It's time for boot camp, and this time, Jill has us fly into New Mexico again. So Ash, Ali, Alex and I fly from Orlando, straight into Albuquerque before we get on our last flight to Roswell, yeah, the one with 'aliens', no idea why, it's just the flights Jill got for us, so when we land in Roswell, the entire team is there, of course, we're the last to show up, so once we show up, we pile onto the bus that was waiting for us and I sit in the middle of the bus, on the left, next to a window, but look over as the seat beside me is claimed and smile at Mal.
"Tobin was moving too slow. I stole her spot." Mal says and I chuckle.
"Not surprising. Hi bus buddy." I say, giving Mal a hug.
-
When we get to where we'll be staying for the three weeks we're here, we all look at Jill as if she's lost her mind.
"Okay, first off. Where the hell are we, second, why are we at a casino, and third, I saw no place for us to train on our way here." Pinoe says and we all voice our agreements.
"We're in Ruidoso, we're here because this is the only hotel with actual security. No gambling, those that aren't 21. Actually, no gambling period. We're here to prepare for France and we don't get paid enough to waste money like that anyway."
"So what if we get bored?"
"There's golf," Syd and Kelley snort. "Paddle boats, and a zip line, and inside we've got an arcade you can spend time in, as well as a pool and fitness center that Dawn wants you all in as soon as you've settled into your rooms. Let's go check in and get our room assignments." Jill says and we all follow her inside, she checks us in and then tells us our room assignments. "Carli, you're with Y/N." Jill says and I laugh as Carli tosses her arm around my shoulders. "Tobin is with Ashlyn, Alex is with Kelley, Syd and Pinoe, ARod and Kling," Jill lists on as the room key for mine and Carli's room finally reaches us, so I take a key and she takes one. "If you've got your key, head on up to our floor." Jill says, so Carli, Tobin, Ashlyn and I all head to the elevators. After a little bit of searching of course, when we get to the eighth floor, we go to our rooms, and Carli looks at me as we get into ours.
"Door or balcony?" She asks and I toss my bag on the bed closest to the door.
"Guess that answers my question." Carli says and I laugh as Carli huffs.
"Let's go get our kits." She says and I nod.
"Lead they way, oh mighty Lloyd." Say and laugh as Carli smacks me upside the head.
"You're so annoying. I don't know why we're friends." Carli says as we leave our room, heading to the kit room that Jill said would be in the Women's locker room down on the second floor where the pool is.
"You love me." I say as we get onto the elevator.
"Yeah I guess." Carli says and I chuckle.
"I love how conveniently placed the kit room is today."
"Only time that'll happen this year." Carli says as we step off the elevator, heading to the right of the elevator, following the USWNT signs taped to the preexisting signs, when we get into the locker room, our kits are sorted alphabetically, name tags taped to the lockers, so Carli and I change into our kits as some of the others arrive and Ash huffs.
"What happened to being sorted numerically?" She asks and I roll my eyes at her.
"Ash."
"Yeah?"
"Be quiet." I say and Ash sticks her tongue out at me as I pull my muscle shirt on before sitting down and putting my shoes back on, heading out with Carli.
After training, most of the girls kick off their shoes before jumping into the pool, but Carli points me over to the all too familiar tub.
"But Car." I whine and she raises an eyebrow at me. "Ugh. Fine." I say and she smirks, walking with me to the tub as we get ready to get in, once we're in, I sigh. "The full ten to twelve?" I ask and Carli nods.
"Or I'll come throw you in it in your sleep." Carli says and I groan, but suck it up and go the full twelve minutes before getting out and walking with Carli into the locker room to get our clothes, heading up to our room.
In the morning, we head down to the buffet that Ashlyn tells me about through a string of ecstatic texts, so when we find the team, they're sitting at a long table together, as I sit down with my breakfast, Tobin kisses my cheek and I smile at her.
"Hello to you too." I say, smiling when she does.
"Those two are so cute it nauseates me." Sam says to Mal, who laughs.
"Right?" Mal agrees and I shrug.
"You two are just salty about being alone."
After practice, we all go into the hotel and up to our floor, going into our rooms to shower, and as I get out of the shower, leaving the bathroom fully dressed and towel drying my hair, I look at Carli when I feel her watching me.
"What's up, Car?"
"Ash stopped by, some of the team is crashing the arcade." Carli says and I nod, grabbing my phone, my wallet, and my key card, looking at Carli as I head toward the door. "I'm staying back for a while. You go have fun." Carli says, as if she was reading my mind, so I nod and open the door.
"See you in a bit, Car." I say, heading down to the main floor, which is the fifth, and go to the arcade, smiling as I see nobody in there but my wacky teammates.
