Madison's Journey

Part 11: Madison's POV

Christen pulls Tobin and her's gear out of the trunk and I grab mine from my backpack in the back seat. We walk to a large flat clearing in the park, where I spot a goal at one end, and start putting our boots on. Mine are all muddy and torn up. They are also a size too big, hand-me-downs from a group home I was in last year.

Tobin and Christen's boots look brand new and are from one of Nike's newest lines. 'Man I wish I could have boots like those.' I shake my head and focus on getting my shin guards into my socks. 'No time to dwell on that now. Maybe I'll get a new pair while I'm with the national team.'

"Ready to get started Madi?" I nod my head and they grab a ball from one of their bags.

"Wh-what-t a-are w-we g=going-g t-to to star-t with-th?" I ask them unsure of what they want to see from me.

"I was thinking that we could start with a little bit of passing. Just to get ourselves warmed up. Then we'll move on to shooting and then maybe some 1v1 if you're feeling up to it," Christen tells me.

I nod my head, 'I just hope I don't completely embarrass myself in front of them.'

Tobin passes the ball to me then heads out into the clearing a little more and gestures for me to pass it back. I do and when she gets it she does a one touch pass over to Christen. She settles the ball and passes it over to me. For the next five minutes we do a series of passes between each other. It doesn't take long before Tobin steals the ball and starts juggling with it. I let out a laugh at the disappointed look on her face when Christen steals it from her.

"Hey, that's not fair."

"All's fair in love and football, you know that Toby. Besides you can't be a ball hog we have shooting to do."

"Fine! I call first shot." With that she steals the ball back and heads straight for the goal. Christen isn't far behind her trying to block her shot. I follow them over and get caught by surprise when the ball gets passed my way.

I go ahead and just take the shot after settling it at my feet. I send it right into the upper left of the net.

Tobin runs over to me and the next thing that I know I'm being lifted into the air. "That was freaking awesome! Do it again!"

"O-o-ok." Tobin slowly puts me back down as Christen passes the ball back to me. I kick the ball back into the net, this time aiming slightly more to the right but putting more spin on it so it curves into the same part of the net. We spend the next hour taking shots from different parts of the 18.

Tobin's POV

Shot after shot Madi takes goes right into the back of the net. "I don't think she's missed a shot yet." Chris says as she walks over to me.

"She really is going to make a difference on the team. Do you think that she's going to be ok? Like with the team later and when we go to Texas. I'm a little scared about how a few of the team members are going to react having someone so young around. Like for the most part everyone was chill about Mal, but she's even younger."

"I know. We'll be there for her. We'll make sure nothing happens to her. Never again."

"You're right." I tell my wife.

"I know, besides the biggest problem we'll probably face is getting Pinoe to not swear around her."

I chuckle, "Ya that probably is going to be a problem."

Madi finally makes her way over to where we are standing. "We should head home and change so we make it to dinner on time."

"O-ok."

We head home and all go to change. Chris and I both finish and make our way downstairs. "Is Madi not down yet?"

"I guess not. Do you want me to check on her or do you got it?"

"I've got it." I run back upstairs and knock softly on the door. The door opens seconds later revealing a crying teenager. "Hey kid, what's wrong?" She shakes her head. "Come on now, you can tell me. Has today been too much? Do we need to skip dinner?" She shakes her head again.

"I-I-I d-don't-t kn-now-w wh-wh-what t-to t-to w-wear-r."

"Ok, that's fine we'll find something. Do you want some help?" She nods her head frivolously. "Alright, well we're not going anywhere too fancy so we can do casual. Chris and I are both wearing jeans so you won't look out of place if you wear a pair of those. Then Chris is wearing a tee shirt and I'm wearing this hoodie and a snapback. Do either of those options sound good to you?" She nods her head and reaches out to touch to run her fingers along the hem of my sweatshirt.

"A sweatshirt?" Again she nods. "Ok, let's see what you've got." I look in her closet at the clothes we bought the other day. I pull out a black and a gray Nike sweatshirt. "Either of these look good?" She walks over and feels the inside of each of the sweatshirts before nodding and taking the black one.

"Then do jeans sound good?" She shrugs. 'Alright, this may be a little more difficult. Maybe something softer like the sweatshirt?' "What about sweatpants?"

"W-will th-that-t b-be be ok-k?"

"Ya kid, no one is going to judge what you're wearing."

She walks over to her dresser opening one of the bottom drawers and pulls out a pair of black sweatpants. "Th-these o-ok?"

"Ya kid. Those are perfect." I tell her. "I'll leave you to change, meet downstairs in a few minutes?" She nods. I head back downstairs.

"She coming down?" Chris asks.

"Ya, she just had a little trouble picking what to wear. She's changing now."

"Do you know what the problem was?"

"First she didn't know what to wear and then the texture of the jeans weren't really for her. I think she may have scenery issues. She felt the inside of her sweatshirts before picking one."

"Let's keep an eye on it, but I'm sure she will be fine."

A/N: Make sure to like and leave me a comment on how you liked the chapter. Also let me know if there is something you may want to see happen, I'm always looking for new ideas.