Isabella

It's a new day, a new chance, a new mood.

A good mood.

Who would have thought silent tears could help you for a while?

Not me.

I stepped out of the bed. I looked at the time and saw it was already nine thirty so I grabbed really fast some clothes and did them on. As usual, it was a legging with a hoodie from a brother.

This time it was Riccardo. Should I..?

I mean he hasn't been mean...

But he also... ugh life's a pain in the ass, I'm telling you.

I decided to just wear it because the only asshole in this house is Rodrigo. I walked downstairs and everyone was already at the table chatting with each other. I wasn't in the mood to sit down in my seat so I went to grandpa and without warning him I sat on his lap.

"Good morning grandpa." I smiled and he returned it.

"Good morning princess, how did you sleep?"

"I slept well, you?"

"I slept good. You hungry?"

"You tend to forget I'm related to those pigs, I'm always hungry." I chuckled playfully what made some of my brothers look at me.

"Isabella! Good morning, dear." Sofia said once she noticed me." This made everyone look at me and you could hear my inner voice saying 'awwkkwwwarrrdddd'

"Good morning aunt Sofia." I smiled softly. Lorenzo sensed my discomfort and spoke to me.

"Emilio told me you wanted to go to the beach today? Make sure to stay with your brothers cariño." He said stern and I nodded.

"Also, coach called this morning. The match of the boys won't take place this Friday evening."

"What! No! The family would come and watch! It's the first one of the fucking year dammit." Rodrigo said mad.

"Language Rodrigo, your sister is here." Matteo said with narrowed eyes.

"But-"

"No buts." Emilio said and I and Lorenzo locked eyes. I gave him an evil smile.

"Cariño don't-"

"I LIKE BIG BUTTS AND I CAN NOT LIE. YOU OTHER BROTHERS CAN'T DENY. WHEN A GIRL WALKS IN WITH AN ITTH BITTY WAIST AND A ROUND THING IN YOUR- " Matteo placed his hand on my mouth, trying to stop me from singing baby got back from Sir Mix-a-Lot

"Mhhmhh mhm mhm mhhmhhm mmhm." I sang further and I heard multiple laughs around the room.

"That was genius!" Luca and Santiago laughed.

"My sister is hilarious." Cameron and Cayden said between their chuckles.

I even saw Rocco, Carlos and Bruno smile.

Hold the fuck up-

"Am I imagining this or are they capable of smiling..." I pointed at the three smiling grumpies with a shocked face.

As soon as everyone looked at them their smiled turned into a neutral look.

"You're imagining." Carlos huffed but I knew what I saw.

"You can not hide from me grumpies." I said in a klaus Mikaelson voice.

You know the -you can not hide from me Rebekah- voice. what made Emilio and Matteo chuckle.

"Well at least we're not imagining things." Bruno said annoyed.

"You little pieces of-" Lorenzo gave me a very very very scaring glare what made me gulp.

"-buttercup...?" I said unsure and I swear I saw a little smile on Lorenzo's face.

That made grandpa, Luigi and Romolo chuckle.

"Little pieces of buttercup? That's the best you could do?" Rocco laughed.

"Well at least I can do something." I bit back what made him glare at me and my other brothers screaming 'burrnnnnn' and 'owwwwww'

"Alright enough before someone is about to die." Angelina said shaking her head while smiling.

"I wonder who that is." Rocco whispered.

I rolled my eyes and ignored him.

"Nice comeback princess, although the buttercup thing was very... entertained." Grandpa chuckled in my ear. I chuckled with him and gave him a small smile.

"So as I was saying, the game is off, but-" My eyes shot up and I smile made its way to my face. "-don't you dare Bella." Lorenzo said playfully.

"Party pooper." I whispered but grandpa heard it and chuckled lightly.

"Because of the opponent backed out, Isabella's team will play a match."

"But that's tonight!" I said panicked and raised from grandpa's lap.

"That's why coach asked if you could come two hours earlier for training." Lorenzo said with a calm voice.

"My first match is tonight and I'm not even prepared." I was freaking out. "Oh my god, does that means the whole family is coming to watch me?" Holy shit, no pressure.

