Training Hub

Chapter 10

She tried. She tried so hard to fight back her tears. But she couldn't. They just kept coming down. Before she knew it, her pillowcase was wet and soggy from her tears and her eyes began to sting. Everyone knew her as the super striker for Arsenal or the Netherlands but nobody knew of the pressure that came with it, the time you spend apart from your loved ones. She hadn't seen her brother in over a year before Christmas, 4 months ago. The weight just fell down on her, the frustration, the desperation to sleep. She couldn't. She just couldn't. Her eyes red and stained with tears, slowly weighted down as her eyes began to close. The overwhelming feeling taking over.

With her arms outstretched, Guro Reiten stood out of bed hoping that the movement would wake her up. She tried to be as quiet as possible so she wouldn't wake her roommate up. She tiptoed to the bathroom with her toothbrush and training kit. She stared at herself through the mirror. Her straight brown hair was wrapped in a messy bun and slight eye bags shadowed underneath her eyes revealing that she hadn't adjusted to the time difference yet along with the fact that her very blonde and pretty roommate made her stay up, thinking. She had always known that she liked girls but she hadn't officially come out yet to the world. Most of her teammates knew as well as her close friends but that was it. She just wasn't ready yet for the hate and the mean messages. Part of her was proud of her generation for making a change, for standing up to the traditional beliefs of the world. Another part of her was mad and jealous that she had to go through all the rudeness and mean comments. The world sucks she thought as she finished brushing her teeth and moved on to combing her hair in a ponytail. Afterwards, she made her way to Erin's room.

Leah looked around. The dining hall was empty besides the chefs in the kitchen area. Still rubbing her eyes, she shuffled over to the chair furthest away from the entrance. Her eyes instantly peeled over her phone as she scrolled through her texts before she heard a message ping. "Coming down. Meet me outside" It read. She loved Jordan. She loved the fact that Jordan would go along with her hiding their relationship. It wasn't that she was ashamed of Jordan. She didn't care if other footballers knew about it. Hell, everyone on the Arsenal and England team knows about it. It was the fans. Trust her when she says that she loves the fans, the countless appreciation, the letters and the loving messages they sent. It was the hateful comments that she found often in her feeds bugging her. She just couldn't deal with it. It was easier to act like they weren't together in front of the team, they needed to be professionals plus she didn't want her teammates to worry about revealing their relationship when they wanted to post pictures on social media.

Her mind was sent back to reality when she felt someone hug her from behind. The instant warmth she felt told her that it was Jordan. She smiled as she turned around and wrapped her arms around her.

"Good morning, my love" Leah whispered before kissing Jordan softly on the forehead.

"Morning," Jordan mumbled back still half asleep. She loved sleep but she loved Leah more than sleep so she was happy to wake one hour before normal to spend time with her. The chilly air brushed past them. Instinctively, Leah grabbed Jordan's hand while they strolled down the path underneath the tall palm trees in Rio de Janeiro.

They had walked several laps of the park already, just talking and embracing each other's touch when Leah looked down at her phone to see the time.

"Shit, Jords, we're late for breakfast." Her legs started to pace towards the facility as she dragged the short midfielder with her.

"What do you mean? Has it already been an hour?" Jordan questioned, her legs trying to catch up with Leah's.

"It's been an hour and 47 minutes."

They ran into the dining hall huffing and puffing praying that there was still some food left. Leah and Jordan quickly grabbed an array of food and chucked it onto their plate before settling down with their friends.

"Well, well, well look who finally made it?" Keira laughed.

"Having a make-out session, was it Jords?" Rachel nudged Jordan as she sat down.

Leah and Jordan made eye contact while blushing even though they weren't.

Rachel was chucking to herself watching the sight of Captain Leah and Jordan running in panting like they just had a marathon. Her eyes slowly travelled to a blonde with blue eyes. She regretted ending things with Kristie. She was partly glad that Kristie was facing the other way so that she couldn't catch her staring at her.

"Stop making goo goo gaa gaa faces at your ex." Rachel's cheeks flushed red. She turned her head within seconds to find Millie laughing at her.

"Your face," Millie chuckled "I wish I filmed it."

After breakfast, everyone filed into one of the meeting rooms and settled into one of the seats. Jose Mourinho walked into the room and started to talk. "Physicality and skill are two of the most important fundamentals in football. The third one is being smart. All of you know the basics, most of you know the medium level and some of you are at an advanced level. Basic is not what you think, basic is what you learn and practise at training every day. By the end, I want everyone to be at an advanced level, a level where all our mistakes are guaranteed to be because of mistakes based on physicality or skill and not because we were in the wrong position..."

Lucy began to block out Mourinho's voice. She used to listen to her dad talk about Mourinho and his teammates playing in the Portuguese league. Her eyes watched Keira who was in the row in front of hers. Her mind thought of all the happy memories together. She remembered the time they got drunk and jumped into the freezing cold pool at 2 am in the morning forcing Leah to jump in and drag them out. She had banned alcohol from their hotel room until they got back to England. She could distinctly remember smelling Keira's green apple shampoo as she lay on her lap drying off in Leah's hotel room. She didn't realise that someone could miss shampoo so much until now. She would kill to smell that sweet tangy smell again.

Magda loved tactical training, she loved the strategy part of football. Being a centreback and captain, it was her job to know these things that Jose Mourinho just said through his slideshow presentation. As players slowly filed out for lunch, she felt Pernille nudge her in the back.

"Enjoy it?"

"Yes, very much. I'm captain, I have to know these things so it was very helpful" Magda replied earnestly.

"Ok Commander," Pernille replied to which Magda immediately burst out laughing. She remembered the time Pernille tried to say how Magda was the boss of her at home in an interview and instead came out telling it in a very wrong way for people with dirty minds.

"What?" Pernille asked, confused as to why her girlfriend was laughing.

"Just you being you Pernille." Magda beamed the brightest of smiles, so happy that Pernille was hers, all hers.