"Orlando." Emily mumbled to herself quietly, tears welling in her eyes as she got off of the plane to visit her new home for the first time.
The trade was one of the most sad and humiliating events of her life, and although the coaches and team managers never specifically said so, Emily knew it never would have happened if she hadn't gotten tossed from the Utah game. That stupid Utah game. It had ruined her life.
"Over here, Sonnett!" Emily heard. She looked over to see Alex, her friend and now teammate who had come to pick her up.
Emily made her way over to Alex, who was expecting a hug, or even just a smile, but instead got nothing but the sad image of Emily slowly walking past her with tears threatening to pour from her eyes.
Overcome by her sadness, Emily walked right past the baggage claim, and slowly made her way out of the airport. Alex sighed at this image of her friend, and went to the baggage claim, initially questioning if she knew her friend well enough to identify her bag. After waiting a few moments, she immediately recognized Emily's bag as soon as she saw a Portland Thorns logo with a 16 embroidered underneath it.
Alex quickly grabbed the bag and ran out of the airport to catch up with Emily. "It's not nice to make pregnant people run." Alex laughed as she caught up with her friend.
Having expected a laugh, Alex frowned when her friend didn't even react in the slightest. Looking closer at Emily, she realized that her eyes were puffy, and that her cheeks were more red than normal. Realizing Emily had been crying, Alex just carried on with a frown.
When the two of them finally reached the car, they got into Alex's jeep and were off to the Morgan-Carrasco household.
After a few minutes of the so far silent ride, Alex spoke up. "Hey Sonnett, I know you really liked Portland, but I think if you try to lean into it, you could really like it here."
After a few more moments of silence and no response from Emily, Alex looked over to see that Sonnett was sound asleep with a few stray tears still running down her cheeks.
As Alex pulled into her driveway, she put her hand on Emily's shoulder, softly shaking the younger girl awake. "Emily, we're here..."
The blonde defender began squinting, her eyes adjusting to the light.
"How are you feeling?" Alex asked softly.
"Like hell." Emily mumbled with a raspy voice. When she recognized her surroundings she sighed. "I have a terrible headache and my stomach hurts."
"Let's get you inside and get you some water."
"Okay." Emily mumbled, and so began Emily's visit to her new home city of Orlando. Throughout the trip, Sonnett was pleasantly surprised with how much she liked the city, however it just wasn't Portland. It just felt like something was missing.
She had visited the stadium, met many of her teammates, received loads upon loads of team gear, and even gotten in a training session with the team. No matter how happy they tried to make her, though, she just couldn't see herself as happy as she once was.
Throughout the trip, Alex kept noticing how off Emily seemed. The Sonnett who Alex knew was a constant ray of sunshine upon every individual she crossed paths with. The Sonnett who Alex knew was like a shaken up can of soda. The Sonnett that Alex knew— wasn't the Sonnett staying in her household.
As she was driving Emily back to the airport, Alex looked over at her younger friend. "So what do you think?"
"It's different." Emily mumbled.
"Different better?" Alex questioned.
Emily glanced over at Alex before shaking her head ever so slightly.
"What's so bad about it?" Alex sighed.
"It isn't that it's bad. It's just not for me." Emily muttered.
"Well how can I help make it for you?" Alex asked, hoping she could assist her friend.
"I don't know." Emily shrugged.
"Look," Alex said as the two girls pulled up to the airport drop-off lane, "I know it isn't what you wanted, but you've signed a contract. You should try and lean into it. You've got what, like three years here? Guaranteed?"
"Two." Emily mumbled.
"Just do your best, alright? You might find Orlando isn't as bad as you think."
"I think I may stay in Portland in the offseason." Emily said.
"Sonnett-" Alex shook her head, but she was quickly cut off.
"Look, I loved Portland. I felt at home in Portland. Lindsey is there, and Tobin, and Kling, and they're my family. It's happier there. I can pay rent in two seperate cities. I can make it work."
"Just wait a bit before you make up your mind." Alex sighed.
"Yes ma'am." Sonnett said, part of her smile coming to her face at the thought of staying in Portland. Sonnett got out of the car and grabbed her bags from the trunk. "Hey, thanks for letting me stay with you." She said to Alex, who nodded at her as she closed the door.
Alex just wanted something to draw Emily to Orlando. She wanted something that could make Emily feel as though Orlando was worth it. So far, though, there wasn't anything that made Orlando special for her.
