After school soccer tryouts
Giulia and Luca, who was there for support, entered the school soccer field. They saw an adult male who looked to be the coach and not too far away there were a group of kids. All of them looking to be from multiple different grades.
"Looks like a group of possible teammates," said Giulia, enthusiasm. Her eyes glossed over the group and recognized Guido among them. "Oh, looks like Guido is trying out too." she turned to Luca. "I'm gonna go say 'hi'."
"Okay. I'll just be on the bleachers watching." Luca said with a smile. He saw that Ciccio was also on the bleachers. They sat next to each other.
She waved at him. "Alright!" and then she ran towards the group. Giulia thought up a funny thing to do, She quietly snuck up behind Guido and jump-scared him. "HEY, GUIDO!" she yelled as she grabbed his shoulders.
"AH!" Guido jumped in surprise, his eyes wide at his 'attacker'. "Giulia?! Why'd you do that?!"
Giulia laughed at his reaction. "Haha! Sorry. I couldn't resist."
A couple of the other kids in the group laughed at Giulia's stunt as well, making Guido blush in embarrassment.
Guido tried to play it cool. "Eh, it didn't scare me that much."
"Heh, if you say so." she said with a grin.
The other kids who laughed went back to their own conversions.
"So… you came." Guido started awkwardly.
"Well, I said I would."
"That you did." he lightly chuckled.
Giulia didn't get it when Guido would act weirdly around her at times when they were alone. But she never questioned it aloud. She didn't want Guido to get embarrassed over his slight awkwardness.
The group then heard a whistle blow. The coach stepped in front of the group.
"My name is Coach Ricci. First, let's do a roll call." He pulled up the sign-up sheet.
He called out everyone's surnames and they all confirmed to be there. Then the coach had them do some warm-ups to test their athleticism, such as how far they could run in 12 minutes. Giulia was the fastest which Guido saw coming due to how fast she ran the day before. Luca's cheering was heard in the distance over her amazing speed.
Next, Coach Ricci had them do soccer drills which were dibbling, defending, goalkeeping, set pieces, and passing. He paired everyone up for passing.
Giulia got paired up with another girl who had fair skin, a perky nose and wavy dirty blonde hair tied into a ponytail.
Giulia didn't get to interact with her since the coach seemed to have wanted to get a move on so they started passing the ball to each other. The girl had incredible force in her passing, which impressed Giulia.
Soon, tryouts were over. Giulia and Guido made the team. Giulia was ecstatic.
"Wooo! Yes! We made it!" Giulia cheered, jumping up and down.
"Well, I knew you would since you're super fast." Guido added.
"Well, hey, your defending was far out." Giulia complemented. Giulia looked over at the girl who was packing her things away. "Did you see that girl's passing? Her force was powerful to the max! I'm gonna go congratulate her on making the team too. Gotta mingle with the rest of the team. See ya tomorrow, Guido!"
"Oh, yeah. Alright, bye, Giulia." He waved.
Giulia approached the girl. She looked to be almost done with packing her things into her backpack.
"Ciao!" Giulia greeted.
Giulia's abrupt greeting surprised the girl a bit but she recognized Giulia as her passing partner and politely smiled.
"Ciao..." The girl replied.
"I just wanted to say congrats on making the team. Your passing was amazing. How'd you learn to kick like that?" Giulia asked.
The girl smiled. "Oh, well, always be training, ya know? Thanks though."
Giulia had a better look at the girl now that she was up close to her. She looked to be around her age but Giulia noticed her body to be slightly more developed than hers so the girl was probably in a grade higher. The girl was very pretty, Giulia thought to herself.
"You must train a lot then. I mean, look at you, you're like a brick house." Giulia said.
The girl's face turned crimson. "Oh, um, thank you." she laughed awkwardly, her hands fiddling with the fabric of her shirt. She continued the conversion. "But, what about you ? You're so fast! You definitely deserve your place on the team."
