london nights

1.2

the next game day against manchester city arrives too soon for the girls liking. caitlin plans to catch ride with beth, viv and katie to the stadium. her day starts off horribly, instead of waking up to her alarm, she wakes up 30 minutes later than she wanted to. caitlin's scrambling around the house getting ready. in truth, she should have packed her toiletries the night before. instead, she procrastinated and had to finish packing her to go bag for a 16 hour flight to australia for the cup of nations. she hadn't realized she did not pack her bag for the game today, now she's rushing around to find her lotion and conditioner before she hears a car pull up outside her house. she finally finishes putting everything into her duffel bag and rushes outside to see viv chilling in the driver seat, window rolled down.

"you can place your stuff in the boot," she says pointing backwards. caitlin nods hurriedly, stuffing her bag with the 4 others already in the back. when she squeezes into the backseat, another visitor has also joined them on the journey, leah is grumpily in the middle seat, as katie and beth screaming the lyrics to cornelia street by taylor swift loudly. as viv starts the car once again, the girls continue to sing, much to the annoyance of the centerback.

"lovely girls! that was beautiful!" caitlin says clapping as the song comes to an end. leah beside her slowly claps in amusement.

"thank you, thank you. we'll be announcing our world tour soon." beth says smugly in the passenger seat.

"don't worry leah, tickets are free of charge for european champions!" katie adds on.

"i want no part in a concert between the both of you, even if it is taylor swift," viv adds stopping at a traffic light.

"second that!" leah adds raising a finger. beth looks over at her girlfriend in the drivers seat with mock offense.

"you love my concerts! you're going to be my backup singer alongside katie, you can't leave me hanging!" beth replies.

"hey! who said i'm your backup singer, what if you're my backup singer?" katie asks appalled.

"we all know that both of you can't sing!" viv says which gets laughter out of leah and caitlin. viv pulls up to a small coffee shop and leah groans loudly.

"have we really got to stop for coffee? it's not good for the nerves." leah comments unbuckling her seatbelt.

"the game's in like 3 hours, we'll be fine. plus, katie will just order a hot chocolate for you." caitlin says getting out of the car.

"i will!" katie yells, already halfway in the building.

"it's in 2 hours mind you and we need to be at borehamwood in 15 minutes." leah replies punctually. caitlin and leah are in the back of the group, while viv, beth and katie order for the group. caitlin turns over to see leah's face glued to her phone. caitlin nudges leah softly in the arm. leah's face immediately snaps back up in alarm.

"you good?"

"yeah, yeah, all good, just a bit nervous. you know how it gets." leah replies softly, pocketing her phone in the process. after the girls get their beverages, they hop back into the car and continue the short drive to meadow park. they arrive on time, an hour and 45 minutes before kickoff, although leah would argue that it would have been better to skip the coffee run. the locker room isn't all that full when the girls arrive, kim, manu and lotte are talking amongst themselves in the far corner. caitlin deposits all of her stuff in her locker before lying down on one of the benches and pulling out her phone. she's receiving a facetime from alanna. she presses the accept button, and immediately she can see not only the caller, but hayley beside her as well on their bus.

"you know, i wasn't expecting an apology so soon, i thought that you would at least call after the game to concede defeat!" caitlin says laughing.

"don't be ridiculous cait, you're going down today!" hayley says butting in. the playful banter between the australian internationals ring throughout the quiet locker room. when caitlin sits back up, she notices leah sitting at her feet, staring at the ground.

"i've got to go, you know, to prepare your downfalls, but i'll see you both later!" caitlin says enthusiastically waving goodbye. caitlin turns over to leah who has a patient expression on her face.

"the girls want to go paintballing, you up for that?" she asks casually.

"right now?"

"obviously not now! that had better of been a joke foord, later in the week!"

"c'mon, obviously it was a joke, you need to take all of this invisible weight off your shoulders. we're going to be fine. alright?"

"city are a strong team you know, they're not going to roll over, and they're sure as hell not going to go down without chippy fouls."

"i know, last game was difficult, but we're better prepared this time around. we've been watching film all week. i'm positive that we're going to win, trust me. just play your game williamson, and the rest will follow." leah visibly relaxes after the small pep talk. throughout the next 45 minutes, the girls slowly come into the locker room, and conversations start to fill the room.

caitlin warms up with steph. they're passing the ball back and forth slowly on the ground at first, but then the ball finds itself off the ground and neither girl wants to drop it. it all happens in a blur, caitlin sees a figure in the corner of her eye, but her eyes are focused on the ball, then she sees beth enter her peripheral vision. next thing she knows, the ball she that she had just hit back to steph gets booted all the way towards the north bank.

"we were on a streak there weren't we," steph says sticking her hand out for a high five. caitlin grins easily and slaps the hand.

"2 for 2 baby! got leah and jordan's as well," beth says, skipping back over to viv.

the pregame speech they receive from jonas is strictly tactics, steph and caitlin get reminders to abuse the flank, the midfield should be controlling the flow of the game. when jonas leaves the locker room, kim starts a speech of her own.

"listen, we've done harder things than to beat this team. i know we're the better team, we just have to perform like it alright? control the tempo, keep the ball, and do not let their play style be the way we play. we play to win the game, not for a tie, and definitely not for a loss." she finishes.

"arsenal on three, one, two, three!"

"ARSENAL!"

-

"here are the starting lineups for today. arsenal playing in a 4-3-3, starting with the goalkeeper, manuela zinsberger. in defense we seem to have jonas eidevall's preferred back four with williamson and rafaelle as centerbacks, with wienrother and catley as fullbacks."

"wienrother has certainly impressed this season, after an excellent euros campaign with austria, she has come into the wsl season with incredible performances."

"definitely! in midfield, we have more of an attacking sequence with miedema, little and maanum."

"interesting decision by jonas eidevall, i'm assuming maanum will be playing the 6 then? we know that vivianne miedema is a prolific scorer, it would definitely change things up if all three midfielders were to play the 10 role."

"finally we have the forwards, stina blackstenius playing the 9, the usual wingers with foord and mead. these three have provided much firepower recently to this arsenal squad, so we'll see how they perform today against man city."

"speaking of man city, here is there starting lineup. roebuck in goal per usual, kennedy and greenwood as your centerbacks. esme morgan and leila ouahabi are going to be their starting fullbacks tonight."

"their midfield seems to be completely opposite of arsenal's. they have two defensive mids in hasegawa and coombs, with castellanos as their attacking mid."

"this front line seems to be gareth taylor's preferred line with the two england internationals kelly and hemp on your wings with jamaican international, bunny shaw, as your center forward." the two commentators finish with their pre match thoughts before the two teams begin to start the game.

-

because we've reached 10k reads. thanks so much for all the support, it's been unbelievable! i've got the next 2-3 chapters written out, so don't be too surprised if the chapters are a little longer/shorter than usual. again, thank you to all of you who have been commenting and voting. the support has been amazing, don't forget to vote and comment on this chapter if you're comfortable.