"Yes. You'll be fine Isabella. Even if you don't win we'll be proud of you." Vito -the same age as Lorenzo- smiled at me.

"He's right. We're already so proud of you, nothing can change that. We will be there at your first match to be by your side and support you." Julio gave me a soft smile and I was shocked to say my three oldest brothers smiled at me in the passed two minutes.

"Well I guess going to the beach will be for another day then." Emilio sighed.

"What, why?" I said, disappointment clearly in my voice.

"I have to work until one pm and you have to be at school at three pm. After you went to the sea, you need to shower and the ride to it and back are already an hour and fifteen minutes with the trafic these days." Emilio said with a guilty face.

"Well can't someone else above eighteen company them?" Romolo asked, seeing my sad face.

"No, even how much I wanted to go, this is something between me and Emilio. Yes, others can come with us but I would never do it without Lio. So if one of us can't make it, I'm not going." Emilio's eyes shot up.

"Loca, you don't have to do that."

"I won't go if you're not there teaching me surfing, Lio. End of discussion." I said with a glare and he smiled playfully but kept his mouth.

"That's suppose to be a glare? It's cuter then puppy eyes from a puppy." Sergio cooed what made me glare at him even more than before.

"Stop! I'm going to die from cuteness!" He said dramatically. Typical Sergio-Matteo. I sighed and turned to Lorenzo

"What am I suppose to do until one pm then?" I asked Lorenzo.

"You could make cookies with me?" Grandma said.

"YES! I would love that." I said as excited as a four year old what made everyone chuckle and my aunts and grandma aw.

"I also want a rematch on that game."Riccardo smiled playfully. He meant the game I won at the plane when Emilio let me win.

Yeah, that was a pretty amazing memory...

"Sure, but Riccardo, when are we painting? I've been dying to learn from you." I almost whined at him what made him chuckle.

"How about tomorrow after your day with your aunts?" He ruffled my hair and I punched him playfully back.

"Sounds good." I smiled.

"Wait when is our Isabella-bonding-time?" Luigi said with sad eyes.

"Yeah! Not fair." Grandpa said, half mad half sad.

"For god sake we'll just kidnap her." Romolo rolled his eyes and I couldn't hold back my laughter as I was struggling to breath between the laughs.

"I promise we'll spend time but for today I'm hanging with grandma, my brothers, and playing soccer." I said after getting my breath. I gave them a friendly smile.

"We're totally kidnapping her." Luigi whispered and everyone started to laugh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm almost there! You better watch out lil sis because I'm about to beat-"

"Aaaaannnddd you're dead." I smiled with evil in my eyes at Riccardo.

"That's 12 for me and 0 for you. Damn, what did you say again about a rematch?" I did my victory dance for the 12th time today while Riccardo was still shocked that he lost. Again.

The door of the game room went open and no one better than the four grumpies walked in.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rodrigo asked.

"Dancing." I shrugged.

"Why?" Bruno asked. Something I learnt from Bruno is that he isn't a man of many words.

"Because I've beaten Riccardo twelve times now."

"I LET YOU WIN!"

"Oh, no buddy. You just need to accept that I'm better at this game than you." I smiled confidently.

"Fine, one last match. The one who wins this one wins the whole thing." I rolled my eyes. That's the exact same thing he has been saying for about 7 games now.

"Alright. Whatever you want sugar." I said like I'm talking to a baby. We sat down on the couch and the grumpies sat with us. Carlos and Rocco next to me. Bruno and Rodrigo next to Riccardo.

"Let's do this." Riccardo said determined.

Riccardo pressed the button and the game started.

"Bro to your left. Move faster! She's going to kill you! Dodge, don't attack! No, no other side!" Carlos and Rocco were yelling at Riccardo.

"Bro you're not helping!" He yelled back.

"Well you suck at this game and she's beating your ass." Rodrigo said.

"Damn straight I am." I said while killing Riccardo at the game.

"And that, dear brother, makes it 13 to 0." I chuckled and Riccardo just stared at the screen with wide eyes.

"Okay, you suck at this game man." Carlos said while laughing.

