The Family

2

Talia's POV

"Alright Ladies. Load up for training."

Today's our first day of training and it's an early morning session.

All of us leave the lobby of the hotel and load our stuff under the bus then get onto the bus. I get on last and take the first available open row then listen to my music. Sometime later we arrive at the training field so I get off and grab my stuff then head to a bench and get ready.

After I'm done getting ready I put my headphones and phone in my bag, grab a ball, then go onto the field and dance around with the ball.

"Is she always this quiet?" I hear Moe ask.

"Yeah. She doesn't talk a lot, but when she does you better listen." Christen says.

"Will she ever talk to us?" Ash asks.

"You have to gain her trust first. She only talks to four people in Utah outside of training." Becky says.

"Who?" Ali ask.

"Me, Kelley, Christen, and A-Rod...oh and she'll talk to Tobin and Alex."

"Why Tobin and Alex?" Emily asks.

"Well Kelley and Christen live with Talia and since Kelley and I are married and Tobin is dating Christen whenever we play the Royals in Utah or if we visit during our off weeks or if we visit randomly then we'll stay at their apartment and we've become close." Alex says.

"Does her not talking hurt the team dynamic?" Someone asks.

"Not really." Kelley says. "And even if it did we'd look past it."

"Why?" Lindsey asks.

"She's the reason our forwards and midfielders were so deadly last season."

"What?" Pinoe says.

"In training if you want to score against her you have to pull off a once in a lifetime move so you can have an ounce of space to shoot, otherwise you don't have a chance. When we played your teams getting space for us was a breeze" Christen says.

"She's that good?" Carli asks.

"If you score on her keep the ball because it doesn't happen often." Christen says.

"I've never seen someone know what's going to happen 10 seconds before it happens." Kelley says.

"I've never played with a better defender." Becky says.

Well I don't think that's true, but it's nice of Becky to say that.

"Let's start." Dawn says.

"COME ON FRECKLES." Christen yells.

I stop messing around with the ball and jog over to the team. Dawn then leads us in stretches and other warm up stuff then we are turned over to Jill.

"Alright we're gonna do some 1v1's." Jill says. "Alright Julie and Talia you two go first."

Odd pairing, but okay.

Julie and I break from the group and walk towards the ball.

"I like your freckles." Julie says.

"You have a beautiful smile." I say then a couple seconds later both of our eyes widen.

I slowly back away from Julie and stumble over my feet and fall to the ground all while keeping my eyes on Julie. Julie tries to help me up, but I cower away.

"Talia?" Becky slowly says as I get to my feet.

Becky approaches me, but I run to my bag and get out my medicine.