Tartt

Part 8

Isabelle and Jamie rocked up to AFC Richmond as usual on Monday. Jamie was chatting to Ted and Beard in the office, Isabelle was sat in the locker room as the team began to filter in. Colin was one of the first few to come in, and greeted Isabelle with a hug and sat down next to her. Jamie watched them chat for a bit. Colin gave Isabelle some money to get a treat from the vending machine whilst the team changed into their kits. It was cold outside so they were pretty wrapped up in their tracksuits. Jamie was passing on today's training as he had some physio session to do for his ankle and which had been playing up recently.
He went out and said goodbye to Isabelle and told her to stick with Colin or Will, the new kit man and then went off for his physio.
Ted decided that the team could take it easy today and just play a few practice matches, since they were missing a few players today. Isabelle spent most of training sat on the drinks table talking and playing around with Will. She didn't really know him, he was new to the job but seemed lovely and really took a liking to Isabelle. They spent about half an hour making up an extravagant secret handshake, which they almost immediately forgot, but it was the fun that mattered and Will liked making Iz laugh.
When training was almost finished, Iz heard her name being called.
"Iz! Isabelle!", she turned to see Isaac and Colin beckoning her over.
She jogged over to them, who had set up some footballs pointing towards the goal. A little intimidated, she ran straight to Colin and stood right by him.
He crouched down to her level and smiled, "You ready to learn how to shoot?"
Isabelle smiled shyly and nodded.
Isaac and Dani instructed her on how and where to stand, how to aim and then kick the ball hard into the goal. She felt a little nervous, and looked back at Colin. He could see on her face she was nervous, so gave her the biggest smile and clapped his hands, "Come on Iz! Bring it on!"
She heard Will on the sidelines, "Yeah! Come on Iz!"
She smiled and her confidence lifted and she went for it.
She ran fast up to the ball and kicked it hard. It went straight in, missing the goalkeeper and hitting the back of the net. The team were impressed, they weren't intentionally making it easy for Isabelle as to improve her skills, but they might well have to make it a bit harder.
They played on for a little bit, kicking the ball around and showing her how to do passes. She absolutely loved it. They could tell she was getting tired out, so they started to drift back over to where the coaches were stood talking. Ted began to talk through tactics for the next match.
"Not to mention our newest player- learning from the best!", he said pointing at Iz, "Good job guys."
He dismissed them and Isabelle stayed back to help Will carry all the water bottles inside.
They were chatting away when he noticed Isabelle go quiet.
"What's happening Iz? You ok?", he asked ad he sat down next to her on the bench with a concerned look.
Isabelle seemed to have a little internal battle on whether or not to tell Will what was on her mind.
Eventually, she looked up at him and said, "I am going to be 13 tomorrow."
Will smiled the biggest smile and bought Isabelle into a hug.
"That's so exciting!", he thought for a second, "Wait. Who else knows?"
Isabelle shrunk down a little, "Just you..."
"Why don't you want to tell Jamie?
Isabelle shrugged, "I know he didn't really want me here in the first place, he probably only took me in because he felt bad... I just don't want to be a bother for him."
Will was devastated. He knew Jamie loved her and would do anything to make her smile.
"Isabelle. Look at me a second."
She looked up at Will.
"Jamie would love to celebrate your birthday with you, I'm sure of it.", Will said, "Would you mind if I told him?"
"I guess.", she answered.
"Of course, Iz.", he pulled her into a hug and jogged off to talk to Jamie.

Will tried to enter the locker room casually, but ended up doing an awkward jog over to Jamie, who had just finished his physio and was talking to Colin, Roy and Isaac. Will approached Jamie and tapped him on the shoulder.
"I'm sorry to interrupt... I just needed to let you know that it's Isabelle's birthday tomorrow.", Jamie looked shocked but Will explained, "She didn't want to make a fuss about it but I assured her you would want to know..."
Jamie was panicking internally. What the hell was he supposed to buy for a thirteen year old girl!? And how was he supposed to prepare anything by tomorrow?
"Thanks Will.", Colin said on behalf of Jamie, who was still kind of freaking out.
Will disappeared leaving the group to make a plan of what to do.
"Ok. Me and Keeley will take Isabelle out somewhere for the afternoon. You three go and buy everything she could possibly want, understood?", Roy instructed the group.
He then walked away without even waiting for an answer. Jamie, Colin and Isaac sprung into action as they started brainstorming what to get Isabelle.

Roy and Keeley had taken Isabelle out for lunch and were now sat on the sofa watching some trashy show on the TV. Keeley chatted away to Isabelle. Meanwhile, Jamie, Colin and Isaac had trawled through countless shops, picking out some nice things they thought Isabelle would like.
A few hours later, Jamie arrived at Keeley's to pick up Iz. He looked very pleased with himself, so Roy took that as a good sign that the shopping trip had been successful. Isabelle said her goodbyes to Keeley and Roy and the pair left.
Isabelle was none the wiser as to why Jamie had left her with Keeley and Roy, but had enjoyed spending time with them anyway. As soon as Isabelle had eaten and gone up to bed, Jamie was scrambling around blowing up balloons and wrapping presents. He hadn't been this excited in a long time, he couldn't wait to see Isabelle's reaction in the morning. Once he was happy with the decorations and his wrapping skills, he snapped a picture and sent it to the AFC Richmond group chat.
He went upstairs and poked his head through the door into Isabelle's room to check she was okay. She was fast asleep and so he gently closed the door and went to bed himself.

Isabelle had had the best day of her life. She had woken up to pancakes and presents, and a video of the team singing Happy Birthday to her. She felt so lucky and almost cried when she saw how much effort Jamie had put in. There was balloons and confetti everywhere and Isabelle was overjoyed.
She had gotten a mobile phone and some nice headphones, as well as some pictures in frames and decorations for her bedroom 'to make it her own', as Jamie said.
She had gone back upstairs and was arranging the pictures on her wall and her other decorations. She put the flowers on her table and the little mirror on her desk. She stood back and looked at her work and grinned. She absolutely loved it, and it was all thanks to Jamie. She ran downstairs and hugged him.
"Thank you, Jamie.", she whispered.
"Of course, kid.", he replied.