Literally no one asked for it again, but I'm feeling so generous and 1. Made another bonus chapter and 2. Made a fake instagram for how I picture cece's account, bros probably like 17 atp idek anymore, but it's so fun to do
————
Celia pov (🙀)
"Dad?" I ask as I walk downstairs, looking into the living room as he's sitting with Uncle Gavi and Uncle Jude.
"What's up pollito?" He asks as they all turn to look at me.
"Can I ask for advice?" I question quietly as they all exchange a look.
"You're asking him for advice and not your mom?" Jude asks as I shake my head, going and sitting down on the opposite couch.
"Well it's something you guys would be able to give me advice on actually, something you could probably relate to but mom wouldn't." I shrug.
"What's it about?" Gavi asks as I spin one of my rings around my fingers.
"Football." I say quietly.
"Yeah okay good to ask us then over your mom." Gavi scoffs as dad nods.
"What's up with football then?" Dad asks as I pull my knees up to my chest.
"How do you deal with hate? I've seen articles lately about me and I feel like whenever I read them it gets to my head and I don't want it to." I say quietly as he immediately furrows his eyebrows.
"What do they say?" Gavi questions as I shrug.
"That I'm a football nepo baby and I don't deserve to be playing on a professional level because I got it handed to me." I mumble as Jude laughs and I frown.
"Those articles are absolutely wrong, you know that, right? You are easily one of the best young players right now, don't listen to what some dumb article has to say about you." Jude says as I rub my palms against my legs, taking a deep breath.
"I feel like I deserve to be playing at this level, but at the same time I'm only 17 so it has me doubting if I do deserve it." I say as dad shakes his head.
"Celia, you earned it yourself, I'm not the reason you scored a goal at your first home match, that was all you, pollito." Dad says as I get up, going over to him and giving him a hug.
"Thank you." I whisper as he rubs my back.
"Best thing to do is honestly never look at articles, not even the good ones." Gavi says as I pull away from the hug, going back over to my seat as I sit back down.
"Why not the good ones?" I question as I cross my legs, pulling a blanket onto my lap.
"Because even good ones can sneak something backhanded into it. It's honestly just better to stay away from looking at the media, especially as a football player." Jude says as I nod slightly.
"They're even saying stuff about Nadia though." I mumble.
"Really?" Dad asks as I nod.
"Saying things about how she had an in because she became best friends with me, like it's everywhere right now, everyone hates us." I say as I hear footsteps behind me, and I turn my head seeing mom.
"Who hates you?" She asks as I cover my face with my hands.
"Who hates who?" Aunt Isabelle says as she comes from down the hallway with aunt Charlotte following behind her.
I look at dad and he nudges his head and I shake my head no as he sighs, "she's been reading articles." He says as I frown.
"Why did you tell them? I wanted to talk to you guys about it." I say as he shakes his head.
"She deserves to know what's bothering you, even if she can't necessarily relate to it. She has the mom advice, not me." He says as he holds his hands up and I cross my arms.
"It was a matter of time honestly until she went on an article dive." Mom says as she comes over, sitting next to me.
"Took 2 years, she lasted longer than I thought." Isabelle says as she comes and sits on the other side of me.
"This isn't helping." I mumble as Charlotte goes and sits next to Jude.
"Baby, you can't read the articles, people write those just to get in football players heads. No one hates you either, you're jumping to conclusions by thinking that. A few bad articles doesn't mean everyone thinks it." Mom says as she wraps her arm around my shoulder and I lean my head against her.
"But Nadia though." I say quietly as her thumb rubs against my shoulder.
"I think Nadia can handle it, she has always never cared about the press and media, she does it for her, and maybe that's what you need to do." Isabelle says as I nod slightly.
"When you're playing do you think about how your dad is a professional too? Or do you play because you love it?" Charlotte asks as I play with my thumbs.
"Because I love it." I say quietly.
"So there you go, just because your dad and uncles play doesn't mean that automatically you get playing time, let alone a contract, that was all you Ce." Charlotte consoles.
"Have you talked to Nadia about it?" Jude asks as I nod.
"I was just talking to her upstairs because I went down a rabbit hole and I called her about it." I say.
"What does she say about it?" He asks.
"She doesn't care what they have to say, because she knows she deserves it and doesn't care what other people think. And she doesn't think it's fair that I'm suddenly getting backlash when I've been playing for 2 years professionally." I shrug as he nods.
"Because you got called up to the national team." Gavi says quietly.
"What?" I question as I lift my head, giving him a look.
"No I mean that's why it started suddenly, because the timeline matches with you getting a senior call up, and then starting a match too." He says as I furrow my eyebrows.
"I didn't even think about it like that, but that makes more sense." I say as he nods.
"Well you figured out the cause, that's a start." Mom says as she kisses the top of my head and I scrunch my nose as I lean my head against her again.
"At the end of the day you have Nadia, she's your support through this, as your teammate and as your best friend." Dad says as I smile slightly.
"I feel like my social media has a good balance at least." I say.
