Luca: A look inside

Chapter Twelve: Alberto's POV

The next morning I wake up feeling fine. Numb, sort of. Then the memories from yesterday come back. I lay there silently, thinking that maybe today will be better. Then, Giulia bursts through her window and starts singing like the other morning. I sit up at the same time as Luca, both of us startled. I groan. Another day of training.

We go through a similar routine as yesterday. Giulia makes the deliveries while Luca, Massimo, and I go catch some more fish. Luckily there aren't many close calls unlike yesterday. Then, by noon, it's time for training. I shovel pasa into my mouth as fast as I can, well with a fork at least. Giulia cheers me on the whole time, screaming, "Go, go! Go, Alberto! Go!" It's a little bit annoying, but it's also good motivation.

To get the most training time possible, Luca starts on the bike while I finish the pasta with Giulia. Then Giulia goes out to swim while Luca and I stay at home. Things are still a little bit weird, but at least we can still hang out. We even try to make friends with Giulia's evil cat, Machiavelli. It works. Barely. Another day of training, done. We go to sleep in Giulia's hideout.

The day, we get woken up by Massimo, instead of Giulia. "Andiamo, dai." He says to me. Giulia and Luca train together while I help Massimo in the boat. I push all of the jealous thoughts I have away, and concentrate on impressing Massimo.

I even hold my arm behind my back to do everything like he does. It's all going really well, until I see a figure in the water, it kind of looks like a sea monster. . .

"Sea monster!" Massimo yells, and plunges a harpoon into the water right where it is. To my relief, all that is on his harpoon is a bunch of seaweed. He puts his hand on my shoulder for a second, and turns away. I look down, and see my scales on my wet shoulder. I brush it away nervously. We finish getting enough fish for a couple of days, and go back to the pescheria. I do my portion of the training, and then we have dinner. I go to sleep that night feeling better than I have in a while. But hey, maybe that's just because I was barely around Giulia and Luca today, so I didn't have to deal with that. Also because I got to fish with Massimo a lot.

The next morning, Giulia has to shake us awake. These last few days have been tiring, and we still have two more until the race. We go into the dining room for breakfast, but Giulia says that she has something else for us today. She sets down three mugs, and fills them with this steaming brown stuff. "Espresso," She says.

I don't have the energy to pick it up, so I dip my tongue in. The next minute, everything feels weirdly fuzzy, and I think I could see the whole earth right now without a vespa. We do training for that day, and I think that we have all improved a lot. Giulia doesn't completely embarrass me when she swims, and Luca can go pretty fast on the bike. It's time for dinner, and Massimo made my favorite! Trenette al pesto! The green noodle stuff from the first day we were here.

I'd love to just shove it all in my mouth, but since this is technically my training, I have to use a fork. I try a few times, but two out of three of the times the noodles fall off of the fork. I look up at Massimo, and he takes his fork, puts it down into the pasta, and spins it in circles. Then he pulls it out and there is a bunch on the fork. I try it myself, and to my surprise, it works! I smile excitedly, and look at Giulia and Luca to show them. "Hey!"

But of course they don't notice me. They are looking in one of Giulia's books, smiling and laughing about some stupid thing. I shove the fork into my mouth, it's so unfair.

The next day, Luca, Massimo, and I go out fishing, while Giulia swims all around us. Today is our last day of training, so we have to make it count. Once we're done with that, we head back for lunch. At least today Giulia and luca noticed that I can actually eat with a fork now. Once I finish and finally digest all of the food, Massimo announces that it's dinner. We eat quickly, because we have to get in Luca's training.