IN MY DEFENCE, I HAVE NONE
☥. Chapter five
"Coffee is shit."
Sam snaps her head towards the familiar voice "Jesus stella. Warn me before you pop up next time."
Aurelia furrowed her eyebrows "you need a trigger warning, for me? Am I that hideous to see?"
"Yes" Caitlin calls out from next to Sam. The Matildas broke off into small groups for breakfast before their game that.
"No. No — of course not" Sam shook her head purposely "but you can't just sneak up like that. Man I'm only twenty nine and you're about to give me a heart attack"
Aurelia shrugged, taking a seat beside Sam with Charli to the left of her. It was a round table, covered in nice, fancy white cloths. "I could go for a croissant right now"
"You can't just say that because we're versing France today" Sam pointed out.
It had been awhile since the game against the Spanish girls. The Matildas had played against the Jamaican girls the following week, walking away with another win, Aurelia found herself on the bench the entire game, watching as her teammates won a game as she recovered from her previous injury.
Her knee injury hadn't been anything major, there had been some bone bruising that went away pretty quickly. Yet Aurelia was seen on the field until May. After she returned back to England to play for Aresenal as she awaited for the World Cup to begin. She was beyond thankful to be back and playing to her full potential.
It was now July, the warm autumn days were turning into chilly winter ones quickly, and the World Cup was around the corner. With a single game of friendlys against France before round one was supposed to take off. Their nerves were beginning to build up.
Kyra looked up from her phone "starting line is up" she announced. The team never knew whether they were to play until the Starting line was posted. Unless they spoke to their coach about it, which rarely happened apart from when an injury was present.
Clearly Tony didn't get the memo that Aurelia was fine to play the full 90 minutes as she found her name sitting in the substitutes section. She was atleast thankful she was on there on the first place, unlike the last game she played for the Matildas. Where her name wasn't even on the list at all.
"I could really go for that croissant" Aurelia sighed. Snatching a piece of watermelon off of Sam's plate.
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Half the match had passed. Fourty-seven minutes. And there hadn't been a goal from either side. The anticipation was building up quickly, although it was only a friendlys match, it seemed like a lot more than that to everyone. Seeing as the World Cup was a week away.
There had been many failed attempts at goals from both the Matildas and the French women, the goalkeeper's being able to defend and protect their goal square amazingly. Blocking every chance someone had to score a goal.
As the whistle for the second half blows, Tony walks towards Aurelia, taking a seat in the chair beside her "how's your knee feeling?"
"It's fine" Aurelia answered truthfully "doctor said it was a minor muscle pull, I've rested it to the best of my ability and I've played with it. My knees basically back to normal"
Tony chuckled "you, of all people, should know that no one's body is back to normal after an injury. But the girls need a strong mid-fielder out there, I have to do what I have to do, although I would prefer if you got every second of rest you could before the World Cup, because I need you more than ever during that time. These girls are slowing losing their spark, and I know you can change this game. You've got the team shaking in their skin because the camera is on us."
