Maxine had expected the two weeks she was sidelined to feel like an eternity. However, she hadn't anticipated daily check ins from her teammates, calls with Fay and even her parents, and chats with Sadie, whom she said sorry to and was now becoming friends with, to distract her the way they did.
Ofcourse, it sucked being forced to follow a mellow trainings plan, and it sucked watching her new team fail to qualify for the champions league. But, Maxine's body had been begging to receive the rest and recovery that was now being forced upon her. Max's mom always said god had a plan for everyone, and everything happened for a reason. Max hadn't believed this, but this injury made her doubt her own doubtfulness.
She felt fit, and ready to take on the upcoming national team camp. The coach of the Dutch national team, Andries Jonker, had spent so much time discussing Maxine's progress, Max wondered whether or not the man had anything else going on in his life. Lucky for her, she was ruled fit enough for the upcoming international break, meaning she was due to pack her bags.
She said bye to Sadie, to whom she had gotten quite close to those last couple of weeks, and walked to Viv's car, already waiting to pick her up and take her to the airport.
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The first highlight of national camp right in the beginning of camp. During room assignments, Max found out she would be rooming with Wieke Kaptein. Wieke was almost as old as Max, and the two had been really good friends since the first camp they went on together.
The other girls were worried that the two youngsters in a room would give al lot of chaos. It did. But Maxine loved it.
The first lowlight of camp came when they lost their game against Belgium. 2-1. Maxine hadn't started the game due to her lack of game involvements, but had been brought on in the 70th minute. Her assist wasn't enough to turn the game around.
The team returned to the Netherlands, to play England in Utrecht. Maxine had another assist, in the dying minutes of the game. 2-1 to the Dutch lionesses.
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In the months leading up to Christmas, Maxine fell into a both uncomfortable and comfortable routine. The games in the WSL started again, this time Maxine was playing in them. She was slowly finding her way, not taking too long to find her way within the team.
She was still hanging out with Sadie. She was happy to have found a friend that didn't make a big fuss about her being an arsenal player. She loved hanging out with her and talked to her almost every single day.
Along with talking to Sadie, she was making more of an effort to hang out with her teammates. She really liked them, and didn't want them to think that she was weird and only spent time in her apartment.
On the downside, her insomnia didn't go away. She managed to get some hours of sleep every night, but it was just barely enough to keep her from falling apart. She was still taking more Adderall than prescribed, and she was incredibly ashamed about it. She knew she shouldn't be taking over the prescription, but whenever she didn't take extra, she felt like she wanted to cry.
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It went like this all the way till December. It would have continued way longer, if it wasn't for something unexpected to mess up her life.
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Number on me
FanfictionA rising star, a new adventure, a spectacular fall. 16 always was her favourite number. How ironic it took 16 drinks to ruin her life. The 18 year old Dutch star Maxine van de Berg moves to London for a next step in her footballing career. While nav...
