on derby days."

Maddie rolls her eyes. "It's not deep. Honestly, I'm half convinced Gio did that just to tease you."

"Wait, Gio?" Pedri frowns. "The one from the restaurant?"

"Yep," says Sophia. "Maddie is Gio's younger sister. Schoolmates with Clarissa. Who've you came with today, Maddie?"

Maddie shakes her head. "I'm just on my own today to watch Clarissa, she said we could grab lunch after the game."

"You want to sit with us? I don't think anyone else has sat here yet."

"Nah," Maddie shakes her head with no hesitation. "I left my jacket on one of the seats over there," with a cheeky hint of a smile, she adds, "I wouldn't want to interrupt you two on what is clearly a date. Thanks for the offer though."

Sophia purses her lips over what was a begrudging smile. She couldn't deny Maddie's words this time, and she could feel Pedri grinning in periphery. "Alright. See you in a little while, Maddie."

Maddie nods pleasantly, "See you, Soph. Pedri."

When Maddie leaves, Pedri says, "I didn't tell her my name."

Sophia rolls her eyes. "As if you needed to, Pedro Gonzalez. It's as if the nation doesn't know what the next Golden Boy looks like."

"I suppose when you put it like that..." Pedri laughs. "How's it feeling, being on a date with the nation's next Golden Boy?"

"Cockiness is not a good look on you, Palmero."

"You are, though."

Lost for a response other than her ridiculously wide grin, Sophia comfortably bundles her arm in his. At the same moment the players were lining up, he places a kiss to her forehead.

At halftime, Sophia returned from the snack kiosks with a drinks holster in one hand and a large popcorn in the other. Their seats were empty, and that led her to scan the stadium for Pedri — finding him by the front row, chatting animatedly with her younger sister. Clarissa, whose face was still flushed, glimmering sweat in the sun, but smiling brightly in conversation with the Canarian.

It's a feeling Sophia could not get enough of. Seeing Pedri and her siblings get on so well.

"Alright, guys?" Sophia greets them both. "That was a great first half, hermana."

"It was meh," Clarissa returns, shrugging her shoulders as Sophia handed Pedri his drink. "Still conceded two Barca goals."

"As well as assisting a Betis goal," says Sophia.

"And making a successful shit-eating tackle," adds Pedri.

"It was very shit-eating, I'll admit that," says Clarissa. She breathes in, "God, I'm gonna need to apologise to Barca's winger later for that. Nothing personal." Her eyes travel to Sophia's head, and frowns. "That is, though."

"What— oh, shit." When Sophia reached a hand to her head, she realises exactly what Clarissa was glaring at. Pedri's Barca cap. "This must be why I got so many looks in the kiosk line."

Clarissa rolls her eyes as Sophia drops the cap over Pedri's head, who grinned widely from his sneaking the cap onto Sophia earlier in the game and her successfully not noticing.

"Trouble," says Sophia.

"If you interfere with my sister's football allegiance, I will never forgive you, Pedri," says Clarissa.

"Yikes. Noted," says Pedri.

"Perfect," Clarissa smiles. "Hey Mads!"

Sophia and Pedri turn to the stairs in the stands, finding Maddie walking down with a bright smile.

"Wait—" Maddie halts them from moving, still a few stairs away, taking her phone out. "You guys are literally in the perfect lighting for a picture. Hold on."

"Aspiring photographers," Clarissa mocks her friend, who scrunched her nose at her in response. Clarissa leans over the bannister separating the seats and the pitch, an arm over Sophia's shoulders. Pedri scooted out of the picture, before being met with Maddie's frown, who immediately ushered Pedri back in.

"Get back in, dude! A memento of your first game of Clarissa's!" Maddie told them.

Pedri chuckled in response as he moved back in, and Clarissa put her other arm around Pedri, the younger girl matching both of his and Sophia's heights (if she wasn't at least taller).

"Good luck with the second half," says Pedri once Maddie clicked the photograph, fist bumping Clarissa.

"If you're going for lunch with Maddie I'll probably see you tonight," says Sophia.

