When I got back to professional play, I had helped MHS Girls' Soccer get another state championship, and Hope had been asked to come back to U.S. Soccer as the new Keeper Coach for the team, the current coach was retiring, and who better to coach the keeps than the keep herself, right?
"You're telling me you had absolutely nothing to do with this." Hope asked as we packed up our Malibu apartment so we could go home, her back to Jerramy and Seattle, and me back to The Pride and Orlando.
"Not even a breath in the exchange that got you considered belonged to me. I didn't know about this until you knew about this." I said and she nodded. "But, like, are you going to take the job?" I asked and Hope sighed as we put our things in the rental car.
"I'm not sure, Y/N." She said and I huffed.
"Come on, Hopey, you still love the game, you always will, you miss the national team, I know you do. You've said yourself that your shoulder would never permit you to get back in goal, but you could mentor players who know you or aspire to be like you. Do you want to pass that opportunity up?" I asked and Hope groaned.
"I'll think about it."
And she thought about it, for about a week before accepting the offer. Word on the team, too was that they were pushing to get rid of Jill finally and the appeal was going through, slowly but surely and who they were looking at for the coach was really interesting, Abby, Boxxy, Christie, Cheney, and even Mia, yeah Mia Hamm. Like, don't get me wrong, I love me some 2015 retirees, but Mia fucking Hamm, man. Nothing was definitive, though, so I wasn't going to get my hopes up for anything besides the championship against the Thorns. De ja vu.
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Tobin
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"So here we are again, facing off with the Pride for yet another Championship. How does it feel to be playing against the love of your life for another Championship title, Tobin?" Kate asks and I chuckle, pushing her hand away, since her 'microphone' was a brush.
"It feels like a normal league game, Kate." I say and she sighs.
"You're no fun." Kate says and Sonnett opens her big mouth.
"She's shitting herself, Kate. She's scared of hurting Y/N out on the pitch, but she's Tobin Heath, so she's got to play it cool."
"Yeah, and Sonnett is Emily Sonnett, so she has to put her two cents in when she isn't asked to." I say, throwing a sock at my teammate who shrugs, throwing the sock back at me.
"Deal with it. You're going to have to if you go through with your plan." She says and I shake my head.
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Y/N
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"How you feeling?" Alex asks as we get ready in the locker room before the game and I sigh.
"Physically, I feel great, emotionally, I feel good, mentally? Let me get back to you with that." I say and Alex chuckles as I get up and go get taped. We knew who was going to add a star to their crest next season, but that didn't mean that both teams weren't going to try their damndest tonight, I knew I was. I had to. I had myself to prove wrong.
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Carli
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"Both of these teams are great teams, the Thorns still have Tobin Heath on their roster, and Orlando Pride still has Y/N Y/L/N in their artillery, both women are supposed to start the game tonight as forwards. Y/N will be right beside Alex Morgan, and Tobin will be playing beside Christine Sinclair as the Thorns captain and Canadian national team member plays her final NWSL game, seeing as she's retiring after this game, no matter the outcome. Portland has had quite a rough season though, and Orlando has had quite the opposite, they've sat at the top of the table since the second week of the season. It seems as if this team has only grown stronger since their debut back in 2016, I'm excited to see how tonight turns out with Y/N Y/L/N finally back on a starting lineup after her return from that break she took after the Olympics in Paris last summer, for those who don't know, Y/N Y/L/N partially tore her ACL, MCL, and her medial meniscus, known as an unhappy triad, while helping the United States Womens' National Soccer Team reclaim their title as Olympic gold medalists, and took the rest of 2020 to recover from the surgery she had to undergo following the Olympics. She did help coach the girls' soccer teams at her high school while she was healing though. Coached them right to a state championship before buckling down and getting back into shape for this season, where she ran into complication after complication, she's only been fully cleared for about a month, but she's had familial issues to deal with, so finally after all that has cleared, the captain of the team can finally put that armband back on and most likely get Orlando yet another NWSL Championship."
