Falling In Love With You Was Something I Had No Control Over

II: Baby Steps

"And Neymar steals the ball! Amazing footwork by the seventeen year old Brazilian!" Said the sports commentator.

That's was Djavannah's Neymar. He was always one to show off. Djavannah smiled at the thought of her best friend, well, ex best friend. Now they barely speak. After he left to follow his dreams and play professional football, he became Mr. Popular and she returned to being the butt of all jokes. 

"Djavannah, you better finish up your food and go comb your hair. You'll be late for school!" Djavannah's Brazilian mother warned.

"Isn't that the point?" Djavannah joked, her mother was clearly unimpressed. "Okay, okay. Just let me watch the rest of the game."

Her mother let out a deep sigh. "You must miss him very much." She said as she started to comb out Djavannah's really long, dark brown almost to the point of it being black, wavy-ish almost curly hair. 

Djavannah took a bite of her Vegemite toast. "What makes you say that?" 

"Please Djavannah, chew first talk later. I can smell that horrible paste from here." Djavannah's mother scrunched her face up in disgust. "And because you have never missed one of his games." 

She just shrugged at her mother's statement and continued to eat her toast.

"Finished." Her mother said. Djavannah stroked her hair and felt a perfect french braid. "Don't touch it!" Her mother yelled and quickly slapped her hand from her head. "It's perfect. When my mother did this for me I-"

"I know, I know. You were ever so grateful!" Djavannah finished her mother's usually sentence. "Obrigada." Djavannah said gratefully as she kissed her mother on the cheek and ran upstairs to brush her teeth.

After brushing her teeth, she checked her watch and she still had thirty minutes before class started, so she decided to save the match she was watching on the television in the lounge so she can finish it when she comes home. 

She ran downstairs into the living room and started pressing buttons until she saved the game. She recalled the times when her and Neymar saved countless hours of cartoons and football matches. They would stay up till the crack of dawn just to finish a series. 

"Those were the days." She breathed.

"Hey DJ." Said a familiar British accent.

"Hey daddio." She said as she made some space for him on the couch.

"Excited to be almost seventeen?" He asked. Her father has been trying to convince her to have a seventeenth birthday bash because she didn't want a sweet sixteen. 

"Eh." Djavannah said sarcastically.

"Oh come on! Seventeen! The big ONE SEVEN! We can throw a party. Parties are fun!" He said as he practically bounced around.

"You know, I'm not really the 'party girl.'" She emphasized the 'party girl' part. "Why don't we do what we did last year? Have a dinner with aunty Nadine and uncle Neymar. You give me and awesome present, preferably money so I can buy those new f50's I saw the other day. Mum can make an amazing cake. And HEY! We save like a tone of money." Djavannah said with as much enthusiasm she could depict.

"You wish he came, don't you." Her father said with a sad smile.

She folded her arms and looked away from her father. "I don't know what you mean."

"DJ, honey. We all miss him very much." He placed his hand on her shoulder to turn her to face him. "But this is a great way for you to make new friends before you graduate. And aunty Nadine and your mother are already buying you a dress." He laughed.