Out of her stepmom's shadow

Possible First Cap

(Greyson)

    I woke up to an alarm going off. I lifted my head up and realized that most of the team stayed in the room overnight. I rub my eyes to let them focus on who's phone was going off. Everybody woke up one-by-one to the noise. Christen turned off the alarm and everybody dispersed back to their rooms to get ready for training and breakfast. I threw on the clothes and braided my hair before making my way down to the breakfast area. I grabbed breakfast before sitting down between mom and Alyssa.

"Hey kiddo" "Morning" I yawned out before taking a bite of the eggs on my plate.

"You okay?" I just nodded in response, the event from the early hours of the morning playing though my head.

-----

We got to the field and put on our warmups. I shake my thoughts out of my head as I lace up my cleats, stepping out of the locker room and looking at the white board of players. 

On the subs list, my name was in bold, and I let out a sigh of relief as I was listed near the top, meaning I would be one of the first to sub in and all my hard work would have paid off. 

A couple minutes after halftime was over, I was instructed to warm up to go in as a forward for Megan. When I was done warming up, I handed the official my card with who I was subbing for on the front, watching as she held the board up with my number on it.

Megan ran up to me, giving me a high five and a pat on the back before I ran on the pitch, taking her area.

I quickly look backwards across the pitch at my mom, who sends me a big smile, and that's all I need to be ready to play. Anxiously, watching the kickoff, I take a few steps to where the ball is, anticipating the movement of the pass to the next player. I was able to cut off the pass, taking the ball down to the goal, I take a shot before getting shoved to the ground, the whistle for a pk bouncing through my ears. 

"Your shot kid" Alex whispers to me, patting my shoulder in encouragement and I nod.

Taking a few steps back, I take in a breath before running up to the ball and changing my hips position at the last second, sending the ball flying in the goal, the opposite way of the goalie.

Alex runs to me, pulling me into a hug right after I turned around, pointing at my mom in our goal, her smiling and pointing back before I found my dad in the stands. 

When Alex and the rest of the team on the pitch lets go, I follow them back to the kickoff, jogging with a big smile on my face. 

Once again, I cut off the pass from their defender, passing it to Alex, when out of nowhere, I was pulled back by the defender, and the next thing I know I hear a crack come from my nose and blood starts pouring down my face. 

Stunned by the hit, I sat down on the ground before turning my body, so my head was on the turf as to not let more blood get on my jersey.

There was yelling around me and before I knew it, gloved hands were on my face, the ones I knew all too well, pulling my head up off of the turf. 

I spit out blood, looking at her, nodding, telling her I was okay. The medics came out a second later and looked at my face. 

"I wanna stay in. Let me play." I said looking at them as they signaled for another jersey for me as they put in cotton strips in my nose before resetting it and all I could do was grunt at the pain. 

They put the mask over my face and tightened it before letting me take off the jersey top I had on, switching it for a clean one before heading off the field, letting me stay on as I wished. 

Mom put her hands on my face one more time, checking me over again.

"I'm okay. I got this; we can do it." She nodded, planting a kiss on my forehead before heading back to her goal. 

"Wanna take the kick?" Carli looked to me, and I nodded.

"Let's rock this bitch!" I called to the other forwards around me, setting the ball up again.

This time I knew the keeper thought I was going to the same spot, so instead of moving the ball, I slotted it right where she was standing, watching as she went the opposite way. 

I got hugged by Carli first this time followed by the other forwards. When they let go, I shot finger guns at my mom, smiling through the pain my nose was causing. 

What felt like an eternity later, the whistle blew, signaling the end of the game. I ripped the face mask off, the medics and my mom coming back over to me again. 

They took the cotton bits out of my nose, seeing if it would bleed again, and thankfully it didn't. They decided to check my eyes and my balance, and both were off. 

Standing with my eyes closed, I almost fell over multiple times and when the medic sighed, I knew I was out, nodding, I trudged into mom's side, taking my hair out and trying to feel relief.

We got back into the locker room before anybody else did, allowing me to shower first, changing into normal clothes before getting pulled with my mom to do media duty. 

When we got in the room, it was automatically loud and brighter as the lights from cameras were flashing, every reporter yelling over each other, causing me to cover my ears, squeezing my eyes shut before everything went quiet.

We finally sat down, and questions were asked to us one by one.

"Greyson. How does it feel to have your first cap and to have scored two goals from it?"

"It felt really good to be able to step onto the pitch, the goals were amazing for me personally as this is such a hard game to play against different countries, especially considering I am still young." 

We answered about twenty more questions before being able to leave, walking out to the pitch to see my father still standing there, waiting for the two of us to come back out. Hope lifted me over the bar, letting me hug my dad before she climbed over too, hugging him.

Not long after we were done talking to my dad, we had to go back to the locker room to get our bags. I waited outside of it while mom went and grabbed both of our bags, carrying them both out to the bus as I trudged behind her, almost tripping over my own feet trying to stay awake. 

Mom had sat down in a row, and I sat beside her, my head on her shoulder, eyes closing almost instantly.

-- --

Getting on the bus, Carli had stopped to admire the sight of Hope checking on Greyson, her eyes scanning over the sleeping girl with a small smile on her face, grateful that the kid was okay. 

Secretly, the team, including Carli, had pulled out their phones, capturing the moment between Greyson and the woman who had become her mom not long before she got called up.

Sending it to the group, Carli heard a slight chuckle from the goalie as she saw the picture, knowing that Hope would definitely put the picture captured as one of her wallpapers on her phone.

-- --

Getting back to the hotel, rooms were slightly switched so that Hope could take care of Greyson. She carried the girl up to their now shared room, Christen following behind them, carrying the bags of the two females.

Greyson was laid in the bed, covered up, before the blinds to the room were drawn, leaving the girl in the dark room while Hope went to go and get some meds for her.