golden blonde¹

brighton and hove albion (h)

"your sister wanted everyone to watch your match, mapi and ingrid are trying to help jana figure out how to get a stream up." alexia clearly laughs at something happening at elena's old home.

"oh, never mind then, it was a stupid idea anyways," elena says wistfully.

"are you nervous about the game? is everything okay little one? do you want mapi to do the ritual with you?"

"it's so bad alexia, i just hyperventilated in my teammates' car and made us late. what if i don't do well? what if i lose the ball too often?" elena's breaths quicken once again. she takes a panicked glance around her.

"calm down el, just take some deep breaths. nobody is expecting you to not make any mistakes. they're going to happen. it's what you do afterward. look around you, tell me what you see right now."

"i see grass. it's not as good as the one at our stadium. but it's better than most away games we've played. my teammates are walking around the pitch. they're laughing and talking amongst one another."

"do they look nervous?"

"well no, not really."

"i promise you they are all nervous. even though it doesn't seem like it, everybody gets nervous."

"even you? ballon d'or winner alexia putellas?" elena lightly laughs.

"yes, even me. no matter who we play against, i am always going to be nervous because anything can happen. but i always remember that there are people who will always back me, including my teammates. your teammates will back you elena."

"so i have nothing to worry about?"

"nothing at all, i promise."

"thank you alexia... i really needed that," elena confesses.

"of course elena. you can call me anytime. i'm going to give the phone to maria now, is that okay?"

"yeah, that would be great, thanks again alexia."

elena waits for a second, she hears the phone being handed over to another person with rustling on the other end.

"elena! sorry i wasn't on the phone, jana's trying to set up the stream on your television right now. aren't you supposed to be warming up soon?" mapi greets enthusiastically.

"there's an hdmi cable behind the television that i used. check there, if you find it, plug in her laptop to the television."

mapi's voice disappears from the call, but elena can hear jana scream "i found it!" and loud jeers congratulating her for setting up the stream.

"hey! yeah, we found it, thanks. why are you calling me so close to your kickoff?"

"i guess i just wanted to do the ritual one last time with you."

"one last time for this season, do not be so pessimistic el. you'll be back next season and we'll be on the pitch together again." mapi chides quickly.

they go through their ritual, elena does most of the talking instead of mapi who usually did most of it. she says her thanks to the older defender, opting to decline an invitation to talk to jana, stating she had to go back into the locker room.

when asked by her teammates why she chose her number, elena stated that her sister was her main inspiration. with the number six being taken by leah, and 16 by noelle, elena really had to find an alternative number. there's such a big gap between the numbers next to her that she's got space next to her that she doesn't need.