honey brown²

girlfriend?

early august 2018
"i'll graduate in june, what about you?" fleur asked smiling at the girl on facetime.

"two years from now, but i don't really have to go to school. most times i'm away." fleur nodded, understanding exactly what the girl was talking about. vic often skipped school when they were younger for football camps.

after a few moments of silence, jana speaks up. a part of fleur felt bad that jana told the blonde her real name, but she couldn't bring herself to tell jana hers.

"how many more weeks until your semester starts?"

"why? you want to come visit me in my boring flat?" fleur grinned and jana grinned back. "i have a few weeks before my semester starts. i'll probably travel with my father for a bit."

"well, if you have time to stop at barcelona, you should come to one of my games!"

"is this an official invitation?" fleur raises her eyebrows funnily.

jana laughs, "obviously! i'd love to see you at one of my games."

"then i'll be there, i promise."

early july 2023
elena stared at her teammates running through the drill currently.

vilda blows the whistle abruptly, halting the drill as the girls look over at him confused.

"sloppy! do you want the united states to outclass you again!?" he points at jenni. "you all better pick up your shit or else you're going to be running the entirety of practice tomorrow!"

elena raised her eyebrows, but she and her teammates didn't dare speak up.

it was a tense atmosphere in camp everyday, but elena truly just focused on herself. it wasn't a good mindset to have while playing a team sport, but she had to look out for herself first before anyone else.

it's not like their group was the group of death. they had gotten a quite favorable draw, the only opponents that stood a chance were japan.

elena wanted a flawless road to the world cup trophy. she wanted this to be her breakout tournament. nothing, not even her coach, would stop her this time.

mid july 2023
they were going to fly to new zealand in a few days. fleur felt good about the current practices they were having. it was always going to be tight between her and daphne for that goalkeeper role. last year, when sari had gone down in the euros, daphne was just better prepared. she had played football longer than fleur had, she wasn't going to crumble under the pressure.

it was simply a miracle that fleur had made that euros roster. numerous injuries to dutch goalkeepers lead her to getting that third string role. she played as a child with vic, but not as competitively, not as seriously as her older sister. it was clear that her height and build gave her a significant advantage over other keepers, but fleur never felt the instant love that victoria felt.

she was a raw, pure talent that got on this team simply because of her relentless effort on analytics. she was never a refined player, she never had day long practices with personal trainers like vic had when they were kids. when fleur figured she could really be great at football, it wasn't until her late teens, when she was significantly behind other girls her age. even then, she was in school, she wanted to pursue music.

she got onto the ajax second team only a year before the euros. somehow, ajax's first team keepers had gotten injuries and fleur's rise to superstardom started. she was relentless in her goal to prove that she had what it took to play on the first team. she didn't even think about representing her country, not like her sister anyways.