Maisie 'Baby' Bronze

24. Flowers

Lucy's pov-

Bloody hell, this was it. My little girl was coming on.

I felt Keira loop her arm round me and squeeze me, as I smiled, watching Maisie run on. Then it hit me.

"Fucking hell, look at her number ke" I half whisper.

"15" Keira smiles.

"Is that what I think it's for?"

"I expect so, that's not a coincidence" Keira nudges me as I smile from ear to ear.

"What's it for?" Katie perks up beside us, who was also leaning against the barrier watching the game.

"I was 15 when Maisie was born" I smile, "I guess it's got something to do with that but I could be wrong"

"Aw, that's cute" She smiles, leaning against the board.

My eyes flicked back to the game, which had now restarted and was being passed around England's back line. I watched as Maisie received the ball, and turned sharply away from the German player and passed it through to the winger, who made a run up the line before crossing it into the centre. Just as England's no.9 jumped up to header it in, Germany's keeper stretched out to punch it away. Missing the ball terribly, it was almost like slow-motion as we watched her fall onto the ground and gasps fill the crowd.

"Shit, that looked nasty" I mumbled

"God, that was one hard punch"

The girl stayed down for a while, the medics rushing on and doing a concussion test. Whilst she was down England's team huddled together, most certainly deciding who was going to take the penalty. Once our player was up and hobbling off, who I'd learnt her name was Daisy, the teams gathered in Germany's half awaiting the penalty. The action was straight in front of our eyes, as I saw our captain get the ball and stand on the spot, taking the mental hassle from the goal keeper. Just before the referee was about to re set, Polly suddenly walked back, and passed the ball into someone else's hand, but I couldn't see whose.

"COME ON MAISIE" I hear someone shout from the stand. I frowned confused.

Wait. It was Maisie taking the penalty.

"Oh my god" I breathed out, "Come on Maise, you got this" I half whispered, grabbing Keira's hand, to steady my nerves.

It felt like a lifetime before Maisie eventually ran up to kick the ball. I watched in slo-mo as she struck the ball and smashed it bottom left, the keeper diving the complete other way.

"YEAAAAAAAASSSSSS" The crowd cheered, everyone standing up. Let's fucking go Maisie.

Maisie's Pov-

Oh. My. God.

I'd just scored my first goal for England.

I didn't really have a chance to move before the whole team piled on me cheering.

"Let's go Maisie" they all said as they all eventually clambered off the pile and ran off towards the re-set. Before heading back, I turned to the stands, desperately searching for mum. I soon enough found her smiling widely at me and I locked eyes with her before turning around to show her my number. I saw her try and hide a small tear and quickly wipe it away so I made a mental note to bully mum for that later. With that, I jogged off and returned back to my position.

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The game has finished 1:0, and we were now all shaking hands with the German players. I go to shake hands with one of the girls before she turns to me, "You are Maisie Bronze?" She asks, in broken English.