Lucy's pov-
Bloody hell, this was it. My little girl was coming on.
I felt Keira loop her arm round me and squeeze me, as I smiled, watching Maisie run on. Then it hit me.
"Fucking hell, look at her number ke" I half whisper.
"15" Keira smiles.
"Is that what I think it's for?"
"I expect so, that's not a coincidence" Keira nudges me as I smile from ear to ear.
"What's it for?" Katie perks up beside us, who was also leaning against the barrier watching the game.
"I was 15 when Maisie was born" I smile, "I guess it's got something to do with that but I could be wrong"
"Aw, that's cute" She smiles, leaning against the board.
My eyes flicked back to the game, which had now restarted and was being passed around England's back line. I watched as Maisie received the ball, and turned sharply away from the German player and passed it through to the winger, who made a run up the line before crossing it into the centre. Just as England's no.9 jumped up to header it in, Germany's keeper stretched out to punch it away. Missing the ball terribly, it was almost like slow-motion as we watched her fall onto the ground and gasps fill the crowd.
"Shit, that looked nasty" I mumbled
"God, that was one hard punch"
The girl stayed down for a while, the medics rushing on and doing a concussion test. Whilst she was down England's team huddled together, most certainly deciding who was going to take the penalty. Once our player was up and hobbling off, who I'd learnt her name was Daisy, the teams gathered in Germany's half awaiting the penalty. The action was straight in front of our eyes, as I saw our captain get the ball and stand on the spot, taking the mental hassle from the goal keeper. Just before the referee was about to re set, Polly suddenly walked back, and passed the ball into someone else's hand, but I couldn't see whose.
"COME ON MAISIE" I hear someone shout from the stand. I frowned confused.
Wait. It was Maisie taking the penalty.
"Oh my god" I breathed out, "Come on Maise, you got this" I half whispered, grabbing Keira's hand, to steady my nerves.
It felt like a lifetime before Maisie eventually ran up to kick the ball. I watched in slo-mo as she struck the ball and smashed it bottom left, the keeper diving the complete other way.
"YEAAAAAAAASSSSSS" The crowd cheered, everyone standing up. Let's fucking go Maisie.
Maisie's Pov-
Oh. My. God.
I'd just scored my first goal for England.
I didn't really have a chance to move before the whole team piled on me cheering.
"Let's go Maisie" they all said as they all eventually clambered off the pile and ran off towards the re-set. Before heading back, I turned to the stands, desperately searching for mum. I soon enough found her smiling widely at me and I locked eyes with her before turning around to show her my number. I saw her try and hide a small tear and quickly wipe it away so I made a mental note to bully mum for that later. With that, I jogged off and returned back to my position.
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The game has finished 1:0, and we were now all shaking hands with the German players. I go to shake hands with one of the girls before she turns to me, "You are Maisie Bronze?" She asks, in broken English.
"Yeah" I nod shaking her hand.
"Good player and your mum too" She smiles
"Thanks" I smile back and walk off, into the embrace of Lia.
"Maisie Bronze doesn't settle for a draw does she?" She laughs at me
"Nope" I laugh, "I'm gonna go see my mum, are your parents here?"
"Yeah, let's go" we walk over towards the stands, debriefing the match. "I'll see you in a minute" she says, as she goes over to her seemingly parents.
"Baby Bronzey" I hear someone shout and I turn my head.
"Oh fucking hell" I widen my eyes as I see the whole senior team cheering for me in the stands. I feel my face go bright red with embarrassment as everyone turns around to look at them, including my teammates.
"Surprise" mum says, as I reach her, and pulls me in for a hug. We stay hugging for a moment too, before she whispers in my ear, "I'm so bloody proud of you Maisie."
"Could of warned me about this crowd" I laugh.
"Wouldn't of been a surprise then ay?" Leah says, pulling me into a hug. I eventually make my way around everyone, hugging them and thanking them.
I look back over to mum and notice her talking to some other lady. I nod with my head over towards mum at Keira and ask, "who's that?"
"Dunno" she shrugs, "let's find out"
I walk towards mum, Keira next to me, on the other side of the barrier. I stand leaning on the barrier, next to mum, waiting for a break in their conversation.
"Hey mum" I say, smiling.
"Oh hi, Maisie this is Maria, Maria this is my daughter Maisie" mum introduces me.