"What do you mean?" Isabelle asks.
"Well I don't make football my whole personality. Like my photos I post aren't all for football, I only do it when it has a lot of importance, but besides that it's either just me or photos with Nadia."
"I think it's good you do that though, you have a good separation of football to your personal life, and I feel like you try to post more about your personal life versus a focus on football." Mom says as I nod.
"I remember someone told me to do that at one point, maybe it was Nadia. Like I could easily make it my personality because it's what I love to do, and I play at the highest level, but for some reason I don't care to do that." I say as I give her a look and she smiles slightly.
"Honestly that's respectable though." Gavi says as Jude nods, "I feel like it's hard to have that balance but you do it well." He adds as I smile.
"Are Nadia and I the next you and dad?" I joke as he sucks in a breath.
"That's tough to beat, we were a pretty good duo." Dad says as Gavi nods, patting his leg.
"You have an advantage though because you guys met when you were a year younger." Gavi counters.
"So I'm like all of you guys then, except it's one best friend versus a whole group." I say as they all smile.
"Kind of actually, since you were 9 and that's almost the age I met all of the guys." Mom says as dad nods.
"A year after that your mom hated me." Dad says as I laugh.
"And thanks to me I got everyone in a group, so if we think about it I'm the reason you're alive Cece." Jude says as I make a face and mom gives him a look.
"No I don't think that's quite how it worked out, thanks though for that intellectual thought." Mom says as Jude shrugs.
"It was so me." He mouths to me as I shake my head with a smile.
"I believe mom over you, sorry." I say to Jude as he shakes his head.
"You grew up to be sassy, I used to be your favorite person once upon a time." Jude says as Isabelle scoffs.
"And now it's me, she luckily got out of that one." She says as I laugh.
"She dodged a bullet." Charlotte laughs as Jude scoots away from her, before crossing his arms.
"There's something else I wanted to talk about too actually." I say as I sit up fully. "To be fair I was only going to talk to mom, Charlotte and Isabelle about it, but since they found out about the articles I feel like it's fair."
"Oh so it's some girl gossip?" Jude asks as I shrug, "is it about a boy?" He fake gasps as I nod slightly.
"So this will be fun." Mom jokes as dad crosses his arms, "but carry on Cece."
"You all know of him at least, like he plays football." I say.
"Who is it?" Gavi asks as I click my tongue.
"Enzo." I say quietly as Jude gives me a look.
"Real Madrid Enzo?" He asks as I nod, "I remember he was my mascot one time, that's so weird to think about." He adds.
"You're talking to a Real Madrid boy? Forbidden love, how cute." Isabelle says as I laugh.
"I kind of want to leave you guys to talk about it, I may pass on this one." Dad says as he stands up.
"Pedri come on." Mom says as he shakes his head, beginning to walk out of the living room.
"It's girl talk, let's go." He says as Jude and Gavi get up, following him.
"Pedri." She says again as he flashes her a smile before the 3 of them walk out back, "asshole." She mumbles as I try not to laugh.
"They're not cut out for girl talk." Charlotte shrugs as I nod.
"If Pablo was here he'd be all over it, he loves girl talk." Isabelle says as mom stands up.
"I'll be back, I need to talk to him, this is ridiculous." She says as she goes to the backdoor.
"Is she actually mad that he left?" I ask as I look through the glass door at them talking.
"Maybe just because you felt comfortable to tell us about him, and he left when you were saying it. But to be fair I feel like it would be weird to hear your daughter talking about a boy, especially since you're at that age." Isabelle says as I nod slightly.
"Okay that makes sense, I don't want her to be mad at him about it though, because maybe I shouldn't have said anything about it." I sigh as Charlotte shakes her head.
"Not your fault, Ce. It's good you feel comfortable saying something about it in general, he's just not used to any of you talking about relationships, but it was bound to happen because you're 17 now." Charlotte says.
"And plus you're the oldest so he hasn't had to deal with it yet." Isabelle adds.
"Exactly." Charlotte nods as I cross my arms, looking at the back door again as mom is coming inside.
"I'm sending them to pick up the twins and Rio in a little bit, I can't deal with them right now." She mumbles as she comes over, sitting next to Charlotte as I spin my ring around my finger.
"Are you mad at dad?" I question as she shakes her head.
"No, I'm not mad, annoyed slightly, but not mad." She says as she gives me a look, "but it's only because he left when you were talking about something we haven't really had the chance to talk about yet with you because you've never talked about it."
"I just feel like there's certain things I can talk to you about versus him, but I feel like that's bad to say." I say as she shrugs.
"That's not that uncommon, I'd talk to my mom about more personal things than my dad, and with Pedri you can relate to him with football so that's a big topic to talk about." She insists as I sigh, feeling my phone buzz as I look at it, a text from Nadia.
Nadia
They're doing a review of our Spain
match yesterday if you want to watch,
normal channel it's on
Celia
Okay thanks for letting me know
"Can you turn on the match review from yesterday? I need to get water." I say as I get off the couch, going into the kitchen as I fill up my water bottle. As I'm getting ice I look into the living room at the tv as they're playing highlights from our 3-1 win against Switzerland, "turn it up." I say as the tv gets turned up a few notches.
