All Worth It In The End - Katie Mccabe

chapter twelve

I time my tackle and get the ball off of her before rolling it backwards for Less to pass it into the goal again. I run and jump on her back, "let's go Less."

As we walk back to our half I look over at Katie to see she's wiping the sweat off her forehead with her shirt. I scan over her abs to see them covered in sweat.

We go to start playing again when Jonas calls everyone over. "Okay girls, we've trained for two hours and now it's half twelve so we have an hour and a half to eat lunch. Then we have an hour of free time followed by another hour of training followed by an hour of gym. Then you will have recovery in the ice baths before we all have dinner and then a few of you will be called for short interviews. Sound good?"

Everyone is listening carefully. When he mentions ice baths everyone groans but we all say okay at the end of it. Everyone heads straight to the cafeteria for lunch but I see Katie slip off to the toilet. I don't over think it and get my food while talking to Less and Leah.

We sit at a table of four saving a seat for Katie when she comes in. As we're eating I see Katie walk in. She looks a bit paler then earlier but I don't say anything, thinking it's from the lack of breakfast followed by two hours of football.

She gets a small plate of food before coming and sitting next to me. I smile at her softly. I had enough of my food only having had scrambled eggs and toast. I move my plate a bit away from me before putting one elbow resting on the table while the other rests on Katie's knee.

She looks at me before smiling at looking back at her food. She doesn't eat any but moves it around with her fork. Leah and Alessia are in a conversation so I quickly turn to Katie, "what's wrong, why aren't you eating?"

She looks at me before looking away quickly, not holding eye contact, "I'm just not hungry." I hold her chin, moving her head to look at me, "don't lie to me. What's actually wrong? You didn't eat breakfast you can't not be hungry."

She sighs and looks down before looking back up, "I'm just not feeling too good today, and something happened between my family in Ireland." She looks back down at her food. I squeeze her knee slightly, "believe me, stuff happened at home all the time in Australia. Whatevers happened you can tell me."

She shakes her head slightly, "not now. Maybe later." I squeeze her knee again to reassure her that I understand, "how about if you're ready you can tell me during our free hour? Now eat something, it might make you feel a bit better."

She just nods her head and eat about a quarter of her food. She pushes her plated away from her slightly, "I can't eat anymore. It's just making me feel worse." I move my hand off her knee and hold onto her hand, "let me know if you need to go to the toilets." She just nods her head at me.

After the hour and a half break for lunch we all go to the break room for our hour of free time before training.

I sit on the last available beanbag so pull Katie down to sit between my legs. She rests her head on my chest before getting into a conversation with Leah.

I start talking to Less and Lotte about random things and then Kyra joins in and it turns into them continuously asking who my girlfriend was.

I didn't tell them anything but they continue to ask. "Tell us one thing. Just one and we'll drop it," Lotte pleads. I shake my head slightly without saying anything.

All three of them sigh, defeated. They drop it for about two more minutes before asking again. "Please? Does she play football? Answer and we won't ask again." Less begs.

I look at them for a second before looking away again. This time Kyra speaks up, "we've known each other for years. At least tell me if she plays football like Less said."