Yes I'm A Girl

2

Finally in LA. Coach said the hotel was just a little 15 minutes from the interstate.
"Siri where is The Ritz Carlton?" I speak clearly into the microphone of my phone. I wait for Siri to answer as I look ahead at a large building in a curve shape that changes color; the windows look shiny and you can only see what's outside of them, like a mirror. My jaw drops as I stop Siri from answering. I speed up, down the straight road leading me to the entrance to the hotel. I pull into the parking lot and these two men in uniforms take my luggages, which had pretty much everything from college in them. I follow them as they lead me to the front desk and clear a path for me.
"Um Jayden Hamburg" I ask hoping that's the name Coach signed me in as.
"Ah yes, Jayden." The polite older lady says as she hands me a room key "your in room 507 on the 8th floor" she smiles as I take the room key and set in in my mouth to carry it as I hold my keys and extra luggage, that the men couldn't carry.
-
I reach my room after waiting 5 stops for the other people in the elevator which got super annoying! The time reads 6:00 and I flop down on my water bed each room had, as the two men set down my luggage by the door. My arms are so soar from driving, which was the longest drive I've had since I got my license. I go on my phone and check my 2 emails I got from The National Soccer League. The first one reads:
Dear Mrs. Hamburg,
We've decided we would like to have you try out for one of the National Soccer League teams. You are the first woman we have ever considered trying out, so it will come with some differences. I hope you understand how much of a big effort and deal this is, we're counting on you! But you'll find that out if you make a team. We tell all our players this, but your trying out, so a spot on a team is not guaranteed. You work your hardest and best to make a team, which I'm sure you understand having tried out for high school and college soccer, just like everyone else. If you do not happen to make the team we wish you the best!
Sincerely,
The National Soccer League
I scream excitedly and click open the next one:
Dear all tryout participants,
We have now rescheduled tryouts for Monday instead of Thursday.
See you then,
The National Soccer League
I click open a text that was just sent to me from Coach C that tells me that my training, with one of the top notch players from U.S Men's team, is at 7:30 at the nearby soccer park across the highway.
I yawn and decide I should be getting ready. I walk to my luggage and find a loose dry-fit USA soccer jersey and a pair of cut off leggings. I put up my tannish-brown hair in a french braid and brush my teeth. By then it's time to go and I grab my soccer bag and head to the lobby to call for a taxi, since I'm too tired to drive myself anymore than I have to.
-
"Um I'm Jayden? This is the right place...right?" I ask a tall built man that's setting up cones in a line splitting the field in half.
"Yea I'm Erik I'll be your trainer for today, since you have tryouts I believe tomorrow?" He grits his perfectly white teeth and looks up at me.
"Yup" I say as I stretch out my built toned thighs awkwardly waiting for instructions on what to do.
"Well before we get into any drills, your Coach wanted me to prepare you for being the only girl." He says as he drops the cones in his bag and puts a pile of balls in one section of the field. I roll my eyes and moan, why is everyone so freaky about this? I've gotten along with boys before its not gonna be like middle school where you only can text a boy your feelings, and not walk up and talk to him; although I've never had trouble with that. I laugh to myself.
"I think I'm good." I laugh kind of boastingly, he looks up at me and nods
"Sure you are. Okay so first off have you ever seen the Jackie Robinson movie? 42?" He asks.
I roll my eyes "Yes." I glare at him. He puts his hands up telling me to calm down.
"Prepare for that. It's going to get pretty bad, not including the players who are already angry about this." He says. I laugh in disbelief. "And your gonna make it worse acting like that."
"It's boys" I smirk down at him as he ties up his laces.
"Men" he corrects me. "Men that have played on the team for maybe 5 years at the most and who have never ounce played with a woman besides there wives; not on the field but in the bed."
"Okay, wow that's enough" I say laughing at how gross that is.
"It's true, and their only gonna think of you that way, as a girl, a sissy, a no-balled nor gutted person." He says as we exchange looks "So if anything angers you or upsets you, you take it to your own room or keep it to yourself. I like to say the things I want to say in my head, you should try it."
"Okay? Got it." I say as we start to pass the ball.
"So I'm gonna test you." He smiles excitedly at me. I glare at him and nod
"Give me your best" I laugh while crossing my arms. He passes the ball harder to me getting more angry
"One on one" he says his words more harsh this time. I dribble towards him slowly and he takes off at a dead sprint and pushes me to the ground, completely forgetting about the ball. I fall not expecting it. A complete foul.
"Okay so? A ref will clearly call that a foul." I state
"If they like a girl playing on a men's team." He says helping me up. I nod making it look like I took it all in. Obviously a ref can't do that, the coach or a player will argue against it, but I kept that in my head like Erik said to do.
"Okay I think your ready, you'll learn your lesson if you talk back-" he pauses "if you make the team." I hear him snort and I clench my jaw together trying to hold my anger back. This is harder than I thought, but I still don't believe the players or coaches will "disrespect" me.
"Okay let's move onto drills!" He says changing his tone to excitement. I move over to the left so he can show me the first drill we'd be doing, but I don't pay attention because I'm too busy thinking about how the the coaches and players can't possibly treat me bad because then they'll be hated on; and you'd think they'd think it's cool having a girl playing on the team.
