“We might as well start,” Ricardo said as he picked up a box with a slight bit of difficulty and began walking towards the building.
“Ok let’s go!” I said.
“Ok,” Elena said as she attempted to pick up a box but couldn’t manage.
“These things are so heavy!” she said.
“Ok let’s carry it together,” I said.
“Good idea. Ok, 1,2,3!” she said as we both lifted the box. It was quite heavy but we slowly began to make our way to the building.
“This is not fun,” Elena said as we walked.
“I know!” I said.
As we got into the building we looked around. Everything we saw was Barca related. A lot of the building was made out of glass. It was quite impressive.
“Guys this way,” Ricardosaid as he came from a passage, “You two should have left this to me. The boxes are heavy,” he said concerned.
“It’s ok,” I said but he could see Elena and I were both struggling. We both walked sideways carrying the box until we finally got to the storage room and placed the box on the floor.
“That. Was. Tiring, but wow,” Elena said as she looked around. I looked as well. It was nothing like the storage rooms you would see on the movies. There were tons of rails and cupboards. The walls had one red and blur stripe with the Barca emblem going all around. The floor was smooth and had a large barca emblem as well.
“This looks like a big locker room,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s really nice,” Elena said.
Just then Ricardo came in with another box.
“How about you guys start with the inventory while I bring the boxes,” Ricardo said.
“No problem,” Elena said gladly. We both would rather do that then carry the boxes again. We opened the first box. It contained towels. We both began filling in the forms.
“This is really stupid! I mean what is so wrong with saying that the quantity is just times 100?” she asked annoyed.
“I know! Alexandra is so annoying!” I said.
Just then we heard Ricardo coming in.
“Look who I found,” he said as Nate and Matt walked in carrying boxes behind him.
“Wow, you guys are fast,” Elena said.
“Of course, we are,” Matt said. I rolled my eyes.
“So Jade, what are you guys doing here?” Nate asked me.
“I’m going to tell you and you are not going to believe me,” I said.
“Depends, why are you here?” he asked. I sighed; he was once again going to think I’m crazy.
“I’m here to return Messi’s jacket,” I said. Nate just looked at me.
“I’m not going to even question it this time. Matt and I just feel we owe Ricardo help,” he said as he went to go fetch the other boxes.
When the boys had finally brought all the boxes we were all doing inventory. The time went by quickly as we all plugged in our iPods to the built in speakers and sang along to some of the songs. Before we knew it, it was already 19:00.
“It’s 7 o’clock already?” Elena said as she glanced at her watch.
“Perfect!” I said as I finished the last inventory form.
“I owe all of you. I don’t know what time I would have finished if I had to do this all alone,” Ricardo said.
“Don’t be silly, we all owed you something,” Elena said.
“Yeah and I don’t even think this covers what you have done for us,” I said.
“Yeah, we owe you much more,” Matt said.
Just then we heard Alexander’s voice coming from the corridor.
“How far are you Ricardo?” we heard him say from outside the door. When he came in the doorway he stared at all of us but more at Nate and Matt, confused.
“I am done Alex,” Ricardo said with a smug smile as he handed the box full of inventory papers to him.
“Well, thanks,” Alexander sneered clearly unhappy with the fact that Ricardo had finished so early.
“Well you all need to leave now,” he said.
“What?” I said. We couldn’t leave; I still had to give Messi his jacket.
“Well there is nothing left for you to do here, so I suggest you all leave,” he said sternly.
“We would like to look around-“Elena began to say.
“This is not a tour for fans, now leave or I’ll call security,” Alexander said and with that he left.
“I really want to punch that guy,” Matt said.
“Now what?!” I said to Elena.
“I know! We were so close!” she said.
“Hey, I’m not leaving! We have to give him his jacket,” I said.
“Jade he’ll call security,” Nate said.
“So what will they carry me out?” I said.
“I would not put it past him,” Ricardo said.
I sighed. How could I be so close and yet so far? I thought we would be able to wait for the players to finish their training but what was I thinking? There was no way Alexander would let us stay. We all began to walk through the building annoyed and at a slow pace. As we were walking we heard people behind us speaking Spanish. We turned to see Pique walking slowly with a coach by his side. He seemed to be limping slightly and it seemed he was injured. Matt and Nate began to freak out.
“What the hell! That’s Pique!” Matt screamed as he pointed.
Pique looked up and he saw Elena and me.
“You two!” he said with a smile as he began to walk towards us.
Matt, Nate and Ricardo all looked at Elena and me in shock. Elena and I smiled at him.
“What are you all doing here?” he asked.
“Well we had some work to do,” Elena said but I knew in her mind she wanted to say “in your face” to Matt.
“But more importantly, we came to return Messi’s jacket,” I said.
“Oh yes! I remember! With the coffee! Well Leo is still training and I’m slightly injured so you will have to wait a while,” Pique said.
“What happened?” Elena asked concerned, “By the way that you are limping you might have strained a muscle. You should not be out for two long. I’d guess a week or two max.”
The assistant coach looked up at Elena.
“Very impressive,” he said approvingly as Elena smiled.
“She is studying medicine you see,” Pique said to the coach with a smile as we all started at him in shock. He remembered what we told him? Just then we heard Alexander from the other side.
“I told you all to get- ,” he said in an angry tone but immediately stopped when he saw Pique.
“I am so sorry these people have disturbed you,” he said to Pique. Pique laughed.
“No no, they are all my amigos! They were just asking about my leg,” he said happily. Right now all of us including Alex were in shock. Alex for the fact that Pique has said we are his friends. Elena and I because we could not believe he was saving all of us and that he included Matt, Nate and Ricardo as his “amigos.” Then the boys themselves for what was actually happening.
Alexander was clearly at a loss for words and shot Elena and I a death glare.
“You could all go wait by the stands until Leo finishes but unfortunately I cannot walk there to tell them you are allowed there,” Pique said apologetically but then his eyes lit up. He began speaking rapid Spanish to the assistant coach. He then looked up at us and smiled.
“I have to go to the medical examination room but Lorenzo agreed to come back and take you all to the training pitch!” Pique said.
“Gracias! We all hope you get better!” I said.
“No problema and I will be better in no time!” he said as he began to walk towards the medical room.
The minute he left Alexander looked at Elena and I.
“How the hell do you know him?” he asked in an angry tone.
“Like he said we’re friends,” Elena said smoothly.
“You think this is funny?” Alexander asked.
“Well it kinda is,” I said with a smile, “I mean you can’t kick us out if Pique allows us to stay right?”
He stormed off in rage as Elena and I laughed and gave each other a high 5.
“I can’t believe it,” Matt said.
“What? That we were telling the truth the whole time?!” Elena said.
“Yeah, we’re sorry,” Nate said
“It’s ok, as long as we get Messi his jacket!” I said.
So we all waited there for Lorenzo to come back and take us to the pitch.