USWNT Oneshots

Josephine

"You ready, Squirt?" Tobin asked, coming downstairs. "Almost." I said, pulling on my combat boots. "Wow, you're wearing shoes?" Tobin asked. "Shocking!" "Shut up." I said. We got in the car, and drove to Denver to find a child to adopt. We walked into Silver Mountains Home for Orphaned Girls. "Hello." the woman at the desk said when we walked in. "Looking to adopt?" "Yes." Tobin said. "Come with me, then." the woman said. We followed her out to a courtyard, where many girls were jumping rope or playing hopscotch. I noticed a small girl with caramel-colored hair reaching to the middle of her back sitting in a corner, listening to music. "Can you tell me about her?" I asked, pointing. The woman followed my gaze. "Oh, her?" she asked. "She's a tomboy and a rebel. She's belligerent, and has no filter. She is good at soccer, though, and she's one of the most creative kids I've seen, I will give her that." "Can we go talk to her?" Tobin asked. "You can try." the woman said. Tobin and I walked over and sat down next to the girl, who took her earbuds out and looked at us with royal blue eyes. "Whatcha need?" she asked. "We wanted to talk to you." I said. "What's your name?" "Josephine." the girl said. "But I prefer to be called 'Jojo', or just 'Jo'." she studied us. "I've seen you two before." she said. "On TV. It was something about the 2015 U.S. Women's National Soccer Team." she gasped. "I got it!" she said. "You're Thalia Skywalker and Tobin Heath!" Tobin and I both grinned. "At your service." I said. "You two are my idols!" Jojo said. She pulled a very battered book out of a bag at her feet. On the cover was a picture of the 2015 team raising the World Cup trophy. The title read This is Our Time, This is Our Moment: The Story of the 2015 U.S. Women's National Soccer Team. "I've read your player bios about a million times each." Jojo said. "I know a lot about you." Tobin and I laughed. "Well, we don't know much about you." I said. "So, how old are you?" "Ten." Jojo said. "How long have you been here?" Tobin asked. "Since I was eight." Jojo said. "No one wants to adopt me. Miss Underwood says it's because I'm belligerent. I don't even know what that means." "It means loud, and not incredibly polite." I said. "Oh." Jojo said. "Well, that about sums me up." "So what are some things you like?" Tobin asked. "Soccer, video games, longboarding, surfing, skiing, art, and music." Jojo said. "What kind of music?" I asked. "Whatever sounds good." Jojo said. "I love Fall Out Boy." "Same!" I said. "What position do you play in soccer?" "Forward." Jojo said. "Cool." I said. "What are some things you don't like?" Tobin asked. "Girly-girls, math, bullies, idiots, and being told what to do." Jojo said. Tobin and I spent a few more minutes talking to the small girl, then we went back to the woman, Miss Underwood. "We'd like to adopt Josephine." Tobin said. Miss Underwood looked surprised. "Really?" she asked. "Yes." I said. "Very well." Miss Underwood said. "Come with me." we got the paperwork filled out, then came out to the courtyard and walked over to Jojo. "Come on, kiddo!" Tobin said. "What?" Jojo asked, taking an earbud out of her ear. "Come on!" I said. "Go get your stuff packed up. We've just adopted you!" "Really?!" Jojo asked. "Yup!" Tobin said. Jojo hugged both of us, and ran into the building. She came out ten minutes later with two duffel bags, a backpack, and a laptop bag. Tobin and I each grabbed one of the bags and helped her load them into the car. "So, where is home?" Jojo asked. "Breckenridge." I said. "We've converted the attic into your room, and the walls are plain white so you can decorate them if you want." "Sweet!" Jojo said. When we arrived at home, we were greeted by Abby. "You're Abby Wambach." Jojo said immediately. "Mom's older sister, right?" Abby raised an eyebrow. "Which one of you is 'Mom'?" she asked. "I am." I said. "Tobin's 'Mother.'" "Well, in that case, not bad, kiddo." Abby said, ruffling Jojo's hair. "Someone's been doing her homework!" "What should I call you?" Jojo asked. "Aunt Abby will do fine." Abby said. "You're going to have a lot of aunts." I told Jojo. "Because everyone on the team basically considers everyone else to be their sister. Abby and I are the only blood sisters on the team, though." "Got it." Jojo said. We put her stuff in her room, and then went to meet Alex and Pinoe. "Hey!" Pinoe yelled when she saw us coming down the sidewalk. She and Alex were in their front yard, and Alex was kicking a soccer ball around with a girl about Jojo's age, who had waist-length