When I wake up, Alex is laying in her bed, on her laptop, so I sigh as I get up and stretch.
"Morning." Alex says to me and I groan as my back pops.
"Morning."
"Hey, I'm caught up with my email, could you do me a-"
"I'm on it." I say, knowing she wants her coffee.
"Thanks, Y/N/N. Love ya."
"Only when I'm bringing you your coffee." I joke as I leave the room and go get her coffee, chuckling and apologizing as I bump into someone. "Shit, my bad. I'm sorry." I say, looking up from my phone to see Carli. "No I'm not." I say, laugh as Carli rolls her eyes at me. "Yes I am. I'll see you later, Car." I say, hugging her, huffing when she ruffles my hair before leaving as I go order Alex's coffee and decide to get some tea before heading back to the hotel, up to mine and Alex's room and hand her her cup as I walk between our beds, sitting on my bed with my tea as she continues with her email.
"Thank you." Alex says and I take a sip of my tea.
"No problem, anything for our Baby Horse." I say, laughing as a pillow hits me in the side of the head.
"Hey, you're the captain. You're supposed to be running through the halls yelling at the team about practice."
"Do I have to?"
"No, I just wanted to see if you'd do it." Alex says and I roll my eyes at her, getting up and heading to the door.
"I'm headed down for breakfast." I say before leaving, laughing as an arm is tossed over my shoulder and I'm pulled into someone's side.
"We both headed to breakfast?" Alanna asks and I nod.
"Yeah, I guess so." I say, walking with Alanna to the elevator, riding down with her and walking into the breakfast nook and making myself a Texas shaped waffle, rolling my eyes as I sit down with the team. "Just in case you didn't know you were in Texas, the hotel's waffles are coming in clutch to remind you." I say before I start eating. When Alex comes down, I had just finished, so I give her my seat because Tobin is calling, so I answer her call as i throw my plate and shit away, headed back up to the room with another cup of orange juice. "Hello?" I ask as I leave the breakfast nook.
"Hey babe." Tobin says through the phone and I smile at her happy tone.
"What's up, Toby?" I ask as I get on the elevator.
"Just wanted to call you and wish you good luck." Tobin says and I chuckle.
"Well thank you, babe." I say. "Are you watching?"
"Yeah, I don't have to clean the house today, so I won't be surprised this time." Tobin says and I chuckle as I go sit on my bed. "I love you." Tobin says and I smile wider than I already was.
"I love you too." I say.
"So what are you doing until game time?"
"Probably just going to relax. I usually have Ash to help me really prep for the game, but she's out. Everyone else wants to take it easy before kick off, so I might do that."
"Do you need someone to help?" She asks and I sigh. "I'll do it."
"From Portland, cute babe."
"Who said I was in Portland?"
"Tobin, I swear, if you found the hotel-"
"Hey, Y/N/N, Tobin is down in the lobby." Alex says, coming into the room and I sigh.
"Tobin Powell Heath."
"I love you."
"I'll be down in a minute." I say, hanging up and grabbing my kit bag. "I'll be back, Lex. You and Ali are in charge until I get back because I think the coaching staff are making sure everything is set for tonight." I say and Alex nods.
"I'm the captain now." She says, and I roll my eyes.
"For like, twenty minutes."
"Inaugural captain here." Alex says and I throw her own pillow at her.
"Bye, Alex!"
"Be careful!" She responds as the door closes and I head down to the lobby and walk up to Tobin.
"You're supposed to be in Portland." I say, crossing my arms, looking at her. She shrugs.
"Had a day off. Decided to come visit my girlfriend." Tobin says and I sigh, rolling my eyes as she wraps her arms around my waist, so I wrap my arms around her neck.
"Dammit, it's hard to stay mad at you and your damn charm." I say and Tobin smiles, leaning in, so I meet her half way, kissing her softly.
"So let's go get your pregame ritual done?" Tobin says as we pull away and I nod, taking her hand and walking with her to the field close to the hotel. After twenty minutes, Tobin and I call it quits and walk back to the hotel. "I better get back to the hotel Ash is staying at." Tobin says and I pout.
"No, stay." I say and she smiles, kissing my forehead.
"I'll just distract you." Tobin says and I huff. "I love you, Ash and I will be in the front row in your jerseys. Well, I will be, Ash will most likely be wearing Ali's jersey." Tobin says and I chuckle.
"They aren't out, you expect her to wear her jersey?"
"Yeah, true. We'll see you at the game, okay?" She asks and I nod, kissing her quickly before letting her leave and head up to the room and lay on the bed with a big sigh.
"She pull the 'I'll distract you' card?" Alex asks and I nod.
"Yes."
"She's right though."
"I know. But I don't want her to be right." I say and Alex comes and sits beside me, putting my head in her lap.
"Take a nap, I'll wake you up before we leave." Alex says, playing with my hair and I huff before falling asleep.
-
Alex
-
Y/N falls asleep after heaving a frustrated huff and I sigh as I play with her hair, grinning as I watch the frustration melt away from her face. I understand that she's upset, but she's gonna be alright.