Clarissa frowns. "You're not going straight home?"

"No, um," says Sophia, a look in Pedri's direction. "We're going out for drinks."

"I see," grins Clarissa.

"Shut up, Clarissa," Sophia laughs. "See you later. Good luck."

Sophia returns to her seat with Pedri, the two of them taking turns with fishing popcorn from the dispensing box it was in. It wasn't long till the second half was to begin that Pedri pointed something out to Sophia, something she hadn't caught onto before.

"Who's that lad Clarissa's talking to?"

Pedri was referring to the spot he'd been at with Sophia prior to now, where Clarissa still remained, however not alone. Maddie had left by that point, but her spot was occupied by a boy taller in height than Clarissa, ruffled blond hair pulled back by a green and white cap. He was chatting with Clarissa, leaning against the barricade separating the two parts of the pitch they were on either sides of, and she spoke with him intently, an unusually soft smile on her face.

It takes Sophia a moment before she realises who it is.

"I think that's Milk Boy."

Pedri raises an eyebrow at the certitude in her statement. "Milk Boy?"

"I should elaborate," she chuckles. "His name's Carlo. He's the son of the dairy supplier for my dad's restaurant, but Carlo nearly always delivers the goods. Dairy, hence the nickname Milk Boy."

"Does Milk Boy usually come to Clarissa's games?"

"Nope," says Sophia.

Something to ask Clarissa later.

The whistle signalling the second half also apparently signalled for Betis to amp it up a gear, for they had scored less than five minutes after the clock had begun. Both teams were equal.

But then they hear a yell, in a completely different area from the football pitch.

People were crowding around one of the seats a small stretch away from Pedri and Sophia. A large crowd, actually, causing quite a commotion. Which was what got their attention in the first place.

"What's going on over there?" asks Pedri.

"No clue," replies Sophia, but on seeing someone approach the area with a First Aid kit, surmises, "I think someone's injured."

She peers her eyes close, no longer able to keep her attention on the game. She's pretty sure an assistant coach had just hopped the barrier to see what was going on. The first aid kit had passed through the crowd — which still hadn't dispersed, much to whoever was at the centre of its' annoyance — and now that Sophia was standing, she could see someone's figure being lain across a few seats, a blurred outline of someone's head lined with blood.

Someone moved aside, enough for Sophia to see a face, and she gasps.

"Fuck," Sophia realises. The hair covering the bleeding scalp was chestnut brown, and Sophia recognised it and the unconscious face all too well. "Maddie."

"Who took our picture earlier?" Pedri breathes, "Dios mio."

"I need to go see," she clears her throat, scrambling to gather her stuff together, hastily wrapping her scarf around herself, "She's Clarissa's mate, Gio's sister and he's not here, and Clarissa's busy in the game, I—"

"Hey," a hand on her arm, and Pedri's soft eyes. "Breathe. Let's go."

Sophia does breathe, and with Pedri close to her arm, they migrate in the direction of the commotion. The game was still going on, and Sophia's attention was no longer on her little sister's footballing performance—she felt terrible—but she knew Clarissa would understand.

"Oh, dios mio, Maddie," says Sophia after breaking through the crowd to reach Maddie with a paramedic beside her, dabbing at the blood on her forehead. She was spread out on the plastic park seats, and she was out cold.

"Are you her family?" The paramedic attending to Maddie asked. After Sophia having made it obvious that she knew her.

"No, but she's a family friend—my sister's mate, Betis's left-back, I work with her brother—" Sophia stops herself. "I know her. What happened?"

"She tripped coming up the steps, is what others have said. Because blood's involved, as well as the fact—Maddie, you said?—is unconscious, she needs hospital attending. The ambulance has been called."

A loud whistle is heard, and Sophia knew that was the football game being halted. She was about to search the pitch for Clarissa, when—

"Mierda, Soph, what happened, I—Maddie?"

Clarissa stood there, having ran up and made it to the stands by them, face aghast, with ruffled french braids and a sweat-patched green and white football kit.

