I wish I was you **ON HOLD**

Chapter 4

I went to Viv to tell her my answer so. "Hey Viv you got a minute?" 

She looked up at me from her cooking. "Yea what's up?"

"You know how we were talking about me possibly playing for Holland?" 

She nodded. "You finally got your answer then?" 

"Y-yea, I think so." I paused making sure I had made the right decision. "You can tell Sarina that I will play for Holland." 

Viv squealed with delight and Lisa looked at her concerned from the couch. "You okay babe? You sound like a pig getting their tail chopped off." 

"Yes Lisa I'm fine. Actually I'm great! Rhaina here just decided to change her nationality and play for Holland!!" Viv replied, washing her hands as quickly as she could. She grabbed her phone and started dialing I presumed Sarina to inform her of my decision. She headed to the other room to talk with Sarina. 

"You did?" Lisa asked me.

"Yea, I thought about it for awhile and thought just why not." I answered with a small smile.

"Oh I'm so proud and happy for you. And obviously Viv is over the moon about it." Lisa said with a chuckle. I smiled even more feeling much more happy and confident with my answer now that I had said it out loud. I had actually decided quite a long time ago specifically the night after Viv had asked me. I hoped playing for Holland would be a good decision. I already knew Viv, Jill, Daan, Sari, and Dom so that would be nice. I didn't really know any of the girls on the US youth teams as I had been getting called up for the U-17, U-18, U-19, and U-23 teams here and there so never really stuck with one team so subsequently my connection with the other girls was quite minimal.

We started off 2019 with a match against West Ham. We finally had Kim back which was very good for us. We started the match off slow conceding first but we soon fought back and the game ended as a 4-2 win to us. I scored a header off of a corner in the 72nd minute that game. 

On the 10th we played our League Cup quarter-final against Birmingham. It wasn't the best game we'd played this season, we went down 1 nil partway through the second half. In the 94th minute of the game I saw an opportunity, cutting off a pass from Birmingham and talking the ball down the left hand side of the pitch. As I neared the end line I cut the ball back and crossed the ball into the the middle just in front of the goal and Daan was able to tap the ball past the opposing keeper. I ran to her and hugged her, lifting her up in the air. I put her down when our other teammates came to celebrate. 

In the dying seconds of stoppage time we got a corner off on the left side. I grabbed the ball and placed it on the line and took a few steps back ready to take the corner. I could see Viv lurking near the back post and the only person covering her was quite a few heads shorter and I was confident that if I curved the ball at the perfect angle to her that she could rise above the other heads. I raised my hand and leaned forward, then took the three steps and lifted the ball up. As soon as I hit the ball I knew I had added too much spin on it and that Viv would have to move closer to the goal in order to get it. Then it happened. The world seemed to slow, the ball went up, up going over all the heads in the box, then curving right at the top right corner then in an instant the back of the net rippled and the crowed roared.

I had scored an Olympico.

 I saw my teammates running at me, elation filled their faces. Katie was the first to me jumping onto me almost making my knees buckle. The next thing I knew I was laying on the grass with the whole team piled onto me even the subs. 

After about 3 minutes of celebrating we went back to the center of the field for the other team to kick off. As we waited I took my hair out of its ponytail as it had gotten all ruffled up thanks to the many pats on the head my teammates had given me. Birmingham kicked off but seconds later the whistle blew and I looked over at Beth and smiled. I pumped my fists into the air as she ran towards me. I hugged her as she exclaimed. "We did it Ray-Ray!!!!! We're headed to the semi-final!!!!!" I laughed and we walked towards our oncoming teammates who all joined our hug and we had one big group hug.