Free Solo

78

"Here's the difference." I say. "When I score I get paid a goal bonus of a decent amount of money but when you score all you get is a high five so pipe down little boy."

"You get paid to score?" Some brunette kid asks.

"Mhmm." I say. "If I score more than 20 goals a season then I get a lot of money."

"You know." Jay says as he looks at me. "Seth has a scholarship offer to Washington."

"Maybe I should call coach and have a little chat about Seth." I say.

"Really?" Seth asks.

"If you ever treat another women like the way you treated us then I will." I say then I look at my brother. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah." Chase says.

"We'll be in the car so go shower and change quickly."

Chase nods before he jogs off to the locker room then Athena, Daan, Balto, and I head back to the to wait for Chase.

"Audrey when do you leave?" Athena asks.

"Monday."

- - - - -

"Daan have you seen my boots?" I ask as I rummage around my locker in the Arsenal training ground.

Today's the first day of training before the new season.

We just finished our pre season tour of Germany where we played Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich, Potsdam, and the new Borussia Dortmund team and now we're prepping for our first WSL match against the newly promoted London City Lionesses.

"Here." Daan says and hands my rainbow and white boots to me. "I guess you put them in my bag this morning."

"Thanks." I say.

"Audrey how many pairs of those do you have?" Lisa asks.

"20." I say. "I've already worn through one so this is my second pair and I have 18 pairs left."

"I thought it was 8." Tierna says.

"Nike found more so they sent them to me." I say.

"Don't Nike send you their new boots?" Leah asks.

"Why do you think I do so many boot giveaways on my social media." I say.

"Do Nike not care?" Jordan asks.

"They're still paying me so I guess not." I say.

"Will you ever not wear those?" Steph asks.

"Have you seen her goalscoring record?" Viv asks. "If it ain't broke don't fix it."

"How many goals have you scored in those boots?" Lisa asks.

"No clue." I say.

I'm lying.

I know exactly how many I've scored with these boots.

I know how many goals I've scored at the club level in these boots and at the International level in these boots.

"Hey Audi, How much money did your charity match raise?" Kim asks.

"Five million dollars." I say with a smile.

"That's awesome." Jordan says.

"Whenever your read head out to the pitch." Jill Ellis says then she leaves the locker room.

"Come on Balto." I say then the two of us head out of the locker room and start walking out to our training pitch.

On the way out to our training pitch Balto and I catch up with the new Manager of Arsenal.

"How ya doing Audrey?" Jill asks.

"I'm doin alright." I say. "How are you?"

"I'm doing good." Jill says then she clears her throat. "How's your Mom?"

"Good."

"Everything good on the health front for her?"

"Yeah." I say and smile. "She had a full body scan and there aren't any signs of cancer."

"That's great." Jill says then she clears her throat "I know you probably hate me..."

"It's in the past Jill." I say. "I realized life's too short to hold grudges."

"Alright." Jill says as we reach the training pitch. "I guess I'll see you in a few minutes."

"See ya then." I say then I head over to the fitness coach.

"You alright?" Daan asks when she arrives. "You and Jill seemed deep in conversation."

"We're cool." I say as I notice Balto sit down in his normal place next to the fitness coach. "It's pointless to hold a grudge."

Daan smiles at me then she hugs me from the side.

"Oh." I say then I lean down to whisper to Daan. "Ali called me and said it worked."

"Really?" Daan says with a smile and I nod. "That's Awesome."

"Yeah." I say. "It really is."