golden blonde¹

the crumbling

reminder: this is a work of FICTION
—
late april 2023
"ready, set, go!" lotte exclaimed as elena and kathrine both flicked their balls into the air.

they were all having a little bit of fun at the end of practice, their very last one before they would be playing manchester united in two days.

elena had been dubbed 'the magician of the team' by laura and stina due to her technical skill with a football, but gio and frida had insisted that even the danish teenager could rival elena's makeshift title.

they dribbled through the cones, equally fast. elena had reached the freekick station which had been set up by some of the girls.

the coaches had been long gone by the time they were done setting up, but victoria had pleaded their case, insisting that their challenge had to be done today. she and frida had promised to clean up after, returing all of the equipment back to the equipment room. lotte had been dragged into the scheme as an 'impartial referee' by stina and laura, and katie had sat down on a ball, refusing to move.

"now this is something i cannot miss," she had simply smirked.

elena had eased by the freekick station much quicker than the dane did, victoria passed her a spare ball as she dribbled back through the cones.

when she finished, she had just one more thing to do, four around-the-worlds in a row, a task that she marveled at.

she glanced up towards the goal, where kathrine had finally managed to hit the ball around the tall plastic dummies. gio had passed her the ball and she was speeding back through the cones much faster than elena had anticipated.

by the time she looked back down, kathrine was right next to her, starting to do her around-the-worlds. stina had specifically suggested it because she knew how the spaniard loved to show off her tricks with a football.

"come on elena! you can't lose now!" laura cheered her on from just a few meters away.

elena had gotten two in a row when she heard lotte exclaim out loud.

"ohhh! you almost had it ke! 3 and a half!" the english defender threw her head back.

it made elena lose focus, dropping her own ball.

"i thought you were supposed to be impartial," elena rose her eyebrow, flicking her ball back up.

lotte only offered a shrug.

"what can i say? competition brings out a new side of me," she laughed, then nodded towards elena. "tick tock el, time's running, ke's already back at it!"

"stop getting distracted el!" stina said, half joking, half serious.

elena squealed, setting her ball up again for another go.

after an intense two minutes, kathrine is crowned the victor. gio and frida celebrate loudly once she's completed the fourth go around, and they jump the dane once she finishes.

"woooo! told you!" frida laughed at stina and laura, who both sported smiling faces.

"luck only lasts so long frids," stina told the norwegian, who only smiled in response.

vic gives her a sympathetic pat on the back as the rest of the girls celebrate with ke, but elena didn't mind too much about losing. it was all in good fun.

"you did well," the dutch offered as they picked up some of the balls. "although, you seem a bit more distracted than usual, have you talked to leah yet?"

elena blinked, staring for a few seconds before speaking up. she hadn't even thought of the little rift she had with leah as to being a factor of why she was distracted. was she even distracted?