[ thirteen ] 

The next day at practice, Florencia showed up looking for Michael Bartra. The blonde exclaimed when she saw the new Madrid footballer, "Michael!" She ran up to him and linked arms with him, a playful smile on her lips. "Where did you disappeear off to at the restaurant? You're the life of the party, you know. Everything was like dead when you were gone."

"I went to go play on the slot machines and ended up getting distracted." Mariluz lied.

Just as they were talking, Ricardo walked up to them. A bright smile made way on his face at the sight of the blonde haired girl. "Hey Florencia."

"Hey Ricky." Florencia greeted, not taking her eyes off Mariluz.

Their conversation was interrupted by Mourinho, who walked up behind Ricardo. The middle-aged team coach took one look at Michael and said, "Bartra, you're starting this Wednesday against Deportivo A Corunya along side Cristiano. I know its soon, but if you do well, I might put you on the starting eleven for the classic. I know how hard you've been working since you arrived."

Mariluz gasped. "Really?"

"No, I'm joking." Mourinho said sarcastically. 

In her excitement, Mariluz jumped up and hugged the Portuguese man. "Thank you so much!" Her girly voice exclaimed. When she realized what she was doing, she pulled away from him and cleared her throat. Disguising her voice to sound manly again, she coughed, "I mean...thank you. I really appreciate it...bro."

Florencia giggled. "Did you just call him bro?"

"Uh yeah," Mariluz said nervously. "I was just...Uh...I'm just gonna go now." She gestured toward the field where the rest of her team mates were practicing and ran off to join them. Ricardo stayed behind, attempting to make conversation with Florencia.

As she approached the other guys, she saw Gonzalo wiggle his eyebrows at her. "Florencia is so desperate for your attention, man. Poor Ricardo." The Argentine pointed out.

Mariluz shrugged. "I keep telling him that."

"Hey," The Argentine quickly changed the subject. "Mesut told us he's dating your sister now. Huh, Mesut?" He nudged the German footballer by his side.

"Yeah." The German nodded nervously.

"Do you have another sister?" Gonzalo grinned. "Or maybe a hot cousin?"

"I'll look into it." She told her friend, lacking enthusiasm.

Ronaldo scoffed. "I can't believe Marcela hasn't left you yet."

"I can't believe you're still interested in her." Mariluz muttered, genuinely surprised.

The Portuguese footballer nodded, "Not that its any of your business, but yes." He replied. "And when she watches us both on the field together in three days, she will see who the better footballer is. Then she'll leave you."

Mariluz laughed. "You're delusional, Ronaldo."

But if Cristiano was really interested in Marcela, Mariluz thought they deserved a chance together. Marc didn't appreciate what he once had and it was now time for her best friend to be happy with someone else.

.

.

.

.

The day of the game against A Corunya, Mariluz was ready and excited to take part in her first game on the Real Madrid men's team. She packed her gym bag with all the necessary things and was about to go change into her white uniform when she got a text from Bojan.

'mariluz, can we talk?'

'no.'

'please.'

'i have things to do.'

'i know where you live in madrid.'

'so you're with kaka now?'

'how did you know i live with kaka?'

'marcela.'

'i had marc ask marcela where you're living.'

'and since she' still hung up on marc, she told him without hesitating.'

'how could marc do something like that to her?'

'using her like that.'

'i will kill him.'

'i'm waiting for you outside his house.'

'come out, yeah?'

'ugh fine.'

'just give me a few minutes.' 

Mariluz changed into her regular girl clothes because Bojan didn't know about her secret. When Ricardo knocked on her door, asking if she was ready to leave to the Santiago Bernabeu, she replied with, "Uh...I have a small errand to run. But I'll meet you there, okay? Go on without me."

"You sure?" The Brazilian asked from the other side of the door, sounding worried. "I could take you to run this errand." He suggested.

But the twenty year old girl shook her head. "No. I'll be fine, mate. I'll see you there in a bit."

"Okay." Ricardo sighed.

She could hear the faint sounds of his footsteps as he walked away. Mariluz looked out her window, through a small crack in between the curtains and made sure he was gone before she decided to go outside. But before then, she wanted to send her brother a text message to let him know she was disappointed in him.

'tsk tsk, marc. shame on you.'

'what?' 

'don't play stupid, hermanito.'

'you need to be specific, maria luz.' 

'you used marcela to get information out of her. information to give that asshole bojan.'

'he's my friend mari.' 

'look marco, i didn't want to tell you this because i know bojan is your bestfriend.'

When the two were children, Marc would often annoy Mariluz by calling her Maria Luz, which was a similar spelling variation to her name Mariluz. In turn, she would annoy her older brother by adding an O to the end of his name and calling him Marco.

'but he's a douche. and you need to know why we broke up in the first place.'

'he told me it was because he was moving to roma. so?'

'that's just something we agreed on because i didn't want to be a bitch and ruin his career by telling the truth.'

'he's a fucking sexist, okay?'

'he told me girls who played football needed to stop and go work in the kitchen where they belong.'

'he said other horrible things that i don't even want to remember anymore.'

'bojan would never say that.'

'the person he was with you as a friend was different than he was with me as a bf.'

'who are you gonna believe?'

'me, YOUR SISTER. or bojan?'

'you of course.'

'that fucking bitch.'

'i'll kill him.'

'i didn't tell you this so you could fight with him.'

'i told you so you could be aware that you USED marcela, who LOVES you. to help someone like him.'

'i'm sorry.'

'i need to call marce to apologize.'

'you do that.'

.

.

.

.

Mariluz left her cellphone inside and walked out the front door to meet with Bojan, who was parked across the street in a red Ferrari sports car. He got out when he saw Mariluz approaching him. "Hola, mi amor." He grinned.

The green eyed girl rolled her eyes at her former boyfriend. "What do you want, Bojan? I already told you we'll never get back together."

"Maybe you changed your mind." He shrugged.

She shook her head. "Nope."

The Barcelona footballer looked down at his phone screen, scrolling through something. He grinned when he found what he was looking for. His voice dropped into a low whisper as he told her. "Guess what, Mariluz?" Turning his phone screen over to her, she saw there were pictures of her going into the toilets at the restaurant as Mariluz and exiting as Michael and vice versa. Her green eyes widened in horror and the young footballer added, "I know your secret."

-

the truth might be revealed soon :o

oh oh.

bojan is a bad boy. how he got thos pictures? no one knows. but he is one sneaky mofo, that's for sure.

anyway, i hope you all enjoy the update.

thank you for reading.

i love you.

-clary xx