"Thanks." Giulia suddenly grabbed the girl's hand and shook it, once again surprising the girl who was wide-eyed looking at their joined hands. "My name is Giulia Marcovaldo. Nice to meet you."
The girl relaxed a bit. "I'm Luna Agostino. Nice to meet you too."
"What grade are you in?"
"I'm in grade 10."
"Ah, I had a feeling. Are you in my multigrade gym class? Third period?" Giulia wasn't sure if Luna had been in the class this whole time and she just never noticed. After all, there were a lot of kids in that class.
"Oh no. I actually don't take gym class this year. I didn't last year either, to be honest." Luna said looking away while rubbing the back of her neck.
"Really? Why not?"
"Uhh.." Luna hadn't expected her to ask. "Well, I just moved to town last year and I thought that there were so many other classes to take that sounded interesting so I wanted to take those instead."
Giulia raised an eyebrow. "So why didn't you take it this year?"
"Same reason." She said quickly.
"Giulia! Ready to go now!?" Luca yelled from the bleachers.
"Yep! I'll be there in a second!" Giulia yelled back.
"Is that your boyfriend?" Luna asked her.
Giulia looked at her with confusion. "Luca?" she pointed to Luca with her thumb. Luna nodded. Giulia then burst out laughing. "HAHAHA! No of course not! We've been friends for like, ever!"
"Oh." Luna replied simply, surprised by Giulia's over-the-top reaction to her mistake.
Giulia wiped a tear from one of her eyes. "Sorry. It's just, I could never picture myself with Luca like that."
Luna chuckled lightly. "I can see that. Sorry I assumed."
"No biggie. Well, I gotta get home. See ya later." Giulia said, walking to Luca.
"Bye."
Giulia caught up with Luca.
"Who's that?" Luca asked.
"That's one of my new soccer teammates, Luna. She's got a wicked pass." Giulia gushed.
"Cool. Congratulations on making the team. Never doubted you for a second." Luca smiled.
Giulia smiled back, putting her arm around him as they walked off the field. "Thanks, Luca."
A week later: After third-period art class
Alberto had no idea Luca was this tough to crack. Whatever he had done must've been pretty awful in Luca's eyes. It had been a full week of Luca ignoring him, not including the week his ignoring started. At first, he thought it would blow over in a few days but boy was he wrong.
The past week had been exhausting. Ever since finally showing up at the base for Bruno, Alberto had been going there more often than he wanted to, having to learn about how the Scorfano line had been keeping their secret for so long. Living in a small town made it easier to be in a gang due to there not being other gangs that could become territorial and cause conflict with theirs. Alberto had heard of that being a thing in bigger cities. He was thankful that that was highly unlikely to be an issue. There were all these rules and social cues that Bruno told him to follow to keep their secret. You had to make 'friends' with a lot of the sea creature haters in the gang as a means to keep your friends close and your enemies closer, you couldn't show any form of weakness, always show that you are the alpha, and every now and then the gang would recruit new members to increase the size of the gang so that they had more people on their side. The kinds of people they would recruit were typically from single-parent, low-income households and most likely had a limited education. Luckily that wasn't up to Alberto...yet. One day it would be, which freaked him out.
But that wasn't the only issue he was facing. As Alberto predicted, he was not doing well in his math class. He was failing. Soon his teacher would be asking questions and try to do something about it. He wasn't looking forward to that because then it would be public knowledge that he was an idiota on something and Alberto hated being ridiculed on things.
All that was bad enough. He didn't need this from Luca right now. Alberto was especially frustrated that the most he got out of him were a few sentences and Luca had continued with the whole 'Sir' thing in the condescending tone, which he hated most of all. He needed answers on whatever he did now.
Alberto had to think fast. He had gotten in the hall before Luca. He looked around for where they could talk in private. His eyes settled on the darkroom for photography a few doors down. No one would be in there right now.
Just then, Luca walked out of the classroom. Alberto grabbed Luca by the collar of Luca's shirt and started to pull him into the darkroom.
