woso - new player

Appointments

I step into the gym.
My eyes are sore. My head is pounding. My body is aching. My stomach is hurting. Everything is in pain.
I make my way over to the weights. I can feel someone watching me but I don't know who.
It's early enough but everyone should be here already. They're probably having breakfast. Nobody was around.
I sat down on one of the machines and brought my hands up to my face. This whole thing isn't normal. When other young players join it seems so easy. They just settle into the team, don't get injured, mess around with the girls, have their friends and they just work away. And then there is me.
New player, injured, unfriendly, having stupid doctors and psychiatrists up my ass all the time, not really living anywhere...oh fuck.
I was meant to move in yesterday.

I hadn't properly checked my phone in a while, and sure enough there were texts from Kyra and Alessia asking if I was ok and if I was moving in tonight. Fuck sake.
I sat up straight and stared off into the distance. It was 9.30. The wall in front of me was white with a few marks on it.

___________
*flashback*
2020

I stood outside my front door. It was nearly midnight and I was supposed to be home at eleven latest. But I was busy.
My hands interlocked with hers. It was a cold November night, but not very cold just chilly enough that she was wearing a jacket and a hat.

"Gab-" I started and she pressed her lips against mine. I felt my breath slow, my hands running through her hair gently and knocking the hat off her head. She pulled away.

"Stop talking," she whispered with a grin.

"That's a bit rude" I said messingly, smiling more than I knew was possible.

"Well I can't kiss you if you don't shut up," she continued. I looked at her eyes, a deep sparkly green shade with an olive outside. I felt my cheeks go bright red and hot and then once again she pressed her lips against mine.

Finally we stopped, it was getting late and she had to get her aunt to pick her up before she calls the police to report her missing. I held her face against mine for a minute and kissed her forehead. I don't think I'd ever felt this way about anyone before. Gabriella was the local fish monger's daughter. Aged fifteen, we were both in the same class.
She had perfect light brown curls and memorable green eyes that could see right through me and the wall I had put up. I was a girl who played football- one of the only in the village. I had always tried to overcompensate for my feelings and was always talking to the boys after their training. I never told anyone I liked girls until Gabby came along.

_________

I feel a hand on my shoulder. I tilt my head back. Molly is standing behind me, her clipboard and a folder clutched to her chest. Shes smiling. It's a sickly sweet type of smile. Unnaturally cheerful.

"Hi Gracie," she says, making unnerving eye contact.

"Erm hi?" I say back. What did she want this time?

"Jonas and I would like if you could come talk to us in his office. Is that ok?" She spoke like someone was pressing her teeth against themselves, keeping them in a smiley expression.

"Yeah ok" I mumble back. She takes a few steps away and then turns and gestures to me to follow her. I sigh and get to my feet, grab my crutch and follow her out of the gym, down the corridor and to Jonas's office.

Jonas was sitting at his desk and staring at a few papers in front of him. Molly knocked on the open door before walking in. Jonas stood up and signalled for me to take a seat at the chair in front of him.