Lover- Alessia Russo

6. Training

"Did you have to do the beep test and everything?" Lotte asks me as we warm up.

"Ya I did all the testing yesterday and the physical. As well as all the media." I answer.

"I'm assuming you finished the beep test." She says with a laugh.

"Aww you know me so well." I tease. She rolls her eyes but laughs.

"You finished the beep test?" Caitlin asks from beside me where she warming up with Katie.

"Yeah." I answer and switch legs.

"How?" Katie asks with a surprised face and a laugh.

"Dunno. I just run a lot so it was like nothing." I explain. We move onto another warm up exercise.

"Is running your favorite like sport beside football?" She asks. All of the girls have been asking me some basic question as we've been warming up. I'm glad they wanna get to know me. The real me. Not what everyone perceives me as it just takes a little time for me to warm up to people and let them in.

"No actually, I box and I absolutely love watching basketball. I use to play." I answer.

Katie nods and gets pulled away before she can respond I just laugh as Caitlin kindly yells at her for drinking all her water. Cute couple. These girls are a fun group not gonna lie. They're really a family.

We continue warming up it wasn't too bad, we took a quick jog around the pitch before doing some light stretches. As we finsh up Jonas call us over.

"Alright we're gonna be doing some 5 a side games today. I've created some groups I would like to try so if you would stand with them as I call your name out..." Jonas starts grouping us.

"And In the pink group we have Izzi, lotte, Wally, Sab, and Alessia." Jonas says and then goes onto read the last group. Hell yeah.

I walk over towards Wally, Alessia and sab with Lotte. I give them a little wave before turning my attention to Jonas once again.

"First game will be... let's do pink and green." Jonas says.

I've never felt more excited to play football than I do now. Weird feeling but I like it. We make are way onto the field and get into position. Jonas blows the whistle and we start the game.

I get a great first touch from a pass from Wally and dribble forward. I keep going as their defenders are stepping back. Leah yells for someone to go up and no one comes so she does it herself, creating spaces for both Alessia and Wally.

My ball is perfectly placed as I use this space to my advantage. The ball makes it right to Alessia but the keeper saves it. So fucking close. Alessia looks a little disappointed so I give her a smile and she smiles back. Wow.

What the hell is this... feeling. Am I in heaven? Is this heaven? As we get back into position I pinch myself just to make sure. Nope. I'm still down here...

We continue play and soon Lotte wins a duel and send it to me in the air. I control it with my chest and start to dribble it up. Only vic and Beth are back in defense, and I know Alessia is here with me.

I go on one-on-one with Beth. Maybe if I just... I go as if Alessia did a run behind Beth. She makes a step to the side, and I go to the other way and shoot.

The ball sails past and hits the top left. I just smile and turn back to restart.

"She is so good..." I hear Beth mumble to seemingly herself.

"Nice goal Izzi." Alessia says with a smile and gives me a high five. When our hands touch I get like this weird feeling in my stomach.

"Thanks."

Maybe I'm getting sick. I don't know. I try and shake off this feeling and give Lotte a high five.