Nothing shines as bright as your eyes - (Leah Williamson x OC)

Part 18

Today we played Arsenal. An important match, because if we want to win the league, then we've got to win these kind of important matches.

Though, I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. Even though there was a good chance that I was starting, seeing as I've been training at my absolute best for the last week or so.

The game was at home, so luckily we didn't have to travel all the way down to London. The game started at 8 pm, so we had a short training in the morning, and made our way to the Etihad Campus at around 4 pm.

We would first head into the tactical room, where the starting line up would be revealed and where we could all still individually look over our direct opponent and perfect the knowledge of their strong and weak sides.

We had done a bit of studying, though it was mostly just Lucy annoying the shit out of everyone, which was kind of entertaining. And after, we all went to sit in rows, facing the screen that would show us the final starting line up.

I was actually so nervous, I didn't realise it in the beginning. But soon, I felt my hands getting clammy, my heartbeat going faster and becoming more noticeable and I felt a knot forming in my stomach.

Finally the screen was turned on, and in the exact middle of the pitch was an animated shirt, with under it 'TAYLOR'.

Oh my God, is all that went through my head as soon as I say my last name appear on the screen. This was an opportunity that I just had to make the most of. If I was to perform excellent on the pitch, then maybe I could convince Gareth to make me a standard part of the first eleven.

Though I knew, for that to happen I had to perform even better. So there was still a long road ahead of me, but I'd do whatever it takes to make minutes for my dream club.

After everyone had had a good look at the first eleven, we went on with the meeting. We had a final tactical revision and, after we went through our whole game plan, we all headed to the pitch to have a quick look around, and greet some fans that were already in the stadium.

I took some pictures with the ones that recognised me. Because, frankly, not many people knew my name yet. Which wasn't weird, seeing as I had never played for any national senior team, and I had only made a few appearances for City, as of yet. But I was determined to change that. How amazing would it be if I was the one you'd associate City with. You think of City, you think of me. That would be an absolute dream.

By now it was 6:30 pm. After our lap around the pitch, we went to the changing rooms to change into our warming up kits. Lucy and Steph already gave us some encouraging and motivational speeches, before we actually started our warming up.

From where we were passing a ball around, I had a perfect view of the other side of the pitch. I could see the Arsenal girls heading out onto the pitch, and starting to do some stretching. We were very much ahead with our warming up, though I'm not sure who's going to benefit from that in the end.

I could see Leah come out of the building as one of the last, with a very serious and determined look on her face. Maybe she could feel me staring, because as soon as she entered the pitch she turned to look my way.

I immediately faced my teammates again, but I'm pretty sure it was too late. I probably went bright red, for being caught staring.

Though I took the guess, and quickly glanced her way again. She now had an even more determined look plastered on her face. No way in hell I'm going to let her win from me.

~~~

It was now the 78' minute and the score was 2-2. It had been a real quality game, with some great goals from Lauren and myself. Though, the goals of Arsenal certainly couldn't go unmentioned. I'm not quick to give credit to the opponent, but sometimes you just got to admit the brilliancy of their goals.

Just like this one. Beth Mead had cut to the inside and was right outside of the box when she absolutely smashed the ball into the left top bin. It was truly a stunning goal.

I, myself, had had a goal from distance in the 56' minute, making us lead with 2-1. But after Beth's goal, mine almost went unnoticed. Though, I didn't mind too much, I was just glad I could help the team.

Both sides had created opportunities, but none of them resulted in a chance on goal. That was until the 87' minute. Arsenal had a corner, but weren't able to put it in the back of the net.

Lucy cleared the ball away, and it landed at my feet. I wasn't involved with the corner, due to my height, just like Lauren. So we were the only two players from City that were up front.

I started sprinting with the ball, and occasionally had a glance to my left to see Lauren running next to me.

Soon two Arsenal defenders started closing up to me, deciding I had won enough ground, leaving Lauren running by herself. Big mistake.

I immediately crossed the ball over to Lauren, when I felt a tackle from beside me, completely swiping my feet from underneath me. I felt a horrible sting in my ankle and went down, clutching the ankle that had taken the full body weight of the Arsenal player.

I heard celebratory screams from around me, so I figured that or Lauren had managed to score, or Arsenal were unusually happy with this reckless sliding.

I didn't know, because I still had my eyes completely shut, trying to handle the immense pain I was feeling in my ankle.

I felt a hand on my back and looked up. Lauren was leaning over me with a worried look plastered on her face. "Are you okay?" She asked, while the medics were now surrounding me and asking me loads of questions. I just nodded at Lauren in response and started to answer their questions.

From out of the corner of my eye, I saw the ref putting a yellow card back in her pocket, while she was swarmed with blue shirts, who were probably wondering why it was only a yellow. To be honest, I was asking myself the same question. Surely this was much more than just a yellow card.

After the medics were finished, with their what felt like an interrogation, they helped me up and started to help me to the side of the pitch. It was obvious I couldn't carry on and, unfortunately, had to be subbed off.

Lauren was, to my surprise, still walking beside me. So I took this as an opportunity to ask her what I had been wondering since I went down. "Did you score?" I asked.

"Are you okay?" She asked at the exact same time. There was a pause for a second, but Lauren had a look on her face that told me she wasn't going to answer until I did.

"I think I will be. I mean, I have to be, right?" I said, more encouraging myself, than actually answering her question. I then, once again, asked her the more important question.

"Well, did you score?" I asked, now very annoyed. "Yeah, I did." She said, with a smirk on her face. Which caused me to smile in return.

The medics helped me inside of the building, while the game was continued. They brought me to what seemed like a medical room of some sort, and told me to sit on the massage bed that was in the middle of the rather small room.

Here they continued their medical examination, while I was watching the game on the television that hung in the corner of the room. As soon as the final whistle went, a wave of relief went through my body.

We won, this was a very good step towards winning silverware. And what was just a nice addition, was a win against Leah. At least she couldn't hold this against me.

A/N
-hello lovely people, a bit longer, because you had to wait a bit longer.
- hope you enjoyed it, and I promise from now on we will see more and more of Leah. But this is a slow burn, and Stacy is not very good at letting people in, so don't expect it to go extremely fast from here.
- suggestions are welcome, and I hope you have a lovely day. See you at the next one!

:)