3 To Spain

It should be obvious when you look at my mother, but the first thing I noticed about my grandparents was that they were very good-looking.

Grandfather was a tall and stern-looking man with light facial hair and salt and pepper hair styled very fashionably. In his fancy suit, he looked like he came straight out of a magazine for middle-aged women.

Grandma wasn't to be outdone. She looked a lot like Mom but she was dressed just like you would expect a rich European middle-aged woman to be. Elegance and maturity exuded from the way she dressed and moved. I could imagine her attending parties with tiny purses.

And the middle-aged couple were currently sitting opposite Mom who was holding me in her lap and looking down as if she was ashamed. When the stern gazes started to feel awkward I finally broke the silence, "Tito! Abby!"

Grandfather just flinched a little at me calling out to him but Grandma couldn't help smiling widely and standing up and reaching out to hold me. Mom was apprehensive for a second but she relented when I reached out to Grandma.

"Abby will take her grandbaby to look around. Will you tell me your name?"

"Yay! My name Joha. What is Abby?"

Mom chimed in from the side, "Johan. His name is Johan." 

Grandma just nodded and turned to me. "Hello, Johan my cute grandbaby. Abby's name is Christina. But you should just call me Abby. Now let's go look around while Tito and Mama talk."

After that, Grandma took a full half hour to take a tour of one kitchen, one bedroom, one balcony, and one bathroom. She also warmed up some milk for me before finally going back to the room where Mom and Grandfather were talking.

Both their eyes were moist and the conversations continued even after Grandma joined. The conversation was so heavy that I just tuned out and started playing with my Grandfather.

When I woke up from a short nap after exhausting myself, we were already preparing to go back to Spain. I also found out shortly that my grandparents were quite rich.

The next day we flew to Spain on a chartered jet. And it seems we will be living in a villa by the beach from now on. My life was just upgraded from economy class to first class all at once. Damn.

*********************

Mom has started going to work at the shipping company. On a side note, I am supposedly also an heir to a small vineyard and winery somewhere in Spain that Mom is managing.

Anyway, while Mom went to work, I was being taken care of by maids and also being taught by some tutors. I will be joining the school when I turn three. Until then I will be homeschooled.

I can now ask for the nutritious meals I want, and go out to the beach to play with the ball all to my liking. Mom was so excited when I said I wanted to play football that she bought back a dozen player kits in my size and a ton of other training supplies. 

If I wasn't just a toddler, I suspect she would have driven me to La Masia or La Fabrica right away.

Life in the beachside villa was as comfortable as it sounds. Our life was like a pleasant slice-of-life story where nothing of significance ever happened but everything was cheerful and nice.

We had breakfast together before Mom and grandparents went to work and I went to school. School with an adult mind was boring so I mostly slept through all of it and still aced most of it unintentionally. It is embarrassing as an adult among children but I was considered a genius.

On holidays, we would have picnics with the family or Mom would take me traveling around Europe. Unlike my last life, I grew up being showered with love by my mother and grandparents.

I didn't do any physically taxing exercises but as I was growing up, I was slowly training my body with different activities.

It was common for me to be running on the beach and swimming daily to develop stamina and lung capacity, kicking the ball around in the sand to train dribbling, ball control, kicking, and so on.

Mom offered to get me a personal trainer when I was just three. Sometimes it feels like she is more excited about me playing football than I am.

It didn't matter that I was in pre-school, Mom managed to take time off work to come to every match I played and act like my personal coach and cheering squad. Even though my young body wasn't moving as I wanted, I was leagues better than other kids.

I scored a lot of goals against those kids and there would be Mom, standing among annoyed women, shouting out my name like crazy for each of those goals. Somehow the weight of another dream was added to my own along the way.

And just like that, eating well, practicing and exercising daily, and just generally living a happy life, I grew up to be six years old.

When I turned six, my mom who had seen me train and play soccer like my personal coach by my side all this time asked me, "Johan dear, do you want to try out for La Masia?"

To my mother, it wasn't a question of whether La Masia would take me, it was only a question of whether I wanted to go there or somewhere else. To be fair, she had seen me destroy kids my age with goal after goal, so she deserved to be confident.