"Oh, yeah? Why don't you beat her then?" He said fake angry

"Fine. Don't return to me crying afterwards Isabella." He said pointing to me.

"Keep it up like that and you're going to return home with a black eye." I glared at him and I swear this dude was laughing at me.

"What are you laughing about?" I said annoyed.

"You're comebacks are good, but you glare is too cute to handle." Carlos chuckled while Rodrigo ruffled my hair.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes but then turned around to face Carlos.

"Did you just called me cute?" I said with the biggest smile I had today.

"Pfff, whatever." I chuckled and pressed the button to play the game against Carlos. Time to beat up the bitch.

"You're going to lose Carlos." I smiled at him.

"We'll see about that." He answered back with a playfull smile.

"Watch out! Dodge, no no on your right! Behind you, fast! Bro you're losing." Rocco said.

"No shit Sherlock!" Carlos yelled back.

"Come on Isabella, kick his ass!" Riccardo was screaming at me what made me chuckle.

"Holy shit. I lost." Carlos said shocked.

"I hate to tell you but, I told you so." I laughed at his shocked face.

"My turn." Rocco said. Oh, yes, Sweet revenge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I won three times of Carlos, six of Rocco, five of Rodrigo, thirteen of Riccardo and two times of Bruno.

No one has beaten me. Probably because I've been training with Emilio.

"Isabella, there are going to be times I will be at work and someone else is going to need to kick there asses on this game. You need to be prepared for your purpose in life." He said that day. Drama king, I know, and I love it.

After gaming with the boys I got up and walked downstairs. I saw grandma and walked up to her.

" 'sup grandma. Can I help you with something please? I'm bored and not in the mood for testosterone." I said dramatically.

She chuckled. "I was just about to bake some cookies, you want to help me with that, dear?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" I said excited. She chuckled as we were walking to the kitchen. She got all the ingredients and started to explain what to do.

"You never done this before?" She asked surprised.

"No, this is my first time baking cookies. But I'm happy I'm doing it with you." I smiled at her.

"Oh, Isabella you're going to make me tear up sweetheart. You and your mother don't have a good relationship, don't you?" She asked with a sad frown.

"Not really, no." I focuseed my eyes on the cookies.

"I wonder what went wrong." She whispered.

Me too grandma, me too.

After a while, the cookies were ready and grandma turned to me.

"I suggest you cover your ears dear." She chuckled. Huh what-

"COOKIES ARE READY!"

Damn, that woman surely can shout.

Multiple footsteps were coming from everywhere. These men are turning into animals when it comes to grandma's cookies.

I took some cookies and hide them so the elder ones could have some too. Grandma nodded at me and gave me a huge smile.

"Dear, can I- can I hug you?" I was shocked she even asked for that. I was used by the guys just doing what they wanted to do without asking questions. I remembered she was waiting for my answer and slowly nodded. She walked to me and gave me a real, warm, grandmothers's hug.

I've never been hugged by my mother so being hugged by an older woman of my family was something special to me.

We heard people coming in the room and broke our hug.

"Can we do that more?" I asked awkward and she laughed.

"Of course dear, that would be amazing." She smiled at me.

"GRANDMA YOU ARE THE BEST!" Riccardo screamed with his mouth full of cookies. Santiago, Cayden and Cameron were too busy filling their mouths with cookies to speak and Luca was filling his hoodie with cookies so he could go back to his movie he was watching with the cookies.

The grumpy Squat came in and they all ran to the cookies. One by one they gave grandmother a kiss and a thank you and I was staring in shock.

"You do have them all wrapped around your finger for your food." I said still in shock. Grandma laughed.

"Honey, I think you have them more wrapped around your finger than I have around mine."

"I'm not sure about that. Not everyone likes me." I said, looking at the grumpies.

"Give them time, dear. They'll come around. And it better be soon or else I will handle them." She said with evil eyes what made me gulp.

Mental note: Stay on the good side of grandma.

I looked back at the plate and my eyes went wide.

"Where is the last cookie?" I said neutral. Too neutral.

"I eat it." Bruno shrugged.