-
"Ash! No! No no no! Agh! Come on!" I yell out, looking up at Ash, who laughs at me. Victorious in our sixth game of air hockey. All of which I lost, but one.
"You really thought I'd go easy on you?" She asks and I sigh.
"I thought Sharky loved Little Fish." I say, walking over to stand next to her, watching Syd and Alex race each other on the two racing games right next to each other.
"I do, but Sharky also likes to win."
"Fine. Basketball. I'm bomb at those shooting games. But can't hit a three on a real court for the life of me." I say and Ash laughs.
"Which is why your fishy little last name is on the back of a soccer jersey and not a basketball jersey." Ash says as we walk up to the basketball game.
"The closest score to the high score wins." I say and Ash nods.
"What's the punishment for losing?"
"Loser has to do everything for the winner. Laundry, room cleaning, cooking. Driving." I say and Ash scoffs.
"You win. You're not driving my baby." Ash says and I roll my eyes.
"Come on, Sharky. Be a good sport."
"Ugh. Fine, but only because I know you'll guilt me into doing it later anyway." Ash says and I smirk.
"So tallest goes first?" I ask and Ash nods. As I watch her play, a ball bounces at her face and she catches it without even flinching, when the game ends, we record her score of 29 compared to the high score of 59.
"See if you can do better." Ash says and I shrug. As I play, a ball flies at my face as well and I do what Ash did, catch it without really thinking about it, and shooting it again, when the game ends, I smile at my score of 40. "Happy? You don't hand over your keys."
"Thank fuck." Ash says and I roll my eyes at her.
-
Carli
-
After Y/N had come back from the arcade with the girls, she changed into some shorts and took her shirt off with an exhausted frown.
"What'd you and Ashlyn get up to now?" I ask her as she gets settled into the bed.
"Better question is what-" Y/N starts, but cuts herself off, I furrow my brow a little until I hear her light snoring and chuckle at her, reaching over and turning off the lamp on the night stand between our beds before getting up and turning down the lamps on the other side of both bed, turning hers off and turning mine down, almost to where it's off as I text Hope, since she had texted me as I was about to go join Y/N and whoever else was down in the arcade, next thing I knew, Y/N is coming in looking dog tired and knocking the fuck out. After a while I decide to go to bed as well and change into my own pajamas.
-
"Ow, shit." I hear Y/N say from somewhere in the room, so I reach over and grab my phone, checking it to see that it's three thirty in the morning, so I reach over and turn on the lamp to see her laying on the ground, holding her shin, and I just gently cover my face with my hand before getting out of bed to help Y/N up and back to her bed. "I gotta pee, Car."
"Fine. Go bathroom, I'm going to get some ice for your shin so it doesn't bruise. You'll never hear the end of it if you put yourself out for a week because you don't know how to walk around in the dark." I say, walking into the bathroom, grabbing the ice bucket and a bag before letting Y/N in, taking the key card from her hand. When I get back in the room, I put the ice in the bag and tie it closed as Y/N comes out and lays on her bed, so I let her put it on her shin.
"How do you know I'd never hear the end of it if I was out for a week after hitting my shin on the closet?"
"I did it back in '06. Abby wouldn't stop telling me to pack a flashlight for camps afterward."
"Good thing Abby isn't here then, huh?" Y/N says and I chuckle a little.
"I should give you shit, but I won't you're the only one on this team crazy enough to be my ice bath buddy."
"I'm crazy enough because you would trick me into it all the time in Manchester." Y/N says and I shrug, nodding.
"True, true. Okay, fifteen more minutes and then you can dump out the ice and go back to bed. Don't stub your toe." I say, getting back into bed and turning my back to the lamp as I fall back asleep.
In the morning, as I'm eating breakfast with the team in the same buffet from a couple mornings ago, Tobin comes over and sits next to me for a minute before looking at me.
"Hey, Car?" She asks and I look over at her.
"What's up, Tob?"
"Why does my girlfriend have a bruised shin?" Tobin asks and I look at Y/N, who shakes her head and I shrug.
"Ash kicked her." I say and Y/N snorts.
-
Y/N
-
About two weeks after camp, Orlando Pride flies out to Portland for a game, not against Portland, thankfully, it's too much work to play them. It's a neutral game against Seattle, and I'm hype as fuck because Hope said she's going to be there, and I haven't been able to see her since 2016, yeah, I know I've had a few games in Seattle, but I never got to go see her, the team would always fly out immediately following the game. But, since I've got a meeting in Malibu, I'm staying the night with Tobin and Sortzen in Portland before flying to California.