"Nice to meet you" I smile, confused.
"Maisie, this is my cousin" mum adds, and then suddenly it clicks.
"Ohhhhhhh, sorry, you're Lia's mum?"
"Yeah, this is very funny that we're meeting this way" Maria smiles at me.
"Football must really run in the blood" I tap my left chest, over the England badge sat proudly on my shirt.
"Funny how neither of them even played for Portugal" mum laughs.
"Well you didn't exactly set the best example, mum" I prod her.
"Wait so how did Lia not know about mum, surely you would of told her you were related?" I ask, confused as to how Lia didn't know bearing in mind how famous Mum is.
"She did" Maria laughs, "I think she just didn't want to embarrass you or maybe she just didn't realise"
Now thinking back, I realise I should of know earlier. Her lack of fangirling over me, unlike some of the other girls, and her immediately knowing I was Portuguese but trying to cover it up, I really was blind.
"Hey" I hear Lia say as she jogs up to us, "Maisie have you been hit by the rememising yet, just wait till they start" she laughs
"I don't even want to know" I shake my head, "if your mum's anything like mine, they'll start randomly speaking Portuguese in a minute"
"Ah good idea, then you won't be able to understand us" mum says, "Eles são irritantes"
" I know exactly what you're saying" I laugh
"Go on then"
"They're so annoying" I smirk
"What can we say, we only speak facts" mum smirks back at me, knowing full well I would know what she was saying, especially when mum had roped me into Portuguese classes from the age of 6.
"Lia, maybe you could learn some Portuguese from Maisie" Maria suggests
"Er, no thanks, I'm not built for languages"
"Honestly, don't waste your time, I've never used it apart from with mum and on holiday" I shrug, knowing this will annoy mum.
"Er, no, portuguese is part of your heritage thank you very much" Mum lightly hits my arm
"And with that, we're off, see you later" I say, linking arms with Lia and running off, pulling her with me.
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"Mum, MUM, MUM" I shout down the stairs, "ugh, KEIRA KEIRA, SOMEBODY"
I wait for a moment, hearing no reply.
"SOMEBODY COME HELP ME, WHAT THE FUCK DO I WEAR" I shout down the stairs again.
"Language" I hear mum sigh, and come into view at the bottom of the stairs.
"Can you please just come and help me" I stomp back into my room and collapse onto my bed. Why did going on a date have to be so stressful.
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"So, when's the date" I say as I climb over the barrier to greet her, remembering our deal that if I won, I could take her on a date. I'd managed to escape mum, only to do a 360 and go over to Katie.
"That's up to you" she says pulling me into a hug, where I loop my arms round her back hugging her slightly smaller figure. "Congrats on the win... and the pen, I was worried you weren't going to win for a moment"
"I see, so you do want to go on a date with me"
She blushes visually at her outing, and pulls away. "Not now"
"Stop lying" I raise an eyebrow, smirking at her, "either way I'm taking you on a date"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah" I nod, kiss her cheek, wink, jump over the barrier and jog off towards the rest of the team.
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"Here, just wear this sweater" mum holds up a white channel sweatshirt, "and these jeans."
"Shoes?" I ask, loosely motioning over to the nearly lined up shoes along my cupboard.
"Let's see" she searches for a minute then eventually ventures out with my grey Jordans, "these'll look good" she smiles, "see, I should be your personal stylist"
"Thank you" I say, and then throw on the clothes before straightening my hair.
"Let's go mum" I say, waiting at the door, as mum grabbed her keys.
"Bye Keira" we both shout into the house.
"Bye, good luck Maise, have fun... But not too much!" She shouts back laughing.
"Ew Keira, shut up" mum and I both say, before leaving and jumping in the car.
"Ok, flowers, have you got flowers?" Mum asks as she pulls out the drive.
"What no? Why do I need them"
"It's just a nice thing to do, Keira always appreciates flowers so let's go get Katie some"
"Ok" I nod, trying to suppress my nerves.
"Nervous?" Mum asks, looking over at me
"Hmm" I say, staring out the window
"You'll be fine, just think of it like your hanging out, like you normally do"
I nod gulping, as we pull into Tesco's and dash into the shop. I settled for some pink and white tulips, quickly buying them and then running back to the car, trying not to be late to pick Katie up.
