Life Changes » Marcus Armstrong

Two.

Federico impatiently bounced his legs and looked outside. He saw people walking around in the garden and wanted to do that too. "Can I play football, please?"

Jane looked at the little boy; he was really struggling to stay focussed. She knew him good enough to know that if she pushed him to do his homework, he would only fight against it and rush his work. "How much do you have to do?"

"Ten more exercises."

She nodded and was debating in her head what she should do now. "Can we make a deal?" Jane seriously looked at Federico; he nodded. "You can play football for thirty minutes..."

Federico got up from the chair and wanted to run away.

"I'm not finished yet," Jane strictly said and raised her eyebrows. Federico looked at her. "Thirty minutes, and then we go back to work. Deal?" She raised her hand.

"Deal," Federico sighed and gave Jane a high-five. He left the room and ran to the backyard.

Jane wouldn't say Federico was an annoying child and difficult to deal with, but he surely had instructions. He didn't like to study or to go to school, he didn't have the patience for that. It was challenging for Jane to keep an eye on him.

"Can I also play football?" Francesca softly asked. Francesca, on the other hand, was a hard and serious studier.

"Of course," Jane smiled and collected some papers that were lying on the table. "Have fun."

"Do you want to join?" Francesca looked hopefully at Jane when she got up from the chair. "I'm not as good as Federico..."

"I will be there in a minute," Jane replied, reassuring and ran her hand through her hair.

It was only the beginning of the week, but Jane was waiting for the weekend. There was so much work to do for school, the third semester was at its end, and the finals of that semester were about to begin. Essay's needed to be hand in, projects were finishing. And work. It was just a lot at once.

Jane sat in the study room of the massive Italian home. It was a typical villa in Tuscany, a mansion that you saw in films of people with a lot of money. It was unreal to Jane, it felt like she was living in a dream, while she had to be here a couple times a week for her work. Being in Italy in itself was something special.

She left the study room and walked through the hallway. A lot of guests were already gathered around. A polite smile was plastered on Jane's face, she had no idea who these people were. But that didn't matter, she wasn't here for the guests, but for the two children. Once she was outside, she saw more people. The garden was decorated with tiny lights, beautiful white accessories and tables. It looked dreamy, but chic.

"Jane!" The boy was waving at her and overplayed the ball to his sister.

Jane walked through the garden, only to walk to the grass field at the back. "Hello," she said and was standing next to the imaginary football field. Her eyes fell on the mass of people at the house. "That is a lot of people..."

"And there are only more people to come," Francesca mentioned and stood next to Jane, having her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Jane raised her eyebrows and looked at the young girl. "Really? My gosh."

The two women were scanning the area, both looking questionable and perplexed. Just when they thought there couldn't be more people, more people entered the garden.

"Alright," Jane breathed. "Let's play football, shall we?" She looked down at Francesca, who nodded. Jane was glad she was wearing something simple; jeans, but a chic top and trainers. "What's the score?"