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I rolled my eyes and banged my pompoms on the bench we were on.

“Girl, you are such a drag! I'm trying to act like a normal human being, is that okay?” I complained exaggeratedly. I knew it was a small outburst; I hated it happening, but Veronica sometimes looked for dark ways to get me pissed.

It was impressive.

And the idiot burst into laughter.

“I hate you…” I declared without any patience.

“No, don't hate me…” She asked, still catching her breath. “Well, to answer your question, no, I don't like those things. Honestly, I barely understand what's happening, I just know that they use the stick to catch a small ball and that the goal is too small.” She leaned closer and whispered softer: “Just don't tell my brother I said that, he's already worked hard to try to make me understand this thing.”

I agreed, enjoying the peace that reigned between the two of us.

Suddenly, Belinda's fans screamed, making us jump off the bench and face the field. Our team had scored a goal.

“We'd better celebrate this before the guys from our own university flatten the tire on our bus.” I mocked, moving away from Veronica and doing some pirouettes along with Troian and Sidney. As soon as we finished the sequence we had planned for that moment, the three of us exchanged looks.

We had done it in absurd harmony and I liked the feeling of it. However, I couldn't enjoy the moment much, as an euphoric Emily, much more excited than everyone present, scared me by letting out a scream, pulling the crowd up.

The focused girl from the Venenum practice days seemed to have disappeared for a moment, giving way to a somewhat euphoric blonde. Too euphoric, I would say, but I didn't want to think too much about it. I just kept the information in my brain and then turned my attention to the bench and a nervous Veronica when she saw her brother carrying the ball on his bat to our team's field. A few seconds later, Derek scored.

Veronica smiled, proudly.

And my cousin smiled like a fool towards the older Torres.

In the end, Belinda's team lost, but it didn't feel like a defeat.

Derek put me through some humiliation sometimes, but the main one was making me go to the frat house where he lived and making me wait until he was ready while a bunch of guys full of testosterone and zero brain cells walked around the frat house. Wearing shorts only.

The view wasn't the worst, but I had to repeat the same words when explaining that I was Derek's sister and was just waiting for him with each new guy who entered the room and tried to hit on me.

Twenty minutes later, my brother appeared again, running down the stairs.

“Finally..." I mumbled.

“Oh, don't start.” He complained, pulling me with him to his car. We got into the vehicle and his expression changed from bored to fearful.

“What happened, D?”

“Nothing... it's just that... well, aunt and uncle, they've been calling me a lot wanting to know about you. You need to call them, Roni.”

I shook my head in denial.

“I can't, not yet.” I curled up in the driver's seat. “I'm really embarrassed about the whole nudes thing, Derek.”

My brother almost ground his teeth after my sentence.

He started the car's engine and took it out of the garage of the house where he lived. Derek has always been very overprotective. He was the older brother and he played this role brilliantly. He always took care of me, in his own way of course, after all, we didn't have such a big age difference, so fights were also routine things in our lives. However, I could never complain when he decided not to be annoying, just careful.

Now I could even understand the reasons why he didn't like Martin so much. My brother never forgave him the first time he cheated on me and, after everything, I was sure he would drive over the poor guy if he saw my ex-boyfriend on the street.

And then he would reverse, just to do it again.

“He was released, you know that, right?” The question took me by surprise.

“What?”

“His parents came to Belinda and released him on bail, pretrial release.”