Chapter 2
People made way of the five girls walking through the mall towards Giovanni's Pizza Place. The girls knew it so well that it had almost become a second home for them in Russia.
"Hi, Papa Giovanni!" they all called out.
"Oh, hello girls. Would you like to try my new Italian foccaccia?"
"All right, two please," said Sapphire. "How much will that be?"
"It's on the house!" said Papa Giovanni, as he had so many times before.
The girls heard him going back into the storeroom. "Start cooking the dough. NO! Not like that!" they heard him shout to his assistants.
He came back to the counter. "Ah, when will they learn?"
The girls laughed and made their way over to a vacant table. As they waited for the food to arrive, Danielle, Nikita, and Marianna began to flirt with four flustered boys on the table opposite them.
After a while the foccaccias arrived and Rhiannan was the first to reach over and grab a slice. "Hmmmm" she sighed as she bit down on the foccacia. "These are GREAT, Papa Giovanni!" She paused, savouring the spicy Italian flavour.
The other girls quickly grabbed a slice, before Rhiannan had a chance to eat them. Marianna, Nikita, and Danielle went over to the boys' table. The boys were obviously uncomfortable in the presence of the girls whose pictures they all had up on their bedroom walls.
Sapphire went over to her friends and said, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, gentlemen, we were just about to leave."
"Oh, come on Saph, just five more minutes?" said the three girls.
"No, we're leaving."
Sapphire stormed out of the restaurant, and the others followed, with Rhiannan running back to get the last few pieces of foccacia.
"Ciao, bella!" called out Papa Giovanni.
"Yeah, bye Mister G!" Rhiannan yelled back.
Back in their hotel rooms, Nikita asked Sapphire, "Why were you so angry at us for just having some fun?"
"For a start, those boys were terrified! Didn't you see the looks on their faces? We're famous soccer players, and we shouldn't take advantage of normal people!"
Rhiannan laughed. "But it's FUN!" she said.
"It may be, Rhi! But that belt around your waist, around all of our waists, is a symbol which commands respect. We have to be SERIOUS!" Sapphire paused and looked around at her friends. "Do you want me to tell father that you don't deserve to be on the team? I'm sure he could find four suitable candidates to replace you."
Marianna glared at Sapphire. "You wouldn't dare! Would you?"
Danielle said pleadingly, "Please Saph, don't tell the boss! Or your father! Please?"
Sapphire laughed. "Of course, I won't I was just threatening you so that you wouldn't act all silly in the future!"
Nikita groaned and threw a pillow at Sapphire. "Don't you ever scare us like that again! Promise us?"
"Yeah, I suppose that that was sort of mean of me. Imagine having that ring of our belts ripped off!" Sapphire shuddered. "Painful!"