Straight from the academy

23.

I wake up on the sofa with a blanket over me. I sit up a little startled.
"Hey, your awake" Leah says walking into the living room.
"How did I get here?" I say confused.
"I carried you to the car and then drove us home. Then I carried you upstairs to the apartment and put you down on the sofa. Turns out your a really deep sleeper when you sleep properly."
"Thanks Leah." I say smiling at her.
"That's alright, your really light." I may nearly be 19 but I'm really small, I'm short and I have a small figure. I just only come up to Leah's shoulders so she is quite a bit taller then me. "We don't have long before we have to leave by the way because it'll take us like half an hour to get there."
"How long was I out for?!"
"A good couple of hours, nearly 3."
"Oh right" I say laughing slightly, "I'll go and get ready then." I stand up and walk to my room.

I splash some water on my face to try and wake myself up a bit before I sit down and do my makeup. I don't do too much, I just gel my eyebrows, curl and put mascara on my eyelashes, and then put some lip balm on. I get changed into some clean clothes as the ones I had on had been in my locker. I put on some grey nike joggers and a matching grey nike hoodie. Then I brush my hair and put it into a plait.

A little while later, Leah and I get our coats and shoes on and then walk to the car. We get in and Leah drives off, traffic is quite bad so it may take little longer then expected to get there.

To be honest, I'm nervous. And Leah can tell. She puts her hand on my knee to stop it shaking.
"Don't be nervous. It's just my family, there is no judgement."
"Okay" I say quietly, not quite convinced, looking out the window. Leah puts some music on and we have a little sing song for the rest of the journey.

When we get there Leah pulls up into the drive and parks the car. She gets out but I just sit there. I freeze up and I don't want to move. Leah knocks on the window but I ignore her. She walks round to my side of the car and opens the door.
"You coming?" She leans on the frame of the car and waits for my response.
"Uh..yeah. Just give me a sec" I say kind of shakily.
"Hey, you've got nothing to worry about. It's okay." Leah holds her hand out for me. "Come on. I'll be with you all the time." I reluctantly take her hand and she wraps her arm around me, giving my shoulder a light squeeze.

Together we walk to the front door, but we hardly even have to knock before we are greeted by a grinning Amanda.
"Hey bubba" she says wrapping Leah up in a hug.
"Hey mum. Sorry traffic was bad."
"Oh that's alright," then she turns her attention to me, "Hi Ellie, it's so nice to meet you properly." She says, also giving me a hug.
"Hi, nice to meet you too."
We all walk inside and sit in the living room whilst we wait for dinner. Leah introduces me to her dad, and her dog is very quick to warm up to me too.
"Hey Bella boo" Leah says bending down as the dog runs into the living room. Leah and I sit on the sofa and Bella ends up sitting in between us with her head resting on Leah's knee; I can really tell who the favourite is.

About 10 minutes later, a skinny, quite tall teenager walks into the living room.
"Leah!" He says, wrapping his arms around his big sister.
"Hey Jacob" Leah says grinning, putting her arms around him too. She introduces him to me and we talk to each other for a bit.

Everyone chats about various differs subjects and before we know it is dinner time. Amanda calls everyone to the table and we begin eating.

"So big game this weekend?" David, Leah's dad, says. We have our first champions league game of the season, a group game against Zurich. Only thing is, it's away so we'll be travelling to Zurich for a few days.
"Yeah, sorry we can't be there. Just can make it work unfortunately." Leah's mum says.
"Oh mum honestly don't worry about it."
"My parents aren't going either, you definitely won't be the only one. But yeah, big game for sure. I'm excited."
"Me too. I love champions league nights, they're the best." Leah says smiling.

We finish dinner and then relax for a bit, just chilling in the living room once again. That was until Leah checked the time on her phone.
"I'm really sorry mum but we should probably be off, we've got training early tomorrow morning."
"That's alright sweetheart, it was lovely to see you both and thank you so much for coming Ellie" she says, getting up and giving Leah and I a hug goodbye. We say goodbye to everyone else and then Leah's mum shows us to the door and shuts it behind us. Leah and I then get in the car and drive home.

"Was that okay?" Leah asks me whilst driving.
"It's really was, it was so nice. Your family are all such good people."
"See, I told you, you had nothing to worry about." Leah says smiling but keeping her eyes on the road. I don't reply but Leah knows I'm happy.

We drive home not really saying much, with the music playing quietly in the background.