Training Hub

Chapter 7

Vivienne Miedema lay still in bed. She had been tossing and turning for what felt like hours now. Her hands reached to checked her phone. 1:13. She had gone to bed nearly 3 hours ago. Her mind wandered all over the place. The one thing she knew for sure would help her sleep was thousands of kilometres away in another country. She had brought Flip but she was too scared to bring him out. What will her roommate think of her then? O'Hara was ready loud enough and she knew her type. The talkative, gossip spreader at school.

Viv yawned, stretching as she stepped out of bed. She must have fallen asleep somewhere along the night. She looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Her hair now had strands of hair fizzed up. After brushing her teeth, she changed from her mismatched pyjama top and pants into the training kit they had provided. Today's kit was a black training top, shorts with the all-stars logo on the right printed in gold below her VM 9 printed in gold.

Pernille who was now changed in her training kit strolled to her girlfriend's room who was no doubt going to be still changing. She knocked on the door and was greeted by her girlfriend.

"Where's Lia?" Pernille asked as she walked in sitting on Magda's bed.

"She's gone to see Caitlin."

"I see"

"That means we can do this."

Magda hugged Pernille from behind who was seated on the edge of the bed. She trailed kisses from her shoulder to her neck.

"Magda."

"Shhh."

Obediently Pernille shut up. Magda gently shoved Pernille back onto the bed and climbed on top of her. She pressed her body closer and pressed a kiss onto her lips, deepening it so that she could taste Pernille's toothpaste.

Ingrid lined patiently behind the queue that was starting to form. Jill was in front of her talking to her former Arsenal teammates. She loved seeing her happy. She turned around and caught Leon or Mapi as people called her staring at her. A little bothered, Ingrid gave her a small smile and quickly turned back around to engross herself in Jill's conversation. She had made up her mind, she hated Mapi. It was everything about her. She was rude and arrogant.

At the front of the line was the loud group often connected with Kelley O'Hara, the rest of the Americans plus a few of the Aussies and a random Scot and Swiss. Lia who was still very half asleep was hugging her girlfriend from behind with her arms wrapping around her girlfriend's shoulder and neck as she talked to her friends. Lia placed her head resting on Caitlin's upper back with her eyes closed. Caitlin reached upwards with her hands lightly brushing against Lia's soft tan skin in a repetitive motion. The line slowly moved upwards so that they were now in front of the array of breakfast foods. Caitlin grabbed two plates and started serving on both of them with Lia still hanging off her back. She slowly shuffled over to the tables where she placed down both of the plates and pulled out a chair for Lia.

"Thanks, babe," Lia mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Jesus, Lia you're a lucky gal." Williamson walked over, putting down her plate.

After breakfast, all the players filed into the meeting room where the seats were now set up in a large circle. Once everyone was seated in a chair, Emma came forward and explained the game.

"First activity is an ice-breaker called - two truths and one lie. I know most of you know each other but there are a few players each of you is unfamiliar with so this is a great way to introduce each other. Jess - you're up first."

Jess froze hearing her name. She hadn't come up with anything yet. Crap. Her mind started to fog. Suddenly Sammy K spoke up.

"I'll go first, Emma. Um, first is I have an unhealthy addiction to chipotle sauces, I love doing laundry, and my favourite La Croix flavour is Lime. "