When we land, Ash and I are the first up, since most of the team fell asleep, so we wait for the people who aren't on the team get off before we get out of our little hiding spot, since we were next to each other on all of our flights.
"Wait, Ash, I have an idea." I say and Ash furrows her brow, so I go walk over to one of the stewardesses and give her a friendly smile.
"Hi, how can I help you?" She asks and I sigh.
"You see, my teammates are asleep, and they're scattered through the plane, I was wondering if I could use the intercom to wake them?" I ask and the stewardess hesitates, so I pull out a twenty.
"Go on ahead. Have a great day." She says, taking the money and I smirk before using the intercom to wake everyone up. Once everyone is up, and Alex is dead set on murdering me, I walk off the plane next to Ash and head to luggage claim before heading out to the bus, getting on after putting my bags in one of the open compartments, once I'm sitting, I look over and smile at Ali as she takes the seat next to me.
"So, ladies, we're headed straight to Providence Park for training because scheduling was fucked." Ash says, walking onto the bus, sitting in front of Ali and I as Tom steps on.
"Yeah, what Ashlyn said." Tom says, sitting close to the door.
When we get to the stadium, the Thorns are just coming off the field in their training kits, so we wait for the locker room to empty, but laugh as Tobin comes and sits in my lap as I sit on the ground with Ash.
"Hey stranger." Tobin says and I roll my eyes, leaning up and giving her a soft kiss.
"Hi baby." I say and smile when Tobin does.
"So I'm picking you up after practice, right?" Tobin asks and I nod.
"Last time I checked, that was the plan." I say and Tobin nods before getting up.
"Call me when you're in the locker room so I have time to get here before you're left out front waiting." Tobin says and I hear Ash feign a gasp.
"We can't have that, now can we?" Ash says and Tobin and I both turn to her. "Your princess must be picked up curbside!" Ash says and I roll my eyes at her before turning back to Tobin.
"I'll text you when we get in the locker room, don't pick me up curbside. Unless I walk out as you pull into the parking lot." I say and Tobin nods.
"I better go before Sermanni runs me off from you." Tobin says and I roll my eyes at her.
"Tom isn't like that." I say to Tobin as she walks away.
After fifteen minutes, Mark comes out and tells Tom that we can go into the locker room and get ready for practice.
After practice, as I sit in front of the locker next to Tobin's since it still has my name and number on it.
"Look at miss hotshot." Marta grumbles as she passes me. "Still has her old locker with her old club." She says and I sit up after I finish tying my high tops, my training muscle shirt laid across my lap as I look at Marta.
"Look at Miss Brazilian Transfer." Alanna mumbles from next to me. "Wasting club funds while Y/N does her job for her as well as her own." Alanna finishes and everyone who heard laughs while I just keep my eyes on Marta as she stares me down.
"Can I help you, Marta?" I ask and she huffs, walking off, once she's back changing, I turn to Alanna and she looks at me.
"Hi, Cap."
"Thanks for that, but we're a team, no matter who doesn't like who. Alright?" I say and Alanna nods. "Next time, save it for when we're at the hotel and the entire team can hear you." I say, fist bumping Alanna before slipping my shirt from before practice back on. Once I'm changed, I take out my phone and text Tobin, I would've texted her earlier, but I was too busy wrestling Ashlyn for my pants because she's a child sometimes. Once she says she's on her way, I grab my Orlando hoodie, slipping it on as I get up and grab my kit bag from my locker, running my thumb over my name plate still in it's slot before heading out the door.
"Look at lover girl!" Ash yells after me as I leave and I chuckle.
"Going to have fun tonight?" Alex adds and I roll my eyes at my friends before heading out front after saying hi to Mark and telling Tom that I'll see him tomorrow, to see Tobin waiting in front of the entrance, so I get in the car and set my bag between my feet as I kiss her softly.
"Hi." I say and smile as she catches the back of my neck, kissing me once more before releasing me so I can buckle up.
"Hello." She says and I chuckle a little.
"I told you not to pick me up at the curb."
"I just pulled up when you walked out, you were on your phone so you didn't notice." Tobin says and I nod.
"True though." I say and smile as Tobin takes my left hand in her right, rubbing her thumb against it before kissing it as she drives home, when we get there, she parks in the garage, turning off the car and rushing out of and around the Rover in that adorable dorky manner of hers, since I left her the keys to both of my cars when I left to Orlando. I smile as she opens the door for me and grab my kit bag as Tobin takes my hand and close the door, walking with Tobin into the house, smiling as Sortzen rushes over to me, whimpering happily, so I set my kit bag down as I drop to my knees, petting Sortzen. "Hi baby." I say, squishing his face with my hands, laughing as he squirms around, still whimpering gleefully. "I miss you too, buddy." I say and pet him as he calms down. "I'm sorry I can't take you with me, bud. I just want to make sure you're looked after because I don't know what days off are anymore." I say and look over at Tobin as she scoffs.
