Secret Surprise

It's Now or Never.

Lisa's eyes flickered open as the sun beamed through the hotel curtains, the first thing she felt was a nervous flip in her stomach, today was the day, today was the day her girlfriend was playing in the euros semi finals for a chance to play in the finals and possibly win in her home country, she couldn't even begin to imagine how nervous Viv would be feeling waking up just a short 20 minutes down the road, what she would do to be there waking up with her, reassuring her, going through every single emotion with her but truth was Viv wasn't even aware she was in the same country as her let alone less than half an hour away, with that she shot out of bed and into the shower to get ready for the day.

Viv rubbed her eyes as she flung the duvet cover off herself she's never been a morning person but today she was far too nervous to even attempt to go back to sleep, she tip toed over to the chest of drawers on the other side of the room where she had her phone on charge trying not to wake Jill, as she unlocked her phone the brightness nearly blinded her "jesus christ" she muttered under her breath scrolling through her notifications until she came upon a message from Lisa "good luck today baby, remember believe in yourself like everyone else believes in you, you've got this... I love you x" Viv smiled to herself, even when they were in completely different countries, or so she thought Lisa still managed to be able to calm her down, after she had gotten to the end of the notifications she quickly text Lisa back before heading into the bathroom, she turned on the shower and placed herself under the hot running water tilting her head back and closing her eyes, she could see the final in their sights, she could also picture lifting the trophy but could they make it a reality?

Lisa was all set for the day she was already wearing her orange Miedema shirt she was that excited for the match and to finally be able to hold her girl again after, she just hoped that it was gonna be a celebratory squeeze and not a comforting hug after a loss. She decided to pop into the town centre for a bite to eat before the match and maybe pick Viv up a little gift, she loved spoiling her to be honest they both loved spoiling each other, they always brought each other gifts back whenever they went away on international duty, she wasn't worried about bumping into Viv she knew that she would be training all morning with the match kicking off early afternoon. As she walked through the picturesque town looking into the shop windows as she passed them her eyes suddenly caught something  dazzlingly in the window from the sun, a beautiful silver necklace with a charm on that read "side by side or miles apart, you are always in my heart" she smiled at the thought of her and Viv having matching ones, they were both grown adults but things like this still made her happy inside, as she stepped inside the shop to take a closer look she noticed you could buy additional charms to go on the necklace, her eyes started tracing back and forth looking at all the different options, there was loads from sports charms to music charms to country flag charms, in the end she settled on buying 2 necklaces one for her and one for Viv, 2 love heart charms, a Scotland flag charm for Viv's necklace, a Dutch flag for hers and 2 football charms because after all football was the sport that brought them together, after paying the guy behind the till she stepped outside and checked her phone for the time "shit is it that time already" she cursed as she noticed it was only 2 hours until kick off, she had been so engrossed in looking at all the charms she totally lost track of time and had zero time to eat anything so her only option was to grab a sandwich on the way back to the hotel.

Viv had just finished her last practice session with the team and was currently cycling back to the hotel with Jill to get ready for the game, "heard from Lisa today?" Jill piped up trying to start a conversation, "yeah she text me this morning wishing us luck" Viv smiled at the thought "just sucks that she can't be here I'm pretty sure I'd have a better performance if she was" Jill looked at her bemused "really? if my partner was watching me perform I think I'd crack under pressure" Viv giggled in response "nah I prefer it when she's there, honestly makes me play better, knowing I've got someone there to make proud" as they reached the hotel and parked their bikes up Jill touched Viv's back softly "well that's cute, I'll get a cardboard cutout of her if you want" Viv rolled her eyes giving her a slight push into the hotel door "shut up... right let's go get ready we've got a match to win" Jill gave her a fist pump "see there's the girl I know and love" she pulled Viv into a big bear hug as they both laughed and headed off to their room to get ready.

Lisa pulled up outside the stadium, her stomach doing nervous flips as she paid the cab driver and jumped out, she took a deep breath in while straightening out her shirt "right.. let's do this Miedema" she said to herself walking towards the entrance stopping along the way a few times for pictures with fans that recognised her. When she finally made her way through the crowd of orange people she found her seat which was quite high up, she was thankful for this least she could celebrate without getting nervous that Viv might spot her during the match ruining the whole surprise, she got herself comfy as she waited for the match to start she found herself starting to wonder what her girlfriend was doing and how she was feeling, if she was nervous Viv must be on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Viv sat on the bench in the changing room bending down to tie her shoelace and at that moment Sarina walked in to give one last team talk before kick off, "now whatever you do tonight I want you to make sure you give everything you've got out on that pitch, if we win or if we loose least we can say we gave it everything, now let's go out there and show them what we're made of" the changing room erupted with cheers from the girls as Viv took a deep breath in getting herself ready to walk out into the tunnel and before she knew it she was walking out onto the pitch, as soon as Lisa saw Viv appear from the tunnel she blew her kiss something they've always done no matter who's playing for their national team at the time, normally Viv would pretend to catch it and blow one back but obviously this time she was still unaware Lisa was in the same country as her let alone the same stadium.

The first half was pretty even with both teams having opportunities to score but narrowly missing until Sherida took a top quality free kick curling the ball into the top right hand corner of the net, 1-0 to the Netherlands, Viv breathed a sigh of relief she didn't let herself loose focus she knew all too well only having a one goal lead wasn't enough for them to relax but going into halftime 1-0 up is always better than going in at 0-0. As the girls sat in the changing room all pretty sweaty and trying to catch their breath Viv took this opportunity to check her phone, her screen read "1 new message: Lisa ❤️" she opened it as she smiled to herself "hey babe, hope the match is going well can't wait until our phone call after and remember believe in yourself because I believe in you. Love you xx" just as she was about to reply Sarina walked in for the half time team talk, she sighed loudly slipping her phone back into her jacket pocket. Sarina stood in the middle of the changing room with her arms crossed "now girls, I've been impressed with what I've seen so far but I know we can do better, so much better.. we are getting the chances and if we were on target we would easily be 3 goals up by now so that's what we need to focus on in the second half, hitting the target and finding the back of the net". The second half didn't start off the way the girls would of wished for, somehow Nikita Parris had managed to dance her way through not one but two of their defenders and managed to find the back of the net in the process it was level scoring, both teams had stepped up their game in the second half and both teams were hunting desperately for the winning goal, Viv took a quick glance at the clock there was 3 minutes left of the 90 minutes, she was getting exhausted now both teams were she wasn't sure she could handle extra time or even worse penalties, even though she rarely took them penalty shootouts always made Viv feel sick with nerves, the 5'8 blonde striker was soon snapped out of her chain of thought when the ball landed in front of her she quickly got on the end of it and went sprinting towards the goal, England's defenders trying to catch up with her but she was one on one with the keeper, she stopped for a split second and thought to herself "Vivianne... it's now or never".