Katana's POV
"Here you go Katana." Emma says as she passes me tonight's line-up.
"Thanks." I say then I look at our line-up for tonights game against Norway.
1-Katana Solo
11-Sarah Gorden
4-Alana Cook
15-Naomi Girma
2-Teagan McGrady
6-Brianna Pinto
19-Crystal Dunn
10-Catarina Macario
23-Christen Press
14-Talia Martin(C)
22-Sophia Smith
Subs:
21-Adrianna Franch
3-Casey Kruger
5-Midge Purce
7-Mal Pugh
8-Kiki Pickett
9-Lynn Williams
Cairo's planning to play only black players tonight.
We're doing this because after the D.C. police shot an unarmed black couple in their own home, the black and brown players on the national team asked for US Soccer to not have the D.C. police work our game and to not have police work any of our future games.
We want US Soccer to hire a private protection company in each city or have a private protection detail come with us to every game and to coordinate security in the cities we go to.
The D.C. police heard about our request and released a very racist statement that basically said the national team needs to be only white players and that us black and brown players need to just shut up and play football.
When Cairo read the statement, she called a team meeting and told all of us that only the black players would play in the game against Norway, but after that it'd be back to normal where your training performance dictates who plays.
"Here T." I say then I pass the line-up behind me and relax with my pups for the remainder of the ride to the stadium.
Once at Audi Field, the bus parks then everyone gets off and heads to the locker room.
When we get to the locker room, everyone puts their stuff down in their respective lockers.
Once my stuff is in my locker, I open the big card board box that's full of the shirts we're wearing for pre-game and during the game if you're on the bench.
The shirts we're wearing are black with white writing on them that says, on the front, This Is Our Home, Don't Shoot Us, which is what the murdered couple said before they we're killed.
The police body cam footage was released the day after the shooting so now the world knows exactly what the couple said before they were murdered.
On the back of the shirt says Justice For Sarai and Marcus Roberts
Sarai and Marcus Roberts we're the couple who was murdered.
Once everyone has their shirts on, we head out onto the pitch to inspect it.
"Should we say something to them?" Sophia asks as she motions to the group of ladies
"If they can't understand why they need to kneel for today's game then they're a lost cause." I say then the rest of the black and brown ladies nod.
After we've inspected the pitch, my teammates and I head back to the locker room.
When I get to my locker I take my AirPods out, I take out my nose ring, I take off my necklaces, earrings, bracelet, watch, and my rings, put my jewelry in it's safe then I put my jewelry safe and AirPods in my bag.
Once I'm jewelry free I take off my tracksuit and put my dark brown locs up in a ponytail then I put on my short sleeve baby blue undershirt, my special warm up top for today, and I put on my game shorts.
I then sit down in my locker and put on my socks, my shin pads and my red boots.
After my boots are on I tape my wrists, hands, and fingers then I put on my red keeper gloves before I head onto the field with the other keepers.
When I get on the pitch I run through my warm ups with the keepers for a while then head back to the locker room.
Once in the locker room I change out of the training top and change into my baby blue keeper jersey while Cairo does her last minute talks.
When the last minute talks end, I put on my special black shirt everyone is wearing tonight as we are told to head to the tunnel so I grab my towel and water bottle then Appa, Socks, and I do as told.
Once in the tunnel, I line-up right behind Talia then I wait for us to be called out.
Minutes later we are told to head out onto the field for the prematch stuff so I follow Talia out onto the field.
Once on the field we stand in line for the Norwegian anthem then myself, all of the ladies in the starting XI, and all of the ladies on the bench kneel for our anthem.
When our anthem finishes, we stand up then we shake hands with the Norwegian players.
After we shake hands, we take a starting XI picture, Talia does the coin toss, we do our team huddle, then I lead Appa and Socks to the bench.
"Stay here pups." I say as myself and the rest of my starting eleven teammates take off our black shirts so we're now wearing our jerseys.
Appa and Socks yip and smile at me so I scratch their heads then I jog to my position on the field.
Once I'm at my goal, I hang my towel up on the net, put my water in the net then I join the four defenders on the 18 yard box line for the minute's silence.
When I get to the 18 yard box line, I stand in the middle of the four defenders then the ref blows her whistle to begin the minute of silence so I wrap my arms around my teammates as we stand in silence.
One long ass minute later, the ref blows her whistle to signal the end of the minute of silence.
Once the minute of silence ends, myself and the defenders walk upfield and meet with the rest of the starting eleven.
When we all huddle up, nobody says anything, but we all just look at each other.
A couple seconds later, all of our teammates from the bench join the huddle
"Hey." I say then everyone looks at me.
Speaking in huddles feel weird to me.
"I got you." I say as I look at my teammates. "You got me?"
Everyone nods causing me to involuntarily smile
"Then we're all right." I say. "We are going to be all right."
YOU ARE READING
Letters
FanfictionA letter is never ill-timed; it never interrupts. Instead it waits for us to find the opportune minute, the quiet moment to savor the message. There is an element of timelessness about letter writing. -Lois Wyse
