Judge My Skills, Not Me

Chapter 14: Silent SOS

 brutal by Olivia Rodrigo & COMPLETE MESS by 5SOS

The hundreds of camera flashes blinded Cristina as she sat in the post-game interview. Reporters shouted over each other making it sound like a wall of noise. Cristina tried her hardest to remember all of the lessons Charlotte gave her. The little voice in her head told her to 'Smile pretty for the cameras'. 

They had just beaten Levantes 4-1 in front of the home crowd of Camp Nou. Cristina had two assists in the first and last goals. The game felt like a cakewalk, but that was mostly due to their opponent's easily breakable defense. While they did win the game, it didn't feel like a team victory. Ever since Cristina started intense media training the last month, she hadn't talked to the infamous MSN trio. Mostly, it was because Charlotte's lessons drained the life out of her and she just went straight to bed after. However, if she was being honest with herself, it was really because she didn't want to tell the boys. She was angry, embarrassed, and, frankly, scared about the whole situation. Joseph made it clear. If she didn't follow the rules, she'd be over. Not just at the team, but all her hard work and legacy would be ruined. She didn't want to burden the guys with the consequences of her actions, but that didn't make the feeling of loneliness from creeping in. It was hard for her to distance herself from her teammates. 

Ney tried his best every time they saw each other to make her laugh or get her to break her new hardened exterior. While Luis didn't try making small talk with her, he did always help her in training by partnering up with her and avoiding Leo and Ney's constant questions. And Leo... 

Sweet Leo. He was the hardest to forcibly ignore, but he still tried to get her to tell him what was wrong. Even after she told him millions of times that she was fine and everything was 'great', he was determined to figure it out. 'You can't get rid of me that easily,' he told her once after the first week of this mysterious silent treatment. While it was meant to sound like a humorous attempt to make her talk, Cristina heard a small bit of hurt in his tone. When she heard it, she wanted to run back to him and tell him everything. From Joseph's threat to fire her to the constant loneliness she felt avoiding even her family's calls, she wanted to take it all back just not to hurt him like this anymore. But, she couldn't. Not without compromising her deal with Joseph and giving up everything she'd been working toward since she was a child. She just couldn't let that little girl down. Not for a boy.

So, she kept her head down and pushed through her emotional turmoil.  Any unresolved feelings she may or may not have for the boy- the boy that made her heart thump a little faster every time he looked her way- wasn't a good enough reason to sacrifice her career, not yet at least. She played Joseph's games his way and didn't challenge his authority, even when it killed her on the inside. 

"Cristina, it's been over a month and you still haven't scored a goal. Is the pressure of the team's legacy and their willingness to take a chance on you affecting your performance?" a reporter from ESPN yelled from across the room. 

She knew this question was coming, Charlotte gave her sample questions similar to these hundreds of times turning their lessons, but that didn't mean they didn't catch her off guard. Especially when the press just bluntly asks her why she sucks. 'Are you implying that my performance has been lackluster? Maybe you should try scoring with billions of eyes on you and see how you do,' Cristina wanted to say, but that would only disrespect all of Charlotte's hard work and get her image back into the garbage can. Instead, Cristina used Charlotte's PR interview-skills equation to answer. 

'First, acknowledge the interviewer and let them know you understand where their question is coming from,' Charlotte told her. 

"Thank you, James. I can understand the desire for me to score more than anyone in this room," Cristina started.