blonde hair. "Sup, Pinoe?" I said. "Who's that with Baby Horse?" "Oh, yeah." Pinoe said. "Oy! Alex! Bring the kiddo over here!" "Hang on a sec, Pinoe!" Alex called as she settled a pass from the girl and dribbled over to us with the girl in tow. "This is our daughter, Christina." Pinoe said. "She prefers to be called 'Chris.' Looks like you have a new person with you as well." "Oh, yeah." I said. "This is Josephine. She prefers to be called 'Jojo'." Jojo looked between Alex and Tobin. "Did you know people ship you two?" she asked. "It's called 'Talex'." "Yes, I did know." Tobin said. "Alex was my first choice, but Pinoe stole her, so now I'm stuck with the Squirt." "Really?" Chris asked. "No." Alex said. Everyone laughed. "So, Jojo, this is your Aunt Pinoe and Aunt Alex." Tobin said. "And Chris, this is your Aunt Thalia, Aunt Tobin, and Aunt Abby." Alex said. "So Jojo and I are like cousins?" Chris asked. "You could think of it like that." Pinoe said. "Hey, look!" I said. "Carli and Hope are coming. And they've got someone with them." "Heya, Harli!" Abby yelled. "Shut it, Wambach!" Hope yelled back. "So, who's this?" Alex asked when the three women were in earshot. "Isabelle." Hope said. "She prefers 'Izzy'. What about the rest of you?" "This is Josephine, who prefers 'Jojo'." Tobin said. "And this is Christina, who prefers 'Chris'." Alex said. "Nice to meet you both." Carli said, shaking the girls' hands. "So, I just got a text from Presston saying they're stopping by on their way to Boston." Hope said. "Who the hell is Presston?" Chris asked. "Not 'who is Presston', 'who are Presston'." Pinoe corrected. "What?" Jojo asked. "It's the ship name for two of our teammates, Julie Johnston and Christen Press." Abby explained. "Isn't Pressy a Johnston now?" Alex asked. "Yeah, but old nicknames die hard." Abby said. "Alrighty then." Alex said. I looked at my phone. "Krashlyn's stopping by too." I said. "Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris, right?" Jojo asked. "Yup." Tobin said. "They're both Harris now, but like Abby said: old nicknames die hard." "Just be warned, though." I said. "Pressy will try to break your eardrums." "How?" Izzy asked. "She squeals." Hope explained. "And it's really high-pitched." "Oh." Izzy said. "Kriegs, Ash, and JJ aren't too bad, though." Carli said. "No, Kriegs, Ash and JJ are good." Hope said. "It's just Pressy you've gotta watch out for." we went our separate ways to get our daughters settled. That evening, we had a picnic up on table lookout with JJ, Press, their daughter Nicki, Ali, Ash, and their daughter Josie. We all told embarrassing stories about each other from our USWNT days, and our kids were laughing their asses off. "So lemme get this straight." Izzy said, wiping tears from her eyes. "You guys locked Mom Number One and Mom Number Two in a closet, and made them tell you all that they were dating?" "Yup." I said. "Hope wasn't too happy about it, if I remember correctly." "And then Aunt Hope grabbed Mom and took her to the room that she and Aunt Carli shared and held her hostage, so the rest of you guys had to go rescue her?" Jojo said. "Yup." Tobin said, grinning. "That's what went down." "Locking two people in the closet together is a classic USWNT move to find out if their together." Press said. "We call it 'pulling a Krashlyn.'" "Krashlyn." Josie said, looking at her moms. "That's your ship name, isn't it? Is that how you two got together?" "Yup." Ash said. "And they've called it 'pulling a Krashlyn' ever since." "What about the time that Pinoe dared Abby to finger Thalia?" Alex asked. We all laughed, remembering the dare night. "Remember when Pinoe walked in on Pressy and JJ?" I asked. "I still have nightmares from that, you know." Pinoe said. "Wait, what happened?" Nicki asked, looking from one mom to the other. "So, no one knew we were dating, and Pinoe walked in on us doing the dirty." Pressy said. "And that's how the team found out we were dating." JJ checked her watch. "We should probably get back to the hotel." she said. "We've got an early start in the morning." "Same with us." Ash said. "It was great seeing you all again." all the moms hugged, and all the daughters exchanged numbers. We walked back down to the house, and the girls said goodbye and goodnight to each other. Tobin and I tucked Jojo into bed. "Night, kiddo." Tobin said, kissing Jojo on the forehead. "Night, mom." Jojo said. "Night, mother."

Pictured above is Josephine "Jojo" Skywalker-Heath. KEEP THE REQUESTS COMING! uswntt15, I'm working on your request, so just channel your inner Tobin and chill, girl.