"Is Sermanni working you that hard?" Tobin asks and I smile at her.
"Last time I checked my last name was Y/L/N." I say and Tobin sighs, kissing my forehead, helping me back to my feet.
"I made us some dinner." Tobin says and I smile, following Tobin to the kitchen, where there's a nice dinner set up for us at the island.
"Aw, babe, you didn't have to." I say and Tobin shrugs, scratching the back of her neck.
"It's a little 'welcome home for the night' treat." Tobin says and I look at her.
"Babe."
"Okay, it's a 'I love you and I miss you so damn much I want to yell but I can't because you're happy and that's all that matters, so please time hurry up and bring my baby back to Portland' dinner." Tobin says and I smile at her, turning her to me and wrapping my arms around her neck, kissing her softly, smiling into the kiss, pulling away a little as I feel Tobin nibble on my lip.
"Behave, Heath." I say and hum against Tobin's lips as she kisses me briefly before pulling away again.
"Be quiet, Y/L/N." Tobin says, her arms wrapping themselves completely around my waist as she kisses me again, so I tangle my fingers in her hair and let the kiss happen because I've missed her lips and how easily I can get lost in a kiss from her.
"Tobin." I say, pulling away as I feel myself being pressed against the counter that was seven steps behind me.
"Y/N." Tobin mocks, leaning back in, but I press my hand against her chest to stop her.
"Tob, I'd love to continue this kiss, but that food smells amazing and I just worked off all of my shitty ass airport food." I say and Tobin smiles, kissing my nose before leading me over to our seat.
After dinner, I squeak as I'm tossed onto our bed with Tobin following close behind, crawling to me to hover over me before kissing me deeply, so I just wrap my arms around her neck and nibble on Tobin's lip as her hands caress my sides. Tobin hums against my lips before deepening the kiss, and I push my fingers into her hair, but gasp as Tobin's hands slide up under my shirt and get dangerously close to my boobs, so I pull away and push Tobin up gently, she looks me with concerned light brown eyes and I sigh, looking down at her shoulder.
"God, I'm such a prude. I'm so sorry." I say, putting my forehead against Tobin's shoulder and sigh as Tobin lays down, pulling me to lay on her chest, her hands rubbing my back.
"No babe, you're not. You are not a prude. You're a respectable young woman who has made a respectable relationship decision after making questionable ones in past relationships, and I respect that, and you. I got carried away. I'm sorry." Tobin says before pulling me out of her neck where I was hiding still.
"I love you. I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault Dani and the rest of your exes treated you like shit and made you feel like they only wanted you for sex." Tobin says, kissing my forehead and I smile a little.
"Thank you for understanding." I say quietly, closing my eyes as Tobin presses her lips against my forehead and keeps them there.
After a while of us laying in silence, I snuggle up with Tobin and yawn into her neck before falling asleep in her arms.
In the morning, I whine as I wake up to a bright light, but look around and see that it's just the damn sun shining through the blinds on my side of the bed, and Tobin is gone, so I get out of bed and change into some clothes from my closet and head down stairs to see a piece of paper on the fridge, so I go read it.
'Y/N, Mark called an early practice since you and the Pride took our usual practice slot, I'll be back around 8 to take you to practice. I love you, Tobin.'
I smile at the note and check my phone when it dings and chuckle at the text from Tobin.
My love: I hope you're ready, I'm pulling into the driveway.
Me: In the kitchen, I'll meet you outside.
I put my phone back in my pocket and grab my kit bag on my way out of the house through the front door and climb into Tobin's car, smiling as she kisses me softly, backing out of the driveway and to practice, where she kisses me softly again as I open the door, taking my kit bag from Tobin as she hands it to me after she grabbed it from the back seat where I put it when I got in the car.
"I'll see you after practice." She says and I nod, closing the door and walking into the locker room, rolling my eyes at Ash and Alex as they ooh at me like a couple of teenagers.
"Oh come on. Not even a hickey?" Ash asks and I shrug, sitting at my locker in this locker room as well.
"How many times do I have to say that we don't do that?" I ask and Ash rolls her eyes.
"It's astonishing how we're best friends." She deadpans and I roll my eyes.
"Well if you don't want me as your bestie anymore, I'll just go back to Alex." I say and Alex shrugs as I finish changing into my training kit.
