Uncertain Love

chapter 5

Meadow Park was always full on game days.

Conti cup, League, FA cup. Whatever game it was, for whatever competition, it would be guaranteed that the stadium would be full to the brim.

That meant that it was daunting to make your appearance at the Arsenal, no matter where the game was due to be played.

The Emirates was enormous. It was a stadium of all stadiums, home to hundreds of people who travelled far and wide to see the sea of red. Charli was included in that, having often travelled down from Stoke to the grounds. That didn't mean it was any less daunting. All be it, neither was Meadow Park.

She found that out when her name was listed on the bench for Arsenal for the first time ever.

It was Villa at Meadow Park, for the Continental Cup. 

On paper, that was due to be a respectively fair game. Villa had performed well under the guidance of Carla Ward. They had seen themself sit comfortably in fourth, challenging United, but not enough to have worked their way into the top 3 just yet this season.

Too most of the girls, it was a fairly casual match.

That included Leah Williamson. Her body felt at ease driving into the grounds. She was only sitting on the bench, still in the midst of her ACL recovery, but that didn't mean she lost her sense of belonging in the team.

Her fingers tapped along to the beat of the Shania Twain song on her steering wheel as she veered right into the players car park. It was still fairly early, with a few hours to go until the game. She appreciated having some time to embrace the crowd again.

Most of the car park was empty. A few cars, which she knew to be staff cars, as well as some of the girls doing media were spread about, but nothing to indicate any other presences.

It was why she was shocked to spot the body of her newest teammate making her way through the car park. 

There was no signs of any cars that had dropped her off anywhere nearby. It was just Charli on her own, walking through the gates to Meadow Park, all of her gear packed into a backpack over her shoulders. 

Meadow Park, which was on the other side of St Albans from their London Colney training grounds.

Both of which, she seemed to have walked to and from.

Something about it seemed dodgy. With a sixteen year old breaking records, making their first debut for such a big club, Leah would've expected her to be swarmed by love and affection and words of advice from her family who would be full of pride. She would've at least anticipated them to have dropped her off. There was no indication to any of that. 

It didn't seem right.

In a rapid pace, she pulled her car into a parking space, not waiting to place it into park. Everything in her wanted to work at a pace that could catch up to the newbie, leaving all of her stuff to, regrettably, jog over to the forward player.

She definitely felt the impacts of it in her knee.

It was worthwhile though. Initially, her presence wasn't detected, Charli's headphones protecting her from any external movements. It took Leah tapping her on her shoulder to gain her attention.

Such a movement caused her to jump backwards slightly, though, it went unnoticed by the defender, who was more invested in questioning her.

"Did you walk here newbie?"

A silent few moments sat between the two of them, waiting until Charli finally picked up the courage to respond. 

It was only a small nod, with nothing spoken, and yet it gave a thousand words to both of them.