After a slightly wild day at school, filled with screaming and excitable children it's finally time to get on the bus. After corralling both classes on, me and Kerry both sit at the front, with one of us noticeably more excited than the other.
"So tell me about this girl" Kerry says, a question she's been clearly dying to ask me.
"There's not much to tell" I reply "I've only known her for a few days, but she's amazing. So beautiful and she seems to care about me so much"
"Your glowing" says Kerry "I've never seen you this happy. Has she kissed you?"
"Yes once, and it was amazing" I blush, clearly not used to speaking about my normally dead love life.
"I'm happy for you" says Kerry smiling softly. "So did I tell you about today? And all of the amazing players the children will see".
I laugh knowing this will be a long journey, with Kerry talking my ear off the whole time. She tells me about the prolific strikers Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema, and how many goals they've scored. Then we move onto midfield players (whatever they are) and she tells me about Katie McCabe and Lia Wälti. I listen, not entirely understanding anything she has to say, but hoping she at least thinks that I do. We then move onto defenders, something I understand more, and she tells me about Leah Williamson, who is apparently also England captain, a fact that Kerry is astonished I didn't know.
"How have you never heard of her. When England won the euros she was literally everywhere. She's basically the face of women's football, and I think every lesbian in the world has a crush on her". I laugh before quickly moving the subject to something we can both enjoy, books.
I love reading, it's an escape for me from what has been a crappy life at some points. I get to be someone else for an hour or so, without a controlling father, or no friends. Someone who has purpose, meaning in the world. My favourite types of books are romance, I love reading all the beautiful things people do for one another. It does make me sad though to some extent, because I've only felt love once before and that crashed and burned very fast.
The journey is around an hour, so not too long. Once we arrive the coach descends into chaos. Children wanting to get off, explore, eat or just need the loo. So I have very little time to look around and take in my surroundings or enjoy myself as I'm constantly on the go.
Once we're finally settled, around 45 minutes later, we all sit down and get ready for the match to start. The players come out the tunnel and the children cheer, that's when I notice.