Football One Shots

More Than Childish (Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain)

The day she was intoduced to Alexander Mark David Oxlade-Chamberlain, her world flipped upside down. She still could not believe she was standing infront of his porch.

How did this happen?

To be wholely truthful, it was because of a little matchmaker named Lukas Podolski. He knew Claire as a friend back in Germany, and when she told him she'd be in London for a vacation, without hesitation, he called up the best restaurant in town and reserved a seat for a Mr. Oxlade-Chamberlain.

"Yes...your name?"

Lukas tried to sound as sophisticated and British–y as possible. Even though he poured in such an effort, he wasn't exactly triumphant with his British English.

"Mr. Oxlade-Chamberlain."

"Is this a joke?" the receptionist asked. "Are you that teenager that always prankcalls us? Stop it, young man, or I will call the police!"

"I'm not a kid! Fine, I'm Lukas, Lukas Podolski. Happy? I'm reserving a seat for my friend, Alex, or like you know him as, Chamberlain?"

"I don't believe you're a footballer," she still disagreed. "Not a lot of famous people call here. And you're like, my favorite footballer ever, and you're totally—"

"Let's get to the point, please? Look, I need a table for two, you see, my friend and his girl, January 6th, Tuesday night around 7 p.m, okay?"

"I'm sorry, but we're out of tables. Um...Taco Tuesday nights are busy, busyyy!" She stretched the sentenced exceedingly.

"Whoever you are, damn you." Lukas sighed. "If I give you a signed jersey, can you find my mate a table?"

The lady squealed quietly to herself, though Lukas could clearly hear it. "Sure! The restaurant will call you when it's confirmed."

Finally, Lukas thought. Talking to that lady was like serving the Queen of England a cup of tea; extremely tiring and a bit of nerve-wrecking. But he had done it—he found Alex a restaurant and a date as well!

Now, if everything went to plan, he'd be attending a wedding in one or two years with him as the best man, honored because he had started the whole thing up.

All he had to do now was explain the situation to Alex and Claire.

Sounded easy, however, it was not.

"Hey Alex," he said, "what do you think of the dating scene? Got any ladies, models, girlfriends, hmm?"

Alex stared at him confused. It was a bit awkward of a question, don't you think? Alex thought so too.

"I'm still single, mate. Single lads are great. Not much."

"Oh, you'll need a woman someday. Look, I'm terrific with Delmi," Lukas nudged Alex in the elbow, "and you will too with my friend Claire. C'mon, try."

"Are you up to something? I smell something fishy." he said suspiciously.

"All you need to do is go to a dinner with her—it's a date. I'll be lurking around if you need any assistance, right?"

"And why should I go?"

"Please," Lukas begged, "please, please, please, please, please, please—"

"Oh fine," Alex cut him off. "If this thing starts crumbling down, I'm not taking resposibility."

"Yes! Don't worry kiddo, I'll be attending your wedding soon, and then you can thank me!"

The Englishman rolled his eyes. The last time he went on a blind date set up by a fellow friend, also known as Alexis Sánchez, the lady wasn't a huge fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Or pizza.

And she thought he was rude when he accidently swore in German. Thus, he ended the day with a slap on the face.

Anyway, Claire wasn't amused either.

"Are you crazy, Lukas? I'm only in London for a few weeks—"

"Claire, you've got to go! I think you'll go good with Alex, you know."

"Lukas—"

"Great, you're going! I'll pick you up at the airport." And with that, Lukas ended the call and did a happy dance. 

Claire, on the other hand, was panicking and freaking out. She had to get ready and pack for her flight, however, she had to prepare essentials for the date. It wasn't really necessary, though she did not liked to be judged, especially by an insanely popular athlete.

There was no way he'd like her looking like the mess she was—tangled bird's nest hair, drool all over her face, barely awake, and worst yet, she stank. Stank. She smelled of the awful bus she took every day to work, and the essence was nearly impossible to remove. After a while, the smell was lessened. It wasn't fully dismantled, but at least it was covered lightly by a rasberry scent now.

She curled up her hair and braided it into a water braid. Straightening her dress, she patted the dust off of the hem. With the finishing touches, she wore her high heels.

She was dressed to kill.

Alex was no exception. He had slicked back his almost non-existant hair and shaved. He borrowed a few suits from his friend, Jack, and a couple of ties from Wojciech. That was a vast improvement from the beginning subject—which, in a nutshell, was not pretty.

The two got in their positions and prepared for the date. Claire was supposed to come to Alex's house for him to take her to dinner, thus why she was standing on his porch ringing his doorbell.

Usually, the guy would have to pick the girl up, but Claire wanted this to be done and over with.

"Is this Alex's house?" she asked.

Alex quickly awoke from his trance and raced to the door, opening it. "Yes...You are Claire?"

"Yep, that's my name. Claire Alya Wilson."

"I'm—"

She cut him off. "Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, isn't it?"

"Yes." He answered. 

He drove her to the restaurant, opening a small conversation with Claire. She was not bad from what he saw.

She was surprised as well. It came to her that (a) not all footballers drink and (b) not all footballers are cocky and finally, (c) Leonardo was also Alex's favorite ninja turtle.

Arriving, he led her inside the restaurant—to be way honest, Claire had overdressed.

Guess why?

He took her to a McDonald's. McD's. Mickey D's.

"Okay...." she awkwardly said, sitting down.

"Do you like it?" He asked proudly.

Claire was an overall good person and hated hurting another's feelings. Deep down, she was yelling, 'Holy crap! You took me to McDonald's for a date?' though she couldn't say it out loud, for she knew Alex was expecting a compliment of whatsoever. "It's cool," she shrugged it off. "I like McDonald's."

"Should I order the meal, or should you—"

"It's fine, you do it. I'm okay with anything."

She sat at a corner waiting for Alex to choose the meals—in reality all he was doing was picking out the perfect toy. It was so boring and tiresome that it was until twenty five minutes later, Alex came back with two Big Macs.

"Here you go, Claire."

"Thanks....."

Claire was probably expecting a bit more and she was a bit let down. Alex didn't see it however, and he just continued talking to her.

It was nice.

She got to learn even more about Alex, and he was more than enthralling.

He was him.

And for some reason, that charmed her.

THREE YEARS LATER

"Yes," she said. 

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

Very short, but there you go! I'm sorry I haven't updated in two weeks, I completely forgot about this >< hope this made it up to you, and the open ending too. What happened? I don't know haha •w•

—Megan