"You got it?" He asks snapping me back to reality. I nod shakily and put the ball at my feet. "Um this is a running drill?" He says pulling the ball from underneath me.
"Oh yea" I say kind of laughing at myself hoping he'd lighten up like before; but I can tell something I did got on his nerves so it's time to get in "my zone".
When I finally look at the cones I realize which drill were doing, it's the up two down one back, thank god I recognized it. But I knew that for tryouts Monday, which was in two days, I needed to focus.
-
I wipe the sweat off my forehead as I take a sip from my water bottle and catch my breath.
"You did great Jay" he says handing me a sweat towel, I was extremely hot and I felt all icky and sticky, but that's what I love about soccer, you get hot sticky and sweaty, it's a nice feeling like you've conquered something.
"Thank" I take another sip "you" I say breathing heavily.
"You still good for Sunday?" He asks packing up his cones and jerseys in his bag.
"Mhm" I say my breath slowing back down to normal pace.
"Great! But we're not doing drills or any 'pep talks" he says throwing the strap of his bag over his shoulder "we'll be talking about what to expect at the tryouts"
I glare at him as we walk back to the parking lot,
"fun." I say sarcastically as he steps into his car leaving the door open so we can talk about tomorrow.
"Do you want to make he team" he laughs looking up at me from the seat of his car
"Yea I guess your right, better than not knowing" I say as he nods and closes his door. I wave and walk to the long empty street, there's no way a taxi is gonna drive by this place. I hear Erik's door pull over behind me as the gravel cracks and gurgles underneath the car tires.
"Hey good job today Jayden!" He says as his window stops rolling down.
I smile "Thanks."
"But don't tell me you walked here?" He laughs as he unlocks the back doors. I laugh and walk slowly to his car and step in.
"Thanks" I say smiling as we start off to the highway.
"Where you staying?" He asks as I pull out my phone from my soccer bag and turn it on.
"The Ritz Carlton" I look up from my screen looking at him through the mirror "it's just across the highway."
"That's where me and my wife met" he laughs slowly. I raise my eyebrows and widen my eyes as I look at my phone screen and scroll through my Twitter. I really didn't care about his love life, I didn't care about anyone's love life really.
"Yea I know 'you don't care" he says turning off the highway. I look out the window and as we turn into the parking lot. He stops and I open the door slowly distracted by my phone as I look at my feed. He drives away quickly and I regret not saying thank you. But right now I just need to get some rest.
I walk into my room and flop down on the bed as I let out a moaning sigh.
"Two more days" I say to myself as I get up to go take a shower. I hoped I sleep well for the past two nights because I'm gonna need it.
I get out of the shower and wrap my towel under my armpits and slowly walk out trying not to slip on the tile floor. I dry my body and feel my legs that I just freshly shaved. I'm pretty sure every single girl does that after shaving. I slip on my black spandex shorts, my neon yellow Nike bra, and put on my saggy Nike gray sweatpants that sag a little showing my spandex. I look at myself in the mirror and I look like I'm a "gangster" sagging my jeans down to my ankles. I laugh a little and dry my hair with my towel. My hair has always been really long but now it was touching the tip of my lower back; it was thin and brown that was more like a tan that matched my skin tone, which I had proudly tanned practically all summer last year. I walk out and jump onto my bed and immediately go on my phone, that's how I usually fall asleep but I realize I'm gonna need to stay off it for a couple of nights. I turn it off and set it on the desk on the side of the bed and close my eyes while slowly falling asleep.
-
"Hey good talk today!" Erik says as we walk out of the nice restaurant he took me to so we could talk about what all to expect for tryouts, and it's nothing really important that I wasn't already expecting.
"Well thank you for the training sessions" I smile and we shake hands.
"I know you can do it Jay. Don't give up!" He smiles and we part separate ways to our cars. I couldn't believe tomorrow is tryouts?! I check my phone and see a voice mail from Coach C: "hey Jay!" He says excitedly "tryouts tomorrow and I know your gonna do great!" His voice cracks "your making me very proud and I hope you know how much you are doing for not only SLU but for you." I hear him sniff a little and I roll my eyes and laugh "by now you've probably just finished your last training session with Erik, and I want you to have fun today! It's Los Angeles! Get out there! Go to a bar, a strip club" he laughs "just kidding please don't do that! But do something today!" Everything he says is so fun and exciting but how come I don't feel this way? "Be sure to get a good nights sleep and wake up early tomorrow tryouts are at 8:00 am, which is pretty early for you." I laugh "if you do make a team they're immediately sending you to the city your playing in for the first practice with the team, which is the day after tryouts." I raise my eyebrows in shock, this is gonna move by pretty quick "have fun Jay!" And he hangs up. When I end the voice mail I realize that Blake hasn't reached out to me ounce this whole weekend, maybe he's busy. But when I say it to myself I don't believe it. I think about what coach C said and I decide to call one of my best friends Lexi, who was just like me, we always hangout with the same group of guys and I'm her only girl best-friend and she's my only one too.
I hear the FaceTime ringer but it goes straight to a decline, her phone must be dead. I sigh and think about what else I could possibly do but there's nothing... Nothing besides thinking about what tomorrow is going to be like.