Attached - Mallory Pugh/USWNT

Chapter 5

April 3rd, 2022 9:00am

I woke up at 9 am today because I skipped the gym. Mallory was still asleep when I woke up, so I just went down to meet the team for breakfast. 

We were going to have our team meeting today before practice since everyone was in. Yesterday we just had a practice for the girls who were here. 

"I assume you'll be having the....french toast?" Joked Kelley O'Hara when I sat down across from her and next to Ashley Sanchez. 

"And good morning to you too Kelley." I sighed. 

"How do you say french toast in French?" 

"Pain perdu." I told her. "Now where can I get some?" 

Kelley repeated the words a few times, then showed me the buffet. "You can get your pain perdu right there." 

"Thanks." I got a variety of food from the buffet, then went to sit down. 

"What do you think this meeting is going to be about?" Asked Sanchez. 

"Probably about how we are playing some of the top teams in the world with some youngsters and a couple of teenagers." Kelley said, looking at me. She laughed. "The french one and her little buddy." 

"Buddy for sure." I fake smiled. In reality, it should be the opposite, it should be 'Mallory Pugh and That French Girl' because everyone knows who she is, while I'm still an unknown name. 

But it will be 'the French one and her little buddy" before they know it. 

"Does anyone want to go in the indoor pool?" Kelley asked suddenly. 

"Kel, we have practice remember?" Said Ashley. 

"Right." 

"How about after?" 

"Why not?" I said. "I can't swim though." 

"You can't swim!?" Said Kelley through a mouthful of food. Ashley looked surprised as well. 

"Nope." 

"Can you even play soccer? I learned to swim before I played soccer!"

"No, I can't. That's why I'm at camp with the USWNT." I said sarcastically. 

"Well now she's a sarcastic french girl." Said Sanchez. 

"So I'm the team joke?" I laughed. 

"You will be. It used to be your little friend Mally Poo." 

"Mally Poo?" I burst into laughter, which made Kelley and Ashley laugh too. 

"When did that become a thing?" Ashley said through laughter. 

"When she first started. I forgot how it came about though." Replied Kelley. 

We chatted and ate for a while longer before Mallory joined us. It was about 10:00, and practice starts at 12:30. 

"There she is!" Ashley said. 

"How nice of you to finally join us, Mally Poo." I said sarcastically. I was enjoying my morning not having to think about her. 

"Kelley." Mallory shot a glare that could kill her way. Kelley, not one bit intimidated, was laughing her ass off again. 

"Man she really doesn't stop laughing, does she?" I whispered to Ashley. 

"Nope." She replied. 

"I thought we were done with that, Kelley. I thought 'Mally Poo' left with 2021." Sighed Mallory as she went to get food. 

"I guess we didn't." Kel replied, and went back to eating. 

"You talked in your sleep last night." Mallory said to me when she came back from grabbing food at the buffet. 

"Did I really?" I asked. 

"Mhm." She mumbled, mouth full of fruit. 

"Did I keep you up all night?" I was able to keep my excitement over the possibility low, even though I was exploding inside. 

"For a while. But it was pretty funny, actually. You were complaining about how much you hated something. A lot of it was in French, but I gathered the English. You said 'I hate it so much. Why didn't I switch?' then you went to French, back to English, I think a bit of Italian...." She laughed. 

"I tend to do that." I replied. 

"You don't have an accent." Said Kelley. "Why not?" 

"Um, Kelley, I'm not from France." 

"Wait what?" 

"I probably wouldn't play here in the US if I was born there." 

"Then how do you speak fluent French?" The veteran was completely perplexed.

"My mom is from France and my grandparents on my dad's side." 

"Interesting." Kelley looked at me, her eyes squinted and head tilted slightly. "So do you look real French or fake French?" 

"Kelley what are these questions?" Ashley was falling out of her seat. "What's 'fake French?'" 

"Kel, you're supposed to be the one telling us not to ask ridiculous questions, not the one asking them." Said Mallory. 

"Well I'm curious!" Kelley replied. 

"Well I don't know what would classify as looking 'fake French' or 'real French' so you tell me what a French person looks like and I can tell you." I laughed. 

"Well do you look more like your mom or dad?" 

"She's just a copy and paste of her mom but stronger." Mallory said.

"Oh really?" Kelley asked. 

"Yeah. I can show you a picture." I puled one up on my phone and showed her, and she was in shock. 

"Copied and pasted but stronger and a few tattoos." 

"Essentially yeah." I said. I looked at the picture again. I did have a few of my dad's facial features, but it was minimal if you didn't focus on it. 

----------

5:00pm

"You're going in the pool? It's freezing!" Mallory said to me after practice. It was a pretty long day, lots of running but still a good amount of touches on the ball. 

"Hell yeah I'm going swimming." 

"Why?" 

"Indoor pool." 

"I know. But I know you can't swim." She whispered.

"There's no one else in this room. And it's no secret." I rolled my eyes to the back of my head. 

"Who are you going with?" 

"Why are you being so weird about this?" I asked. 

She paused and sat down. her tone got softer because we had gotten to the point of yelling again. "I was just hoping maybe we could hang out." 

"Well why don't you come with us?" I asked. 

I shocked myself with that response. I didn't even think to myself 'thank God I'm getting out of this' or anything like that. 

What's happening? 

"I'll come." She said happily, getting her bathing suit out of her suitcase. "Who's going?" 

"Kelley and Sanchez." I said. 

"I'm sure Kel invited other people." She said, going into the bathroom to get changed. 

"Like who?" 

"Probably the rest of the team, if I'm being honest."