Vincenzo was a tough kid but Francesco Rosario brought fear into the heart of anyone he looked at or spoke to. Vincenzo was no exception. His father was not one to be messed with. Against his nature, Vincenzo gave out a defeated sigh and reluctantly walked away from the window towards his father. He stood in front of his father next to Viggo looking into his father's eyes awaiting his father's next instructions.

Francesco as always poured himself and glass of vodka and deliberately kept them waiting.

Francesco started sipping from his glass of vodka and his stare not leaving his son, noticing he was getting restless. Vincenzo reminded him of himself when he was his age. He spoke in a firm tone " Why were you not paying attention at the end of the meeting Vincenzo?"

Vincenzo tried to keep his voice steady "Father, I am sorry for not paying attention at the end of your meeting...... I was distracted with the outside view."

Francesco put his half empty glass on the table and stood up staring at his son with disapproval " You are my first born heir. My successor. I want your full attention at all times. Now, at least make sure you pay attention for the rest of the day. I have important meetings with my allies next after the networking session in the refreshment room. My allies are waiting in the refreshment cabin right now and you can't carry on acting so detached and distracted when you meet them. Don't get distracted again son."

Vincenzo nodded " Yes father. "

Francesco then turned to Viggo " Fill in your brother about what he missed when your uncle Costanzo and uncle Antonio gave the final forecast on our assets in Wall Street which they mentioned near the end. After that, I want to see both of you coming to the refreshment room." He then got up from the sofa and walked away. As he opened the door, he whispered " I need both of you awake today. We have meetings with allies next." He then closed the door behind him as he walked out.

Viggo sat down on the sofa and started talking about the wall street forecast. He went on and on but Vincenzo was immediately at the window looking outside again.

Viggo sighed " What are you looking at?" He then walked to his brother and stood next to him looking outside the window.

Vincenzo spoke " Who is that girl? Have you seen her before?"

Viggo shook his head " No. What about her? Has she offended you?"

Vincenzo spoke " No. But I want to find out who she is. She looks fine."

Viggo spoke " As if. Since when do you fancy a girl. How many times did I try to get you to date and you said no. I tried so many times to get you to go out with one of those three girls who are just walking to Vienna's group."

Vincenzo laughed " The Pirelli sisters? No way. None of them is my type. Daniella, Dona-Marie and Diana are just annoyingly intelligent just like their father. That professor from MIT, Johnny Pirelli is not my favourite employee of father at all. He shows up only to half the meetings since his research work is so important and he can't take time off that much. He is treated differently since he has brains. I can't believe father didn't kill him disrespecting him all those years ago and forced him to work for Rosarios."

Viggo spoke " Come on. There would have been no Pirelli sisters if their father was killed all those years ago. They are distinct. Their IQ is higher than all of us combined in school. They tutored me for physics and French last week. The three of them want to become experts in a field of Father's interest one day so they will end up working for you when you take over. Here you go, you must at least be nicer to them if you don't date any of them. You scare them off when they are hanging out with Vienna most times just because you don't like clever people..... Vincenzo.... Are you listening? ..... Any ways lets go. The refreshment cabin is getting full down there now by the looks of it. Father won't like it if we don't meet and greet his allies. Besides he likes us to network with their kids in front of them even though we see them in school."

Vincenzo sighed. He knew his brother was right. So he stopped looking at the new girl and walked away from the window as his brother followed him.

The brothers arrived at the refreshment room which was a in large cabin near the lake. They networked with the kids and greeted the adults who were their fathers allies for a while. Then it was time to play basketball with other kids. There was a basketball court next to the cabin that the boys normally showed off the ball handling skills to each other in parties. Basketball had become the unofficial sport played amongst the sons of allies of rosarios when their fathers were networking in the refreshment rooms or at the food table on their meeting days. The meetings between allies was normally hosted every month in a different base. This time it was the turn of Rosarios to host. The allies had mostly done this to bring their children together away from watchful and worried eyes of their wives who had tea and cake in the ladies room and meeting fashion designers as the business meetings unfolded.

