A/N: Happy Monday everyone! Hope you enjoy the story.
"You fell on your ass in front of a football legend." Mapi and Leila once again bursted out laughing. Mapi was bent over, her head on the table while she was hitting the table with her hand, Leila in a similar position.
"Oh no, two legends." Kristie held up two fingers. "Kristine Lilly was there as well." A big smirk present when she thought back to that day because little did I know she had seen it all happen.
"That makes it even better." Leila breathed out between her laughter.
"Shhh! Shut up." Jana glared at the two, frustrated with them for interrupting the story.
"What happened next?" She rested her head back on her hands and looked at me intently.
"Are you okay? I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." Mia apologized and held out her hand for me to take and I wasted no time in doing so.
"I'm good. All good." I took her hand and scrambled up as fast as I could. Brushing off some dirt.
"You're Eleanore, right?" Kristine Lilly came to stand next to Mia so she as well could check on me.
"I am." I shyly answered, looking down at my feet now.
"Pretty impressive what you did back there. Breaking a record is not easy. Congrats." Mia said and gave my shoulder a soft punch.
"Thanks." I looked up for the first time since I fell down. Both women had a smile on their faces and looked rather impressed with what they had seen.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do more. Hopefully you're a bit more steady with a ball at your feet." Kristine chuckled at her own joke and if it wasn't about me and if I wasn't that starstruck, I would've probably find it funny.
"I um, I." I stammered out, not knowing what to say.
"I'm kidding." Kristine laughed again.
"Are you sure you didn't hurt yourself?" She took a step closer to check if I hadn't indeed hurt myself with the fall.
"Yeah. Don't worry. I'm good." I smiled at the two women. Right at that moment the coach clapped his hands and told us we would resume training.
"Good. Good luck finishing your training. We'll keep an eye on you." Mia patted my shoulder and they walked towards the building we were staying at.
"Oh my God! You just met Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly!" Mal came over jumping up and down in excitement.
I guess I did.
"I can't believe you met two of the biggest female football stars in history and fell flat on your ass in the proces." Ale sniffled a laugh next to me. My head snapped in the direction of my girlfriend and I glared at the girl.
"You're supposed to be on my side." I pouted, making everyone laugh.
"Come on Queenie, even you have to admit that it was kind of funny." Sandra said between laughter.
Mapi and Leila were done for. They wouldn't stop laughing anytime soon and were just stuck in a fit of laughter.
I tried to glare at the two and my other friends that were laughing but like Sandra said, even I had to admit that it was funny.
"Okay, it was kind of funny." I said trying to suppress a smile but it was getting really hard not to.
"God! Baby Queen seemed like such a rule follower. A lot has changed" Mariona smirked and took a sip from her drink. I simply rolled my eyes at the spaniard.
"No, I was not." I defended my younger self.
"Yes, you were." Leila pointed at you again, still laughing incredibly hard.
"Actually she wasn't." Kristie spoke up. All eyes were now on her, No one said anything, all waiting on her to elaborate further on her story.
"What do you mean 'she wasn't'?" Aitana looked at Kristie confused when Kristie took a bit too long to continue her story.
"Yeah, what do you mean by that, Kristie." I squinted my eyes at her, fearing what was to come.
"The day you met Sonnet." She simply said, satisfied with her answer until her eyes suddenly widened with realization.
"Oh and that time you played truth or dare with the boys team and smuggled drinks into your hotel room." She said with a proud smile.
The mouths of my friends dropped open. All of them looked at me in shock. In all the stories they had heard till now I was the quiet, shy girl so for them it was a bit hard to believe that I would smuggle drinks into my room along with some of the boys of the boys team.
"Okay, first how did you meet Sonnet and then I definitely want to hear that smuggling in drinks story." Sandra clapped her hands together all excited.
We were halfway through camp and I had to say that I was having a blast so far. I was walking back from the cafeteria towards my room that I was sharing with Mal when a tall blonde ran into me. She grabbed me by the arms, causing me to stop.
"I know this is gonna sound very weird but I need a favor." She looked into my eyes with a lot of determination.
"Excuse me?" I asked, a bit taken back by the gesture.
"I need a favor." She repeated again like that would explain everything.
"Uhm, okay." I said, not entirely sure what to say anyway. The blonde seemed to catch on that I was incredibly confused by all this and realized she needed to explain it further.
