right where you left me

Chapter 52 - Walking the Family Line

I counted down the days. Excitement and dread both filled my heart and my head. I knew this was it; now or never. We had the chance to change the world, and culture in Australia. We knew the Aussie people would come out to support us, but we wanted that support to transcend this world cup. We wanted to see the love no matter when no matter what.

It was a lot of pressure.

But it was pressure we wanted.

"You're going to be amazing," Leah said to me, over FaceTime the night before the Ireland game. We had flown down from Brisbane the day earlier, wanting to get acquainted with our environment before playing the following evening.

"I'm genuinely shitting myself," I said, lying on my bed. We didn't have roommates for the tournament, but I did end up with an adjoining room with Hayley, which we both took full advantage of, playing pranks on the other whenever we could. At that moment, however, Hayley was downstairs with the rest of the girls, playing games, and relaxing in our rec room.

"That's normal," Leah confirmed, smiling at me, her cheeky little grin bringing one of my own.

"Home tournaments are stressful," I laughed, knowing she had experienced the same thing last year.

"That's the understatement of the year," Leah joked.

"How'd you do it?" I asked her, genuinely wanting some monumental advice that would maybe change the trajectory of my life.

"You just gotta believe you can," she replied.

"Did you?"

"Always."

"Not even when Spain was up by one?" I laughed.

"Not even then. I knew we had it in us. You just gotta have that faith too." I took the words like gold, holding them close to my chest, knowing I was going to relive this moment: you just gotta believe you can.

That's all.

Belief.

The following day we all woke up, soon going on our morning walk. I headed out to grab a coffee with the girls, knowing that Australian coffee beats the horrible stuff I have to drink in England. That is one thing I miss about home: coffee.

"Did you hear about Sam?" Caitlin said to me, as we walked along the beach in Rose Bay.

"No?" I replied. "What's happened?" A pit in my stomach started to form at the tone of Caitlin's voice.

"Yesterday, in training? She had to go over to the physio?" Caitlin reminded me.

"Yes but-"

"She's out."

"Shit. How long?"

"Until at least the Canada game."

"Fuck. This isn't good."

"Yep."

"Who's going to- what- what are we going to do?" I exclaimed.

"Not sure. Tony is going to run us through a plan today."

We headed back to the hotel, and Sam was notably absent.

"Alright, change of plans," Tony soon said. He flipped over his whiteboard to reveal the formation and the positions. I saw my name, central, as the 9.

Oh. My. God.

"Okay," Tony soon started to say. "With Sam out, and Kyah not available just yet, we've had to shuffle things around. So, essentially we want Caitlin in the 9, so at this point, she's in the 9, and we will have Mary, Tippah, and Hayley sitting back. Tipp as the 10, Mary on the left and Hayley on the right. With Mini and Cooney-Cross in a deeper position.

"But, worst comes to worst, we move Caitlin out onto the left, and Tippah, you're going to need to go into the 9, okay?" I looked at him, slightly shocked, but after hearing his reasoning, it made sense.