"You- you eat my last cookie?"

"YOU EAT MY LAST COOKIE. OH YOU ASKED FOR IT." I started to run to Bruno and I saw panic go through his eyes before he started running away.

"NO ONE TOUCHES MY LAST COOKIE." I yelled following Bruno through the entire house. I hid behind the door of the living room and a few minutes later, I saw Bruno run in and looking if someone was in here. He let out a small sigh and sat on the couch.

I walked up to him as quiet as I could and when I was behind him he turned around with wide eyes.

Before he could react, I took a pillow and started hitting him.

"You. Will. Never. Eat. My. Last. Cookie. Ever. Agian!" I said. And he started to chuckle but I still was hitting him. I also laughed and we were now just hitting each other with pillows and laughing and smiling.

I actually forgot about the cookie-situation and that I was having a pillow fight with Bruno. Bruno the grump.

Grandma came in the room, probably looking why there was so much noice in here and the minute she steppes in Bruno stopped his pillow and took a step back.

Ass.

"What's going on here?" She asked confused.

"Isabella just being dramatic." He rolled his eyes and I rolled mine.

"Whatever." I said and I saw Bruno open his mouth to say something but nothing came out. He looked kinda- guilty? Whatever dude, shouldn't have done that then.

I jumped on the couch and closed my eyes.

I felt some sit besides me and stroken my hair.

"I could make some more cookies. I know you wanted to try them so bad." Grandma said.

"It's okay grannie, I'll survive. I think." She chuckled.

We stayed like that for some more minutes until Luca walked in and hugged and thanked grandma for the cookies. He sat at the other side of me and picked me up.

Placing me on his lap, he pressed the Netflix button and I leaned in closer to him. I looked around and saw that Bruno already left. What did I expect?

Luca, Cayden, Cameron, Sergio, Vito and Julio all felt like family. Like brothers.

I knew the grumpies would take more time and I'm willing to be patience.

But I won't fight if they're not prepared to do the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright listen up ladies! Tonight our first game and it's going to be big. Everyone that was about to go the the boy's match is coming to ours. Isabella, how's the secret code."

"Perfect, everyone knows it like a mother language."

"Good, fill me in later. Now let's start training."

Training was pretty heavy. It was all about technic and teamwork but we're ready for tonight's game. I have about one hour to hype up my team en fill in coach.

Let's win this game.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After I walked out of coach's office I walked straight to the changing rooms.

"Alright ladies, attention here!" I was standing at the bench in the middle of the room.

"It's our first game with me as your captain and the first game of the Red Dragons what means whatever we do out there tonight is about to make our reputation. So do not hold back. Make your name known in school, show your parents what we can do and most importantly, show yourself who you are. It doesn't matter if we lose tonight. All we have to do is be a team and that's all I can ask for now."

"Listen to each other, help each other, play together. This is a team sport, remember that. Now who are we?"

"Red Dragons!"

"Who are we?"

"Red Dragons!"

"WHO ARE WE?"

"RED DRAGONS!"

" THAT'S IT SHOW THEM WHAT THE RED DRAGONS CAN DO NOW GET ALL OF YOUR ASSES ON THAT FIELD AND MAKE YOURSELF PROUD!"

Everyone started to run out of the lockers with more energy than before.

Let the game begin.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I checked the changing rooms for the last time, looking that everyone got everything they need on the field. I saw Sky's water bottle.

She's going to need that.

I took it and put on my new jersey. Our jerseys were black with a red dragon on the back and your last name in white letters in the middle. I checked the changing rooms for a last time and went off to my team in the hall.

"Sky! Your water bottle." I gave her her water and she nodded.

"Thanks girl." She smiled.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our guest team, Blake's Panthers!"

"Now our home team, their first official match please let it hear for the Red Dragons!"

"Go go go girls! Give it your all!" Coach said and we all started to run to the field. Me first, followed by Victoria and Sky and so on.

Blake's Panthers were already lined up as we entered the field. The audience started to clap for our arival. We ran to the other team and high fived everyone as sign of respect.

Me and their captain shaked hands and walked to the referee.

"Blake's Panthers, head of tails?"