"Hey! What are you doing!?" Luca yelled.
Alberto didn't reply. He reached the darkroom door, practically threw Luca into the room, Luca almost falling, and he locked the door behind him.
Luca looked at his surroundings. He realized where he was. Then he looked at Alberto who was coming towards him, looking angry with him. The room's red lighting made Alberto look more intimidating than he already was, making Luca feel small and frightened.
"W-what are we doing in here?" Luca asked, backing away slowly.
Alberto noticed his nervous tone. He didn't mean to scare Luca but finding out what he did wrong was more of a priority in the moment.
"I want answers," Alberto demanded. "I want to know why the hell you've been basically pretending I don't exist. I hate being ignored without reason!"
That last statement ticked Luca off, making him less afraid and instead, angry.
"This again? Stop acting dumb!" Luca yelled back. "You know what you did and you won't even apologize to me or Giulia."
Alberto had a confused look on his face. "What does she have to do with this?"
Luca was tired of playing this game. "Ugh, I'm outta here." Luca started to walk out of the room.
"No, wait, we're not done here!" Alberto panicked and grabbed Luca by his arms, forcing him further into the room and closer to the tables with the photography equipment. This took Luca by surprise but he quickly regained his composure.
"Get off me!" Luca yelled
Luca tried to push Alberto away but he wasn't as strong enough. Within the struggle, Alberto had pushed Luca into the room far enough that Luca's body hit the edge of one of the tables that had trays of water on it and made the table tip over forward, making the trays of water fly off the table and splash onto Alberto. A bit of the water had gotten onto Luca as well but thankfully only on his clothes. They both had fallen to the floor in the aftermath of the accident. Luca rubbed his tail bone due to the slight pain of impact it took from the table.
"What the hell is wrong with y-" Luca stopped his sentence when he turned his head to look at Alberto only, there was no boy there but in Alberto's place was what looked to be a sea creature in Alberto's clothing.
Alberto also had landed hard on the floor. His butt had hurt only for a second before he felt the dampness of water on him. He looked down at his hands. When he saw he wasn't looking at human hands and instead was looking at hands with scales and claws, his heart felt like it had come to a stop and he almost forgot how to breathe. He looked at Luca who looked flabbergasted. How could he have blown his secret this quickly, after everything?
Luca couldn't believe his eyes. He had even forgotten what they were even fighting about he was so shocked. "You're a…" Luca started to get up off the ground slowly, not taking his eyes off of Alberto.
Alberto screamed internally as he thought: 'He's going to try to run and get away with knowing everything!'. Alberto lunged at Luca. If he caught Luca before he ran he may be able to salvage the damage by making Luca swear to secrecy.
Luca jumped at the sudden movement but didn't try to run. Alberto wrapped his tail around Luca, making it so he couldn't move. His captor's face came closer to him, letting Luca see Alberto's sea creature features up close. Luca noticed his scales almost shimmering in the dim red light. 'How was that possible?' He thought. Realizing their position, Luca's heart started beating fast with how close Alberto was.
"So, y'know my secret now." Alberto said threateningly, almost in a whisper.
A chill ran down Luca's back hearing his tone of voice. Alberto's sea creature green eyes were glowing in the darkness.
"S-sir-"
"Stop calling me that!" Alberto ordered raising his voice as his tail shook Luca a bit in its grasp.
Luca flinched. "Okay! Okay! I'll stop…"
Alberto's tail squeezed Luca a little tighter. "My name is Alberto. Get it right."
"Okay, I will, just-"
"Say it!"
"Alberto!" Luca said quickly.
"That's better." Though Luca said it fast, his name still sounded adorable on Luca's lips like he imagined it would. Alberto was enjoying the little power trip he was having with Luca, seeing his cute flustered face. But now he had to get serious. "Now, about my secret…"
Luca closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. He tried to change his form. He had practiced this for a while now. He had finally met another sea creature. He wanted to show himself. Luca wasn't afraid. Before Alberto could continue, Luca opened his eyes which were now glowing brightly in the darkness as well.
