Woso United

“Okay, okay!” Vicky stood up, brushing crumbs from her lap. “I have a classic. A perfect team-building game.”

Clara Serrajordi, the newest face in the group, looked up with interest. Aïcha, another fresh signing, grinned. “Ooh, I love games. What is it?”

“Charades!” Vicky announced proudly.

The room went silent.

It was the kind of silent that is louder than a scream. Aïcha’s grin faltered. Clara looked around, confused. Patri, who had been mid-reach for another slice of pizza, froze. Mapi slowly lowered her sunglasses from her forehead to her eyes, as if to shield herself from the mere mention of the word.

Ona, ever the diplomat, held up her hands. "No. No, no, no. That's a lovely idea, but… no."

“No,” Jana said, her voice flat. “Absolutely not.”

“We’re not playing charades,” Kika agreed, shaking her head with the solemnity of a funeral director.

Clara blinked. “Why not? It’s fun! Aïcha and I used to play it with the B team all the time.”

Aïcha nodded, now puzzled by the team’s reaction. “Yeah, it’s not exactly a high-stakes game. What’s the big deal?”

There was a heavy, collective sigh. Pina looked at Irene. Irene looked at the ceiling, as if asking for divine patience.

Mapi finally broke the silence, her voice a low rumble. “You don’t understand. You weren’t here.”

“Weren’t here for what?” Clara asked, her journalistic instincts now fully engaged.

Alexia, who had been quietly sipping her water, suddenly became very interested in a loose thread on her sweatpants. Y/N, sitting beside her, developed a sudden fascination with the label on a beer bottle.

“Last year,” Kika began, her Portuguese accent making the story sound even more ominous. “We made the same mistake. We thought charades would be a laugh.”

“It was supposed to be a welcoming party for a few of the new girls last season,” Irene picked up the tale. “It started normally enough. Patri was acting out ‘The Lion King.’ People were guessing random things. Everyone was having fun. It was fine.”

“Then,” Patri leaned forward, her eyes wide, “it was Alexia and Y/N’s turn.”

Another collective shudder ran through the room.

“We were on the blue team, I think,” Y/N mumbled, not looking up from the bottle.

“No it was the green team,” Alexia corrected her quietly, a ghost of a smile on her lips. “We were unstoppable.”

“That’s the problem!” Mapi yelled, gesturing wildly. “Look, just… you just had to be there and see it to understand.”

~~ Last Season ~~

The scene was almost identical. Takeaway boxes, the team sprawled across the same sofas. A younger-looking Clara wasn't there, but the room was full of laughter. It was Frido’s turn, and she was currently attempting to mime something involving a lot of hip thrusts and pointing at her own teeth.

“Is it… ‘Brush Your Teeth’?!” Ingrid shouted.

“No! ‘Hungry Horse’?!” Kika attempted a guess.

The timer went off. Frido threw her hands up in defeat and sat down, laughing. “It was ‘White Horse’! By Taylor Swift!”

The room erupted in a mix of groans and giggles. “Okay, okay, Red team with 1 point!” Lucy called out, ever the ringleader. “Alexia and Y/N, you’re up!”

Alexia stood up, a competitive glint instantly replacing her relaxed expression. Y/N followed, rolling her eyes but grinning. They were a formidable pair, their understanding on the pitch translating seamlessly to… well, everything. They didn't even need to huddle.

Alexia looked at the card Lucy held up. Her eyebrow quirked. A Quiet Place. She turned to Y/N and gave a single, sharp nod.

“Okay, go!” Lucy shouted, setting the timer off.

Then, she simply sat down, put a single finger to her lips, and stared, unblinking, at Y/N.

Y/N, without a moment's hesitation, snapped her fingers. "Horror movie. No, suspense. It's a film title. A… Quiet Place."

The room erupted. Patri’s jaw was on the floor.

"It was a fluke!" Ona argued from the memory. "A lucky guess!"

"Your turn," Alexia said, a serene smile on her face as she handed the card back to Lucy.

This time, the clue was for Y/N. She scanned the card. The Great Escape. She stood, mimed holding handlebars, and started doing a little bunny-hop motion, her face a mask of exaggerated triumph.

"Bicycle," Mapi guessed. "Tour de France!"

