Attached - Mallory Pugh/USWNT

Chapter 2

March 21st, 6:30pm

It's been an hour since I got that call, the one that made me weak in the knees and cry happy tears. 

I finally got that call up I had been waiting for, and now I was going to miss a couple days of school, but who cares. 

I'm going to play with the USWNT. Not the U-23's. The real deal USWNT. 

And my favorite person ever was going to be there. 

Mallory Pugh. 

She was the only thing keeping me from being completely-overwhelmed-happy about being there. 

I'm now fluent in 2 languages she can't speak, so muttering things at her could be double the fun. I had stuck with Italian through high school simply to shithouse with other people. 

The one thing I was afraid of how much time Mallory has been on the national team, and how I spent the same amount of time on a high level team, but not as high. 

I'm afraid she can now run circles around me without comparison. 

April 1st, 2022 6:00 pm

My flight finally made it to Columbus, Ohio after being delayed about a million times for weather reasons. I was supposed to get in at noon, so I'm so ready to be here. 

I got my rental car and drove to the hotel where we were staying, and I met the rest of the team in the lobby. I was extremely shy and honestly starstruck as I hadn't met a lot of these girls before. I played on the youth teams with a few of them but a lot of them aren't really my age. 

The whole team that was there was so welcoming. A quarter of the girls hadn't even made it yet because of the weather, so we waited for a little while longer, and I got to know some of the girls better. 

"So are the rumors true? Can you speak fluent French?" Asked Kelley O'Hara. 

"Very true." I laughed, putting down my bags. 

"Oh man. I've waited for two weeks for this." She smiled. "Can you say something?" 

"What do you want me to say?" 

"Hmmm....say.....OOH! Say 'hello my name's Morgana and I'm the new kid on the USWNT.' ooh and say 'blue eyes!'" 

I repeated what she said, and it attracted a small group of other players who all started saying random phrases for me to repeat in French. 

I was in the middle of having a halfway decent conversation with Lindsey Horan in French when she  walked through the door. 

I turned around, and there was a pretty girl with a big smile behind me. But I hated that girl.

"Bonjour!" She said to me, wrapping me into a hug and squeezing the shit out of me. 

"Hi." I said awkwardly, hiding the grimace on my face because MALLORY PUGH had just hugged me. 

"How are you? It's been forever! I've been trying to get them to call you up for two years now!" She smiled, finally letting go. 

"Wow! Well here I am, right?" 

"I'm so excited you're here finally!" 

"Me too!" I kept the fake smile up. 

"I love her and her french." Mallory laughed. "And what happened? You look like a whole adult now." 

"Well I grew up. I'm 19 now. Same as you." 

"I'm going to go say hi to everyone else before we get our room assignments. Bye!" She put her hand on my shoulder and ran it down my arm as she turned and walked away. 

"That's so cute that you guys were friends." Said Abby Dahlkemper. 

"You could say." It took everything in me not to roll my eyes into the back of my head. 

I couldn't stand Mallory Pugh. 

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"Everyone listen up!" Yelled one of the staff members I had yet to meet. "I'm going to give out room assignments right now. As you hear your name, come get your key and you can go up I'm calling by last name, here we go." 

There was a whisper among the squad, which was quieted by the assignments starting. 

"Lavellle, Horan." He called for Rose Lavelle and Lindsey to get their keys. 

"O'Hara, Morgan."

"Pugh, LaRue." He called. 

Are you kidding me?? 

I was going to avoid her as much as possible, and now any free time I could have is going to be obstructed by HER. 

"Yes! Roomies!" She smiled at me, handing me my key. 

"Roomies." I repeated, keeping my eyes from rolling into the back of my head again.

This has to be April fools, right? She's never acted like this around me. She was far too excited to see me. If I was her, I'd hate me for making my life hell when we were kids. 

I've never understood her and I never will.