"I want to prank some of my friends but I need someone to play the victim and you look cute and innocent enough so they won't suspect a thing." She mentioned to me while clarifying what she actually meant.
"Okay." I agreed to her plan.
"You don't" she started but soon stopped once she processed what I said. "Wait, are you serious?"
"Yeah sure. I'll help you." I shrugged. A smile broke out on the blonde's face.
"Great! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm Emily Sonnett by the way." The blonde finally introduced herself.
"Eleanore Queen." I shook her held out hand and smiled at her.
"It's nice to meet you, Eleanore." Emily gave me a bright smile that instantly made me feel at ease.
"Likewise. So Emily, aren't there people your own age who wanna help with the prank?" I raised an eyebrow at her, trying to get a rise out of her.
"No, they're all scared that they're gonna get in trouble." She whined, making me laugh.
"So your next move is to bully someone younger than you, who is defenseless and probably is afraid to say no." I laughed. This time it successfully set her off. Her eyes immediately widened upon realization that she indeed may have pressured me into it.
"What? No. I didn't mean, I mean." She rambled which only made me laugh more.
"I'm kidding. I'm up for a good prank." I assured her, putting an end to her suffering. She briefly looked at me like I had grown two heads before she snapped out of it.
"You know for a fourteen year old you have a lot of sass." She squinted her eyes at me, looking me over once again.
"I'm thirteen." I corrected her with a proud smile.
"Right." She nodded, trying to not show that she was most definitely impressed.
"What's the prank?" I looked at the blonde expectantly while we started to walk again.
"Well I was thinking maybe we can pretend I kicked a ball in your face?" She shrugged her shoulders and held the door open for me.
It was early in the afternoon and the cool breeze hit us in the face when we reached the fields. Some of the older teams were already training. My team had a free afternoon but were told to do a bonding exercise in one of the rooms.
"Okay, hit me in the face." I told her seriously and faced her. She laughed at first but once she realized I was serious she stopped.
"No! Why would I hit you in the face?" She said a bit loudly.
"So I have a bloody nose so it looks real. Duh." I told her in a matter of fact tone.
"No, I'm not hitting you in the face." She scolded but then she looked at me proudly for a second. "I admire your dedication though but no!"
"Then I don't think pretending to get a ball in the face won't scare them enough." I shrugged and continued walking.
"Mmh maybe you're right. I need something to scare the shit out of Sam." Emily had a devilish smile on her face when she pictured Sam's reaction in her head.
"Ooh! I know. Have you seen friends?" I stopped again to face her with a smirk on my face. I had the best idea. It just needed some work to pull off.
"Hey! Watch it!" Sonnet yelled at me when I walked into her. She was standing in the lobby near the staircase with Sam, Rose and Abby. They indulged in some conversation that I was scheduled to disrupt.
"Then don't stand in the way!" I turned around with a challenging glare. Sonnet, like agreed, took a step forward and reacted right away.
"Shut it brat." She spotted back. The prank was definitely working because her friend's eyes almost popped out of their heads in surprise.
"Make me bitch." I came face to face with the blonde and stood tall trying to match her height but I was failing, a few inches shorter than her.
"Sonnet, leave it." Rose tried but it was no use.
I knew now was my time. I gave Sonnet quite a hard shove and immediately bolted up the stairs with her hot on my tail. Once out of sight of the others, is when we put our plan in motion and pushed a dummy, made out of my clothes and bedsheets off the stairs.
"AAAH!" The trio screamed out when the dummy hit the bottom of the stairs. They kept on screaming for a few seconds and looked in horror at the dummy but soon looked up the stairs when they heard Sonnet and I lose our shit.
"But you. You were. You?" Sam pointed at me and then back at the dummy until her brain finally caught up with the prank.
"Mean." She glared at Sonnet and I.
"Sonnet, not funny!" Rose yelled out, only making us laugh harder.
"You gave me a heart attack!" Abby breathed out, holding her hand over her heart.
"I can't take all the credit. Guys meet Sonnet junior, Eleanore Queen. Eleanore meet Sam, Abby and Rose." Sonnet and I walked down, towards the girls and introduced ourselves.
"Nice to prank you all." I laughed and gave them a small wave with a smile.
"God, there's two of them." Sam looked at the two of us.
The trio spent some time talking to us but eventually went back to their rooms leaving me and Sonnet alone. The blonde looked at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Wanna do another prank?" She smirked.
"Sure, what do you have in mind?" I agreed and looked at her expectantly.
