Fighting Society

kiddos flat out

Jess found herself snuggled up against Leah's side, in one of her favourite positions; watching the outside world pass by.

Her head was rest against Leah's torso, positioned so that it could still see out of the coach window whilst keeping her leg elevated. It allowed Leah to have one hand running through the girls hair, whilst the other kept a hold of her sudoku book, which she was working her way through.

The team had decided to travel up to Manchester a day early, given that it was going to be around a 4 hour journey, and that was without the added extra of traffic. It meant that they were going to stay overnight in one of the nearby hotels, but that didn't bother Jess too much; she had grown used to staying in hotels, given her older sisters career involved so much travelling.

Similarly to Leah, she too had a sudoku book rested up against her good leg, wanting to keep herself entertained for what would be a long bus journey. They had sat at one of the table seats, with Lia sat opposite them, yet she wasn't doing sudoku.

It had turned out, it was very much so only a Williamson thing to complete sudoku on long bus journeys.

The bus had a rather quietly chaotic atmosphere. Each person in the team had their own stuff going on, everyone entertaining themselves. Behind them, sat Beth, Steph and Jen, the three of them chatting away about goodness knows what, laughing every so often. To their side, sat Lotte, Alessia, and Emily, who had recently come to the team. They were all just sat on their phones, every so often exchanging a few words, but were clearly trying to focus. In front, sat Stina, Amanda, Frida and Laura, who were all playing a Scandinavian game which Stina had introduced, maintaining an intellectual and clever approach.

It was a chilled atmosphere, which Jess appreciated. It meant that she didn't have her ear defenders on, and was chilled out with the rest of the girls, her sudoku being her main focus, alongside the passing countryside.

She loved observing how it changed. How the architecture of St Albans slowly turned into passing fields of grass as they left the villages, and how the passing fields of grass turned into farm land as they entered the countryside. To her, it was beautiful.

Such a calm rhythm was never going to last long though, on a bus full of some of the larger than life characters. For the most of the journey, loads of them had remained still in their seat, and for football players with a lot of energy, that was going to become difficult.

Jess found her peaceful, sudoku playing rhythm was disrupted when laia and amanda came over to talk to Leah. The two of them started off talking about some of the defensive tactics they were going to use against City, with Jonas opting for an out of character back 5 in the formation, meaning that both Laia and Amanda would also be playing alongside Leah.

It was a stereotypical football talk, that Jess found easy to zone out, not paying much attention to it, until the conversation grew and grew with people involved. A lot of the girls around them had begun to grow into it, talking about different tactics up and down the pitch, not just involved in the defensive positions, until it turned into a large group analysis.

They were going through the different advantages and disadvantages of the City team, their strengths and weaknesses, and where best to attack. Jess simply just laid, her head digging further and further into Leah's side, with her older sister deeply involved in the conversation; to her, it was just easier to shy away from it all.

That was, until, she felt a small tap on her side.

Lifting her head up, Jess noted the English winger, who's head was poking over the back of the seat. She had her iconic smile on, grinning away at the small girl, who couldn't help but return a little smile back to Beth.