"I'm fine with that." Alex says as I put my socks on after putting my shin pads in their sleeves that I've yet to lose, somehow.
"Fine then." Ash jokes as I pull my socks up to cover my shin pads, I look up as I slip my cleats on and tie them.
"I'm so glad we're all kidding." I say and Alex looks at me as we all leave the locker room. "Not like that, it's just that I'm too lazy to move out of Ash's place and I don't think your hubby would like having to share a house with me. I'd steal his wife from him too much." I say and Alex shrugs.
In the middle of practice, as I walk to the bench to get some water, I trip over something as I pass Marta, so I look over to see her pulling her foot back to make it look like she did nothing as Alex and Ash come over.
"What happened?" Alex asks and I sigh.
"Marta's being childish again." I say as Tom yells at Marta to get out of her uniform and to leave practice.
"I guess he saw that." Alex says and I shrug, getting up to stand with them.
After practice, as I'm changing, I stay quiet, listening to the chatter among the girls in the locker room, and just focus on changing, once I'm done and in my joggers and Pride hoodie, since it was chilly in Portland, I grab my bag and my phone and leave the locker room, telling the girls that I'll see them before the game tomorrow, listening to the girls as they all say bye to me while the locker room door swings closed gently, and I look up from my phone where I was clearing the texts from Tobin telling me she was here to pick me up, so I get into her car with her and we talk idly with each other for the entire drive home, when we get home, we head inside and decide to relax on the couch with Sortzen and a couple of movies.
The next day, at around two, Tobin and I head to Providence park so I can get ready for the game, while Tobin disappears to go sit with the Thorns players that showed up to watch the game. In the locker room, my uniform is in Tobin's locker, so I sit in front of it, between Alanna and McKenzie as we all get dressed, when I'm dressed, I get up and go out to warm up with Alex.
During the game, in the 20th minute, I'm defending Pinoe, when she tries to get around me, so I meg her and head up field with it, sending it through to Alex, who runs down the right wing, so I head into the box and finish the cross Alex sends in, sending it past their keeper, and celebrate with Alex before we get into formation again.
In the 40th minute, Pinoe tries to send the ball up field to one of her mids, but I trap it on my chest and level it with my right foot before passing to Dani, shifting with the play as she makes a run of it, crossing in to Alex, who gets her head on it, but the shot is saved. During half time, I sit and drink my water as I listen to Ash speak to the team before she turns it over to me as I fill my mouth with water, so I give Ash this are you kidding me look and she sighs, speaking for a little longer as I swallow the water before getting up and going to sit next to Ash before speaking, handing her my bottle of water as I speak.
"I agree with what Ash has said so far, but for those of you who will be getting subbed in in this next half, we're only up by one, we still have an entire half ahead of us, and if we want to win this game, we've got to play like it's the biggest event you'll have in your soccer career, because I didn't come to Orlando to watch us lose, draw, or tie every game. You guys who have been out on that field so far are doing great, I love how hard we are all working, and I want to keep seeing Ash back there, just standing around. That's a perfect match to me, if my best friend and co captain is bored out of her fucking mind. So let's keep her bored. Alright?" I say and watch the team nod as Tom comes in.
"Y/N, you're going up front with Alex. Get us another hat trick." Tom says and I nod, he speaks with the team as a whole for a few minutes before sending us out to warm up again. When play resumes, I rush up to defend the ball as it's kicked around, before intercepting a poor pass from one mid to another, taking the ball up field and passing to Alex so I can get open and take the ball back from Alex before beating the back line and faking out the keeper, sending the ball into the net shortly after she dives the wrong way. I don't celebrate that goal because it's shameful how easy it was to get and just get into position with Alex. After ten minutes of a fruitless back and forth between us and Seattle, Ali gets her foot behind the ball and sends it over head to Alex, who follows the ball behind the back line, and I stay back as Alex crosses it before volleying the ball into the net and rushing to hug Alex as we both scream out with pure joy before we get into formation.
After the game that we won with a score of 5-2, I sigh as I walk over to Ash as she calls my name and smile as I hear my name being yelled by a few, Tobin of course, Kling, and grunt as Pinoe comes over and jumps on my back.
"Great game, Y/L/N." She says and I laugh, thanking her before going over to a small group of fans, signing a few things and looking at a woman who couldn't be more than forty as she calls my name repeatedly.
"Hi." I say, turning my attention to the woman, who smiles at me.
"Hi. My daughter adores you." She says and I smile at the scared looking teenage girl she puts her arm around. "She's shy though, and she wants a replica jersey of yours, do you know where we can get one?" The mom asks and I shrug, pulling my armband down a little so it's not trapping my sleeve against my arm and pull my jersey off, handing it to the girl.
