My lioness

First training session

Deep breathe.....in ....and out, I was looking into my mirror in my car trying to calm myself down and tell me it is all going to be OK. What's the worse that could happen.

Yeah they may hate me, yeah I may be benched again but I'll never know without trying. I Took one big breathe in before exiting my car. It was a mint green fiat 500. I won't lie the colour wasn't the best decision but it was the first car I had ever purchased with my own money. I was going to have to live with my 19 year old decision.

I opened my boot to get my Nike duffel bag out. Right now I was wearing my socks with my sliders. I never found it comfortable having to wear my boots and shin pads for longer then I needed.

I also, had iced coffee in my hand with my car keys in the other. I closed the boot of my car and made my way towards the entrance of the building, which was right infront of the reception. Gareth Taylor, the Head coach , asked me to come five minutes later because then all the players would already be getting ready and I wouldn't have to feel overwhelmed.

I said to the lady at the reception, " Hi my name is Millie Smith, I came in yesterday, I was told I had to collect my lanyard today.

She passed me the lanyard, with a photo of me on it, it actually wasn't a bad photo- if my promo stuff was like this photo I think the rest will be at least decent .

"Millie, nice to meet you, I'm Gareth Taylor, other known as your new head coach." A tall man was standing infront of me and shook my hand. Honestly, I was kind of making a fool out of myself. I was standing there unable to form any words.

"The girls are just in the changing room, end of the corridor to the right, why not go and meet them and get ready. I'll see you on the pitch."

I make my way to the changing room, took another huge breathe and slowly opened the door into the changing room. Surprisingly it was quite, at Arsenal we would blare the music but maybe they kept that as a game day ritual.

All eyes fell onto me and the dead silence began to crawl into the room. I stood there feeling really awkward. I was never that great at adjusting into a new team quickly.

"Hey," my voice went really high when I spoke- showing my nervousness. I wanted to turn straight around and sprint straight back into the safety of my car.

A blonde player who i recognised to be Lauren Hemp came up to me, " We aren't going to bite, come over, also you probably know who I am but you can just call me Hempo." Gingerly, I ambled over to the group of girls and set my bag down in the corner as that was the only space free.

I took my boots out and put them on with my shin pads. I placed my jacket on the peg. Before we all excited, " hey wait up newbie." Let's pray to the gods this isn't my new nickname.

The voice belonged to anothet blonde player, who came up to me. "The names Alex -Alex greenwood- I didnt quite catch your name."

"Oh sorry totally forgot to introduce my self," I let out a chuckle," Its Millie- Millie Smith."

Now we had exited the changing room and was making our way towards the pitch, "So Millie what position do you play then." How was I going to break it that we play the same position.

" I am a defender- however I did try goalkeeping once at arsenal- trying to get off that stupid bench was difficult and i inly managed it once or twice."

" Since loads of the others left last year i've needed someone to challenge me- for some reason I dont know why you were on the bench, Gareth had been mentioning you all stupid season- I think he nearly exploded with how angry he was he couldn't sign you last season beause of how expensive they made you."

"Some day, it will all come out why they did what they did but considering I gave up a position on another team for them, it was quite embarressing."

Gareth had been shouting at us to come over. We did some drills, 1vs 1, and some penelty practise at the end, he said tomorrow we will fully use this in match prep- I liked Gareth as he starts with the basics of what we need in the plan for match day and then pushes us to the max the days after.

Now we were all in a circle stretching, everyone asking me questions about arsenal, saying I should have never been on the bench like how they had done it. It was nice to be fully appreciated on this team.

"Hey guys so cause i'm starting fresh on my insta would it be able to post some of the photos from training- obviously with your permission." Everyone nodded their heads so I had to remember to post them this evening.

Whilst walking into the boot room chloe offered, " Hey Millie we are all going to go get coffee after this, we usually do it first day training of the week and we were just wondering if you'd like to come. "

"That would be lovely, Thanks for inviting me, where are we going just so I can put it in my satnav as I havn't really lived here very long."

" It's called cocobear and it's like a 10/15 minute drive."

"Thanks i'll see you there then."

I got all my stuff from the changing room- put on some deodrant and perfume- walked into my car and went straight to the cafe. I probably was going to take longer than the other girls because I kept going into roads that were dead ends. I got to the cafe and parked right outside but before entering I decided to upload the photos from training now incase I forgot.