The Rising Star - Alexia Putellas

Part 13

"Sorry Abs, I'll call and text you once a day. I promise" I laughed at her.

"Yeah, you better."

"Move your ass, Dalhkemper. It's our turn to hug the baby." Rose and the others came over.

"Don't worry Rosie, there's always enough cuddles for you." I hugged Rose and the other four knuckleheads. The four of us, who had just arrived, grabbed our bags and made our way inside.

Seeing as Abby already had checked in and I was her roomie, we directly went to our room with the other four right behind us. The moment we got inside, Sonnet sprinted past all of us and jumped on what turned out to be my bed. "Child." I heard Lindsay murmur under her breath, making me smile.

"I swear to god, if you break my bed again, I'll hurt you." This caused the others to turn their heads and look at us.

"Is there something you both need to tell us?" Sam looked at us with a raised eyebrow.

"Ooh you have no idea." Sonny replied with a smirk on her face.

"HA, you wish, Sonny. But we may or may not have used our bed once as an airtrack to see who could do a cooler flip." I told the taller girl.

"And who did the cooler flip? Rose asked us.

"It was Queenie, wasn't it?" Abby said, making me burst into laughter. Sonnet just glared at me.

"Idiots." Linds shook her head.

"Well, I'm the older one so therefore you're more likely to pull off a good flip." She said while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Whatever makes you sleep at night."

"You would." Sonnet smirked at me. I just hit her arm laughing.

"Kidding." She threw her arms in the air.

Anyway, anyone who knows the schedule? Because if we're free then I'm in the mood for coffee." I told the squad.

"Dude, Jill sended the schedule to everyone three days ago through mail." I looked at Sammy as if she was crazy.

"No she didn't."

"Yes, she did. Don't worry I knew you were most likely to forget so I took the liberty to email you again and I printed it. It's on the table."

"Love you Linds."

" Hey, what about me?" Sonnets said pouting.

"Sure." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Rude." She pushed me, making me push her back which then inevitably resulted in a shoving match between the two of us.

"Okay children! We have a meeting in 3 hours so we should be fine. I'm in." Rose said while looking at her phone presumably at the schedule that I had missed. Oops.

"Alright I text the group to see who's here and who wants to come and we'll meet each other in the lobby in 10?" I asked the squad.

A murmur of yesses was heard among the group. "She keeps missing the mails with the schedules, but here she goes, coming up with a plan to drink coffee. Unbelievable."

Lindsay gave Sonnet a shove. "Future captain skills, now let's go Sonny cause unlike her you do need those ten minutes to make yourself presentable." Lindsay said, making all of us laugh except for Sonny of course.

Once we all got ourselves ready, we ended up at a small local café close to the hotel we were staying at. After my text in the group chat, everyone who had already arrived decided to join us. The ones who were on their way, told us that after they would meet us there once they'd arrived.

We were all enjoying our coffee and easily fell into light conversation, catching up with one other. I mainly listened though. Just like always I tried to keep my distance, definitely now when we're out in public.

"So kid, how much is left of your contract with Arsenal?" Carli turned her attention to me.

"Uhm after this season I have one more season left. Then we'll see, I guess." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Any chance you'll be returning home after that?" Christen asked this time.

"I don't know to be honest. I like it over there and I'm not even graduated by then. So we'll have to wait and see."

"Right, I keep on forgetting that you're technically still in college." Crystal, who had recently joined us, said.

"What are you studying again?" Julie asked.

"I'm getting an MD at Oxford."

"But how do you manage your career and your education? I mean you're studying to become a doctor for crying out loud." Mall looked at me in shock.

"I'm quite lucky to be fair. I follow a few of the classes online and the ones I can't, my teachers tape for me so I can watch them later. The rest I study by myself. I just have to check in with the teachers for follow up questions and tests and then I'm good. Both the team and my school sat together to see how we could work this all out. I'm really grateful for that cause I wanted to have something besides soccer."

"Well, you are a smart cookie and I have to say that that is a very mature discussion." Carli smiled at me.

"How long until you graduate then?" Julie asked.

"If everything goes to plan, in 2020." I said, like it was nothing. You see, I graduated a year earlier and during that year I had a teacher who had advised me to already pick up some of the classes in college, which I did. Therefore my five years became four years.

"Okay, let's switch this up. We know you're a gunner like you like to put it, but besides Arsenal is there another team that you're a fan of or that you would want to play for?" Moe asked me with a smirk. I could feel all eyes on me. They all wanted me to say their team of course. This has been going on since I joined the team in 2015. Them, trying to convince me to join their team.

To be honest, I've not given it much thought of what I was gonna do when my contract was up. I don't like change and new environments so I'm just gonna stay in London. Of course I had dreams but those are just that. Dreams.

Before I could even answer, someone beat me to it. Someone who probably knows me better than I know myself. "Barcelona." Was her simple answer. She wasn't wrong. For as long as I can remember, I was a Barca fan. Maybe even before I was a gunner. It was my dream to one day play for them. A shared dream with my dad and Cory. It started with my adoration for the men's team, thanks to one Leonel Messi but soon turned into one for the women's team thanks to Alexia Putellas. Anyway, enough of that because I got up and went over to greet the one who the voice belonged to, Ali.

I got back to my seat and sat down between Sam and Sonnet, when Sam turned to me. "Hey, have you talked to my sister lately?" This made my stomach turn. Did Kristie tell Sam?

"No, not since I've left this morning. Why?" I tried to play it cool.

"I called her before we were coming here and I don't know, she just sounded sad? I don't know. Maybe I'm imagining things."

I felt the guilt rising within me. I knew she was sad because I was the reason as to why she was. I was the one who pushed her away, while all she wanted to do was be a good friend and help me.

But you know that's just the thing with bad people isn't. They always start with the right intentions that turn into the wrong doings.