Walking into camp was pretty nerve-wracking knowing how many great players were in the building. Viv looked over at me and smiled. "How're you feeling?"
"Pretty nervous to be honest." I replied.
"Oh don't be." Jill said draping her arms around me. "The girls are going to love you."
"Well I hope they do." I said. Meeting the other players wasn't my main concern. My main concern was impressing the coaching staff.
As we entered the building we saw a few players in entrance talking. The other girls all went straight to greet each other hugging and catching up. I hung back slightly not really knowing what to say or do. After a few minutes Daan waved me towards her and the group around her.
"Hey guys, this is Rhaina, she plays for Arsenal and she's probably one of the tallest teenagers I know. Oh and she's probably the faster person I know too." Daan said introducing me to the other girls.
"I mean you got the tall part right." One of the girls said. "She makes you look like a toddler standing next to you."
"Well I mean doesn't everyone make her look like a toddler when they stand next to her?" Another one of the girls said laughing. Daan glared at the two of them and attempted to smack them.
"Well obviously these two are very mean. I'd advise you to stay away from them." Daan said rolling her eyes.
"Sorry Daan, we're just saying the truth." The second one said. "I'm Jackie by the way."
"And I'm Steph." The first girl said. The other girls introduced themselves too. They seemed like a good lot.
We then got rooming assignments and I ended up being put in a room with Jill which I was glad about. I was afraid that I would get paired up with someone I didn't know.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. As the other players trickled in Jill and Viv introduced me to them. We then had dinner followed by our first meeting where I officially met everyone and the staff. We went over our schedule for the next week and a half then went our separate ways. I headed up to my room to finish some school work then headed to bed.
The next few days of training were good. We started off easy to help us recover from our long flights but I was glad that we started training right away. We typically had two training sessions a day and occasionally a gym session too. A typical day for me went, wake up, go for my run, breakfast, prep/activation, morning training session, lunch, media session or meeting, afternoon session, free time, dinner, occasional team bonding, bed. We went into town a few times which was neat. As I had left Holland when I was only 5 I didn't remember much so it was very cool getting to see everything. I had to do some media things such as pictures in the kits and a few videos with the other girls but I tried to avoid them when I could.
Two days before our first game we were told that our afternoon session would be an open training where the fans would watch us train. I was pretty nervous when I heard this as I hadn't interacted with the Dutch fans before. Viv told me that it would be fine and that the fans were great, I hope that she's right.
As we walked onto the pitch I was surprised to see how many fans had gathered to watch us train. The training session went pretty well, we did some rondos and other warm up activities then headed into some shooting and passing drills and finished off the session with a small sided tournament. My team ended up beating Viv's team in the finals. My team had Sari as keeper, Steph and Kika as defenders, Vic (Victoria Pelova), Jackie and Jill in the midfield and me playing as the 9.
After our session we went around taking pictures and signing autographs for the fans. I was hesitant first not really fancying the idea of mingling with strangers and letting them take pictures of me. But Jill dragged me over and had me go around with her. After that we biked back to our hotel/team building.
Then before I knew it it was game day against Costa Rica. We started the game off strong scoring 3 within the first 20 minutes. With around 3 minutes left in the half Viv scored another.
Coming out of the half we started pretty slowly but found the back of the net again around the 60th minute mark putting us up 5-0. We scored again 5 minutes later. Then something I had not expected happened. Right after we scored our 6th goal Sarina looked at me and beckoned me towards her. She told me to start warming up and 5 minutes later in the 70th minute I was standing next to the fourth official and my number 8 lit up in green on the board. Viv jogged towards me beaming and hugged me whispering into my ear. "Go smash it Kind."
Over the loud speakers I heard my name and number being called. "Now coming into the game for Vivianne Miedema is number 8 Rhaina Van Haan!!!!!" The crowd roared. I ran towards the edge of the circle and play resumed. We were just 6 minutes later we scored again off of a corner kick, this time Jill able to put her head to it.
Then with 2 minutes left in stoppage time it happened. Sari volleyed the ball to around the halfway line and Jackie controlled it beautifully. She dribbled it up a few yards then I ran behind her making a overlap. She back heeled it to me and I looked up I noticed Shanice coming down the field but saw that she wouldn't get there in time. I checked the opposing keeper, noticing that she was slightly off her line. I took a cut back and hit the ball with my right foot a few yards out side of the 18 yard box. The ball curled up into the right top corner chipping over the keeper and going in. I just stood there in surprise. Then all the other girls ran towards me and jumped onto me. I had just scored a top bin goal from 25 or so yards out. Adding the 8th goal to the tally.
We started the game again but minutes later the final whistle blew and ended the game 8-0. Jill ran up to me and jumped on my back, Viv following close after her. We celebrated and shook hands with the officials and the other team for about 10 more minutes then slowly tricked back into the locker rooms. Sarina gave us a quick talk then we all went off to shower, get undressed and what not.
When we got back to the team hotel we headed straight to dinner. Tonight we had pasta, salad, and some fruits. Pasta had never been my favorite food by far, the amount of calories in it scared me. I got a small bowl of pasta, a bowl of salad and a few pieces of fruit.
I sat down next to Viv, the other girls at the table included Jill, Dom, Sherida, Lieke and Steph. I pushed around the pieces of pasta in my bowl while listening to the girls at my table talk. I felt a light tap on my shoulder and I looked up at Viv.
"You should probably stop playing with your food and actually eat it." Viv said. "You played a lot today, you need to make up for it." I nodded and put a piece of the pasta in my mouth but then went back to absentmindedly pushing my pasta around. After the talk started dying down and people started finishing with their food Sari stood up and went to the front of the room holding a cap. Everyone looked up at her as she cleared her throat.
