part 4

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Gareth had said the coach leaves at exactly 8:00am, so most of the team got there about 7:45. I arrived in our team training kit, with the Man City jacket tied over my shoulders. It was about a four hour coach journey down to London, and our game wasn't until tomorrow. If all went well we were going to arrive in London about midday, have a short training session, then some free time before going back to the hotel to rest up for the game.

"Morning Ali." Lucy starts from the back of the coach, her voice laced with tiredness.
"Hey. You good?"
Lucy nods, then leans her head against the window. I take a seat on the opposite side to the girl, placing my bag on the free seat next to me. The girls started flooding the coach, some choose to sit next to each other, some on their own.
"Right!" Gareth shouted, getting everyone's attention, "Nice of us to join us ladies." He chuckled, moving out of the way for the late-arrivals. There wasn't many seat options left, so Steph took a seat next to Jill and Lauren found a spare seat at the front by Ellie. It wasn't long before we were on the road to London, two hours passed and the coach pulled over at a Service Station, and we could get off the to stretch our legs. Within another ten minutes we were back on the road. I didn't do much on the journey there, I must've kept dosing off because the hours flew by. Before I knew it the coach was coming to a stop outside a hotel, which Gareth said was about a 15 minute drive away from Arsenal's pitch.
"Before you all get in I just want to read out rooms! Lucy and Georgia; room 34. Steph and Keira, room 35. Ellen, Jill. 37. Kiara and Demi, 38. Ellie and Mary, 39. Lauren and Alina, 40. And Chloe and Hayley, 42. Everyone okay with that?"
Nobody protested against the roomings, but Lucy glanced over towards me and smirked. I knew immediately what she was talking about.

Gareth gave each pair two cards to their rooms, and told each pair repeatedly to not lose their cards.
The rooms were very modern and comfortable, the two single beds sat maybe three feet apart. And there was lots of room around each of them.
"Which bed you want?" I ask Lauren, glancing over at the girl,
"Uh. I'll take this one." Lauren replies, putting her suitcase on the bed closest to the door.
"That works. I hate sleeping by doors. Feel like someone's gonna kidnap me or something."
"I won't let you get kidnapped. Promise." Lauren chuckles, unzipping her training jacket and laying it on the end of the bed. A knock rings at the door to our room. Lauren glances at me and shrugs before heading over to open it. Lucy and Keira were stood at our door, smiling, they were already both out of their training gear and dressed for the weather in London.
"C'mon! Hurry up. Were going out!"
"Who's we?" I ask from the back of the room,
"Most of the squad. Well. The ones that aren't asleep anyway." Keira mumbles,
"And where are we going?" Lauren adds,
"For a meal... Now come on! Be down in the lobby in ten; or we leave without you." Lucy smirks, grabbing Keira's hand and dragging her off down the corridor. Lauren shuts the door slowly.
"I guess we're going out?" She shrugs, making her way back over to the beds.
"Apparently so."

I get changed into a pair of dark jeans and pair them with a plain white cropped shirt. Chucking a red hoodie over my shoulders, not to wear, but just for the style. And incase someone was to get cold (which was definitely going to be the case). I put my white trainers back on, and found my key placed nearly on the mantelpiece. I decided against putting any makeup on, and just quickly re-did my hair into a messy bun. Not having time to check it in the mirror before I was ushered out of the room by the blonde.

We made our way down to the lobby and saw most of the team sat on the sofas. As we approached Chloe stood up and started clapping.
"A whole seven minutes. I'm impressed Hemp."
"What's that mean?" I chuckle, turning to face Lauren.
"It means..." Jill joined Chloe standing up, "were very impressed you got her down here so quickly."
"Hey! Don't give Al all the praise. I was actually the one to usher her out of the room." Lauren replied, lifting her chin slightly and chuckling.
"No way. That's bullshit." Lucy laughed,
"No bullshit detected." I spoke up, "She pushed me out of the room."

"That's a first." Kiera smiled from next to Lucy, looking up from her phone. They'd recently started dating, but they didn't want it publicised.
"Okay. Funny. Come on then! Let's go." Lauren huffed, smiling slightly.

We didn't go anywhere fancy. And no where to busy either, with Womens Football on the rise some of the girls didn't exactly want to be caught by the public. With Jill, Chloe, Keira, Lucy, Georgia, Hayley, Ellie, Lauren and me; there was too many of us to order a taxi, so we decided to walk. We sat down at a small restaurant about a fifteen minute walk away from our hotel.

"Hey. Steph spoke to me earlier, apparently there's gonna be England scouts at the game tomorrow. They're looking to make up a team for the Euro's." Jill spoke up, from the other side of the table. We had somehow managed to get one circular table that fit us all, but we're getting strange looks from passers by. Probably due to the fact that none of us were remotely dressed up to go to a restaurant.
"Wait. Actually? Oh wow." Chloe exclaimed, "that's fucking huge."
"You can say that again." Georgia chuckled,
"Where else are they scouting from?" I asked, glancing around the table, my eyes landing on Jill.
"Arsenal and Chelsea. If I remember right."
"That's gonna be some tough competition." Mary added, everyone round the table nodded slowly,
"Let's not think about that, hey. We're her now. That's all that matters." Keira says, earning an ear to ear grin from her girlfriend,
"you're so cute." Lucy coos, squashing Keira's face the way a grandmother would.
"you two are adorable. Stop it."

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