"Sorry it's all sweaty." I say, smiling wide as the girl smiles.
"C-can you sign my ball?" She asks and I nod, smiling, taking the sharpie she hands me and sign the ball. I still need to go let the ref find me, but I'm busy. Fans before game ball. It's just a ball, these are humans.
"Thank you, Y/N." The mom says and I smile, nodding.
"No problem." I say, hopping back down and looking over at a fan calling my name, well at what they're waving and see a black shirt with 'Solo' on the back.
"Y/N, hi," the fan says and I look up, but jump up when I see who it is and hug her tight.
"Hope. Oh my fucking god." I say and she laughs a little.
"Kinda hard to think that this child I met three years ago is now this." Hope says and I roll my eyes.
"Come onto the field." I say and she sighs.
"Security won't let me." She says and I roll my eyes.
"You wait here, Solo." I say, hopping down and walking over to security, pointing to Hope. "You see that woman?" I ask the man and he nods. "She's like a big sister to me, I want her ass on this field ASAP." I say and he nods, jogging over to Hope as my name is called, so I look over my shoulder to see the first official walking toward me with a ball under her arm.
"You're hard to track down." She says and I smile.
"Sorry. Fans and friends." I say, shaking her hand.
"You played a damn good game, Captain." She says, putting the game ball in my arms before offering me a smile and walking off, and I chuckle as I hear a fan yell out for me to raise it, so I do and smile as some of the crowd cheers before walking over to where Tobin, Allie, Kling, Hope, and a few others are standing and run and jump on Hope, hugging her impossibly tight.
"Y/N, I need to breathe." Hope says and I hop down, smiling a little.
"Sorry, I just miss seeing you." I say and she points at my right collarbone, so I look at it and see my new tattoo of her name, well, the word hope, but it's capitalized.
"That better not be for me." Hope says and I shake my head.
"It's to remind me and others that life is nothing without a little bit of hope in it." I say and Hope smiles, hugging me before pushing me toward the locker room.
"Go change and let your team sign that game ball of yours." She says and I look at the others, who nod in agreement, so I go into the locker room and smile as the team cheers for me.
"Took you fucking forever." Alex says and I shrug, tossing her the ball when she signals for it.
"Solo's out there." I say as Alex passes the ball over to Alanna.
"Really?"
"Yeah." I say and Alex gets up, disappearing out of the locker room for a brief minute before coming back in with a smile on her face.
"I'm happy now."
"We just won, you should've been happy in the first place." I say as I take the armband off of my arm and slip my 'Harris 85' shirt, changing into my Portland joggers, don't fucking judge, I wore my Pride ones yesterday and Sortzen got mud all over them. Once I'm dressed, Ash tosses me the ball and I smile to myself before grabbing my kit bag and leaving the locker room. "My girlfriend and some friends are outside waiting, so I'm gone." I say, walking out and wrapping Tobin in my arms, kissing her deeply, laughing as Hope gags off to the right, so I pull away, laughing against Tobin's lips, looking over at Hope. "Can I help you, Miss Solo?" I ask and she nods.
"Stop being so damn cute. And cut the PDA, there are children here." She says, tossing her arm around Kling's shoulders, who nods for a solid five seconds before her smile drops and she turns to hope real fucking fast.
"Hey!" She exclaims and I laugh as Tobin presses a gentle kiss to my jaw.
"Good job tonight." She whispers to me as I let her take the game ball from me. The entire team signed it, excluding Marta, because Tom flew her ass back to Orlando last night, he wasn't going to have her pull shit like that on the field, but it's not like I wanted her to sign it anyway. If she's being petty, I'll be petty too.
"Thank you." I say and Tobin smiles, looking up at me from the ball and I feel myself swoon a little, even after two years. God that smile turns me to mush.
That night, as Tobin and I lay in bed, after my shower, she sighs as she holds me close.
"I don't want you to go to Malibu." Tobin says and I chuckle, cupping her cheek and kissing her.
"You're cute, babe." I say and she pouts, so I do what I do best, kiss the pout away, laughing against Tobin's lips as she tries to heat the kiss up.
"Worth a shot." Tobin jokes and I roll my eyes, cuddling into her chest and relaxing into her hold and falling asleep.
When I wake up, I groan as I turn my alarm up and turn to see if Tobin is still asleep and give her a sad smile when I see those light brown eyes of hers looking at me in the darkness.
"I love you." She says and I smile, kissing her softly.