"How about the classic swap the sugar for salt prank?" She said all excited.
"You're sure you're not the thirteen year old out of the two of us?" I laughed at her and she just gave me a playful shove.
"You're in?" She raised her eyebrow.
"Of course I am." I smirked.
The girls were full on laughing once I reached the end of my story. The younger ones looked at me impressed while the older ones shook their heads in amusement. Mapi and Leila had a proud smile on their faces.
"You did the old sugar swapping for salt prank?" Jana asked while laughing.
"I sure did." I grinned at the young defender. Ale shook her head at my childish behavior with an amused smile.
"And it worked?" Ana wondered.
"Yes. Thanks for doubting me." I deadpanned, making the others laugh.
"Did you get caught?" Patri smirked.
"Of course not. Again with the doubting. Have some faith." I glared at Patri. What's up with everyone doubting me.
"Yes! Go baby Queen!" Jenni cheered, raising her glass in the air.
"I feel like a proud parent." Leila pretended to wipe away a tear.
"You're weird." I squinted my eyes at the dark haired defender.
"But you love me." She said in a singing voice, grinning.
"Mmh." I hummed causing Leila to raise her middle finger at me.
"Okay but that was the Sonnet story. What's the truth or dare one?" Sandra asked intrigued. The others who were talking amongst themselves, stopped and focused on me.
"Oh, it's nothing." I brushed it off but there was no escape, definitely not when Kristie was around.
"Ha it's not nothing. They think baby Queen was an angel. You and I both know that wasn't and isn't true." She smirked at me with a challenging look in her eyes.
I felt Alexia sit up a bit because obviously, she too was intrigued by the story. Out of everyone at the table she knew me best but she had to admit that she was interested in the story that was about to be told.
"But they don't need to know that." I whispered to my friend next to me.
"Oh don't worry we already knew you weren't an angel. The hickey's on Ale's body are proof of that." Lieke smirked at me, causing a blush to break out on Ale's cheeks.
"Shut up." I gritted through my teeth.
"But how bad can the truth or dare be?" Mapi asked, making Kristie raise an eyebrow with a smirk on her lips.
"I'm so bored." Ashley moaned out for the millionth time.
While I was out pranking everyone with Sonnet, most of my teammates were all gathered in mine and Mal's room. We were supposed to have a team bonding but no one apparently had an idea what we could do.
"Anyone, any ideas for tonight?" Mal lifted her head from her pillow and looked around the room but everyone simply shrugged their shoulders.
Right at that moment I arrived at my room. I swapped my cart over the lock and threw open the door.
"What's up y'all?" I walked in with a happy smile.
"Where have you been?" Tierna mumbled in the pillow she stole from my bed, laying on the ground facedown.
"Out, pulling some pranks. I met a few of the older girls." I cheerfully answered her and plopped down next to Sanchez, on my bed.
"Look at you making friends. I'm so proud." Ash looked at me impressed, making me laugh slightly.
"Thanks Ash." I chuckled.
"Okay that doesn't solve our problem though." Mal sat up from her bed and looked at the group for answers.
While everyone was deep in thought looking for a good idea, I was confused about what problem we were solving.
"What's our problem?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"What to do during our team bonding." Fox explained.
"Mmh that is a tough one." I thought to myself out loud. "Any ideas?"
"That was the question." Mal glanced at me unimpressed.
We all sat there in silence for a while, thinking over what we could do as a team bonding.
"How about just a chill evening and we sneak in some alcohol." I spoke up first, Mal who sat opposite me on her own bed looked at me in shock. Her eyes wide and her mouth open.
"Are you crazy? We're fourteen." She yelled out, not sure whether I was joking or not.
"Thirteen." I corrected her with a proud smile.
"Exactly my point." She said with widened eyes, using her arms in big gestures.
"Oh come on. It could be fun. I'm not saying we're getting wasted." I tried to justify my idea and while Mal was against the idea, the others seemed to be interested.
"Queenie is right. It could be fun." Fox shrugged and grinned at me, showing she was onboard with the plan.
"And I'll get the boys." Sanchez jumped up, a big smile on her face.
"Alright. Sounds like a plan." I smirked and stood up as well. We all were looking at Mal. She was the only one who hadn't agreed just yet. She stayed quiet for a while, not willing to give in but soon her facade broke and a small smile crept on her lips.
"Fine but I'm not taking the blame here when we get caught." She grumbled out but by now she was equally excited as the other girls.
