You are my mums (a Lucy Bronze fanfic) - Book 2

Chapter 13 - Seriously

Rosie's POV:

 "Hurry up!" Me and Leah chanted towards Keira who had raced into the house to get our football boots. Luckily, Leah is the same size as Keira which meant she was able to borrow a pair of hers for the afternoon. I couldn't wait to be back training and playing after such a long break. 

I had lost a lot of confidence, didn't love the game and became injured. But here I am in Barcelona, having overcome every single hurdle in the way. 

For most of my life, football had been an escape from the hell I was living in. I would play to try and forget about the trauma I was dealing with. It had always been a dream of mine to become professional, but that was never an option. My foster parents hated it when I even simply mentioned it because it was seen by them as a 'man's sport'. They would turn the TV off when a woman footballer appeared, they would criticise and judge it. My foster dad especially, couldn't stand the thought of 22 women playing a sport that had been previously male-dominated. It enraged him to see the Lionesses succeeding in such a way that the men had been unable to do. 

Not only had the Lionesses made history, but they had proved the haters wrong. For years, womens football wasn't taken seriously. Not because of the lack of talent, purely because of their gender. But thankfully now, more and more girls have access to dreaming the possibility of becoming professional. It's slowly becoming more acceptable, but there's still a huge amount of work to do. 

Keira had barely turned the engine off when myself and Leah jumped out of the car and began to jog down to one of the free training pitches at the Barcelona FC training grounds. 

My hands trembled as I did the laces in my boots for the first time in a while. Looking down at them I remembered when I got them : a few days after moving down to Manchester with Lucy. Originally I had seen Leah wear them and immediately fell in love. Everything about them was perfect, from the crisp white colour that had now faded to the nike swoosh on the side. They were my first ever pair of brand new, proper football boots. Previously I had searched high and low in charity shops to get a decent pair that would hopefully last me a while. When Leah saw I was wearing them, she grinned, "You've still got them?". I nodded my head and grabbed onto a hand that she reached out to help me stand up. I asked, "Do you still have yours?". She responded, "Erm...maybe somewhere at home".

When Keira finally caught up to us and put her boots on as well, Leah complained light-heartedly, "Why did you get me the pair of boots that have KW engraved into them?". Keira laughed and shrugged her shoulders, "I thought you'd like them".

We began with some passing leading into shooting. Leah immaculately passed me the ball right into my feet, I turned with it, took a deep breath and took a shot towards the net. A smile crept up onto my face when I saw the back of the net ripple. Due to being away from football for so long, I wasn't sure if any of my shots would even make the net so I was pleasantly surprised. Both Keira and Leah cheered and clapped their hands enthusiastically.

From then on, I played like I'd never been away. My shooting, passing, dribbling was all falling into place. It felt amazing to be freely playing football again without the pressure of feeling that I'm not good enough. When Keira made me sit down and have a drink, Leah told me confidently, "Whenever you feel that you're not good enough, just remember that you're Keira Walsh and Lucy Bronze's fucking daughter". I grinned, "Alright. When you feel that you're not good enough just remember that you're Amanda Williamson's fucking daughter". She glared playfully at me, "Shut up Bronze".

 I looked up from the ground and smiled warmly at the Arsenal Number 6, "I missed you". Leah's eyes softened, "I missed you too, but you've grown so much by being out here. I'm proud of you". Whenever someone says they're proud of me, it means a lot. No one was ever proud of me, and now I have a whole extended family who say it to me without thinking twice.