"Tails." She said.

The referee did that thingy with the coin and looked up.

"Head, ball goes to Red Dragons."

I nodded and walked back to my team. I whistled on my thumps and we stood in a cirkle with our arms around each other.

"Ball's ours. Remember training and the code language. Keep your cool and your head in the game. There are a lot of people here but that doesn't matter. It's just us, playing a normal match. And we're going to win it."

"ONE TWO HEY!" we all screamed and took in our positions.

"May the best one win, Isabella." Lara, the other captain said.

"May the best one win." I said and the flute signal signed that the game just started and I passed the ball to Victoria.

She started to run deep and everyone got in action. Laura's defenders ran to Victoria and she passed the ball to me.

I dodged two of them and passed the ball to Brooke. I saw someone ran to Brooke and I blocked her way and ran after Brooke.

She shot the ball to the goal but missed and it went flying back because it bumpers into the pole. As a reflex I took the ball and shot again and that's how our first goal was made.

Brooke ran to me and wrapped her arms around me. The whole crowd went wild and my whole team started to join out hug. We ran back to our position and while doing so, I took a look around the audience.

I saw every member of my family in the front line jumping and clapping.

"THAT'S OUR SISTER YOU DIPSHITS!" Emilio and Matteo screamed and I chuckled. Lorenzo gave them a glare and they laughed awkwardly.

Uncle Luigi and uncle Romolo were smiling and clapping and whistling. Grandpa and grandma held out a huge banner with 'ISABELLA CASTILLO IS MY GRANDCHILD' and then in small letters 'hurt her and I'm getting my rolling pin' and I started to laugh.

Victoria gave me a questioning face and I pointed to the banner. When she narrowed her eyes to read the small letters she started to smile.

"Your family is too cute." She chuckled and we walked back to our positions. I looked back and saw that all the grumpies were texting on their phones and aunt Angelina was glaring at them. She hit Uncle Romolo to get his attention and he looked like a deer caught.

She said something to him and pointed to the grumpy Squat. He said something to them with a serious face. Immediately, they put away their phones and started to chat among the four of them. Aunt Sofia rolled her eyes at them and gave her two sons - Rocco and Carlos- a glare. I chuckled and focused back on the game.

We attacked a few times but never made a goal. The Blake's Panthers never managed to get further than the middle of the field. It was now fifteen minutes break and it was still 1-0 for us.

We all walked to the changing room and splashed water in our faces.

"Nice defence girls. Our attacks are good but we need to be quicker. Isabella try to be more in the front. Sky, Victoria stay closer to her, the rest keep doing what you were doing. You're going an amazing job and I'm so proud. Amazing attack in the beginning, Brooke." Coach smiled and we hugged each other before going back on the field.

The crowd started to clap again when we entered the field.

"Alright girls, don't give up now. Let's finish what we started." They nodded and we went to our positions.

The ball was for the Blake's Panthers and they immediately started to attack but I managed to steal the ball. I immediately started to attack with Brooke and Victoria right behind me. Victoria ran in front of me and I passed the ball and she passed back when three people started to run at her.

I was about to shoot my shot when I was pulled back and landed on my butt with a hard tut a few meters from were I just was standing.

The referee whistled and everyone stopped.

Victoria ran to me and helped me up.

"What just happened?" I asked confused.

"Lara pulled you back from the ball and tried to attack. She pulled you pretty hard, you okay?."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I heard lots of voice scream in anger and I turned around and saw my family.

All the boys except the grumps were trying to climb over the barrior and all the females were stopping them from doing so.

I locked eyes with aunt Sofia and I gave her a thumps up and smiled.

She said something what made everyone look directly at me and I smiled and waved.

I moved my mouth in a 'I'm okay' and I saw that grandpa understood me and calmed everyone down.

No one dares to argue with grandpa and grandma.

What I didn't noticed was that grandma actually had her rolling pin in her hands with an angry expression and my face paled. She wasn't kidding...

The referee pulled out a yellow card and walked up to me.

"You okay? Do I need to let meds check you?"

"No, I'm good."

