Keira's POV:
We all returned to camp on the 13th June. We did some training and we were all made aware that Sarina would be making her final decisions for the Euro squad.
On the 15th June, Prince William came to visit all of us at SGP while we were training, he spoke to a lot of us and even had a go at scoring on Mary. Charlie and Elleã were playing on the sidelines and Prince William invited them over Charlie ran to me and Elleã ran over to Lucy. Charlie shyly stood beside me. He spoke to her and asked her questions to which she shyly nodded her head. Elleã just hid behind Lucy. We all gathered in a group as he spoke to us about the tournament and the importance of it but also that the whole country was behind us and to also enjoy it because it's not every year that you get to experience a home Euros.
At the end of the day, Sarina called each of us into her office. She started with the goalkeepers, then defenders, so therefore Lucy was called in and I took Elleã from her and when she came out smiling, Elleã immediately went back to her. It was then my turn to go in. Although everyone said that I shouldn't have any worries that I wasn't going to be in the squad because I was irreplaceable, I had a little bit of doubt, 'what if she didn't choose me, because of how much time I was away from football when Elleã was born and then any of the times I've had to miss training or camp because one of the girls has been sick', all these thoughts are going through my head but before I go in Lucy side hugs me because of
Elleã in her arms and whispers "everything is going to be okay", and then pushes me into Sarina's office. When I came back I had a big smile on my face, Lucy immediately bounced over to me, whispering to Elleã "your mama is amazing", Elleã just giggles and reached out to me to give me a hug. Charlie came running over and jumped on me, luckily I caught her and held her up while she hugged me, with Charlie in my arms and Elleã in Lucy's, I leaned over and kissed Lucy. "Oi, get a room you two" G yelled down the hallway as she came out of Sarina's office with a smile on her face too.
The official announcement went out that evening, as the players who hadn't been picked left. I was sad to say goodbye to the girls who didn't make the squad like Katie and Steph whom I knew very well.
The official announcement presented the squad as follows;
Goalkeepers: Mary, Ellie and Hannah
Defenders: Millie, Lucy, Jess, Demi, Alex, Rachel and Lotte
Midfielders: Fran, Jill, Georgia, Me, Tooney and Leah
Forwards: Less, Beth England, Hempo, Chloe, Meado, Keets and Ellen.
Within the days leading up to the squad announcement we had been training hard for our game against Belgium 🇧🇪 which was the next day so we all went and ate dinner before heading up to bed.
I woke up the next day to Charlie pulling the duvet from me. I immediately began to tickle her and she tried to escape and forgot all about the duvet. I turned my head to see Lucy walking in with Elleã who looked like she had been crying. Lucy then noticed I was awake and walked over to me with Elleã in her arms, I sat up immediately and Lucy gently placed Elleã in my arms. She instantly snuggled into my chest grabbing my shirt in her hand, I brushed my fingers through her messy bed hair, and Lucy sat down on my side of the bed, leaning over to me and pressing a kiss to my lips before gently kissing the top of Elleã's head, then turning to grab Charlie who was trying to unlock my phone to play whatever game on my phone she absolutely loved. She screeched at Lucy's attack and then quickly quietened when she looked over at Elleã and noticed the tear stained cheeks. She looked up at me and then at Lucy before asking "why was Ellie crying ?", Lucy answered for the both of us, "we don't know", then continued saying, " after you came in this morning at the crack of dawn", Charlie just giggled while Lucy continued, "I went in to check on Ellie and she was crying so I gently woke her up and straight away she reached for me and she hasn't said anything even when I asked her she just cuddled into my chest again". I just looked down at the upset toddler in my arms and kissed the top of her head. After a while of sitting there with the odd conversation here or there we began to get up and get ready for the day. I went to hand Ellie to Lucy to get ready, but she immediately started crying. I tried to explain to her gently that I had to get dressed but she was having none of it so Lucy quickly took her and I rushed into the bathroom to get dressed and ready all while hearing her cries. Once I was out of the bathroom I took her back from Lucy and she immediately grabbed onto my shirt. Once she had calmed down a good bit we all started making our way down to breakfast. We joined Leah and Georgia in the lift and they both immediately noticed Ellie's tear stained cheeks, they were about to ask before I shook my head to tell them not too. Thankfully they got the hint and began speaking to Charlie about the game today, asking if she was excited, to which she immediately answered enthusiastically. Once out of the lift we all walked into the dining room and Lucy whispered to me, "you go find a table, I'll grab you and my little princess here breakfast, before quickly kissing my cheek and kissing Ellie's temple. I smiled at her and walked away to get a table while Charlie bounced away with Lucy, Leah and Georgia. As I sat down, Jill sat down beside me, with a two coffees in hand. She then proceeded to hand me one of the coffees saying "you look like you need one", "thanks Jill". She looked down at Ellie and started making silly faces at her which made Ellie half-smile which made Jill continue acting like a child in an attempt to make her laugh. Lucy came over with a plate of scrambled eggs on toast for me and a bowl of porridge with fresh fruit for Ellie. She then sat down beside me and Jill started chatting to her about some football match. I started coaxing Ellie with some strawberries and soon enough she started slowly eating her breakfast while I ate mine. Charlie came over to tell me she was sitting with Tooney and I watched as she skipped back to their table before sitting down between Tooney and Millie. Once breakfast was over, everyone got ready to go for our match day walk.
Lucy grabbed the stroller on our way out and turned it around so that when I put Elleã in it she would be facing me instead of facing forward. We all walked together as a team and chatted about the upcoming matches and our excitement for the Euros to begin.
Once our match day walk was over we all got ready to head onto the bus to the stadium. I sat down with G next to me, Leah and Beth sat opposite us with a table between us. I had Ellie on my lap, gazing out the window. "Mama look", she pointed out the window as she saw Lucy walking up to the bus talking to Ellen and Demi. "Who's that ?", I ask her, "Mumma", she answered happily, then I pointed to Lucy who was walking down the aisle of the bus. "Mumma" she squealed, clapping her hands. Georgia then started clapping her hands along with Elleã and said "look who's finally on the bus", Lucy just smiled over at Elleã who at this point was stood in my lap smiling up at Lucy, before glaring at G. "I'll have you know I had to grab ear defenders for this little one and Charlie's iPad". On hearing her name Charlie popped her head up from her seat beside Roebuck and looked over at us asking Lucy "did you get it Mum ?", Lucy just nodded her head and quickly handed it over to her, before returning to standing next to our table, she popped the ear defenders into her bag before looking down at Elleã who had starting out pointing out the window again as the bus slowly pulled out of St George's Park. Lucy quickly slotted into the seat behind us and putting her headphones in and starting her pre match routine. After having Elleã my pre match routine consisted of looking after her and spending as much time with her, that it became a small superstition for me, so Lucy always knew that on match days, she could find Elleã with me. It had happened once that Elleã had been with Lucy on the morning of a game and that game had probably been one of my worst games in my career so from that point on looking after on match days had become a main part in my match day routine.
