Vi Presento a Athea (Introducing Athea)

VI

Unsurprisingly – and for Athea's despair– the rest of the week flew by in a blink of an eye. Before she could even have noticed, she was leaving school on a Friday afternoon, the day of the game. Although apprehensive, she felt oddly excited – it would be her very first high school game experience and she pondered on just how much of it would be like the movies she used to watch.

Getting home, she dashed to the showers and quickly changed her clothes into something warmer, since the wind outside was chilly. Running downstairs to grab some water from the kitchen before leaving, she suddenly bumped into her father at the end of the staircase.

"He-hey!" He laughed, holding her so that she wouldn't face plant the floor. "Where are you running to, piccina?"

"Hey, dad!" She smiled, her adrenaline still up from the run. "When did you get here?"

"Just now. Literally." He pointed at the door with his thumb over his shoulder and Athea noticed he still had his coat on and was still holding his suitcase. "But say, what's the rush about?"

"There's a homecoming game tonight at school." She put a lock of hair behind her ears, suddenly nervous because she had forgotten to tell her father about the homecoming events.

"Aw, sweet! I remember those!" He tapped her on the back. "And if my memory does not fail me... isn't there supposed to be a dance, too?" He looked at her sideways, blinking one eye in amusement over her embarrassed look.

"Sì, il ballo sarà domani sera alle 8 e ne avrò una coppia e lui mi verrà a prendere alle otto meno dieci e..." Athea, completely unaware, started to spit out nervous phrases in a fast-paced monologue, her eyes closed shut and her head tilted to the ground.

"Hey, hey, hey! Athea!" Patrick stopped her, grabbing the poor girl by the arms and making her jump. "You know I can't understand you when you go all Italian shotgun show on me!" He laughed, looking her in the eyes. Athea breathed heavily, lost over the situation. "Calm down, I'm not gonna forbid you from going to these school events or anything! I'm actually finding it quite nice to see your urge to go and be social, whereas back in Italy we could hardly drag you out to grocery shopping!" This time around, Athea could not hold back a laugh.

"I told you I was going to try different things here, dad." She felt her cheeks blush.

"Oh, look! She can speak English." He let her go and made his way to the coat hanger, receiving a slight slap on the back from his daughter on his way. "Ouch!" He joked around and she stuck her tongue out to him. "That hurts my feelings!" He touched his chest, making a victimized frown. Athea laughed. "So, do you want a ride there?"

"Sure, I'll just grab my coat." She dashed upstairs and while in her room, picking up her denim jacket and a purse, she could hear Patrick shout from downstairs:

"So, this 'pair' you mentioned, is it the same 'friend' from your first day dine out?" He asked sneakily. Athea came down the stairs with an indignant face.

"So, you did understand me!" She pointed at him, shocked.

"Meh, little bits here and there. Just the critical information. Y'know, those Sunday lunches with your mother's family were hard, I got to practice a lot." He said picking the car keys from the tray by the main door.

"And still, you really wanted to mess with me." She stopped by his side, not being able to believe her ears. 

"Yeah, you know, it's fun to get some emotion out of your constant poker face every once in a while." He looked at her with a satisfied smile across his face.

"Let's just go." Athea let out a laugh, waving her hand around as if trying to scare away a fly, indicating she was, as kids now use to say: "done".