Jessie Miller

NINE

It's Monday morning and my alarm has gone off at 6am. With a groan, I get up out of bed and start to get ready. We have a 7am training today and I'm not looking forward to it. Some of the girls have already messaged me, teasing me about Lucy. I feel like it is going to be awkward between us at training today.

I have a quick shower and throw on some shorts and a tee. I also put on my City track jacket. I told Steph that I would take her today and we'll get coffee on the way. So that's exactly what I do.

Steph jumps in my car with the coffees and we are on our way to the Academy. Steph told me to pick her up from TAKK since she needed to go to the city before training to get something. I don't know what but it's all good. We are talking about what might be planned for training today but none of us know. It was only a short time before Lucy is brought up.

"So, you two are apparently just friends, but you like her don't you?"

"For God's sake... So many people have asked me this. As a friend- yes. More than that- no"

She keeps mentioning her in conversations up until we are at the reception. We then walk over to the changing rooms and part ways. I go over to my locker and put in my AirPods. I want to focus today. After getting changed, I sit at my locker and take a look round to see who is here. Almost everyone is and they're all just talking or getting ready for training. Whilst looking around, I catch Lucy looking over at me. I send a smile her way and she returns one, then going back to her conversation with KB.

Gareth pops his head in to tell us to come out when we are ready. Seeming as I already am, I go out and stretch. I wait around for everyone to come out. I make sure that my boots are tied properly and everything before I warm up.

One of the coaches say that we are doing a skill-based session today. We are working on headers first and are told to pair up. As if by luck, Lucy heads for me and asks me. I can't see why not; I don't want to make it awkward.

A demonstration is shown by the coach and Steph. All we have to do is head the ball, touch the cone in front of us and then go back and do the same again.

Lucy and I go over to a section and focus for a bit whilst talking in between. She tells me that she is glad to be at Man City again. It's a good team to play with and we all work hard together, and I completely agree with her. I ask her how France was, and she tells me that all of the team was really nice, but it was difficult at the start. She struggled with the language and talking to some of the players. She also missed home a lot and had to do a lot of travelling back and forth because she is a part of the England squad too. She also said that by the time she came back to England, she learned quite a bit of French. I then test her on her French because I know some myself - Not a lot though. We've switched the drill that we are working on and we are now doing fast paced passes or high passes to work on control. We are still talking about random shit but after a while we all get called in.

Gareth wants to set up a match. You stay off for a while until someone gets tired. Gareth wants to try you as a striker, so you go up there. I play 10 minutes of the game but keep messing up and dropping back into midfield. Gareth notices so puts me back in my usual position which I'm thankful for. If that was a real game, then I would have caused so many offsides. We keep playing the game but then it's time to pack away. We do a cool down, I stretch by myself and then go into the changing rooms. I take a quick cold shower and get dressed. I talk to some of the girls for a bit and then head out.

Instead of going home I go to a cafe in the city that I've never heard. I drive by it a lot and it looks cute so I decide today will be the day that I actually go in. Whilst there, Grace sends me a few photos of myself and some of the girls from training sessions and from games that I've played. I decide to put one on Instagram and tag Steph and Demi since they're in it. I get a few likes and comment, I even get a few more follows. Knowing that I'll be bored at home, I ask Grace to come over for a catch up because we haven't properly seen each other for a while. We agree to play on the new PS5 that I just got and she's going to have a drink even though it's Monday.