-
About twenty before we're supposed to get on the bus to go to the stadium, I wake Y/N up and she groans as she wakes up and sits up.
"I feel like I died."
"It looked like you did a couple of times." I say and Y/N huffs out a laugh.
"Fuck." She groans out and I chuckle, getting up and getting into my sweats and half zip while Y/N does the same, grabbing her kit bag, phone and headphones, leaving the room with me as we all head down to the bus, settling in for the ride. When we get off the bus at the stadium, we head in, Y/N and most of the other girls already have their music playing, myself included as we settle into the locker room to relax for the hour before warmups.
-
Y/N
-
I usually listen to anything and everything before a game, from my music library, but today I decided to go with Childish Gambino Radio on Pandora. As I get into the bottom half of my highlighter yellow uniform, I stay in my Pride shirt as I head to the training room to get my wrists wrapped. As I walk in, Merritt looks at me and I hold my hands up, so she nods, grabbing the power flex and power tape, as well as the tuf skin.
"No, no no. Ah fuck." I say as she puts the tuf skin on my hand.
"I know you hate it, that's why I do it." Merritt says, smirking and I sigh, watching her wrap my wrist up past my thumb with the power flex before going over it with the power tape. It's a more stable tape job than prewrap and athletic tape. Once she's done, I thank her and head back to the locker room and pull my shirt off as I walk to my locker, tossing my shirt in as I pull on my bright ass yellow keeper's jersey. Once my jersey is on, I sit down and slip on my new Mercurials, grabbing my purple, white, and black gloves, setting them in my lap while I put on my purple shin guards. Once all that is set, I slip my half zip on and head out to warm up with everyone and get in goal, shaking my head as I hear Ash and Tobin yelling for me.
"Fishy!" Ashlyn screams and I roll my eyes, letting Lloyd do his thing to get me warmed up, heading in after the twenty five warm up period, and standing where everyone can see me, right next to Ali, since Ash gave her the other arm band when she was pulled off after she got hurt.
"I know I look weird in this." I start off and the team chuckles. "But that doesn't matter, we've got this. We can do this, we just need to keep our heads in this game for the entire 90 plus minutes we're on that pitch." I say and Ali nods next to me.
"We can't get cocky out there if we start winning, we can't get comfortable." Ali continues for me and after a bit, we bring the team in.
"Pride on three."
-
The starters line up out in the tunnel and I'm behind Ali, which feels fucking weird. Carli is up front with Williams behind her, Moe is behind Williams and that's the only look I got to take before we began walking out, once we're lined up, we stand as the national anthems play and the Dash players shake all of our hands before taking their side of the pitch, and we shake hands with the refs on our way to our end of the pitch, I stand inside my box and wait for the team to huddle.
"Remember what we said in the locker room." I say and the girls all nod, we break the huddle and the girls get in their positions as I get on my line for kick off.
-
Ethan
-
"Where did Y/N say the game was going to be again?" I ask Frances as I sit on the couch, trying to find the game.
"Either Lifetime or go90." Frances says, coming into the living room, taking the remote from my hand, so I get on go90 and start looking for the game on there. "Found it." Frances says, sitting next to me, so I close my laptop, setting it to the side as I focus on the screen. "It should start after these commercials. We missed the walk out." Frances says and I nod.
"Hello and welcome back to BBVA Compass Stadium, home of Huston Dynamo and Dash, I am Tyler Terrens, with me is Shay Nonen. We're here with a game between Houston Dash and Orlando Pride. Coming off a 2-2 tie with Sky Blue FC on Monday, captain and midfielder, Y/N Y/L/N taking Ashlyn Harris's place in goal while both Harris and Stanley are out for two months, she's going to have fun on that line before heading off to France with the national team, where she'll play in her normal field positions, midfielder and forward. She did great in goal last game and you can only assume that she's looking for a clean sheet this evening."
"Yeah, she's a hard worker. Very dedicated, extremely focused on her career as a soccer player. At 27, she's been in the professional world since about a week after her college graduation, being picked up by Jill Ellis and the Portland Thorns shortly before the World Cup, she's never stopped working maybe ever, every time I've seen her play she's always got such focused eyes and just plays like something I've never seen."
"Y/N is in goal?" Frances asks and I shrug.
"Apparently so." I say as the camera zooms in on Y/N as she walks to goal from where she was talking with a teammate, and on the back of her jersey is 'Y/L/N' with 15 under it. When she gets to her line, she turns around, looks toward the bench and smiles before focusing on the game most likely.
-
"Morgan Brian with the ball, she splits two defenders! Shot! Saved by Y/N Y/L/N!" The commentator excitedly announces, and I watch as Y/N gets back to her feet before rolling the ball to one of her defenders. "Y/N serves the ball to Kreiger, her stand in co captain until Harris is able to return to the pitch, Kreiger passes up to Camilla." He says, terribly mispronouncing the name Camila. "Passes up to Morgan, Morgan on a break! Shot! Swatted away by Williams, out for an Orlando corner."