Emily walked in and checked her bag at the counter, before starting to make her way to the security. After waiting for what seemed like an hour, she finally walked through the metal detector and reached the terminal. It was at that moment when Emily heard the loud speaker turn on.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention, please. Flight 13B to Portland, Oregon has been moved. Instead of flying out at 12:30 Eastern, your flight will now be leaving at 11:45. Thank you, and have a great day."
"Fuck." Emily mumbled. She looked down at her watch, and saw that it was 11:32. She cursed at herself silently for flying commercial instead of private, then quickly grabbed her carry-on and began sprinting towards the shuttle to her gate. Suddenly, Emily ran into something heavy and hard. She looked down to see a beautiful girl laying on the airport floor.
"Holy shit, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." The girl answered, but her voice indicated she was in a lot of pain.
"I totally didn't see you there." Emily shook her head, helping the girl who she had just knocked over gather her things, before helping her up. "I really didn't mean to, forgive me."
"Don't worry about it." The girl laughed. "I'll be alright."
Suddenly the two girls made eye contact. They gazed at each other in a deep way. In that moment, Emily felt an oddly close connection to this girl.
"I'm Son-." Emily mumbled, cutting herself when she realized she wanted to avoid this girl knowing who she was. "Um, Emily."
"Nice." The girl smiled, biting her lip. "I'm Riley Hudson."
"Uh, I've got to go." Emily said, before taking off once again, just barely making her flight on time.
Emily fell asleep thinking about her awkward encounter with Riley Hudson.
Finally, the plane landed and Emily was awoken by the loud beeping of the intercom.
Lindsey waited for Emily after the plane had landed, thinking she was about to be dealing with the depressed version of Sonnett who Alex had been warning her about since dropping Emily off at the Orlando airport. Instead of the droopy shell-of-a-Sonnett that Lindsey was expecting, though, plain old Emily came out with a smile plastered on her face.
"Hey!" Emily said, as if back to her normal self and bounding towards her best friend.
"Uh, hi!" Lindsey smiled confusedly.
The two made their way out of the building and to Lindsey's car, grabbing Emily's bag on their way there.
In the car, Lindsey glanced over at her best friend while waiting at a red light, just to see Emily scrolling on someone's instagram.
"Who's that?" Lindsey laughed.
"Nobody." Sonnett mumbled, turning off her phone and putting it away, putting on a fake smile. "So how was your weekend?" Emily asked, clearly changing the subject.
"Uh, it was good." Lindsey smiled. "Bagel was a little shit like always."
"LINDSEY!" Emily yelled. "Don't talk about my sweet, precious Bagel Bongo like that."
"There's nothing precious or sweet about that rat dog."
"Okay, RUDE." Sonnett said, faking her shock, even though they had conversations like this all the time. "If Bagel Bongo is misbehaving that is between her and mommy."
"Mommy." Lindsey snickered.
"I'm leaving Bagel with Sinc next time." Emily huffed.
As Lindsey pulled her car into her, Emily, Kling and Tobin's driveway, Tobin opened the front door of the house, letting Bagel Bongo out to greet Emily.
"Bagel!" Emily called out, sprinting out of the car to see her dog.
Emily picked her dog up and hugged her, returning to the car to get her bag.
Lindsey and Tobin then exchanged glances.
"She's in a good mood." Tobin said confusedly. "Or at least better than what Alex mentioned."
"Right?" Lindsey agreed.
"That's weird." Tobin mumbled before shrugging it off.
"Tobin!" Emily smiled, approaching her older friend, dog in hand. "Where's Pressy?" She asked, grinning widely.
"She's home, dingus." Tobin smirked, shoving her friend with a single hand, as the three girls made their way inside.
"Does anyone want Waffle House?" Emily asked with a smile, finally having entered the house.
"No!" Tobin and Lindsey said simultaneously.
"Is Sonnett home?!" Kling's voice said, coming from the living room. She happily came into the kitchen, quickly hugging her friend.
Meghan smiled at Emily. "Hey, I know your weekend was-" Kling quickly stopped herself when she realized Tobin and Lindsey were shaking their heads rampantly behind Emily's back.
Having not seen Tobin and Lindsey's gestures, Emily looked at all three of them like they were out of their minds, before shrugging and walking to her room to put her things away.
"She's fine." Lindsey told Kling quietly. "I don't know what happened between Alex dropping her off and me picking her up but she's happy as can be."
"She's even happier than normal." Tobin pointed out.
"Well, okay." Kling shrugged, as Emily made her way back out of her room.
"It's good to have you back, Sonnett." Kling said with a smile.