"I love you too." I say, getting out of bed and getting dressed from my Team USA suitcase, I brought it because I'm going to be in Malibu for a week, possibly more, and my flight is in three hours, at eight, so I go down and get the fruit I cut up last night and a bottle of water, turning around to see Tobin and Sortzen looking at me from the kitchen doorway. "Babes." I say and Sortzen walks over, sitting on my foot. "Buddy, come on." I say, slipping my foot from under him.
At the airport, I take my kit bag and suitcase from Tobin as she kisses me softly. When I pull away, I kneel down and pet Sortzen, who is obviously mad at me, so I kiss his head, scratching behind his ears before standing up again.
"Don't worry about the ball, I'll mail it to Ash as soon as I get home." Tobin says and I nod, kissing her one last time before heading through security and heading to my gate once I'm through and wait for my flight.
-
I sigh as I check myself over in the mirror, nodding in approval, I'm wearing my Orlando Pride polo, some black pants, and my black vans, and my shades are hooked into my shirt as I grab the keys to my rental car. I'd dress casually, like the Malibu girl I am, but I'm headed to my old high school to meet with the school district's superintendent, the athletic director, and the principal of the school to discuss my plans for building a field house for both the girls' and boys' soccer programs, because at my old school, every sport but soccer has a designated locker room, both programs have to share locker rooms with the track and field program, tennis has their own field house, football and baseball are in the main field house with the training room, basketball and volleyball have their locker rooms in the gym, swim teams have their locker rooms, everyone but soccer, and that's not right, so I'm going to fix that, that's the only reason why I took the loan offer from Tom, he understood what I was trying to do and wanted to help, Mark did too, but the owner of both Portland clubs refused to let Mark up my pay by as little as a hundred bucks, I mean, I'm getting paid the same as everyone on Pride right now, but that's twice as much as any club I care to know about their salaries. When I get to the school, I smile at the welcome home sign hung out for me.
"I'm not Alex, I don't deserve a welcome home sign." I mumble to myself as I slip my shades on and head inside, to the main office, where I sign in and take the visitor's sticker that's handed to me,
"John told me to tell you that him, Steven and Mr. Barelli are going to meet you down on the football field." The secretary says and I nod, thanking her, before leaving the school, walking to the football field, to see the three men standing on the 10 yard line, John, or Mr. Finch, as I've known him since forever, is the first to spots me and calls my name joyfully as I walk over.
"Hey." I say, hugging him when he pulls me into one when I go to shake his hand, then accept the hug from Steven, I just know him as Steven because he's cool like that, before shaking hands with the superintendent. "I don't believe I remember you." I say to him, and he nods.
"This is my third year." He says and I nod.
"Well, I hope these two are treating you right." I say and he chuckles nodding.
"They have been. I understand that you want to fund a soccer field house?" He asks and I nod, walking to where I imagine it being, since there's nothing there, it's perfect.
"Yeah, because for as long as I've played, I've known that both soccer programs had to share locker rooms with track and field, while every other program gets their own field house or at least their own locker rooms, and I want to fix that, give soccer their own locker rooms, because they've been winning state championships since my sophomore year here, and the football team hasn't won a game since my seventh grade year, apparently that's still true, yet the football team has such advanced everything while soccer is having to coordinate with track and field on who can change when and how little time they have to do so." I say and the superintendent nods.
"Indeed, the football team is still drastically under performing and soccer is still bringing in championships for the school every year." He says, looking at the space where I think the field house would be best. "If we accept your offer, when would you like the construction to begin?" He asks and I take a deep breath.
"After this soccer season, that way construction doesn't interfere with any soccer matches or track meets."
"What about football games?"
"The football team interferes with their own games." I say and the superintendent chuckles, holding his hand out to me.
"I look forward to working with you, Miss Y/L/N, congratulations on your win last night." He says before walking away and I look at John and Steve, all three of us wide eyed.
"I didn't think I'd pull that off." I say and Steve chuckles.
"I did. You did great." He says and I smile.
"How long are you in town?"
"My coach gave me a week off. I'm staying the whole week to maybe spend some time with the girls team. Help coach out a bit." I say and they nod.
"Sounds good."
-
On my third day in Malibu, I furrow my brow as I get a call from my old soccer coach, who's still the current coach, she wasn't fired in the time since the incident with my dad.
"Hello?"
"Y/N. What are you doing right now?"
"I just got out of my hotel's fitness center, what's going on?" I ask and she chuckles.
"Always so worried. Nothing's wrong, but I'm on my way to get you, I want to take you to lunch to say thank you for helping me this week, the girls absolutely adore you." Coach says and I shrug to myself.
"Okay, I'll shower and get ready. Fancy? Casual? Buck ass naked?" I ask and laugh when coach does.
"You got any polos? I know you wore your Orlando one the other day."
