Breaking the Mold (Alex Morgan x OC)

Why not? I'm feeling lucky

"What the hell is going on here?!" Pia shouted, as she stormed into the locker room. Everyone went silent and she looked around, her eyes finally settling on me, "Ellie, Hope. Come with me."

We followed her out of the locker room and into a side room, where she closed the door and asked us to sit down. We both sat down and she sat across from us, "Ok, what happened?"

I started to explain what happened, while Hope just sat there in silence, and when I finished, Pia nodded her head, "Ok. I'm going to have to give you, Ellie, 2 game suspensions for this, for instigating the situation. That includes the friendly against England. Hope, you won't be playing at all during this window due to the fact that you started this situation. If I hear more rude and snarky comments come out of that mouth of yours, I won't call you up for any more games. Do I make myself clear?"

Hope nodded her head, "Yes ma'am."

Pia nodded her head, "Good. Now, both of you go back to the locker room. This discussion is done."

We both got up and left the room, and I could feel the tension between us. I ignored it and sat down, and started untying my laces on my cleats as I felt everyone's eyes on me. I didn't really care, though, I just wanted to get out of here. After a few minutes, everyone was back to their chatter and I gathered my things and left the room, relieved that it was over, and that I was out of there. I walked back to the team hotel which wasn't that far away from the stadium and went up to the room I was sharing with Kelley, and threw myself onto my bed.

I found myself watching the replay of the final at the Olympics and when the match ended and we got our medals, the camera cut onto me and I listened to the commentary.

"Ellie Taylor, the youngest of 12 from Calgary, Alberta. What an exciting performance from her tonight on the field."

"Yeah, both Taylor and O'Hara worked together very well on the defensive line and really gave the team opportunities for better plays. But now, she's just an Olympic Gold Medal winner, can't nobody take that away from her, or her teammates here tonight."

Listening to that made me smile in a way. Yeah, they mentioned the same things they always talked about, but hearing that last line made me hopeful that now in the years to come, I'll be known to be more than just the youngest of 12 kids from the Taylor wrestling family.

**********

Kelley's POV

"Oh come on, no way she would've broken Hope's arms," Maddie says as I told her what had gone down in Orlando a few months ago.

"I'm serious," I protested, "Ellie had her arms like this and was pulling on them," I said while showing Maddie how Ellie had Hope's hooked.

Maddie looked at me, and then grabbed her bag, "Yeah, yeah." She waved me off as we walked into Lumen Stadium, where the Seattle Reign are hosting us for our playoff match. My heart was racing with excitement and anticipation, but also with a sense of unease. I had a feeling that something was going to go down with the team's management.

Over the course of a few months, I've been in hot water with the Front Office, mainly due to the fact I raised concerns with them about our training and locker room facilities, but they brushed me off. Telling me to focus on my game instead of worrying about trivial matters. To add more fuel to the dumpster fire, our Head Coach has an abusive personality, and a few of us raised issues about his behavior towards us. Again, we were told to keep our heads down and focus on playing, but I couldn't let it go, none of us could. I knew that if we wanted to succeed as a team, we needed to have a positive and supportive environment. As I walked to the locker room, I could feel the tension in the air. I tried to put on a brave face, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong.