Straight from the academy

24.

*skip to Saturday morning when the team is travelling to Switzerland for the Zurich game*

"Ughh for fucks sake!" I groan loudly.
"What's wrong?" Leah laughs from the living room.
"My hair's pissing me off" I say, trying to desperately brush it in front of my mirror.
"Do you want me to plait it for you?" Leah says walking into the room, still giggling.
"Yes please" I say sighing and accepting defeat.
"Come here then." Leah sits on the edge of my bed and I sit cross legged in between her legs on the floor. I pass her the hair brush and she starts to brush my hair before splitting it down the middle. She then effortlessly puts my hair into two tight French plaits.
"There." Leah says tying the last plait off with a hair band.
"How do you even do that?" I ask. Leah just shrugs her shoulders.
"Come on, we need to get going." She says squeezing my shoulders. We both stand up and wheel our freshly packed suitcases into the boot of the car.

We drive to the airport and meet with all the arsenal girls and staff. We wait for the whole team to arrive, Beth and Viv are the last ones to arrive of course, and then we make our way through security and baggage checks. Whist we are waiting for our suitcases to be checked, I take picture of Leah and post it on my story.

@ellielewis

We don't have to wait long for our plane, only about half an hour so I walk with Katie to get a coffee before we board.
"So what's your international career like?" She asks me whilst we wait in line at Starbucks.
"I play for England u21s but I haven't had a call up to the senior team yet."
"Do you think it could happen?"
"Obviously I really want it to, playing for my country is my dream, but I'm not sure it will."
"Why's that?"
"I don't know. To be honest I don't know if I good enough."
"You're joking right?"
"No?" I say a bit confused.
"Your more than good enough mate, trust me. Besides, look at me; I'm the youngest player ever to captain my country and when they picked me I was young and had stretched ears" she says laughing slightly. "Your a brilliant football player, one of the best I've seen come from the academy, well, and Leah of course."
"Thanks Katie." She side hugs me and then looks at the menu to see if she wants a muffin.

Finally, it's time to board our flight so we get our suitcases and food and drinks and make our way down to the aircraft. Since we are flying privately there aren't many people around which is nice. I walk down a tunnel, my suitcase trailing behind me, and reach the aircraft.

I'm at the back of the queue so I watch as everyone gets on. However, whilst I'm waiting I feel a sudden rush of nervousness come over me. Just like yesterday at Leah's parent's house, I'm frozen to the spot. Some of the staff try to guide me onto the plane but I won't budge. Suddenly I'm terrified. Then I see Leah poke her head round the door and walk back down the steps.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"I don't like flying" I say quietly to her, my voice shaky.
"That's okay. Come with me." She holds my hand and slowly leads me onto the plane. We sit down in our seats, I sit next to the window. My legs are bouncing up and down, my eyes are darting everywhere and my breathing is heavy.
"It's okay," Leah says putting the armrest in between us up so that she can put her arm around me.
"I just don't like flying" I say shaking my head.
"I know, I know. But your okay, the pilot knows what he's doing."
"Yeah I know but it still freaks me out. I haven't had good experiences with planes."

A few years ago, when I was about 15, me and the rest of my family were flying to Spain for a holiday. We were all fine and the plane was all fine for almost the entire flight. But when we were landing the pilot couldn't stop the plane, the engine just wouldn't turn off and we nearly went crashing into the airport. Ever since I've been funny about planes and aircrafts, I don't trust them.

"I know it's hard but try not to think about it okay. Let's talk about something else."
"Uh okay, I do need to tell you something actually."
"Yeah?"
"You have to be quiet though because I don't want her to hear," I whisper and Leah nods her head. "So a few days ago, when Gio stayed the night and I had my second nightmare, we kissed."
"Omg I'm so happy for you!"
"Shhh! I don't want everyone to know!"
"Sorry, sorry, I'm just excited for you."
"I know. She's gorgeous Le, and she's so kind, she's perfect."
"I'm glad, you deserve nothing less." I smile at Leah.
"But I do need your help, I want to ask her to be my girlfriend but I don't know how."
"What do you mean? Just ask her."
"I don't want it to be awkward though."
"It won't, trust me. Just do what feels right in the moment."
"If you say so." I say shrugging my shoulders.

Leah and I talk for a bit and I calm down. However, until an hour or so later when there was turbulence. I start freaking out and I grab onto Leah's hand.
"It's alright, it'll be over in a minute. Just keep breathing. Do you maybe want to listen to some music?"
"My headphones are in bottom of my suitcase though."
"Here, you can use mine." Leah says passing me her headphones and her phone. "Choose a playlist" she says, pointing to her phone which is open on Spotify. I scroll through all her playlists and pick one with some calmer songs to hopefully calm me down.
"Thank you" I say leaning my head on her shoulder.
"No problem."