"Dios mio, what happened, I—" Clarissa looks to her big sister for answers, nothing but worry in her face at seeing her mate unconscious with injury.

Before Sophia can even respond, two more paramedics arrived on the scene, a red stretcher long in one pair of arms.

"That's the ambulance here," the original paramedic says to Sophia. Space was laid out for the stretcher, and held carefully under the arms and legs, Maddie had been transferred on top. "Will you be able to accompany her to the hospital? Or should someone else be called?"

"I can go," says Sophia. It felt right. She couldn't stay here and watch the game knowing Maddie needed to leave to get hospital attendance. She turns to look at Pedri.

"Do you want me to drive?" He asks.

She realised two things. One, that his hand was encased around her elbow, that it was because she was shaking. Two, that he was coming to the hospital, without prompt, none at all.

She takes a deep breath.

(This boy.)

"I'm coming too," says Clarissa, pulling a training vest over her football kit that a teammate had thrown over.

"Clarissa, you—" Sophia was about to say something; that Clarissa couldn't. That she was in the middle of a game. But what was a game when a friend was hurt? Eventually, knowing Clarissa had the right priority in mind, Sophia says, "Tell your coach. We're going to the car."

By now the crowd has dispersed save for a few people who recognised Sophia's company to be Pedri. That was the least of their concerns, as Sophia and Pedri made their way to the exits while Clarissa went to talk to her coach.

In what didn't seem like the most relaxed manner. From their position afar, it almost looked like Clarissa was arguing with her coach.

"What was that all about?" Sophia asks Clarissa once the latter reaches the car, sliding into the backseat. Sophia, who passed Pedri up on his offer to drive, still in the driver's seat, Pedri beside her at the front.

"Nothing important," Clarissa was quick to say. "Maddie is."

Sophia couldn't argue with that. Despite thinking — knowing — she was masking what had happened. Hand on the gearstick, she presses down on the clutch. She takes a deep breath. Looks to her right, where Pedri sat.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this," she apologised.

"You didn't drag me into anything," says Pedri. "I came with you here today, and I'm coming to the hospital. Maddie's the important thing here."

She offers him the smallest of smiles, nodding.

He tells her, "Don't apologise for doing the right thing."

***

me and sophia are fr the same person bc i, too, absolutely hate parking cars

but omg. guys im so sorry. genuinely been working on this chapter for AGES and i wasn't getting anywhere so decided to end it here. it didn't get to the part i hoped to so im sorry if it wasn't what u were expecting 😭😭😭

exams finished like 3 weeks ago this should've been out THEN but as i said i struggled. ive also been pulling a sophia and playing zelda like everyday since exams ended 😭😭😭 guys i just KNOW sophia would be sobbing about the fact the newest zelda nintendo switch game came out a week ago and she's so real for that. it's all my sisters been playing and it looks so good i just need to finish this current game first😭😭

OMFG I WANTED TO SAY,, CAMPEONES!!! 🥹 we're champions guys. barca are champions of spain. 😭💙 mate the way ive literally waited 4 years to see frenkie de jong with the laliga trophy i wasn't disappointed <3

THEYRE SO 😭😭 <333 also ferran and pedri cutest friendship i'll be so sad if ferran leaves he's been so overhated. deserves better fr

i could be here all night w trophy pictures but i won't keep u with that😭😭 one last one, ansu and araujo my underrated barca friendship <3

mate i'll be so sad if ansu leaves. like as sad as i was when kieran tierney left celtic which was VERY SAD I CRIED FOR WEEKS I DONT WANT ANSU TO LESVE 😭😭😭😭😭

how fucking funny is it that barca and celtic are both champions but haven't won their games since becoming champions like wtf boys did u really go on holiday early 😭😭😭 celtic trophy day on saturday tho and i will EAT UP THAT CONTENT <3 it's the perfect bday present for me also. i turn 20 on saturday guys. why am i old😐 want to stay 19 forever pls and ty.

ANYWAYS have a good night ily and thank u for being patient guys <3333