As Vincenzo walked into the basketball court, Tristan O'Neil wrapped his arm around his shoulder spoke " What do you say we play a game and maybe do a penalty shoot out challenge."

Vincenzo pulled away and pushed Tristan slightly. " All right. I pick Alexander, Viggo and Stefano for my team. You can have Trent, Sebastiano and Cain as always. Is there a problem?"

Tristan raised an eyebrows " Lets spice it up. There is eight of us in total. But there are seven girls there too. For once they are not hiding in the ladies room and they are out in the open. Lets bring them in. I suggest 7 of us play against 7 of them. Stefano can be the referee since he is the neutral one according to the girls.

Vincenzo laughed " I like your way of thinking. Why not?"

Trent picked up the basketball from the corner of the court and threw the ball at Vincenzo " It's your house man. It's your call. Lets do it."

Viggo watched in surprise as Vincenzo accepted Tristan's challenge so easily. Vincenzo normally liked to take any chance to prove some dominance over Tristan in anything even if he acted civil towards him. This was new to pass up the chance to play against O'Neil. Maybe he was in too deep with that girl.

Viggo spoke quickly " Are you sure about this? Lets forget the girls. We play four on four amongst ourselves."

Tristan turned to Viggo " Back off man. We can have some fun beating them . We will play in teams if they said no. We always thrash them. They may say no." He then grabbed the ball from Vincenzo's hand and threw the ball at the circle of girls who were sitting on the grass.

Letizia stood up and caught the basketball in her hand "Who threw this? Cant you watch where you throw?" Looking at the boys with disapproval as the boys started laughing and joking amongst themselves in the basketball court.

Daniella spoke suddenly " Throw the ball back at them. Then sit down and Look at the books and pretend you are busy or they are going to come over if we acknowledge them. We don't have time for their egos."

Vienna sighed " On it. My calculus book looks so interesting." She then threw a Latin book at Letizia'a feet. Get down. "

Dona Marie spoke "Seriously Letizia. Stop giving them the dirty look."

Diana spoke "Sit down and get reading or they would come over here then we won't hear the end of it."

Vanessa whispered " It seems like they are waiting Letizia. Throw the ball back and look busy."

Vienna spoke " Lets get on with studying then even though I have read my books so many times. I have all past exam papers memorised too."

Clarisa looked up " Give it to them..."

Letizia waved the ball as she shouted at the boys " I said, who threw this? Who's rusty aim was this. You are meant to shoot at the basket. You know that. Right? It's called basket-ball for a reason."

The girls froze as they saw the boys walking towards them.

Vienna spoke " Damn it. Why did you challenge them. It has consequences if we take them on. The last time we lost, it was so painful, I don't even want to even recall."

Clarisa spoke in a hushed tone " Just say no to anything they say....."

Letizia looked at the girls with questioning eyes " What are you talking about?"

Vanessa whispered " You should have thrown the ball back at them.... Now it's war."

Letizia was confused as she saw Vanessa, Vienna, Daniella, Dona-Marie, Diana and Clarisa stand up defensively looking at the boys.

The crowed of boys approached them and surrounded them in a circle with no way out for them.

It was Tristan O'Neil who took a step forward first "Of course. Letizia Marciano. You have moved cities now. My father said you are starting in our school tomorrow. I see you need to know some rules beforehand though. But take my advice. Next time a ball is thrown at you, throw it straight back. Don't make us walk to get it."

Letizia walked forward " Well, tell your people to learn to throw."

Vincenzo chuckled and walked to stand next to Tristan "Why don't you come play with us and show us how you throw."

Letizia looked at Vincenzo with defiant eyes " Sure."

Vincenzo smirked as he turned to the other girls " I take it now that she has joined the school, she is on your team now since you are desperate for any newbie to join what's left of the girls basketball team....."

Tristan spoke " I suggest, a game of boys versus girls. Seven on Seven and Stefano will be the referee. Are you in or out, girls?"

////////////

Reminder:

Sebastiano = Sergio Giovanni's son

Stefano = Costanzo's son

Cain = Costanzo's adopted son

Alexander = Antonio's son

Tristan, Trent and Clarisa = O'Neil children

Vanessa = Georgio Canavaro's daughter