I knock, standing at Katie's door, shifting from foot to foot, clutching onto the flowers with one hand. It seems like a lifetime before the door eventually swings open to reveal Katie stood there smiling back at me.
"Hey" She says
"Hey" I smile, "these are for you" I hand her the flowers, apprehensive to see if she likes them.
I watch her blush before she says, "Aw I love them, let me go put them in some water then I'll be out" She rushes off, leaving me stood at the door, with mum watching me from the car. I turn around and do a quick thumbs up, to which she reciprocates. Eventually, Katie returns to the door, shouts a quick goodbye to her parents, then closes the door.
Lucy's Pov-
I sat in the car, watching Maisie wait for Katie with a smile on my face. Watching my daughter go on her first date, brang me back to my first with Keira, when Maisie was 10 years old.
Flashback -2018 (age 10)
"I'll see you soon Maise, be good for Grandma and grandad" I kiss Maisie on the head and give her one last hug before I get back into my car and drive back down to Manchester. My plan was to leave Maisie at my parents house, up in Berwick, drive back to Manchester by 3pm, in order to be ready to pick Keira up at 6pm. My parents would then drive down to Manchester tomorrow, and then stay over at my old house I still had in Manchester for a few nights, whilst I went to the England camp. I'd see Maisie next in a few days time, after our match vs Finland and then Maisie would come stay on camp, per usual. This would mean I had my own time with Keira, whilst also giving Maisie an opportunity to see her grandparents. I hadn't told Maisie about my date, mainly because if it didn't work out, I didn't want to have to explain it. Neither did I want to upset her, especially since she's now at the age to understand. I hadn't actually been in a proper relationship for at least 4 years, apart from one or two-time dates here and there. Maisie probably doesn't remember the last person I was with, and probably didn't even know at the time, bearing in mind she was only 5. However, I had a good feeling about Keira. We'd been good friends for ages, before we eventually confessed last England camp. I'd vowed then I would take her on a date, however the distance between us had meant that wasn't possible until today. Of course we'd spent hours calling and texting each other, but since that last camp, I hadn't seen her, which did mean I had a pit of nerves in my stomach. Mum on the other hand, did know I was going on date, which is why she shouted good luck, as I drove off waving at them standing in the doorway. I won't lie and say I didn't feel any guilt as I drove off feeling bad for just abandoning my daughter like this, however I knew she'd enjoy herself, especially when I knew my parents were taking her bowling. I had told Maisie I was going out with some of the Manchester girls since we were back in England so as far as I know, Maisie didn't know any better.
"Ok, you've got this lucy" I mutter under my breath as I tie up my laces, sitting on the stairs. I'd chosen a nice restaurant in central Manchester to take Keira too, and if all goes to plan, I was hoping to go round a few bars, after. I was wearing a white shirt, with the top two buttons undone and black trousers to match my black jacket I had on. I took a deep breath and stood up taking one last look in the mirror, before leaving the house.
I stopped off at the shops to get Keira some flowers then made my way towards her house, the nerves not easing but building. I pulled up outside her house and gave myself a moment to pull myself together, before hopping out and walking up the path. I knew she shared a house with our, well only hers now, teammate, Georgia Stanway so I was praying it was Keira who opened the door and not her. Unfortunately, luck wasn't exactly on my side and when I nervously knocked on the door, it was Georgia who swung it open, smirking at me.
"Hi Lucy, how come you're here?" She asks.
"Umm" I pause, not knowing whether Keira wanted Georgia knowing or not.
"Don't worry I know, Keira's just coming, she's been taking her time changing what she's wearing every 5 seconds"
"SHUT UP G" I hear Keira shout before she eventually comes into view. "Hey" she smiles at me as Georgia steps to the side, beckoning Keira through in a wind up way. "Go away Georgia" she sighs.
"Alright alright, have fun girlies" She smiles.
I hand Keira the flowers who hugs and thanks me before passing them to Georgia to put in a vase. As we walk down the path again, towards my path she asks, "where are we going then?"
"You'll have to wait and see" I laugh, opening the car door for her and gently closing it behind her.
A/n-
As I said before, I really don't know what to think about this chapter but I guess it's something 🤷♀️
Btw, thank you everyone for your votes, there was an overwhelming amount of yeses so that's decided!
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