"IF we get caught I'm more than willing to take the blame." I grinned at the forward and pulled her up as well.
"Let's meet here in an hour?" I looked at everyone with a raised eyebrow to see if they agreed and they did.
We all went to work. When the others left to go get the boys, I took out my phone and clicked on the contact I just befriended a few days ago.
"Hey Queenie, what's up." She picked up the phone after only a few rings. "Everything alright?"
"Hey kristieeee." I dragged out the i a bit more, trying to sound as cute as possible.
"What do you want?" She immediately cut to the chase.
"Why do you think I need something?" I asked, playing dumb but she had already seen right through my act.
"Because you do, so spill." She chuckled and I sighed out, realizing that it was no use in pretending.
"Fine. I need a favor." I mumbled.
"Sure, anything for you." She sweetly answered and I could already picture the smile on her face.
"Can you fix us any alcohol?" I asked hopeful.
"Anything but that." She said immediately, barely giving me enough time to finish my sentence.
"Oh come on. You just told me you would do anything." I whined at the older girl.
"Yeah, anything but that. You're like their prized possession, I'm not gonna screw around with that." She deadpanned.
"Besides, you're thirteen." I rolled her eyes at the mention of my age.
"But we're bored." I whined again as if that would help my case.
"Go play some hide and seek then." She sasses back. Over the few days we had been here she had grown a soft spot for me, reminding her of her own little sister.
Growing up she wasn't always the best big sister and getting to know me made her realize that maybe she should make more of an effort. But with that soft spot came the fact that saying no was harder than it used to be.
"I'm thirteen, not three." I rolled my eyes at the blonde even though she couldn't see that.
"Exactly my point. It's illegal." She exclaimed.
"Like you haven't done this." I grumbled back to her.
"I have, doesn't mean you should do it. If you get caught you're in serious trouble." She said, sounding like a grown up, maybe because she technically was one.
"Come on Kristie please." I tried one more time, putting everything that I had in it and it worked.
"Fine."
A few hours later all the girls and some of the boys from the U14 team were all scattered around in our hotel room, engaged in a game of truth or dare. I had done my fair share of dares and up until now they were all fairly easy.
"Alright, Queenie. Truth or dare." Mal clapped her hands together and gave me a mischievous look.
"Truth." I answered the girl and smiled.
"What's it like playing for Arsenal?" She asked after thinking for a while.
"You play for Arsenal?" The boy next to me asked surprised.
"The academy, yes." I corrected him but nevertheless agreed.
"That's sick but too bad though." He said impressed but his impression soon turned into a grimace.
"And why is that?" I raised a brow at him expectantly.
"Chelsea is way better than the Arsenal." He smiled proudly, causing me to scoff.
"In your dreams. Arsenal will beat the blues any day of the week." I immediately argued back.
"Wanna bet?" The boy smirked at me, challenging me to take the bet.
"Sure, prepare to get your ass kicked." I shook his hand and matched his smirk.
"I'm Christian by the way. Christian Pulisic but you can call me Chris." He introduced himself like James Bond would.
"Okay James Bond. I'm Eleanore Queen. You can call me Ellie." I chuckled, causing the boy to roll his eyes.
They game continued on and even though there wasn't a lot of alcohol most of the kids in the room started to feel the effect of it, making everyone a bit bolder including the game itself.
"Queenie, dare or dare?" Sanchez smirked. She had already formed a devilish plan in her head.
"Where's my truth?" I laughed at the lack of option and the obvious pushing towards a specific choice.
"Don't be a wuss." Sanchez pushed me a bit, knowing full well how to get a rise out of me.
"I did more dares then you." I gave her a pointed look but she didn't budge.
"What's it gonna be Queen?" She wiggled her eyebrow.
"Dare I guess." I shrugged, not really seeing a different option.
"I dare you to kiss Chris." She pointed at the brunette boy next to me with a devilish smirk.
"Fine." I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek which he didn't seem to mind.
"No, I mean a proper kiss." She corrected both of us.
"What?" I furrowed my brows, hoping that she was kidding but she wasn't.
"A proper kiss, full on the lips." She repeated herself and even explained it better. I just sat there and blinked at her several times, only making her grin more.
"You can do it in the bathroom." Ash pointed towards the bathroom door with the largest smirk she could muster.
"You seem nervous." Here I stood with a boy I just met in our hotel bathroom, and dared to share a kiss. It wasn't that Chris wasn't attractive, he was but I had just met the guy and he wasn't really my type.