-
Tobin
-
The team sets up for the corner and I chuckle as I feel Ash grip my elbow.
"Don't break me." I mumble to Ash who moves her hand to my bicep and squeezes again. "That's better." I say, focusing back on the corner as it's taken, Alex gets her foot on the ball, but Carli was between the ball and the net, taking the strike to the hip, the ball goes back out into play and Camila strikes it, sending it flying into the net, finally putting Orlando on the board.
"Yeah!" Ashlyn yells and I chuckle, looking over at my friend before glancing at Y/N as she hops around, alternating feet, obviously bored out of her damn mind.
"Poor Y/N." I say and Ash chuckles.
"She's fine." Ash says and I nod.
"I know, but she's bored as hell." I say and Ash shrugs.
"Shut up, they're kicking off again." Ash says and I look back at the circle and watch as the ball steadily makes its way up the field, and Y/N gets ready for the ball, focusing on it and everything happening around it, Carli takes the drop from Morgan and she takes the shot, but Y/N jumps up, gets her hand behind the ball and swats it back into play, Ali levels the ball and sends it up to Alex, who had shifted to take it when Orlando regained possession, and Y/N stays down for a second as the ball heads into the middle third, play is stopped and both Ashlyn and I hop to our feet, holding our breath. The head ref jogs over to her and she gets up, shaking her hand at him as he follows her around while she walks off whatever just happened to her, then she motions to her face.
-
Y/N
-
"I took a knee to the face, but I'm fine." I argue with Timothy or whatever his name is.
"You need to be checked by a trainer."
"I said I'm fine." I say and he huffs, shaking his head before letting the game continue I huff a little to myself as Camila resumes the game and take a quick drink of water as play gets stuck up in our attacking third. Carli clears the ball, and my back line shifts to get the ball, but Morgan gets the ball from Toni, but Alanna comes in clutch, tacking the ball out of play for a Dash throw in, so I focus on the ball again and grab the cross that was just right for me to interrupt. I bring the ball into my body and wait until I've got some space before sending my back line up field a little further and punt it, getting back on my line as Carli gets the ball, passing to Kealia, who comes right to me, but watch Ali dispossess her shifting the play up with the back line, taking the drop and passing to Camila because she had an opening to pass up the field to Alex. She takes the ball up the field, but one of Houston's defenders tackles the ball from her, sending it to Morgan, she moves up with the ball and I focus on her, blocking her shot and keeping my grip on the ball as I fall on my side, since I had to dive a little. I get up with the ball and throw it to Ali who moved to the outside.
At half time, nobody has scored, so we sit quietly as we drink water, Merritt of course tries to check me for a concussion, but I shake her off as I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
"So we're still stuck at one nill." I say, looking at the girls. "Who cares? We've still got fight in us. We've worn out Houston, we need to get back out there and work hard, if we do that, we'll get on that board." I say and stay quiet the rest of the short break we get, and when we go back out, I get back in the box and watch the team work just as hard as we did before half time. When we get a corner, I hear Tom yell at me, so I look over and furrow my brow when he signals for me to go join the team, but rush up field and get in the mix, the corner is taken and the ball comes right to me, so I put my foot behind the ball and the ball goes in, right in. I smile, but run back to goal, with some of the girls following me, once I'm inside my box, they hug me and I chuckle. "Guys, get back in position." I say to them and they listen. The rest of the game is scoreless, so after the game, I go and sign some autographs and take some pictures before jogging over to where Ash and Tobin are sitting and hop up the wall, kissing Tobin when she tells me to and smile at her.
"Just because you're on loan from Portland doesn't mean you need to copy us." Tobin teases and I laugh as Ashlyn hugs me.
"That was amazing!" She enthuses and I laugh some more. "But you stink." Ash says and I roll my eyes.
"Wanna smell my gloves?"
"Babe, I swear to god, if you take those gloves off right here," Tobin says and I raise an eyebrow at her as I drop back down to the ground.
"What?"
"I'll fly back to Portland." Tobin says and I raise a brow at her.
"You're supposed to do that. You play for the Portland Thorns." I say and smile as Tobin groans. "I love you. Come down, I'll be out in a minute." I say and both nod, so I go in and smile as the team cheers for me.
"You're supposed to prevent goals right now, not cause them." Alex teases and I shrug.
"Someone else had to score today." I say, chuckling as she smacks me on the arm. "Okay, let me change, my girlfriend and best friend are outside." I say, going to my locker and changing out of my uniform, into my sweats and Pride shirt, putting my gloves, shin guards and cleats in my bag, leaving my uniform in my locker as I slip on my half zip and grab my phone, slipping my headphones around my neck before heading out, meeting Ash and Tobin just outside the tunnel. Tobin wraps her arms around my waist and I smile, kissing her softly, when I pull away, she releases me and I hug Ash.
"So, dinner?" Ash asks and I shrug.
"Sounds good to me."