Close - Ella Toone

Chapter 30

At training

Madison's POV

My sister brought Hannah to the last hour and a half of training, so she got to see a good chunk of real training and also got to join us for some games in the last half an hour.

When she got on the pitch, she ran right over to Ella and jumped into her arms, which might have actually been the cutest thing ever.

We introduced her to the rest of the team, and she was pretty much starstruck it was so adorable. She made sure she knew everyone's names, first and last.

For the first little game, we took penalty shots with each team having a goalie.

My team was Ella, Georgia, Rachel, Alessia, Lucy, and Keira and we also got Hannah.

"That team's not fair!" Hemp complained.

"Yeah! They have the kid!" Ellen White joined in.

"If we don't win this imma be mad," Hannah told us making us all giggle. "I mean it."

"We got it captain," Stanway saluted.

"Who's our goalie?" I asked.

"I don't know, I think they all want to be on our winning team," Less said.

"Hannah, who do you want?" Georgia asked.

"Hmmmm. Ellie," She replied as I picked her up.

"Hey Roebuck! Come on our team!" I yelled.

She ran over to us without saying anything.

"The kid picked you," Lucy said.

"I trust her judgement," Georgia said.

Ella stepped next to me. "I mean I am her favourite coach so I too..."

"Aunt Ella! Shhhh! You can't tell Aunt Madison!" Hannah said causing us all to laugh and Georgia said something like 'Ha sucker.'

Hannah got out of my arms and went into Ella's

"Hey Ellie, you ready to start?" She asked.

"Never been more ready in my life Hannah," Ellie said giving Hannah a fist bump before going into the net.

The first team to shoot only made 3 shots, and Roebuck stopped a good few of them.

The other team got 4 past Hannah Hampton.

"So we're shooting on Mary," Rachel pointed out.

"So what? You guys can score more than 2 goals. You have Aunt Ella," Hannah said.

"And the WSL 2020 Golden Boot winner Rachel Daly," Keira added.

"And Madison and her heart of gold," Ella said.

"I like that. Heart of gold. You're so right, she does have one," Lucy said. "I think I'm gonna start calling you Goldie."

"She does have pretty blonde hair," Ella said.

"Madison Lewis: hair as gold as her heart," Rachel said.

"I love that," Georgia said.

We picked our shooting order quickly, starting with Daly and ending with Hannah.

"Let's go Rachy!" I yelled.

"Score a goal, Rachel!" Hannah yelled.

She scored, she went right when Mary guessed left.

Lucy is up next but is saved by Mary. Hannah had some words about that.

"Stanway you better make up for Lucy's POOPY KICK!" She yelled making the whole team laugh.

Stanway is up next and got it past Mary. So did I and so did Ella.

Alessia stepped up next and I just had a bad gut feeling.

It turns out I was correct, she tried to go right bottom corner but Mary saw straight through it and saved it.

We were tied up with the other teams so it all came down to Hannah.

Mary gave us a look saying she was gonna let it in. We all told Hannah she could shoot from closer than we did.

"WAIT! I need to talk to Aunt Madison," She said running towards me, she asked me which side she should kick it.

"Kick it that way," I said pointing to her left, before mouthing to Mary and telling her where she was going. She nodded back before looking back at Hannah.

"Let's go, Hannah!" Georgia Stanway yelled.

"You got this kid!" Ella added.

"You got it, Han!" I said.

"Score the goal, Hannah!" Rachel yelled.

"You got this!" Less said.

Hannah took a few steps back and ran and kicked the ball straight into the corner.

We all cheered and ran towards her where she had the biggest grin.

"You're the team hero!" Georgia said as Ella lifted her into the air.

"Runs in the family," Alessia said laughing.

"The kid's better than me! Where's her call up?" Lucy asked.

"You're pretty Awesome," Ellie Roebuck said.

Mary walked over to us and fist-bumped her before saying, "I'll see you on this team in 10 years.

"I want to be just like Auntie Madi and Aunt Ella and Georgia and Alessia and Rach and Lucy and Keira!" Hannah said smiling.

Everyone else came over for high fives and then we moved on to a few more games.

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18:30 - Kickoff: England vs USA

Commentators POV:

"Well, it's almost kick-off here. I'm Gabby Logan, and I'm with Alex Scott,"

"This is the last game of this mini-tournament. Both teams are unbeaten. From the English side, Madison Lewis is the leading goal scorer with 4 in her last 2 games. 1 in her debut and the others a hattrick," Alex said.

"Madison Lewis has proved why she deserves a spot on this team for sure. So has Georgia Stanway. She has also had an incredible tournament, same as Ella Toone," Gabby said.

"And here's your England starting line-up for tonight against the US: In goal Mary Earps, in defence Lotte Wubben-Moy, Millie Bright, Demi Stokes and Lucy Bronze. In Midfield, Georgia Stanway, Keira Walsh and Fran Kirby. And up front,  Rachel Daly, Madison Lewis and Ella Toone."

A couple of minutes later the whistle blew and England kicked off the match.

A lot was riding on Madison Lewis today, and everyone hoped she would show up the same way she has so far in this tournament.