Dad walks back in the house with Jude and Gavi and they go back sitting in their original spots. "Match review, how fun." Jude says as I laugh.
"They're talking about Nadia right now." Charlotte says as I go back in the living room, sitting down next to Isabelle as I pull my knees up to my chest.
"Nadia Santos is in great form right now, she won player of the match with a goal and assist at just 18 years old, one of the players everyone has been keeping a close eye on with the Spain team and with her club team at Barcelona." One of the broadcasters says as they show her goal and assist.
"See, no one's saying anything bad about her, articles mean nothing." Isabelle says as I nod.
"Now looking at the other young player in the squad, Celia González Cruz has been under performing in recent matches, which resulted in getting an early substitution at the match." Another broadcaster says as mom reaches for the remote and I shake my head.
"It's fine, I want to hear it." I say quietly as she gives me a look and I divert my attention back to the tv.
"I don't think she should have started the match, although they won she got a poor rating and that's becoming more clear each time she steps onto the pitch." One says as I begin playing with my thumbs.
"Don't even listen to this guy, he's literally known for being an asshole when it comes to match reviews." Gavi says as Isabelle rubs my shoulder and I nod slightly.
"She's 17 years old though, she's young and will make mistakes, but she's in form with her club team at Barcelona." One says as I bite the inside of my cheek.
At least one is being nice about it.
"If she can't perform in an international match, it should start to raise questions about whether she's good enough to be playing at a high level. It's her first national senior team call up and I don't think she deserves it based on her first 2 performances with the team." The same guy says as Charlotte scoffs.
"I'm sorry, this is bullshit." She says as I keep my attention focused on the screen.
"She's 17, she has a lot to learn when it comes to the national team and working with the more experienced players, but I don't think these 2 performances can be a deciding factor on whether she deserves it or not. She's a talented player and she's proved that, which is why she got the call up in the first place." The same one says that was nice before.
"She made a senior team debut with the Barcelona Femení squad at just 15 years old, I think that explains why she was pulled up for these matches. In the first 2 seasons she's been at Barcelona she's had a total of 27 assists and 12 goals, so she's actively opening up goal scoring opportunities and working the midfield." One that doesn't talk much says as Isabelle pats my leg and I smile slightly.
"As the daughter of Pedri you'd expect better performances as a whole, not this back and forth between in and out of form all season long like she's been having this year. It has media raising questions about whether she deserves to be playing at a high level, or if it was some elaborate plan to carry on a legacy of her father."
I look at my mom and dad as their arms are crossed, staring at the tv as I frown slightly.
"Quite frankly she's a result of nepotism within the Barcelona squad because of her father and her uncles so to speak. She's too young to be playing at this level because she has good matches but immediately falls into poor performances shortly after that. Celia is not at the level people make her out to be, but they continue to praise poor performances because of who she's related to. She can not get to the level her father was ever at and it's a matter of time until that becomes more apparent."
"Turn it off." I mumble as it's immediately turned off.
"He says shit to just say it, I don't think he's ever been nice for more than 2 minutes at a time." Jude says as I shake my head.
"It's okay, what he was saying is what I've been reading about anyways, so it at least proves other people think that." I mumble with a shrug.
"No, he can make anyone sound like garbage and that's what he does. He plays devils advocate during these types of reviews, it's what he's paid to do, don't take it to heart." Dad says as I lean my head against the couch.
"I am a result of nepotism though, there's no denying that, so maybe I shouldn't have done football so I could've avoided this all together." I say quietly.
"Don't say that." Mom says as I shake my head.
"Emilio, Mila and Rio were all smart for not playing football, because they'll at least not see stuff about them like this." I say as I get up off the couch.
"Cece." Dad says quietly as I shake my head.
"I'm going to my room." I mumble as I go upstairs, pulling out my phone, seeing a text from a few of my teammates in our groupchat asking if I'm okay after what was just said about me.
I quickly respond and toss my phone on my bed as I close my door behind me, my eyes beginning to water as I take a deep breath, leaning against the door. "Celia, can I come in?" Dad asks as he knocks on the door and I wipe my eyes quickly as I open the door. "Come here." He mumbles as he immediately gives me a hug.
"What do I do about it? I have a match in 3 days and now I'm scared I won't be good because of what they're saying." I say as he rubs my back.
"Prove them wrong, that's what you can do. Media feeds off of one bad performance and they keep using that as a reason, and in this case it's you not deserving to play at a high level." He says as I pull away from the hug.
"If I wasn't your daughter would I deserve it?" I ask as he nods.
"No doubt in my mind that you would because Celia, you've earned this for yourself, you're the reason you were pulled up a few years when you were 9 years old, because you were good enough, and you still are." He says as he wipes my cheek with his thumb.
"Thank you." I mumble as I give him another hug. "For everything." I add quietly.