GOLDEN | DANI ROJAS

00. PROLOGUE

Connie Huxley was merely another member of staff at AFC Richmond. Her name was never mentioned by the press, unless it was a credit beneath one of her shots. Nobody said good morning to her on her way in, or goodnight to her on her way out. Connie's birthdays weren't celebrated with anyone, and she wasn't sure a single person at AFC Richmond could state a fact about her if they tried.

Alas, Connie did not mind. She stuck to her routine; go into work, get a coffee, spend at least four hours in her office editing pictures from the last match, go home with a final coffee for the journey. She did not say hello or goodbye to anyone, and she did not share her pictures with anyone. It was hard to say whether Connie loved or hated her job, because she loved taking pictures of the athletes but she hated the loneliness of it all.

The manager of the team did not allow her to attend training sessions. He believed her to be a potential distraction to the players, even though she had only met most of them for short periods of time for headshots. He also feared releasing too many images of training would spoil tactics to opponents, though with their track record, Connie wasn't sure what tactics he was afraid would spoil their 'success'.

Even at matches, where she was expected to take high quality pictures of the players, Connie was forced to sit in the stands. Most of the time, she was low down enough to still get good shots without too many heads in the way, but it really varied. As a past amateur player herself, Connie had never yearned to be on the sidelines of the pitch so badly, wanting nothing more than to be close to her sport and to just finally get some better shots.

Luckily for her, a new willingness to showcase how the team was doing from Rebecca Welton and a great deal of encouragement and enabling from the new American Coach Lasso would finally give Connie what she wanted, and perhaps a little bit more.