USWNT Oneshots

Pregame Nerves (or Finding Your Chill)

Tobin Heath looked over at her friend and teammate, Thalia Skywalker, who was sitting next to her on the bus to the BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada, for the 2015 Women's World Cup Final against Japan. The small forward was drawing in her leatherbound sketchbook, as she usually did, but this time, her hand was shaking. "Hey, Squirt." Tobin said, reaching over to place her hand on Thalia's shoulder. The younger girl jumped at the unexpected contact. "Sorry." Tobin said. "Are you ready for this?" "I-" Thalia began. "No. I'm not." she put down her pencil and looked at Tobin, her bright green eyes wide and nervous. "Tobin, I'm a fifteen year old girl starting as forward in the Women's World Cup, the biggest-ass women's soccer tournament in existence, and it's a rematch of 2011, and everyone's counting on us to beat Japan's asses, but we're not going to beat their asses cuz I'm going to screw everything up. I can't do this, Tobin. I just can't." "Hey." Tobin said gently. "You can do this. You know Coach wouldn't have put you in if she didn't think you could do it. Besides, you've got Abby with you on forward, you've got me, Pinoe, Cheney, and Carli back on mid, you've got KO in defense, and Hope in goal. We've all got your back. You also need to relax. You're super tense, and that's not doing anything good for your muscles. Here. Give me your phone." Thalia shot Tobin a questioning look, but unlocked her phone and handed it to her friend.

Thalia's P.O.V.

Tobin tapped the screen of my phone a couple times, then grabbed my backpack and pulled out the my headphones. She plugged the headphones into my phone, then put them over my ears, and handed my phone back to me. I looked at the screen and raised an eyebrow as I read the title. "The Playlist of Chill Pregame Music?" I asked. "Just listen to it." Tobin said. I shrugged, and pressed "play". Written in the Stars began to play. I looked at the rest of the playlist, and saw that it contained more calming music, like Fireflies and Fight Song. When Tobin and I got off the bus, we found that Abby had waited for us. "Guess who had her first case of pregame nerves on the bus?" Tobin said, putting her hand on my shoulder. Abby put her hands over her heart. "I'm so proud." she said. "Abby, it's not funny!" I whined. "This was serious!" we walked into the locker room and got changed and prepared. "Alright, ladies." Abby said. "Japan thinks they've got this one in the bag because of '11, but we're gonna prove them wrong. They don't know what they're up against, but we're sure as hell gonna show them. We got our game faces on. They'll never know what hit 'em!" we cheered, and all started chanting in unison. "I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!" we ran out onto the field, still chanting. The chant was picked up by the fans. "I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!" Tobin clapped me on the back. "I got your six, Squirt." she said. "Thanks, Tobs." I said. In the 34th minute, Tobin stole the ball from the Japanese forward who had it. "Ready for the risks, Squirt?" she yelled to me. "You know I'm ready, Tobs!" I yelled back. She grinned and ran past me, but I wasn't far behind. Right in front of the goal, she stopped, peeling off to the side, and I ran forward and booted it into the goal. Tobin and I ran towards each other and crashed into a hug. The rest of the game ran smoothly. Hope only allowed two goals, and I scored again twice, both times on assists from Tobin. When the game was over, I ran to Tobin, and we bear hugged. We were joined by Abby, Pinoe, Alex, Carli, and Hope. We had won. We were champions.