Alexia’s hand shot up. "The Great Escape!" she called out, her voice ringing with certainty.

The room fell silent this time. Y/N pointed at Alexia, a huge grin on her face, then did a slow clap.

"Again!" Pina demanded. "Give them a hard category this time!"

The next card was passed to Alexia. She read it, and for the first time, a flicker of doubt crossed her features. It was a complicated Spanish idiom: Mucho ruido y pocas nueces (Much noise, few nuts – the equivalent of 'much ado about nothing').

Alexia thought for a second. Then, she cupped her hands around her mouth and made a loud, rumbling "Wooooosh!" sound, waving her arms wildly to signify chaos and noise. Then, she stopped, held up two fingers, and mimed cracking open an imaginary nut, peering inside, and shrugging with disappointment at finding nothing.

Y/N watched, utterly focused. Her eyes lit up. "A saying. Something about… a lot of fuss over something small? Mucho ruido y pocas nueces!"

The team were stunned. Half in awe, half in outrage. Mapi was standing up from her seat.

"That's impossible!" Frido yelled.

"Impossible?" Alexia repeated, her competitive spirit fully ignited. She looked at Y/N. "Cinco dedos de una mano?" she said, naming another idiom: 'five fingers of a hand' – meaning they were two parts of the same whole.

Y/N laughed, a happy, bright sound. "Siempre," she agreed. Always.

“Lucky guess,” Pina muttered. “One more round.”

It was then that the card for the final round was drawn. This one was for Y/N to act out for Alexia.

Y/N looked at the card. Her face went completely blank. Then, she stood up, turned her back to the team, and began to act. She started with a simple, elegant wave of her arm, like a royal greeting. Then she mimed holding a small, round object. Then she pointed to her face, specifically her eyebrows.

Alexia watched, her head tilted. "Okay. Royalty. Queen. Something round… a crown? You're wearing a crown. And… your eyebrows?" She frowned. "Eyebrows… Ceja. Queen… Ceja?"

Y/N nodded frantically, then made a grand, sweeping gesture, as if presenting everything to Alexia.

Alexia’s face went through a series of micro-expressions before it dawned on her. Her eyes widened, and she clapped a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking with laughter. Finally, she managed to choke out, "Reina… Isabel… y sus… sus… Cejas! Queen Isabel and her eyebrows!"

She was referring to Queen Letizia of Spain, and a very old, very niche meme about her eyebrows.

The silence stretched for an uncomfortably long time. Mapi slowly removed her sunglasses from the top of her head. Her mouth was open.

Then the room was no longer chaos; it was anarchy. People were crying with laughter. Patri was on the floor. Kika was hitting Pina sat beside her, rolling around each other. Ona and Irene just stared at Alexia and Y/N, mouths hanging open.

Y/N turned back around, taking a bow as Alexia stood up and met her in the middle of the room for a triumphant, laughing high-five.

“How?” Jana whispered, looking at Alexia with a mixture of horror and awe. “How did you get that from practically nothing?”

“We just… get each other,” Y/N said, slinging an arm around a beaming Alexia.

“It’s like watching a magic trick you can’t explain,” Irene added, her voice still haunted. “And then you realise it’s not a trick, it’s just… them.”

~~~~~

Back in the present, Clara and Aïcha stared at the couple with a million questions flying around their heads. Alexia was now inspecting her fingernails. Y/N was trying to hide a proud smirk behind her beer.

“So you see,” Mapi concluded, gesturing to them like they were a pair of unexploded bombs. “They are not allowed to team up for charades. Not anymore. It’s demoralising. It’s terrifying. It ruins the game for everyone else.”

“They make us feel like we have the collective IQ of a houseplant,” Patri added, pouting.

Clara looked at Alexia, the Ballon d’Or winner, the leader, the serious one. Then she looked at Y/N, who was now quietly giggling.

Irene threw a cushion at them, "They didn't even need words! They had created their own language with eye contact. They acted out a 500-year-old Spanish queen's eyebrow situation, and Alexia just… knew." She shuddered. "We had to ban them. For the good of the team, and for our own fragile egos."

Kika chimed in, “So yeah, we can play anything, just… no charades. We’re playing Uno.”

“Deal,” everyone agreed quickly in unison.