Right now it is mainly popular in Spain but soon La Masia run by FC Barcelona will become the most well-known youth soccer academy in the whole world. It will become a mecca for any kid who wants to play soccer.

With the advent of world-class players like Messi, Xavi, Puyol, Pique, and Iniesta from the academy, the popularity of La Masia will skyrocket worldwide. Along with La Fabrica Academy of Real Madrid, the two youth academies can be considered the Ivy League of youth soccer.

I had given it some thought and decided to give it a try. I am still young so it wouldn't hurt even if I failed.

 "Yes. I want to try. My friends say that only geniuses get in there."

At my answer, Mom just kissed my forehead and started praising me again, "Aw, my baby is a genius too. He is smarter than all the kids. And you practice every day too. How can my baby be this good?"

I have become somewhat of a local celebrity recently for having completed the primary education level by the age of 6 and completely acing all the tests. My Grandma even took me around to her parties and introduced me as her 'Little Genius' everywhere.

Grandfather asked me what I wanted for it and I asked for a personal computer with an internet connection. Living without Wi-Fi and smartphones is almost too boring if not for books. Now my family thinks I am obsessed with computers.

I have been subtly pushing for computerization in our shipping company too for a while now by stating all the benefits we could have over other companies and Mom seems to have already researched and prepared for it. It's better for me if my family gets richer.

At times like these, the title of a genius is worth the embarrassment. Instead of the words of just a kid, the words of a genius kid have much more merit.

I also talk economy with my Mom sometimes. Although it always ends with her hugging and kissing my face over and over for being 'so smart'.

*******************

The morning when I was going to Camp Nou for my La Masia tryout, Mom was more nervous than when she was making large business decisions. Grandma even teased her, "He is going to football tryouts, not to war. Stop stressing him out."

The entire morning was spent checking and double-checking that everything was in order. My player's kit, my boots, the snacks, and everything else were checked to be perfect. I was dressed perfectly and my hair was done perfectly by her too.

"Mom, they only care if I'm good at soccer."

At my complaint, Mom just hit my back lightly and scolded, "They don't care doesn't mean my Johan shouldn't look perfect. Remember, no matter what, you should always dress well and take care of how you present yourself."

Even Grandfather chimed in from the side, "That's right. Although it would be better if you used that smart brain to study and help at work, you should always look sharp no matter where you are, just like your Tito."

"Who are you kidding? Our Johan is already much more good-looking than you. He looks sharp without trying." As always, my dear Grandma is always prepared to defend me.

"Okay. Abby don't argue with Tito, it's getting late. And tell Mom to hurry up."

…

"Just have fun and don't worry too much." Grandma and grandfather sent us off at the gates and I entered the historic stadium holding Mom's hand while looking around in awe.

Although each stadium has its unique history over its life with many stories to go along with it, some stadiums have a unique standing among the rest.

With its sheer size and all the history that it has seen, one cannot help but be in awe of this place.

"I was like that too, when I first came here with my dad. It's amazing, isn't it?" Mom asked.

"Yes! It looks so huge. I want to see the pitch soon."

She laughed and patted my head. "We will go see other great stadiums and pitches too. And you will even play in all of them."

"I will take you to all of them," I answered with a smile.

"Of course you will. Now, hurry up. We can look around after you are done with the tryouts."

I followed Mom to the pitch where hundreds of kids of all sizes were lined up and their guardians standing by on the stands. In the rush, I couldn't even take in the magnificent view of the pitch. After a quick change, I was off to line up with the others.

Although I was half a head taller than most of the kids my age, here I was just among the smallest kids. Since this selection included kids from the age of six to twelve, there were a lot of the kids on the older side who were physically larger than me.

On the physical trials, I did fairly well. I was good with endurance and speed with all my time on the beach and my dribbling and shooting were above average as well. Although I was better than the average kids my age, among the best, I didn't stand out too much.

I had expected as much. I was limited physically due to my age so there wasn't much I could do about it. Except for my accuracy and ball control which I could barely display, I did just average in the first few trials.

Things were within my expectations until here but the next trial went beyond what I had expected.