"As you all know today we had a debut for our team." Sari looked at me. "Honestly this is such an incredible accomplishment and to do it at such a young age is so incredible. And also scoring on your debut is just amazing. So congratulations and I can't wait to play with you even more in the future." She held out the cap towards me. I stood up and walked towards her, I could feel the eyes on my back. I took the cap and hugged her.
"Well um, thank you so much for this, I'm so honored to be able to debut with such an amazing team and this means so much to me. Thank you to the coaching staff, team and everyone else for believing in me and giving me to opportunity. And I look forwards to playing more games in orange." I said, looking out into the room not really knowing where to look. The players all clapped and cheered and after waiting for the media staff to finish taking some pictures of me with the cap I walked back to my seat.
"Put on the cap!" Jill exclaimed eagerly. And ignoring my protests she grabbed the cap and forced it onto my head. "You look so fashionable in it!" She said after it was properly ajusted and she took a quick picture before I took it off. I smiled, it was entertaining to see how childish Jill could sometimes get.
Our second game against Costa Rica was in Utrecht so the next day after some recovery in the morning we got on a plane and flew over. Once we arrived we had a short media day/meet the fans. A few of us sat a table and signed autographs while others stood in of backdrops taking pictures with fans. A few people were also doing interviews. We signed autographs for about 2 hours then headed back to the hotel to rest and recover from the flight.
I sat on my bed trying to think of what to write for one of my papers I needed to turn in tonight when Daan bursted into the room and practically shoved a camera into my face. I pushed it away and looked away from the camera trying to cover my face.
"DAAN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GIVE THAT GIRL SOME SPACE!" Jill exclaimed loudly. "You're taking this vlogging thing too seriously."
Daan just rolled her eyes and pointed the camera back to me. "So little Ms. Rhaina Van Haan, what are you up to right now."
"Well, I was TRYING to write a paper for school that's due TONIGHT but SOMEONE decided to burst into the room and shove a camera up my face." I said pointedly, glaring at her.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh come on that's BORRRINNG lets go see what the other girls are up to."
"I'll pass I actually have things I need to do unlike someone here who apparently has all the time in the world. Go do something useful like calling your girlfriend." She chucked a pillow at me which I dodged.
Glaring at me she walked out of the room muttering to the camera. "Now you guys see what boring people I have to spend my time with."
The next day we had a little MD-1 training session which was very light. We did some wet room recovery and got some massages in then in the evening we had a little team bonding session and played some mario kart. Viv was surprisingly very good at it while DVD kept struggling and throwing tantrums very time she lost which was quit often. Jill also wasn't too great but Sherida and Jackie were actually quite decent. I wasn't too bad myself, I wouldn't say I was the best but I was up there.
"This game is literally rigged or something!" Daan said after coming in last yet again.
"It's not rigged Daan, you're just bad at it." Sari said lauging. "Just admit it."
"I'm not bad I'm telling you its rigged something is up with these controllers." Daan kept complaining. "Viv give me yours, you must have done something to your controller, you're never this good at video games."
"How do you know that I'm not good at video games when you've never even SEEN me play video games?" Viv said rolling her eyes.
"Because I just know it." Daan snapped back. "Now gimme your controller."
Viv handed over her controller sighing. "I'm telling you this isn't gunna help you win."
We started playing again but this time I just sat out and watched. The team dynamic was pretty funny, it seemed that the older ones especially Daan, Sari, and Kika were quite childish at times.
About halfway through the race Daan's phone started to ring and after checking who it was I called out to Daan. "Your girlfriend is calling Danie."
"Can you pick it up I'm a bit busy right here." Daan replied sticking her tongue out in concentration.
I clicked accept and Beth's face filled the screen. "Baby Ray-Ray!!!" She called out. I rolled my eyes at the nickname.
"Hey Beth nice to see you."
"Whatchu doin with Daan's phone?" She ask.
"She's a bit preoccupied with losing at Mario Kart at the moment." I replied with a laugh.
"AM NOT. JUST WAIT AND SEE I'M GOING TO WIN THIS ROUND." Daan yelled over from where she was sitting.
"Sure you are Daan." I said sarcastically. "Beth why did you have to pick someone so loud and energetic. Couldn't you have chosen someone more calm like Viv?"
"I'm already taken." Viv called over.
"I'm not too sure Lisa would be too happy with me if I took Viv." Beth said laughing.
"Eh I'm sure we could figure something out." I said.
"RHAINA WHATEVER YOUR MIDDLE NAME IS VAN HAAN, ARE YOU TRYING TO GET BETH TO BREAK UP WITH ME?!?!?!"
"I'm just saying." I said shrugging and laughing. "Come talk to your girlfriend Daan."
Daan snatched her phone back from me and went back over to her spot on the couch.
I got up and headed towards the door, Viv looked up at me when I passed and tilted her head as if asking me where I was going. "I'm just heading upstairs I'm a bit tired." I said answering her implied question. Viv nodded looking satisfied with her answer going back to playing the game.
Hey! Hope you guys enjoyed! Sorry that I didn't upload in awhile I've been really busy with school work and it was my birthday on the 13th. Anyways I'm also finally done with drivers ed so hopefully I can work on this more.
Are there any interactions or POVs that you guys want to see?
Also I'm so freaking happy about Kyra Cooney-Cross going to Arsenal!!!! I'm going to have to get her jersey lol.
Anyways ttyl!
Quaxel xx