Try Me || Erling Haaland

Chapter One

The whistle blew as the game was drawn to an end.

Screams of joy left the opposing team as they all began to run towards each other to celebrate. I leant forward, putting my hands on my bent knees as I panted to catch my breath, dropping my head in defeat.

"Well played," a voice shouted, also in defeat. I recognised the voice to be my teammate, Imogen.

I stood up straight. "You too mate," I smiled tightly.

She smiled back, putting her arm around my torso as we began to walk across the pitch and towards our goal line.

"Everyone get in for a picture!" Our captain shouted, passing her phone to a visitor who had come to watch the game. Our team gathered together, a line of players knelt on one knee with arms around each others backs, as a line stood up behind them with a girl each on their shoulders.

"Jump in three," I said to Emma, kneeling down ready for her to climb onto my shoulders. This was our routine end-of-match pose, at the end of every game we'd group together in the exact same place. I was always in the middle of the standing line, with Emma on my shoulders.

"Say cheese!" The man taking the photo shouted.

"Cheese," The girls all mumbled through gritted smiles.

We posed as the man took a few pictures, before the girls started to climb down off their teammates shoulders and the girls knelt down, started to stand up. Everyone began their own conversations in small groups, as we all headed to the changing rooms.

"Great game today girls! I know it's disheartening when we don't win but everyone played absolutely sick today! I am so proud of every single one of you, you gave it your all and as your captain, that's all I can ask you to do," The girls were silent out of respect, listening as our captain spoke.

"So, when you're all ready if you head down to the union, we will all meet and have a few drinks with the opposing team before we head back home! It's a long journey so make sure to buy stuff for the coach and be prepared for tonight's social!" Ella shouted, cheering at the mention of tonight's social.

"Yeah baby!" Imogen hollered, causing the girls to laugh.

           ♡

I climbed the stairs of the coach, heading for a place towards the back. I swung my bag in the overhead luggage compartment and slumped in the window seat of the second to last row.

Today's game was an away game, meaning that we had a journey back home. The game was hosted in Durham, a two and a half to three hour drive away from Manchester. The game finished at roughly 2pm and by the time we had drinks and were ready to leave, it was approaching 4pm. The sky was starting to get duller in colour, heading towards the evening.

"Move over bitch," Imogen shouted, I moved my leg off her seat as she swung down in the chair.

"Haven't you got any other friends?" I asked teasingly. Imogen was the first friend I made on my rugby team when I joined years ago and still to this day, one of my best friends.

"I thought you didn't have any, that's why I sat here," She replied, nonchalant as she pulled out and scrolled through her phone, typing away.

The coach journey was fairly peaceful for the majority of the way home, it always was after losing a game, especially when it was such a long journey home. The lights were dimmed and it was dark outside. People were napping, some scrolling through their phones and the rest eating or in small conversation.