Charlie Carpenter

Part 1

Charlie's POV

I just got home from school, I'm in sixth-form doing my A-levels. I don't have any friends at school or anywhere else really. I talk to a few of my teammates but that's just about football and tactics and what not. No one at school knows that I'm in the academy they all think I'm a nerd as I keep to myself and avoid people as much as possible. Whenever I have free time at school I continue with my class work, go to the music rooms or go to training. I'm quite organised and have learnt how to balance school and football. I was brought out of my thoughts when my phone started lighting up. I looked at it and it was the team group chat.

Arsenal womens U21s ⚽️🥇🏆

Lacy- omg guys! Big news! The Jonas Eidevall is coming to watch our game on Friday. He's said to be looking for recruits for the senior team.

The girls were going mental. I just continued to read the message from Lacy over and over again. Is this real? I was brought out my thoughts by my door opening. I looked up to see my grandma with a concerned look on her face.
"What's going on Charlie?" She asked softly walking over to my bed
"Yeah this could be it. This could be my chance." I replied with the information still sinking in
"With what hun?" My grandma asked confused. I told her about the text Lacy sent to the group chat she engulfed me in a tight hug and whispered into my ear "I'm so proud of you darling, you deserve a spot in the senior team. You've worked so hard and you haven't stopped even with what you've been through. You're so strong and even if you don't make it this time, you're time will come eventually. We're gonna be there to cheer you on." She said whilst a tear slipped down my cheek. I let go and smiled at her before getting ready for training.

I always get to training before all the other girls. Today I got there extra early because I wanted to be at my best for the game on Friday. I warmed up, then I did some sprints for about ten minutes. I did 15 minutes dribbling then I went over to the goal. I was doing some long-ish range shooting practice. I scored 8/10 with my right foot and 6/10 with my left. I then practiced a few penalties then decided to practice some free kicks even though I don't usually take them. I started from about 30 yards out from basic positions/angles. After about 10 shots I decided to push myself more and started to edge the ball further away and at harder angles. After a few shaky shots I started to get more comfortable and getting more power on the shot. I placed the ball down, and took a few steps back. I ran up to the ball striking it with my right foot. I watched the ball curl into the top left corner of the goal into the side netting. I smiled to myself.

"Wow" I hear a male voice with a peculiar accent say. I turn around startled as I thought I was alone. Walking towards me was a tall, bearded, ginger haired man wearing a red arsenal coat. My jaw dropped. Is this real?

"You're Jonas Eidevall" I said in disbelief
"Umm yeah I am" he laughed
"Sorry I'm just" I stop for a minute processing what's happening "What are you doing here?" I ask
"I'm sitting in on your training session today" he says smiling "you're Charlie Carpenter right?" He asks
I froze. How does he know my name?
"Ummm yeah" I reply stuttering
"I've heard a lot about you" he pauses for a second. What has he heard about me? What? My minds going crazy. "You're coaches speak very highly of you, I'm looking forward to see you in action" he says. I breath a sigh of relief but then I start stressing. What if I don't live up to the expectations? What if he overestimating my ability and I fail? I'm forced out of my thoughts when he continues "Why are you here so early anyway?" He asks me
I look up smiling "I like to get here before everyone else to work on my personal weaknesses and goals. I guess it's also because I get shy when around the team, I'm not very good with people especially my own age. Football is also like my little get away if that makes sense, whenever I play all my problems go away and this is my dream and I'm trying my best to improve and become the player I've always dreamt of being. I'm sorry I don't know why I just said all that" I say rambling looking down at the floor. Jonas just smiles at me.
"I heard you're the top scorer in the league" he says changing the subject smiling at me
"Yeah I guess" I respond shyly finally looking up from the floor.
We carry on talking for a few minutes. "Can you help me with something?" I ask shyly
"Yeah, of course" he replies immediately
"Can you stand in the box while I'll run up the wing and cross the ball in"
"Yeah let's go" he says walking over to the box I collect the balls up and start on the right side of the pitch near the half way line. I dribble up the right wing, do a few step overs and whip the ball in towards Jonas. He applauds me as the ball goes right to him, and we repeat this with him being in different positions in the box. After about 10 minutes he tells me to cut inside then cross it into the back post with my left foot. I do exactly that, and he praises me. After about twenty minutes of some crossing and passing drills, we realise that the girls should arrive any minute. So we have a break and take a drink.

"God, you're a beast" Jonas says breaking a sweat I just laugh in response. After a few minutes of talking everyone else arrives. All the girls get excited when they see Jonas and I realise that I basically just got a free one on one session with the Arsenal womens manager. We talk about what we have to work on before Fridays game and the coach tells us that we're going to mainly focus on our positioning. We start off with some basic passing and defending drills then move into our positioning. I go to the coach to ask him what position he wants me to play as I can play anywhere apart from goalkeeper and defender. This season I've either played on the wing or striker as we've got quite a strong midfield. He told me to go striker so I went over to my position. We continued with training and after about an hour we were finished.

As all the girls went to leave I went into the middle of the pitch and lay down, looking up at the sky. I closed my eyes and started thinking about everything. I was thinking about how much everything has changed for me in the past 5 years. Would I go back in time and change it all if I could? Honestly, I don't know. I just know that I miss it so much, what my life used to be like. I miss them so much. I was just a naive little girl when my life changed forever. I used to be happy, talkative and confident, then everything happened and I'm kinda the opposite. The only thing that hasn't changed is football, it's always been a constant in my life.

It started to get dark so I decided to head home. When I got home I ate and went to bed. It took me a while to get to sleep, thanks to the thoughts going on in my head. Eventually I got to sleep, dreaming about what could soon be mine.

A/N: here's a description of Charlie.
She's got dirty blonde curly hair. She's got freckles and rosey red cheeks. She's got hazel eyes and she's about 5'7". You can imagine her however you want but I might refer to some of these details later on in the story.