The Family

20

Talia's POV

"You ready to play your girlfriend?" Kelley asks as the bus pulls up to SeatGeek Stadium.

We play Chicago today.

"Kelley we aren't dating." I say.

"You mean to tell me you spent the last month or so having daily FaceTime dates with someone you aren't dating?" Kelley asks.

"Knock it off Kelley." Amy says. "Talia can move at whatever pace she wants to."

"Thank you." I say as the bus stops then I get off and head to the locker room.

Once in the locker room I remove my three necklaces and place them safely in my bag. I then change into my warm up shirt, game shorts, my right sock, my left sock, my right red boot, and lastly my left red boot. After that I head to Amy's locker then sit down on the floor in-between her legs.

"Hey sweetie." Amy says and starts running her fingers through my hair.

"Hi Amy." I say then face forward and let Amy do her thing.

Amy runs her fingers through my hair for a little bit then she puts part of my hair in a braid like she does hers then she puts it in a pony tail.

"Thanks." I say and hug one of Amy's legs.

"No problem." Amy says and kisses my head then I get up and start walking out of the locker room.

Before I walk out of the locker room I look at the starting XI.

1-Christiane Endler
5-Kelley O'Hara
2-Rachel Corsie
4-Becky Sauerbrunn (C)
14-Talia Martin
11-Desiree Scott
9-Lo'eau Labonta
17-Jessie Fleming
6-Katie Bowen
23-Christen Press
8-Amy Rodriguez

"Whatcha lookin at Freckles?" Christen asks.

"Just making sure I'm not dreaming that we have Christiane Endler on our team." I say.

"Yeah I still don't know how they pulled that off." Becky says.

"I'm just glad she's on our team this time." Christen says.

"You can get some revenge at the Olympics." I say. "But for now let's go warm up."

The three of us leave the locker room and walk to the pitch.

"Hey." Julie says as she walks next to us.

"Hey." I say and smile at my soulmate.

"You still want to come have dinner and stay at my place tonight?" Julie asks.

"I do." I say.

"Great." Julie says as we walk on the pitch. "I'll meet you outside the locker rooms after the game."

"Sounds good." I say.

"Now its time for me to put on my game face." Julie says and her face turns more serious.

"Nah." I say. "You're still cute."

"Come on Talia." Becky says as I watch Julie blush. "Win now. Flirt later."

I roll my eyes, but allow the older woman to drag me to warm up with the starters.

The starters and I do our warmups then everyone heads into the locker room when told to. When I get to the locker room I strip off my warm up top and put on my gold jersey then I sit in my locker as Laura does her pregame speech. After the pregame speech I head out with the starter and get in line behind Desi then walk out when told. Once on the pitch we shake hands, the captains do the coin toss, then I run to my position. I wait a few seconds then Chicago kick off the game.