Castles Crumbling

Friends? (Chapter 3)

Leah started walking out and I followed her. While she led me through the corridors she pointed at different doors and told me what was inside. "This is the medical room. Here you can get examined for the injuries you may get, and you can talk with the medical staff about physical or mental problems. You'll probably spend a lot of time her so get used to it. Also next to it are a small gym meant for the first stages of rehab. Especially if you want a quieter atmosphere." Leah said, her voice very monotone. I could hear how boring she thought this was. She probably wanted to do something else, and I wouldn't have mind if this tour was with someone else. But part of being a football player was sucking it up so that's what I did. Not without a snarky comment though. "You'll probably be the one spending time her and not me. But what do I know?" I said seeing a small smile forming on her face. "You must know little if you think that." She said with a bigger smile on her face before continuing the tour.

When we walked into the canteen it was filled with my new teammates. They all waved and said hi, some introduced themselves, but most names went into one ear and out the other one. I just nodded and introduced myself to all of them. Leah stood on the other side of the room talking to someone I didn't recognize. I wondered what they were talking about. Probably about something I would never know. I was brought out of my thought by the other girls and their questions. They were all genuinely nice and I could see myself getting along with all of them. Everyone was excited to see me, and they all wanted to have conversation with me. I didn't mind it and it felt normal. Like the locker room conversations back in Barcelona.

After about 30 minutes of talking Leah walked up to me. "Come on. We have to continue the tour of the facilities." She said while dragging me by my arm out of the canteen and all the way to the pitch. "This is where we train and all the games are played at the Emirates stadium." Leah informed me while showing me around the pitch. There were a lot of younger girls on the field, maybe 15 years old. Leah walked up and talked to their coach and they started talking. I stayed on the side and watched the girls play. They were good and looked like they were having a lot of fun. Laughing and cracking jokes when they nutmegged each other. None of them had noticed me or Leah yet and I think that was good. Leah was probably the more well-known of the two of us. Having played for Arsenal since 2014 and winning the Euros for the girls' home country. 

When the girls noticed us, chaos broke out. Everyone wanted to talk to us and their coach forced us off the pitch so she could continue the training. You can't train teenage girls if they aren't concentrated. I am speaking from my own experience. My junior team was constantly unfocused, it was really annoying when I wanted to focus but most of the time it was fun. We all enjoyed ourselves and made lifelong friendships during the process.

Me and Leah didn't talk much during the tour. I kind of wanted to. It felt wrong starting in a new club when one person didn't like me at all. "Why don't you like me?" I asked her. "Do I have to have a reason?" She answered me. "You must have one. We never even talked, and I never did something against you on the field." I continued with a sad look in my eyes. She didn't answer me. "Leah?" I asked her. "Well I don't have one. Maybe you just annoy me." She answered and continued walking away from me. "Can we at least be civil?" I almost begged her before continuing with "I don't want to be on bad terms with a teammate." She stopped and looked back at me without an expression on her face. "We can be civil, but I can't promise we will be friends." She answered. "I didn't expect you to want to be friends, but maybe in the future." I said with a smile. She smiled back at me and agreed. 

At least she promised me to be civil. I still had no idea why she disliked me, maybe it wasn't any reason behind it. It still might have been because of something I did or said. Did it matter? All I knew is that she disliked me. I never liked when people disliked me, it may have had something to do with the bullying I experienced earlier in life. It shaped who I became as a person. I would never want anyone else to experience it and the bullying still deeply affects me. It has made me have a harder time to trust people and open up. Just because I fear what they will think of me. It took a long time before I talked about the stuff in the past that had affected me and when I did I often left out the worst parts. I didn't want people to worry about, because if they knew I was sure they would. That would only ruin what I had created for myself.

Who am I and how can I be several chapters ahead. But thinking about publishing the first few chapters early and then making a schedudle for posting. 

School is very much killing me at the moment and posting may be sparse later lol. Don't have much energy when you end at 5 and have practice after that. Hope you all understand.

Hoping you all like it and want to continue reading!

Love E