Unbreakable

F i v e

Jordyn's assumption that things would become better proved to be rather inaccurate over the next few weeks. It ought to have just been friendly competition, but every comment that Ellie made felt targeted towards her, and caused her to lose her cool just a little bit more.

"I'm feeling real competitive today," stated Hendo, as the team were preparing for a training match. He glanced around at his squad of ten, who readily agreed.

"Me too, to be honest," nodded Aaliyah. "Also I'm keen to start the home leg of the quarter final against Porto, so let's win this one yeah?"

"Aren't we all keen to start?" Dejan smiled at her. "Come on Liyah. At least you aren't competing with Virg for your spot in the line up. Score one past him for me?"

"Easier said than done," Sadio shook his head, with a laugh.

Part of what Jordyn loved about training with this squad was the fact that they took training matches seriously. However at the same time, everyone knew how to joke about it, and it made for a light hearted atmosphere. The dark haired girl found herself in the now familiar position of trying to go up against Virg, and she, Sadio and Liyah were determined to make something work today after Dejan's earlier comments. It wasn't that they wanted to dislodge Virgil from his starting position, but rather, the competitiveness getting the better of them.

Overall, it was a good training session, although in a few months' time, all anyone would remember from it would be Trent getting nutmegged by Ox three times in a row. Ox was only newly back in training with the rest of the team, after a long term injury had kept him out for many months, and he was in high spirits at the best of times, let alone after a good old nutmeg.

"I'm telling you, I'm the king!" Ox claimed, after the third time, as the rest of his team tried to contain their giggles and focus on the game.

"Yeah?" Trent rolled his eyes in annoyance. "You dont get three points for nutmegging someone, do ya? Call me when you score."

"Call me when YOU score!" Ox retorted, which was perhaps a silly thing to say, considering his team was 2-0 down at that point in time.

"Ox!" Jordyn protested, with a laugh. "You make us look ridiculous!"

A few minutes later, Jordyn managed to slide the ball through an unsuspecting Gini's legs, and everybody started yelling at once. She almost instantly ran into Virg, and flicked the ball on to Liyah, who was calling for it on the wing. Virgil chased her down, however, and neatly stole the ball off her, causing her to trip and fall to the ground.

"You are so ANNOYING!" she complained, and Virg grinned at her.

He still had the ball, and passed it long down to Trent, who was now pushing up towards goal. Ellie had cut inside, and he crossed it to her, allowing her to neatly slot it home in the bottom corner.

Trent was instantly up in Ox's face, wanting to know if an assist counted, as the rest of them giggled at him. Ellie, however, sidled up to Jordyn, wearing the same smirk that Jordyn had come to recognise on her face.

"Told ya, I'm coming for your spot. Better start scoring, init?"

She then walked off, giving Jordyn no time to respond, and Jordyn sighed, rubbing her hands down her face.

"What was that?" Liyah wondered. She hadn't been far away, but had not quite caught Ellie's words. "That sounded a bit off."

"I really can't tell," Jordyn sighed. "Is she just really competitive, or does she have something against me for some reason?"

"I can't imagine what she'd be mad about," Aaliyah shrugged her shoulders. "Huh." She patted Jordyn on the shoulders, with a smile. "I'll keep an eye out for ya, okay?"

Jordyn sighed, but returned her smile.

"Thanks Liyah, I'm just tired of it, you know?"

Sadio walked up behind the two girls at this point, throwing an arm around both of their shoulders.

"I hope this round table conference is about scoring some actual goals..."

"Yeah, Jord, watch your offside," said Aaliyah. "And Sadio you and me both need to press better than we have been."

"Ugh, I know, I've been awful with offside today," Jord nodded. "But yeah, keep the pressure on."

When the game resumed, they managed to score two goals - one from Jord, and one from Ox, which of course resurrected the whole Trent vs Ox war that had been going on for the whole day. Ellie scored another goal, and Jord and Liyah both watched as she went to hug Trent in celebration, before glancing pointedly at Jordyn.

"Yeah, I dunno about that, chief," Liyah muttered, glancing sideways at Jord.

"I swear if this is about Trent imma throw hands," Jordyn rolled her eyes.

"Want me to say something?"

"Nah, Liyah, it's okay," she shrugged in response. "If it's only me she's causing a problem with I can handle it."

"If you say so. But don't let it blow into something big, yeah?"

"Ugh, I'll try not to," Jordyn shook her head. "I've never had this happen to me before, it's so... weird. I hate it."

"Come on, let's go grab some water," said Aaliyah, linking arms with her friend, and pulling her away.

"Alright," said Klopp, twenty minutes later, as they were all relaxing after their training match. "For Porto I want you to start, Bobby, with Mo and Jord, Gini, Hendo, Amyrah... Trent and Andy, obviously, Virgil and Joe. And Ali in goal. We've got a lot of games coming up in quick succession, so a lot of you are going to be pushed to your absolute limits this week, so... you know the deal, okay. Look after your bodies, do the right things, I dont need to tell you. Hendo, I want to talk to you for a bit. The rest of you can go and grab lunch."

As the team headed for the cafeteria, Jordyn couldn't help glancing towards Ellie to see how she bore the news that she'd be benched against Porto once again. Ellie did not return her gaze, for once, and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary in her body language. Jordyn felt even more confused, and shook her head, wishing she understood.

A/N: thanks for all the love on this book so far! I've had the maddest week so really appreciate it, it's making me smile. ❤️