There can only be one - Jude Bellingham x Reader

There can only be one

Being a woman is hard.

Being a woman who'll soon be surrounded by sweaty men who's only concern is how many goals they'll make and not how they smell like trash, is even harder.

But I'm not doing this for them. I'm doing this for me, and thats the only thing that matters.

I pinch the cloth of my knee length shorts to adjust them a bit, my feet stepping on the fake grass of the field while I position myself on the edge.

I raise my gaze just to find the team entering the field on the opposite side, they look confused but I don't mind. The coach looks at me before turning to the guys, going over the plan for todays training before blowing his whistle, a sign for the players to get moving. They do so but they can't help giving me a last glanze, a girl on a football team must be as normal as a fish in the desert to them.

"y/n? What brings you here?" Mr Watson, the coach, walks up to me with his hands in his pockets. He knows my dad, which makes me a lot less nervous.
Before I get to answer, he continues:
"The school colors look good on you" he says it a bit awkwardly and I give him a smile. The soccer uniforms contains a pair of white shorts, yellow t-shirt, and a pair of white knee socks.
"Thank you Mr Watson, I-"
He then interrupted me again:
"Oh no, just Robert is fine" he smiled and I nodded.

"Well, Robert, I'm actually here to try out for the team" I stretched my back, trying to look braver than I actually am.
"The team?" He looks at me questioning, if I was someone else maybe he would've laughed, but he tried to stay serious and nodded to himself.

"Well, there isn't a womens team... and there aren't any rules saying a girl can't join the one with... boys. But Y/n... you now spring is coming and soon we'll be preparing for the schools championship" he continued, scratching his forehead.
"I know, Richard, and thats why I wanted to join. Our school has always finished second after Maple Hills! I believe that if I join, I might be able to change that" I put on my most convincing facial expression, leading him to believe that I ws far more confident than I really was.

Mr Watson laughed and sighed, he thought for a while before finally saying:
"Okay, if you think you are all that then I'll let you audition for the team. On one condition, it happens right here and right now. A good player must be prepared for everything"
"Thats why I'm here coach" I adjusted my knee socks thinking I would just have to play infront of him, when I hear him blow his whistle. Maybe he'll just tell the team the training is done for today so that I can try out for the time alone..

"Alright team, training is over for today!"
The boys gathered around him, two sets of eyes staring at me. I knew them, the two boys who stood beside eachother, the ginger one saying something quietly to the dark haired boy who just nodded with a serious look on his face. Max Taylor and Jude Bellingham. Two of the popular "jocks" in our school.

Max is a redheaded boy who loves the popularity and the girls that follows him with heart eyes, he's always in a good mood but gets often into fights. I've never understood why he was so loved, maybe he's good looking but there's something about his smile that seems off to me. But, he is our best player so I guess it makes sense.
Jude Bellingham on the other hand is the total opposite, he also has girls following him around school but none of them seems to catch his interest. He's usually quiet and only bonds with people within his friendgroup, which consists of the football team. We went to the same kindergarten and apparently our mothers know eachother too, but I haven't really hung out with anyone of them except from that.

My heart beats as hard as a rock as I realise that the whole team will be watching me play, they'll scan every move I make, every step I take and every rule I break if I manage to let the nervousness take over me. But I take a deep breath, acting as if I don't give a shit, which I do but don't want to.

"Lets start out easy, I want you to... do a goal on Evans" Mr Watson winks at Evans, the teams goalkeeper. He nods and places himself infront of the goal. I take a deep breath, as I prepare myself infront of the ball.
"Just miss so we can go"
I hear someone whisper but it doesn't affect me, I'll show these misogynistic dudes that girls can play, even if I get into to the team or not.
I take a few steps backwards, my eyes meeting Evans as he looks quite relaxed. A deep breath and I make my way up to the ball again, letting my foot kick it in an angle thats too far away from Evans position for him to catch it. The ball flies up to the right corner of the goal, Evan jumps sideways but only manages to let his fingers slightly brush the ball, leading it to fly higher and right into the goal. I just nod. This wasn't too hard.

Evan looks a bit flushed as he picks up the ball, looking over at Mr Watson for directions. Mr Watson nods lightly and mumbles to himself.
"I don't have time for small shows, Jones place yourself. Jude, right here" The coach yells at Jones, a defender, before pointing on the grass where Jude later standa, our eyes meet but I can't read his expressions. If anything, he only looks bothered. As if he's annoyed to be here, infront of me. Max and Jude meets eyes, Jude sighs and rolls his eyes tiredly. Him acting as if I'm a burden bothers me a lot, it makes me tighten my fists but I calm down as I hear Mr Watson saying:
"In 5" He then countsdown until 1 before he blows his whistle and I stumble a bit, having some trouble with taking the ball smoothely. But I manage to run forward with it, Jude trying to take it but I run on the opposite side. I relax, feeling more confident as I'm about to make it past Jude, but he takes the ball, making me fall over, he makes a run for my goal.
"Great... she is so going to fail..." The sentence coming from an unknown source made my heart beat harder.
I felt the energy kick in as I quickly stand up, with all of my energy I make an attempt to catch up with him. He watches me with big eyes, a bit surprised to see that I continued with the game so quickly. I had my moment, it felt as if the world slowed down when our eyes met but I quickly broke of the eye contact by kicking the ball away from his feet, running after it before bringing it with me back to the goal. Jones watched me with big eyes as I approached as fast as I could, hearing Jude's footsteps coming closer behind me. Jones prepared himself and he took the ball easily, but before he could pass it on to Jude behind me, I kicked.
The ball rolled between Jones legs and towards Evans who walked forward a bit, kneeling to catch it as it came hastily to him. As that went on, I had already ran around Jones, ending up besides the ball, my feet kicking it sideways in an uncertain kick but it went well. I cursed to myself because I knew that no matter how this went, that stunt would cost me a few points from Mr Watson.
Shut up y/n, just do it.
The ball rolled to the left, and I went after it, so did Evans. If I'm too fast then I'll most likely miss and if I'm too slow then he'll catch it. I tried to figure out something as fast as I could before I got this idea. It was risky, but if it was done well then I would most certainly earn my place in the team. Fuck it, I'll do it.
I prepared my stance before kicking the ball with my toes, sending it flying to the right, not towards the goal, just towards the other side of the field. Then I ran, with the ball up in the air I jumped perfectly just for my forehead to nod the ball hard enough to send it flying towards the goal. Evan ran over, trying to stop it from entering but it was too late. The ball flew over the line and I won. I won? I won against Matthew Evans, Bryan Jones and Jude Bellingham.

The world starts moving again, after being slowed down. I try to catch my breath as I turn around to see Mr Watson and the others from the team staring at me, Jude Bellingham on my right side trying to avoid me at all costs, trying not to acknowledge that I totally wrecked him. I totally wrecked him lmao. I swallow before letting my gaze relax on Mr Watson again.
"So? Am I in?"
Mr Watson laughs for a bit before clearing his throat and looking around a bit nervous.
"Maybe" He says, meeting my eyes.
"Maybe?" I sigh, but nodded as I didn't want to sound disrespectful.
"What do you mean by maybe Richard?" I continued.
"What I mean by maybe is that you and Jude will now be sharing placements until the competition. You're both extraordinary midfielders but I need to be clear which one of you should play in the upcoming championship, so either you two discuss it or you'll let me decide it by the way you play in these coming trainings and matches. After all, there can only be one"