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Y/N
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As the team and I leave the locker room to warm up, Hope is carried over to me by Bri who was a mascot tonight, and I smile as I kneel down to take my 'daughter' from her 'cousin', hugging her tight. Yeah, Lydia let me name the niece I'd be raising for a little while, and I named her Hope, after Hope, and because of what I said about my tattoo of the word. Life is nothing with out a little hope. I haven't been wrong, little Hope has been such a beacon of light in mine and Tobin's lives, though Hope stays with Tobin mainly.
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Tobin
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"Are you really?" Kate asks, looking at me with wide eyes after I had explained to her what my plan was and I nod. "Oh my god!" She says and I chuckle.
"Relax." I say and Kate huffs.
"I hate how chill you are sometimes." She says and Sonnett laughs.
"Okay superfan." Sonnett says from where she was tying her cleats and I chuckle.
"She has a point. But also, Sonnett, shut up and be nice." I say and Sonnett looks at me.
"Yeah, okay." She says before finishing getting ready as we all head out to warm up, to see Orlando already on the field warming up, and Bri had Hope in her lap as she sat by the tunnel.
"Auntie Tobin!" Bri says excitedly when she sees me and I smile as I go over and kiss Bri's forehead. "I'm a good babysitter!" She says proudly and I feel my heart melt as I nod my agreement.
"You are, make sure to remind me so I can pay you after the game, okay?" I say, holding up my fist for Bri to bump, which she does, bringing a smile to my face.
"Go lose to Aunty Y/N/N!" She says and I chuckle before jogging onto the field to warm up.
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Y/N
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When the teams were lining up in the tunnel, it went in order of captain, keeper, and numerical order for both teams. So I was up front for Orlando, Christine was up front for Portland and that's all I got a look of before Bri tugged on my hand wanting me to pick her up, so I picked her up and settled her on my hip.
"You going to win tonight!" Bri exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around my neck and I smiled.
"Yeah? You think so?" I ask and she shakes her head.
"No?"
"I know." She says and I nod.
"And how do you know?" I ask and she smiles bright.
"I told Aunty Tobin to lose to you tonight!" She exclaims proudly and I smile, kissing my niece's cheek.
"You're so cute." I say before walking forward when we're signaled to walk. Too bad she can't stay four forever. When we were standing on the field, I set Bri on her feet in front of me and saluted the flag as the national anthem played and stepped forward with Bri back on my hip and waved to the crowd as I was introduced, the teams were introduced in order from captain, keeper, to the last starting forward. Home team was introduced first and then visitors were introduced. So as the hosts of this here Championship final game, the Orlando Pride got introduced first. After the teams got introduced, I sent Bri with the other mascots, and they disappeared into the crowd, but I knew that Bri would be with Hope and my folks up in Lydia's suite. She gets a suite because she's one of the big wigs now. When both teams were in position, Portland was kicking off and I was right beside Tobin, who hugged me briefly as the refs got ready, and when they were, we waited for the whistle to be blown. As soon as it was, we pressured the ball, and I got the ball off of Sonnett rather easily before dropping it to Alex, and overlapping her run to offer support, taking the ball up the field, only to get slide tackled by Kling, sending the ball out, and me to the ground, so I get up quickly and make sure Kling knows I'm not mad and let the refs know I'm not hurt before getting open for Alex's throw in, once I have the ball, I drop it to Ali, since she had shifted up for extra support, and get back into formation as the ball gets filtered through the field, until it gets to Alex where she takes it up the left wing so she could cross it in, I got a head on it, but the keep was too fast, so we dropped back for the goal kick, and when it was taken, I watched the ball all the way to where it hit me in the stomach before dropping to the ground where I could pass it to the side, and to Nickolette while I pushed up, and took the ball back, up the right side and crossing it to Alex, who volleys the ball into the net almost effortlessly, so we celebrate by hugging each other tight. Only took us five minutes to get on the board and I was barely getting started as it started to drizzle here in Orlando, and especially in Orlando City Soccer Stadium, our current location, which put us at an advantage because we were used to playing in the rain, but Portland wasn't, so the already great looking game kept looking better and better as the night went on, and at the end of the first half, we went into the locker rooms with a scoreline of 3-0 in Orlando's favor, I assisted two of those goals and got the last one myself, it was a midfield shot, but hey, it was a goal, and it was a damn good goal, the ball looked like it was going to miss, so the keep didn't even try. Big mistake. Always stay on a ball until you know for sure that it's out of play. Keeper rule number one.
