USWNT - High School

Chapter 22

Carli's POV

I hadn't seen Hope's sister for years. She was around a little in the beginning when Hope first moved here years ago, but eventually faded completely from her life. At this point she was nothing but a voice Hope occasionally spoke to out of guilt it seemed like.

But now here she was. The older version of my best friend, so completely different from her younger sister. On the outside they were similar, they could almost pass as twins honestly now that Hope's all grown up, but personality wise as far as I knew, nothing alike. Melody was pretty much a polar opposite to my best friend. You have the fierce and confident closed off Hope, and then the open book that is Melody. Quiet and introverted, never really given off much of an impression at all. Whilst Hope is definitely one you remember.
Melody is a good person though, I mean I respect her tremendously for taking care of Hope at such a young age, while she too was grieving the loss of their father.

"I'm sorry I didn't see your calls, I was at work." Melody spoke as she walked over to me, after I had followed Ashlyn to the waiting room again and filled in the others. I had left out a few details, seeing as I didn't want them to freak out completely.
"Carli, it's been a while." Melody have me a hug, and I accepted the comfort. I met her eyes after and she could probably see in mine that her next question was bound to get a bad answer, but she asked anyways.

"How is she?" She asked, and I didn't quite know what to tell her. I was glad she was here, because she seemed to be the only person Hope remembers at the moment. This way she won't feel so alone.
"Not good." I said honest, hinting her to follow me down the hall. I figured the doctor wouldn't mind her seeing Hope as soon as possible.

"She's physically okay, nothing too major, but she's suffering from a memory loss it seems." I started, and kept filling Melody in on the way to the room. I tried my best focusing on he positive aspects of the situation, like the fact that Hope got out of this physically okay. It could have been way worse. Even thought it still didn't quite feel like it at the time.
By the time we got to the door, I was pretty much done. She looked somewhat terrified, which is understandable.

"Thank you." She mumbled, looking unsure on what to do next. "She missed you, you know. When she stayed with me, she talked about you." She continued, looking like she needed a little more time before she entered the room, and I let her talk. I was slightly confused to what she was referring to however.

"You didn't know?" She looked at me, frowning concerning. I shook my head, still not fully getting what she was talking about.
"Dammit, she promised she told you." Melody cussed, dragging her hand through her hair. "She stayed with me for the past week, she was on her way home when this happened." She continued, looking devastated as she spoke.

I didn't know what to think at this point. Why would Hope lie about telling us, how could she let us all worry for nothing.

"She didn't tell me." Was all I could say, clearly sounding disappointed. Melody looked at me, and I could feel she felt with me.

"I have to ask, who's this Kelley?" She had a strange look in her eyes, like she knew who it was but needed to hear me say it.
"She's a teammate, a friend. Hope's in love with her." I didn't sugarcoat anything, knowing she must already know that much. Melody didn't quite seem pleased with my answer.

"Kelley, does she love her back?" She asked, looking as if she was scared to hear the answer. I knew answer myself, but it was still very complicated to explain.
"She does." I kept it simple, knowing that's the truth at the end of the day. "Why?" I added, wondering why she wanted to know.

"Hope talked about her, a lot." Melody laughed lightly, shaking her head at the memory. I wasn't the slightest bit surprised.
"She was coming home for her. She was going to confess her love, or whatever. Being her dramatic self as always." Melody continued, cracking a smile but suddenly looking sad again. I saw she was fighting tears as she spoke. Hope was coming home for Kelley. She was finally going to give in and let her heart out, then this happens. The world is one cruel place, that's for sure.

"You must be the sister." The doctor from earlier walked towards us, looking at Melody with a comforting smile. He must have figured it out based on looks, and I'm not surprised.

"Melody Solo, Carli here filled me in. Can I see her?" Melody spoke quickly as she shook the doctors hand. I was relieved to have her hear, someone with a little more authority.

Besides from the one doctor, not one person in this place had treated us with any kind of respect. They even refused to help us because we're not older than we are.

I watched as Melody entered the room, and I felt my stomach tighten from the sound of Hope's voice in the background. At least she sounded happy now, over seeing her sister, which was good. I can only imagine how scared she must've felt, not feeling like she knew anyone and everyone was probably acting weird. As horrible of a nightmare this might be for us, this must be ten times worse for Hope.

There was so much I had wanted to ask Melody, but I wanted to give her some time to process first.

I made my way back to the others, and the second I saw Kelley I knew I needed to talk to her. I wanted to tell her what I now knew.

I exchanged a quick look with Ashlyn, just to ensure her everything's fine, before walking over to where Kelley was now sitting passed out beside Morgan. Alex and Tobin were close by, and they both met me halfway over there on the floor in a rush.
"She's finally asleep, can we please just let her for a little while longer?" Alex gave me a bugging look, and I wasn't hard to convince. I saw the younger girls exhaustion, and I was glad she were able to get some sleep.

"Of course, tell her to come find me when she wakes up." I said with a pale smile, and walked over to sit down next to Ashlyn.