"I have a clean one of those."
"Then wear something similar to what you wore when you first got here."
"That would be sweats and my girlfriend's USWNT jacket." I say and coach sighs. "I know what you mean, I'll see you outside in a while.
-
When I'm in the car with Coach, she drives as I text Tobin about how the meeting went the other day, since she had a game yesterday and spent most of the day before travelling to New York. Once I put my phone in my pocket, I look up to see that we're at the school, so I look over at Coach and furrow my brow.
"Just close your eyes until I can come around and blind fold you." She says and I do as told. Mostly because I trust her and I have no damn clue what's going on. When I'm told to open my eyes, I still see nothing but darkness. "Can you see?"
"No, Karen, what the hell is going on?" I ask and sigh as she laughs.
"Just come on, you trust me, I won't hurt you." She says before leading me somewhere. When we stop, the blindfold is removed from my eyes, and I'm greeted with the entirety of the school, and of course, the girls' soccer team cheers for me, so I wave a little, still confused as hell until I hear Steven start speaking.
"Malibu High, I'm honored to introduce Y/N Y/L/N, she's MHS alumni, and currently the top scorer of the National Women's Soccer League." Steven says and I lean over to Karen's ear.
"Is that true?" I ask, because I hardly ever check stats and shit like that, just seems like an asshole thing to do.
"Yeah."
"She's co captain of the Orlando Pride, and starting centeral midfielder for the U.S. Women's National Team, who are well on their way to the 2019 Women's World Cup in France, she's in town this week getting the soccer programs a field house for next season, but before she reached out to us, we reached out to her agent and made sure she had time to be here for this." Steve says and I furrow my brow. "We're proud to dedicate this stadium and the new field house, to her." Steve says as I'm turned toward the score board as there's cloth removed from it to reveal something I never thought I'd see, my name as the name of a stadium. Of the stadium I played in growing up. 'Y/N Y/L/N Field'
"This can't be real." I say and Karen claps my shoulder as people cheer.
"It's real, kid."
"I've only been a pro for three years." I say and Karen chuckles.
"You've only honored this school for 11." Karen retorts and I shrug.
"Okay, yeah, you've got a point." I say and Karen nods as I look at her. "But this is not what I expected to happen when I pitched that field house plan. I just wanted a place for our soccer teams to change without having to fight with track." I say and turn around as a hand is placed on my shoulder.
"It doesn't matter, you've done some great things so far, we want to honor you as you've honored us." John says and I sigh, shaking his hand and everyone else's hands that are up here with me, thanking them politely, once the students are back in their classes, I just stand in the center of the circle, just staring at the scoreboard. So I take a picture and send it to Abby.
Me: I don't know how to react.
It takes a short while for me to get a response, but I'm still in the middle of the field, trying to wrap my head around what just happened.
Super Wambach: Have you said thank you? That you're honored?
Me: To everybody that was part of the ceremony.
Super Wambach: Then you reacted correctly, who all knows?
Me: You and the entirety of the Malibu High School student body.
Me: Nobody on the team yet. You're the first person I could think of to talk to about this.
Super Wambach: Okay, what's up then?
Me: I don't deserve this. I'm not Tobin, I'm not you, I'm not anybody on the team who has been great enough to get a field or stadium named after them.
Super Wambach: Kid, I've seen you play in high school and college, I was your teammate once, I still watch your games. You do deserve that, you've worked so hard. Ashlyn tells me that you spend your down time working out and training. That's part of the reason why your name is now the name of the place you trained to get where you are today. It's part of the legacy I know you're going to leave.
Me: But I'm not you, or Carli, or fucking Mia Hamm, I'm just little ol' Y/N Y/L/N.
Super Wambach: Exactly, that's what makes you so popular. You're you, with twinges of the big names, you've spent time with them, you've spent time learning how to integrate their play into yours, and guess what.
Super Wambach: It's paying off.
Super Wambach: Now tell the team before I do.
Me: Okay, thanks Abbs.
Super Wambach: Any time, kiddo.
-
I sigh as I get home in Orlando and set my stuff down in my room before stretching out on my bed as my door flies open with Ash rushing in.
"Oh shit." I groan before I'm jumped on.
"Bitch! You're a stadium now!" She says and I sigh.
"I'm exhausted is what I am." I say and Ash rolls her eyes.
"Come on, we planned you a congrats party."
"I'm good."
"Little Fish."
"Sharky. Let me sleep."
"Ugh, fine, we'll party without you." Ash says and I nod.
"You go do that, won't hurt my feelings one bit." I say and Ash leaves me to knock the fuck out, just sprawled out on my bed.