"So we're doing great, yeah?" I ask and the girls all nod, and I nod too. "We're kicking ass, but that doesn't mean we need to get lazy, we've still got plenty of time for Portland to come back and either tie it or kick our asses for making them look like fools out there. We need to play the way we did the first twenty minutes of this game, I know I still am, trying to at least. If you're tired, let me know, I'll tell Tom and he'll happily give you a break and someone else on this bench some minutes in this game, because I know Syd is dying to get out on that field, right Syd?" I ask and Syd nods.
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Tobin
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Christine was subbed out for the final time in the 30th minute, so the armband was on my arm now as we all sat in the locker room in a tired, embarrassed silence.
"So we're getting our asses kicked." I start speaking finally and all attention is turned to me. "Big fucking deal, we're going to get our asses kicked, and frankly, for the way we played this season, we barely deserve to be where we are tonight, but by some damn miracle we are here, Orlando is owning this game right now, but we could at least get ourselves on the board at least once, we know that if we do score, Y/N, Alex, and literally everyone else on that team will make sure to score as a rebuttal, but at least they can't say that we didn't try." I say and there's nothing but silence. "If you ladies that were just in are tired, let me know, because we've got subs and reserves on the bench that would love to take your place on that field, they may even work harder than you all. We had a rough season, so what? That doesn't mean we can't win tonight." I say and sigh. "Make as many changes as you want to. Our attitude is what's going to cost us the title." I say to Mark as he looks to me for my input.
I was right, I put us on the board, and what was Orlando's response?
"And that's goal number four for #17, Y/N Y/L/N!" The announcer exclaims with glee.
"Someone's an Orlando fan." Kate jokes as we get ready to kick off again, the score now 6-0. We just needed four more goals and the title would be Orlando's, the night would be over, and we could start a new season fresh in a few months. But Camila, Toni, and Syd were the only ones to score until the very last minute, where Ali got her name on the board, and that's when my time came.
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Y/N
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It wasn't exactly the victory I was looking for, but it was a victory. I was expecting an epic battle, kinda like 2018, when we faced off in Portland for that championship, but I was so wrong, so as I was walking to the bench to get a drink of water, I kept my head down, drank my water and went through the whole ceremony, the medals, the trophy lifting, the shirt, all that, but as I was about to head into the locker room, Alex grabbed me and pulled me in the opposite direction of the locker room, which was confusing as hell, especially when I heard Tobin speaking through the speakers of the stadium.
"Hello, Orlando." She starts and the fans cheer. "I know you all thought that the night was over, but I have something I want to say, and it's about one of my opponents." Tobin says, looking me in the eye and walking over to me, holding her hand out, so I let her take my hand and lead me to the center line. "For those of you who don't know, this is Y/N Y/L/N, captain of this year's championship team, three time NWSL champion team to be exact. They just earned their third star tonight. But she's so much more to me than an opponent, she's a teammate, a friend, and most of all, she's my partner, we've been together just over six years, that's a long time to be together. I know. But I love this girl with all my heart we've had ups, we've had downs, we've had hard times in our personal lives, but we've had each other's backs through it all, and I don't know where I'd be without her, I want to spend the rest of my life losing to her." Tobin says, looking me in the eye as she says the last part. "So I have a question for her, for my purple counterpart." She says, taking something from Kling before she slowly lowers herself, I'm confused for a moment until she ends up resting upon one knee, and my eyes tear up as my hands cover my mouth as she speaks again. "Y/N, I know I promised you that I'd wait until you told me you were ready to get married to do this, but I couldn't wait any longer, so Y/N Y/L/N, will you make me the happiest being to ever exist, and marry me?" Tobin asks and I nod so fast I'm pretty sure I gave myself a concussion.
"Yes, Tobin, I'll marry you." I say and she smiles, jumping up to her feet.
"She said yes!" She exclaims into the microphone before getting rid of it somehow and turning her attention back to me fully as she slips the ring onto my finger and kisses me so deeply and passionately that it dizzies me for a moment, so I have to brace myself with my hands against her chest.