"Santa Maria…" Alberto said, stunned. His tail slowly loosened around Luca.
A few moments ago
Giulia had just left the shower room and was now on her way to fourth period. She was about to meet up with Luna, which had become a usual thing within recent days.
A few days after their first meeting, Giulia and Luna had realized that their routines caused them to meet up on the way to their classes. They enjoyed walking to their classes together until they had to go their separate ways to go to their designated classes. Luna got to be around for when Giulia would meet up with Luca so they could walk to their History class together. Luca got pretty acquainted with Luna in their hallway meet-ups. They enjoyed each other's company as well.
When the two girls reached Luca's art class they saw that Luca was nowhere to be found.
"That's weird. Luca is always here." Said Giulia.
"Hmm...maybe he went on ahead this time." Luna supposed.
"I guess so," Giulia replied, looking bummed out. "I guess I'll see him in class then." Suddenly she had the urge to go to the bathroom, luckily a bathroom wasn't too far away. Giulia looked at a clock that was on the wall. She had time. "I'm just gonna go to the bathroom."
"Alright. I'll wait for you." Luna said, smiling.
Giulia smiled back. "Well, if you insist." Then she ran off toward the bathroom.
Luna leaned against the wall, waiting. The hall had quieted down a bit now that break was coming to an end. Luna then heard voices coming from a door down from her. She saw that the voices were coming from the darkroom for photography.
Luna wasn't known to eavesdrop but she tended to be curious sometimes. She peeked through the rectangular door window. Her eyes widened when she saw a sea creature who had his tail wrapped around Luca. So many things, questions and realizations went through Luna's head at that moment. She snapped herself out of her shock and was about to open the door and intervene. Her hand had barely touched the doorknob when she then saw Luca's eyes start to glow in the dark. Luca was one too?
Luna backed away from the door, unsure what to do. Should she barge in and try to save Luca anyway? Was he even in any danger? Did Giulia know about Luca being a sea creature? Did she not know? She had been taught by her parents to believe sea creatures wouldn't be okay with humans knowing about them. Taught to believe it was dangerous, though she didn't agree with that...she never did...
Suddenly Luna was snapped out of her thoughts when Giulia left the bathroom coming towards her. In case Giulia didn't know about Luca's secret, Luna had to make sure she didn't see what she saw. She quickly ran to Giulia and turned her around by her shoulders, pushing her in the other direction.
"Hey, I know a shortcut to your history class! Let me show you!" Luna insisted.
Giulia looked confused but didn't fight back and went along with her.
(A/N) If you thought Alberto was being too rough with Luca just remember that he was raised by someone like Bruno. It should come as no surprise that this is how he'd act in a confrontation that was going south real fast. Alberto was also frustrated with how Luca had been acting towards him. Alberto wouldn't have gotten handsy with him at all if Luca heard him out. No major harm came to Luca.
Now I'm not 100% sure unisex soccer teams were a thing in the 70s. When I searched it I got no answers which was frustrating. But, I've been inaccurate with Italian schools in this story already and my dear readers don't seem to care about my inaccuracies far so, if I'm wrong, just go with it. Also, do I know anything about the rules of soccer aside from no touching the ball with your hands? Nope! All I know is what I researched about it to write this chapter.
I'm sure that another inaccuracy is something with the darkroom being a thing but I hope you know what I'm talking about with the 'trays of water'. Just look up what a darkroom for photography looks like and you'll see what I mean.
I don't usually write for original characters (I'm referring to Luna) often but I will try my very best with her and make her enjoyable for you to read whenever she is in a chapter. I'm excited to write for her. I have many ideas for her. I really like the design that numjumo and I came up with together. Hope you readers do too.
Hope you don't mind the random time skip in this chapter. I wanted some time to pass. I hope it didn't come across as too messy.
Oh yeah, if you don't know what looking like a "Brick house" means it's 70's slang for a person whose body looks well built. It's a complment.