Exchanging Trust

16//story time

Before Katarina and her brothers left for school, Camillo showed her where she can find all the supplies she would possibly need to decorate her surfing board. Adriano made sure she wasn't going to change her mind so he left a bit earlier than usual to catch up on some work.

Just so that, when his younger siblings returned from school, he could take them to the beach. 

Now Camillo was humming a soft tune while driving them to school. Gregorio was on his phone, checking something on social media while Ezio was leaning his head against the window next to Camillo. Isacco was looking straight ahead and humming along with the radio while Katarina was looking outside as the scenery passed with a speed of 70km/hour. 

Everything was usual and it made Camillo smile. He couldn't wait for the end result of his sister's surfing board. He was curious what she had in mind, hearing her say to Isacco she already had some sort of idea.

As Katarina looked outside, her mind kept wandering back to the basketball team. What if she didn't make it? And if she did, how would she cope with all the sudden attention? How would play in a boys team work? Would they accept her? Bully her?

She closed her eyes and took a big breath, calming her racing heart and thoughts. By the time she had succeeded in the latter, they had already arrived.

Without thinking too much, Katarina had opened her door and stepped out and just like yesterday, everyone stopped doing what they were doing and stared at the small, shy girl next to her three popular brothers.

But before Katarina could panic, Ezio hugged her, shielding her from their prying eyes.

"Take a breath." Ezio whispered and Katarina followed his instructions.

"You'll be fine, nothing's going to happen. We'll be right around the corner if you need help." He whispered and with those words Katarina calmed down.

Katarina broke their hug, feeling ready to tackle this day and smiled at Ezio before standing on her tippy toes and kissing his nose.

"Thank you." She whispered.

Ezio was shocked for a small moment but snapped out of his little trance, moving along with his siblings as they walked towards the doors.

Except, no one saw the angry eyes, standing in the back of the crowd fixated on Katarina.

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

The morning had passed in a finger snap and Katarina was now on her way to the canteen with Isacco and his two friends Mattia and Santiago. All three of them were talking about to results of the tryouts that were coming out last period. 

Katarina listened happily to them gossiping about basketball, it was entertaining for her for sure. It even made her smile a bit.

She was lost in her own world, still with a small smile on her face when someone bumped hard into her shoulder. 

She stumbled back and the three boys next to her stopped talking and walking while she rubbed her shoulder as she looked a bit perplexed.

"Watch it, newbie." Someone said with disgust lacing her tone. Katarina muttered a soft apology but Isacco wasn't haven't it.

"You were the one running into her, Rae." Isacco said as he pushed Katarina behind hem, shielding her from what's about to happen.

"Keep out of this smurf." She spitted.

"Last time I checked we were never friends." He said, narrowing his eyes in the progress. Katarina could feel the tension around her, even Mattia and Santiago their vibe had changed to something darker.