All Worth It In The End - Katie Mccabe

chapter five

I've had a few more training sessions with Arsenal and now it's game day and I've been told I'm playing.

I haven't been told where or when but I do know I'll get some minutes. I get pulled to the side before getting on the team coach by Jonas, "How are you feeling about starting today Ellie? I talked to Beth and she's fine with you starting in her place."

I look at him shocked and nod my head, "I would love to start. Thank you, Jonas." He smiles at me before letting me get on the coach. Before and can even get a step down the aisle Katie pulls me into the seat next to her in the four seats. Opposite me is Beth and Viv is opposite Katie.

I smile at Beth and thank her with my eyes. She smiles back and nods at me. Katie puts her hand on my thigh under the table so Beth and Viv don't see.

I smile at her. "Do you reckon you'll play today?" Viv asks me. I smile at her and shrug wanting to keep it a surprise, "I'm not sure. Hopefully but I'm new so maybe not." I look at Beth to see her smirking slightly.

I kick her slightly under the table and she stops smirking. Katie felt me move my leg because her hand was on it so gives me a questioning look. I just look away from her and start a conversation with Beth.

Halfway to the stadium Caitlin comes over to our table, "So sorry to take her but can I steal Ellie?" They all nod so Caitlin drags me up. She bangs her knee on the table and lets out a questionable noise. I laugh as she holds her knee, "Oww. Fuck that hurt."

"I can tell," I say between laughs, "That was a questionable noise then Caitlin." She just shakes her head and drags me to the Aussie's table.

I look at them all questioning before they show me Kyra's phone. She has edits of me that people made on TikTok of all the different clips from past games and training.

They showed me one of the edits that consisted of multiple clips with me shirtless and I hid my face in my hands, "Omg. I didn't know they would do that from me giving my shirt to fans." I faceplant the table.

Kyra giggles, "They'd love you to give your shirt out after this game." I shake my head, "Stop. Just don't."

I hear moving behind me and then a voice makes me jump. "What are you all giggling about?" Leah asks. I looked up to see her, Beth, Viv and Katie all standing around our table.

Kyra shows them the edit of my shirtless, making me hide my face in Steph's shoulder.

They all laugh at me. "There are loads more as well," Kyra says. My head shoots up, "What." She just laughs and shows me her phone again. It's pictures and clips from when I went to the beach with the Barcelona girls when I played there in Spain. My eyes widen, "What the fuck. How did they even get these?"

That makes the others want to see it more now. I shake my head and start going through more videos. Katie appears at my should as I swipe to a video of me and Lucy Bronze messing about and showing off our muscles and abs. My eyes widen and I hide Kyra's phone from Katie as she just laughs at me.

Kyra looks at me, "What? It can't be as bad as the beach edit." I stare at Kyra giving her phone back to her, "Shush. They didn't know there was a beach edit."

Kyra ends up showing them all the beach and gym edits while I just hide my head in my hands. "I'm leaving to Alessia. She's not being mean." I say getting up and moving over to Alessia. She laughs at me, "I hate to break it to you but we're here now." I sigh in relief and grab my stuff before quickly getting off the bus.

We go into the changing room after a pitch inspection and get into our warm-up kits. The Aussie girls are all laughing as I take off my shirt so I throw it at them. I put my warm-up shirt on before going to the pitch with Alessia.

We do one-touch and two-touch passes before setting each other up and shooting. We also cross it into each other before shooting.

After warming up we go get our game kits on before Jonas comes in and tells us the lineup, "and instead of Beth in right-wing we're going to have Ellie. When we sub Beth on we're going to move her into striker and take Alessia off. Then at around the 75th minute we're taking Ellie off and putting Viv on." I smile and nod already knowing the plan.

They all pat me on the back and congratulate me for starting. We get ready to line up. Everyone else leaves but Katie pulls me back slightly. "Congratulations Ellie." She says looking between my eyes and lips.

I quickly pull her in connecting our lips before pulling away and leaving the changing rooms to get in the lineup.

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Two chapters tonight because I felt bad for not posting anything Saturday and Sunday.

Have a good day/night