"Alright, FREE KICK FOR CASTILLO!" The other team started to whine and I rolled my eyes.

You didn't get yeeted by your captain.

Everyone started to move to the goal.

"BARBIE DOLL DOUBLE RED!" I screamed in code language and they all nodded, understanding.

Barbie doll stands for fake, double red stands for double and then the first letter of the next word. In this case double R.

Double R stands for right corner. So Barbie doll double red stands for faking right corner. Everyone will fake they're going for the right corner while I will directly shot in the left corner.

The referee whistled and I started to take a run-up. I shot to the left corner while the keeper jumped to the right because our little trick and the ball was in the goal.

The crowd started to go wild and all my teammates ran up to me and we did a group hug. I parted away and pointed to my family to sign that this one was for them and my aunts went crazy. I chuckled and turned around.

Coach was screaming and clapping and smiling. She did the thumps up to everyone and we all smiled. We still had twenty minutes over and we only defended most of the time and attacked four times but without making a goal.

I saw an opening when the other team had the ball and took it. I ran up and got the ball and ran forward. The crowd started to go wild and Sky followed me closely. I dodged all the defenders without any help and was now in the perfect stand to make a goal.

Instead of making a third goal for myself I passed to Sky and she panicked.

"SKY SHOOT NOW!" I yelled and she got out of her state of shock and scored our third goal. She ran to me and hugged me. We fell to the ground and the other joined as well. When we parted she turned to me.

"Thanks, Isabella." She smiled and I nodded. We hugged shortly and the referee whistled, signing the game was over and we did another group hug.

Coach ran up to us and joined in.

"Never in a million years did I thought we would win our first game by 3-0. Amazing game girls!"

We broke the hug and shaked hands with the other team. I hesitated with Lara but did it anyway. After that everyone's friends and family ran on the field and hugged their friend/daughter.

I turned around and I was pushed into a huge group hug and I knew it was my family.

"Are you okay, any pain?" Matteo and Sergio asked while checking me up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." I chuckled.

"That last goal was amazing Isabella! I'm proud you passed it to the other girl." Emilio said, smiling at me.

"You were amazing out there! Absolutely amazing!" Aunt Sofia said.

"I don't understand a thing of this game but you were a-ma-zing!" Aunt Angelina said and I chuckled.

"You sure you okay? Do I need to slap some sense into that girl?" Grandma said serious while waving her rolling pin around.

"No, no, we're good." I laughed nervously and grandpa chuckled.

"You were amazing Princess." He kissed my forehead.

"He's right, I'm impressed little one." Romolo said while ruffling my hair.

"Everything everyone already said." Luigi laughed and I laughed too.

"I saw you had your own jersey, I didn't think you would get it this soon." Riccardo said and turned me around so he could see our family name on it.

"I might have made sure of that." Lorenzo chuckled. "You would be surprised how fast things can arrive with some extra money." He chuckled.

"Thank you." I kissed his cheek and he lifted me up and placed me on his hip.

"I want a jersey like that." Cayden whined.

"Yeah, me too. We should be ashamed if we would go to her next game without a jersey with her number!" Santiago said seriously and I chuckled.

"I see what I can do but right now I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry." Cameron pointed out.

"So are you." I chuckled.

"Fair point." He shrugged and everyone laughed. Well everyone except the grumpies. They were texting on their phones. Again.

"What did you guys think of the game?" I asked. They were still family and I searched support and love in them. Even if they're grumpies.

"What game?" Rodrigo looked up confused.

Aunt Sofia and aunt Angelina saw me looking at them with a sort of sad expression.

"Alright, that's it!" They said what made the four musketeers look up in confusion.

Things were about to go down.

Because I swear I saw steam coming out of Sofia's, Angelina's and Lorenzo's ears.

Deadly combination...

I'm finally done with my exams THANK GOD. The amount of kind messages and comments I got through the exams is INSANE. Thank you all so much and I hope you have an amzing day!

NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE UP SOON. I kinda wanna hear what you think about the letter. Any theories?

Thanks for reading and supporting me so much, it means the world knowing that there are people out there that love your work, so thank you💙

Until next chapter lovies <3