woso - new player

Head, shoulders, knees and ankles

Jonas stared at me. His eyes staring deep into mine.
"Gracie I have seen you play. This isn't it. I know it only you're second day here so I am letting your performance slide, but I won't continue to let everything off the hook. If you need help with anything big or small come to someone here. The girls, me or Kelly, the physios, and we do have psychologist who will talk to you at some point just to introduce himself. In terms of living arrangements, I understand you are too young to live alone so I asked the girls before you arrived. If this is okay with you- Viv and Beth are happy to have you for another two weeks and then Alessia has got a spare room if you want to rent with her? You need to obviously talk to her about that because it's her apartment so I can't make decisions for her but she has offered the room up for you if you want.
Last thing- I tell this to every single player we sign- call your family. There are things more important than football- family, health and happiness."
He finished his little speech and I sat there. I nodded and then stood up.
"Thank you" I said and turned on my heel and into the gym where all of the girls were. They were stretching and doing the foam rollers, a few doing a bit of running but nothing too strenuous. Every player had a plan given to them so everyone knew what they were going to need to do at every moment. I don't have one yet because tomorrow is when I get all of the tests done.
I skipped over to where the analysts and one of the coaches was.
"Can I do some running?" I said, practically begging. The analysts head shook, "Gracie tomorrow we'll test everything and make you a plan and then you follow that- if you run now you might injure yourself or affect a later performance. You can do foam rollers though."
He chucked me a foam roller and walked over to observe other players. I hate hate hate foam rollers. They burn my calves and I never feel like the stretch anything but they do make my calves cramp. I sat down in the corner of the gym near where about thirteen of the others were watching tv and rolling out their muscles. I got onto the ground and rolled out my right calf unenthusiastically. But my calves were fine, it was my stupid ankle that was bothering me. Fuck.
I unrolled my sock to reveal a purple foot, the veins bulging and the ankle itself was a literal golf ball and I'm not exaggerating. I poked it a bit feeling around and getting a better look. I decided it was best to just take off my socks and let it rest using the top of the foam roller as a pillow to raise it. I shut my eyes and lay basking in the pain. Undisturbed. Until I felt a hand on my shoulder and I blinked my eyes open.
It was Viv and Teyah. They sat down beside me.
"Gracie your ankle is actually terrible" Viv said. Both of their face crinkled into concerned looks.
"You're injured."

I rolled my eyes.
"Va bene. onestamente, potete tutti lasciarmi in pace? Dio, posso semplicemente respirare senza che tutti cerchino di parlarmi." It is fine. honestly, can you all leave me alone? God, can I just breathe without everyone trying to talk to me. I stood up and flinched with the shooting pain from my ankle but I grabbed my socks briskly and hobbled out of the gym.
I slammed the door a bit but it wasn't very loud. I marched (or rather slowly limped) into the 'chill room' and wedged myself in the slot between the sofa and the wall where I'd put my suitcase on the first day. When all the other players had joined I guarantee it didn't go like this. Why was I making this into such a big deal. No, why did I have to injure my stupid fucking ankle.
I curled myself up, all 5"2 of me squishing into the gap. No part of me was peaking out and that how I stayed for the next hour and a half until people got concerned and started looking for me. I heard people calling my name, the unmissable Irish accent of Katie McCabe and I heard Beth and Caitlin as well. I think Caitlin put her head around the doorway of the chill room but after a quick scan determined there was no places in there for me to hide. My phone kept lighting up but I had it on do not disturb so it wouldn't ring. I did check it and saw I had 25+ missed called from different teammates. I know it's unfair and unrealistic to continue to hide because at some point I'm going to have to come out and also everyone is still looking for me when they were supposed to go home almost 25 minutes ago. But I don't want to get out of my little safe space. For some reason being wedged in between the couch and wall was the most at home I'd ever felt. The pressure of the solid surfaces pressing against me was such a relief.