golden blonde¹

doubts

early may 2023
elena is starting to regret the fact that from a very young age, she chose not to shoot penalties during games.

more than anything, it's out of respect to her teammates. the spaniard always found that letting a striker score a penalty was much more motivating to them, and boosted their overall morale.

elena didn't need a penalty to boost her morale, she had all the confidence she needed in games.

it wasn't necessary.

when katie misses her second penalty in the last week, elena can't believe that her decision is coming back to haunt her.

elena knows that she's by far the best penalty taker on this team, maybe second to kim, just maybe. that's beyond the point though. it might be because the nineteen year old has a high amount of self-confidence in herself, or just plain cockiness, but she knows she would have scored.

against leicester no less. god, this week was really fanning out to be the worst one of her life, career wise that was.

elena fernandez definitely had a tendency to overreact. they had dominated leicester throughout the game, aside from that penalty hiccup, arsenal looked perfect. elena had assisted frida's goal halfway through the second half, netting yet another assist for the season.

meadow park was a far cry from sixty thousand at the emirates, but elena could still feel the love from the fans.

with the champions league out of the picture, they were putting their entire focus on the league. when you really think about it, arsenal's intention was really to win the champions league. their injury troubles meant that their likelihood of winning both the league and champions league were slim.

it was evident to everyone that arsenal were going for gold, putting in all their eggs into winning that coveted trophy once more. the league would still be doable, but they were a couple of points behind chelsea, and their likelihood of winning the league were slipping with every game that chelsea won.

there was still hope though, and that was what motivated them to keep winning. they had to win out if they wanted any chance of even competing for the title.

"you're not serious," elena presses her phone against her ear.

"i am being completely serious."

"you're joking."

"this isn't a joke elena! this is your career."

"where were they in january? or hey! better yet, where were they last fucking august!?" elena gritted her teeth angrily.

"you have to move past that," elena's agent urges her. "they're here now, and they're offering you a good contract extension."

elena glances towards her teammates, who are currently filing into the parking lot. she was waiting for vic to finish her conversation with lia when she got a call from her agent. barcelona was looking to begin talks of a contract extension, probably because of the significant improvement elena had shown throughout the past year at barcelona.

"why are they in discussions so early? it's only may. my contract doesn't expire until december."

elena can hear the deafening silence that her agent gives her on the other line; it only makes the uneasiness in her stomach worsen.

"spit it out," elena says lowly.

the next words out of his mouth leaves elena reeling and she almost hangs up right after the last sentence is over.

"this is insane," elena stutters out. she couldn't quite believe it. suddenly, it all made sense why barcelona were desperate to lock down her extension so quickly.