The Captain's Armband

10. First Matchday

Her body starts moving as she wakes up.
"Hmmm" I hear coming from her. I lean forward and give her a kiss in her neck.
"Good morning beautiful."
"Good morning sexy. God, I haven't slept this good in ages." She moves her body away from me to stretch. She turns around to face me.
Her raw, sleepy voice is so sexy. Gives shivers throughout my whole body
"Hmm." She gives me a smile. She puts a string of hair behind my ear. Her hand touching my cheek on the way back.
"Pause." I say while smiling at her.
"Definitely pause." She smiles back at me.
I look into her eyes. I can feel myself falling in love with her. Falling deep, falling hard.
"YOU GUYS UP YET?" It's Keira shouting from behind the door. We hear her pulling down the handle.
"We didn't lock the door last night, did we?" I whisper to Leah while I can feel myself panic.
"No, we didn't." Leah eyes are getting big as we hear the door open.
"Yes, we are up!" Leah shouts. "Go, go." She whispers to me.
I jump out of her bed, my foot getting stuck in the blanket, making me fall down on the floor, my leg still in her bed.
Keira walks in. "What's going on here?"
I just let my body fall to the ground.
Keira starts laughing out loud of the sight of me on the floor.
"It's not what it looks like." Leah tries to explain.
"So, that unslept bed HAS been slept in? That's what you are saying?" Keira says while pointing to my bed.
"Yes, well, no." Leah is trying to find words.
"We just cuddled. That's it." I tell Keira.
She shakes her head. "You two have to let me know when you're ready to talk about it."
We both nod.
"Ok, come on then, get ready so we can go to breakfast."
Leah and I get up to refresh a bit before leaving the room with Keira.
"Hey you two! How did you sleep?" Georgia is walking towards us.
"Like usual mate. How about you?" Leah answers.
"I have slept like a baby. Dani, you are my saviour! I feel refreshed. Did you sleep okay?"
"I've slept well. If you ever need to change rooms again just come and ask, it's not a problem for me at all."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"It was actually quite nice to have someone to play sudoku with, so I wouldn't mind either if you ever wanted to switch again." Leah joins in.
"I'm glad it worked out for all of us." Georgia gives me a smile.
"Me too. I'm going to sit with Lauren for breakfast, see you girls later."
I grab my breakfast and take a seat next to Lauren.
"Morning mate. You ready for your first matchday?" She gives me a smile.
"I'm very excited! Are you ready?"
"Ready to smash em!" Lauren gives me a high five.
You can feel the energy in the room. Everybody is pumped for today's match. Everybody is louder than usual. I take a moment to take all of this in. My eyes are drawn to Leah. She is looking in my direction. I give her a slow wink, she smiles and looks down. I can see she is taking a deep breath.
"Dani?"
I look up. Lauren is looking at me with raised eyebrows.
"Did you hear any of what I just said?"
Fuck. No, I was too busy staring at the girl I'm falling for. But I can't say that.
"Sorry mate, I was caught up in my thoughts. What did you say?"
Luckily she can laugh about it. "Where did you go?"
"The match, I guess. I'm not sure."
"I get it, I remember my first matchday, it's something special."
"It sure is." I give her a smile.

Today is travel day but we still do a bit of training in the morning. Possession is the training we focus on, nothing to hard or competitive, we still need to be fit for tonight's match.
We will leave early, it's a 3-hour drive to St. Mary's Stadium and Sarina said she wanted to eat with the group all together. Before leaving some of the girls are getting massages from the physio, others are just in their room to relax.
I'm standing in the lobby, waiting for the others. I take a seat in one of the chairs.
"Are you ready, Rookie?" Leah takes a seat on the armrest of my chair.
I look up. "I think so."
"It's gonna be all right. You've got this." She puts her hand on my shoulder and squeezes firmly.
I can feel my body responding to her touch. We stare into each other's eyes.
"Yeah, this isn't such a good idea." She hops off the armrest and walks to the other side of the room. I start to laugh, glad she felt it too.
"There she is!" Beth is coming my way.
"Hi Beth."
"Come over here, we're going to get a coffee before we leave."
"A coffee?" I'm confused.
"You like coffee, right?"
"Love it."
"I remember, so I came to get you. Come on then." She grabs my hand.
I follow her and we get a large, very delicious, coffee on the go.
"Thanks Beth, appreciate this."
"Don't worry Dani, I got you."
We walk downstairs, we can immediately walk outside because the coach has arrived.
I get on the coach, not sure where to sit.
"I saved you a spot." It's Hempo. Of course, she did, she is the best.
"Thanks." I take a seat in front of her.
The coach starts to fill up, Millie and Rachel are sitting in the back, like school kids, laughing and being loud. It's actually pretty funny to see. Right beside us, are Toone and Russo. Toone will have her starting debut today, you can tell she is a little nervous because she is louder than usual. Toone is sitting to my right, in front of her sits Russo. Right behind Russo sits Leah, she sits alone on a 2-seater. I have a perfect view from where I'm sitting. We take off to our 3-hour trip.
"Oi, Get To Know Dani." Hemp is showing me her phone. They posted the Get To Know.. of me and Beth online. God, what a timing. Everybody in the coach starts to watch the clip. I look at Leah, she was one of the first to grab her phone when the word got out. Made me giggle. It looks like she is rewinding the clip multiple times, this is something I'm going to ask her about later.
"OH, Aquarius." Hemp starts.
"Yep. What's yours?"
"Leo."
"Figures, I always get a long with Leo's."
"You into astrology?"
"Nah, not really, just something I've noticed, to be fair."
"I know a thing or two about zodiac signs." Hemp says full confident.
"Oh yeah? What's the perfect match for an Aquarius?"
"Definitely Aries. They are passionate and energetic, both in and out of the bedroom."
A lot of girls start to 'whoo-hoo'.
"Who of you girls are Aries?" Toone shouts throughout the coach.
Keira is the first to put her hand up and then Leah puts her hand up too, looking a bit confused.
"Why do you want to know?" Keira asks.
"Apparently an Aries is a perfect match for an Aquarius, just checking to see if there was any luck here for Dani." Toone is laughing at her own joke. I can see Leah is turning red, trying her best not to look at me.
"How about Aquarius with Aquarius?" Russo asks
"Very interesting sexual relationship, full of excitement and experimentation. That's all I know."
Toone is looking confused at Russo. "Why? Is there something I should know? Have you met a hot Aquarius that I'm not aware of?"
Russo starts to laugh. "I was just curious."
Beth, who sits behind Hemp, gets up from her seat. "How about Aquarius with Taurus?"
"Let me guess, you're the Taurus?" I ask Beth.
Beth gives me a big smile, nodding her head.
"Sorry to disappoint you Beth, this isn't an ideal match, they butt head a lot."
I start to laugh at Beth's disappointed face.
"Ok. So how about Taurus with Cancer?" Beth continues.
"Extremely compatible. Very powerful and a fun fact, Taurus are often attracted to cancer signs."
Beth gets a smile on her face and sits down again, like she is very pleased with her answer.
Toone, Russo and Hemp talk a bit more about different zodiac signs, I don't join in on the conversation, my head is with Leah. I already knew we were a good match; no zodiac sign could change that.