Mini Ertz///USWNT/NWSL

Protect Her

Chaos ensued again, this time worse. 

It was almost the end of the game, and we had a corner. Mal was over the ball, but the ref came over to us because behind me the annoying midfielder was grabbing Julie's shirt and stuff. 

He yelled at the girl, and she agreed to stop. Then when he walked away, she started again. 

Julie didn't complain, but other teammates did. But Mal couldn't see, so she kicked the ball. 

"Hey ref, what the hell?" Julie said as the ball was soaring over us. 

The ball bounced around in the box a little bit and fell at my feet, but I kicked it out of bounds and ran over. 

"Don't touch her get your hands off her!" I yelled at the girl, grabbing Julie's jersey and trying to separate the fight that was about to break out. 

"Britt, kid, stay out of this!" Mal said, running over and grabbing me. 

"But it's....she can't do that!" 

"Calm down. Stay out-" 

"Don't push her! Hey!" 

"Britney do not-" I wiggled out of Mal's grasp. 

"Don't touch her! Leave her alone she didn't do anything to you!" I said, putting myself in between the girls. A few other girls had tried to step in but it was a pretty sorry try. 

"Britney Johnston get your teenage butt over here!" Mal yelled. 

"Leave....Julie....alone." I said, pushing her away. I blocked out all of the mean words they were exchanging.

As soon as I got Julie away and she wasn't directly in front of me, I felt a push from behind and a lot of booing from the crowd. I hit the ground, and you best believe I was up on my feet in a matter of a half second. 

Mal told me later that if looks could kill, this girl would be dead and gone and buried.

The girl backed up, and I did too. 

"That's what I thought." I muttered as I walked away.

"Britt-" Mal started, but I cut her off. 

"Julie saved me. It was my turn to save her. She protected me earlier in the game, I protect her. Bad rap or not, getting playing time again or not, none of it matters. Only Julie." 

She nodded, told me to be good and we both took our spots. 

We played 3 more minutes, and then the refs called it. 

I think I would win the competition for most chaotic debut if there was one. 

 I was in a whole lot of pictures after the game, the best one being a picture with Julie. But after the game, people with special player-given invite VIP could come on the field. I thought all of the players who had family there were cute. 

But then after them all, I absolutely lost it. 

"Bailey?" I said as she ran up to me. 

"Britt! You're a real USWNT player now!" She smiled, giving me a huge hug. 

"I can't believe you're here!" I started crying then. "There's no way you're here." 

"Well I'm here!" 

"How did you get here?" 

"Your cousin is pretty amazing." 

"She really is, isn't she?" I looked at her playing with Alex's daughter. 

I sighed, and took everything in. The crowd, being on the field, Bailey, everything was so good. 

"Julie's gonna be a great mom." Bailey noticed while watching her. 

"She already is." 

She smiled at me and nodded, pulling me in for another hug.