"I'm not." I answered as steady as I could but my voice gave me away.
"You don't have to do this. We can just tell them we've kissed." He gently told me and gave me an out. It was really sweet of him to do so.
"No no. It's fine. I have to have my first kiss at some point." I mumbled but apparently I said it a bit louder than I had anticipated.
"You haven't had your first kiss yet?" The boy looked at me shocked. I casted my glance at the floor.
"No, I mean I have kissed before, just not really kissed. Why does that make me weird?" I stammered out and met his look again in embarrassment. His reaction made me self conscious.
"No it doesn't." He clarified when he realized how his reaction may have sounded. "You just seem like the girl guys fight over."
"Ha, yeah no. I'm not." I laughed at him and looked back down at my feet.
"Well then if you still wanna go through with that kiss, I'll happily be your first kiss and I promise I'll take it slow and follow your lead if that makes sense." Chris gently told me and took a step closer, waiting for my permission.
"Thank you." I whispered.
Chris slowly closed the gap between us. Gently cupped my cheeks in his hands and softly placed his lips on mine. It was a bit messy and it wasn't like they show it in the movies but for a first kiss it was a decent one.
After a few seconds we pulled away and both broke out in laughter. It wasn't like it was awkward, it surprisingly wasn't but it was kind of funny.
"You know your future boyfriend better, thank me later for showing you how to kiss." He said between laughter.
"Oh shut up." I playfully glared at him and punched his shoulder.
"What? I can be a great teacher. They should thank me later." He shrugged, smirking. "This does clarify you as a friend though."
"I'll keep it in mind." I smirked.
"Your first kiss was with America's golden boy?!" Mapi yelled out in surprise. I felt Alexia stiffen right next to me. When I looked her way, I saw her clenching her jaw with a stern look on her face.
"It kind of fits, I mean the American king and queen kissing." Ana shrugged, not really surprised by the story.
"Yeah, I don't like this at all." Ale grumbled, causing everyone to laugh at the brunette.
"What's the matter, Ale? Are you jealous of a thirteen year old boy?" Sandra wiggled her eyebrow at the Spanish midfielder, who's glare only intensified. If looks could kill Sandra would have died by now.
"I'm not." She grumbled again.
"You so are." Jenni laughed with her best friend's jealousy.
I shuffled a bit closer and swung my arm around her shoulder, pulling her into me more. Alexia didn't resist the affection she received and leaned into me more.
"Don't worry Babe, he's got nothing on you. He's just a friend." I mumbled into her ear and kissed her temple before letting go.
"Are you guys still friends?" Jana asked after overhearing my small moment with Ale.
"Yeah. We kind of walked the same path. Got put together a lot as well. I guess we bonded over that." I shrugged, not seeing the big deal in it.
Chris and I grew up together in the youth systems and even got paired quite a lot. We walked the same path. We were both young promising talents and that wasn't always easy. He understood that.
"And of course the kissing." Kristie added while smirking.
"Would you shut up?" I gritted through my teeth.
"It happened more than once?" Alexia shot up, looking at both Kristie and I expectantly.
"Oh it happened more than once." Kristie grinned again.
"Shut up!" I glared at Kristie.
"Again. We were young, both the rising star of their national team and yes we had the occasional hook up." I tried to play it cool but the others were invested and it showed.
"What do you count as occasional?" It was Aitana who asked this time.
I was trying to think of ways to explain the type of relationship Chris and I had if you even could call it that. It was just your typical friends with benefits kind of thing. Only now the two people involved didn't catch feelings.
"You can compare their relationship with Sloan and Callie from Grey's Anatomy." Kristie took it upon herself to answer that question for me when I took too long to come up with one.
"But they had a baby!" Lieke exclaimed.
"No baby! There was definitely no baby." I frantically assured everyone, making most of my teammates laugh. All except one.
"You don't have to be jealous, you know." I placed a hand on her thigh and gave it a light squeeze. Her stern look slowly faltered but stayed there.
"I'm not." She tried to convince me but I knew her better than that.
"If you say so just remember that he never made me feel like you do." I whispered in her ear and then placed my lips right under it. Alexia closed her eyes for a brief moment, my words and action definitely had an effect on her.
"Queenie." My attention got pulled away from my girlfriend. Even though a blush broke it on her face she had a proud grin on. She was the one taking me home and I couldn't be happier.