USWNT - High School

Chapter 38

(A/N: I'm just too eager to wait with the next few chapter, so they'll probably be up in no more than a day or two. Get ready.)

**

Julie's POV

"You got no valid reason whatsoever to keep me away from my after school activities." I could not believe the words coming from my mother right now.

"Considering the circumstances, I'd like for you to stay home." My mom went on, and I was close to losing my shit over this.

"What circumstances, mom?" I found myself raising my voice now, not something I do often. It frightened me how much rage she brought out of me, I hated it.
"That I am finally happy with someone? That I've found someone I can open up to, and be myself around? Yeah, cause that's terrible." My words were soaking in sarcasm and the look on my mother's face confirmed she caught on to it, and wasn't pleased with it.

"Julie Beth Johnston, don't take that tone with me-" My mom was on a rant, but got interrupted when my dad stepped into the room. A loud 'hey' got both of our attention, and silence from both of us. My dad never raised his voice.

"What is going on here?" He continued, after a moment of staring at the wild look in our faces. I let out a deep sigh, trying my best to hold the tears back. I hated that this got me upset, my mother didn't deserve my tears.

"She won't let me go to practice." I mumbled out, obviously trying to point out how silly it was with the tone of my voice. My dad turned to look at my at his wife.

"I think it would be better if Julie stayed home from practice for a while, soccer has been distracting her from-" she started, but I couldn't stand listening to it.

"That's bullshit." I spoke up and interrupted my mom, now getting the attention from both of my parent. Horrified look in my mom's eyes, more disappointed look in my dad's.

"Julie, just go to practice. Take your bike and I'll come pick you up when you're done, okay?" My dad looked at me, giving me the information before turning to my mom. The furious look on her face was not something I wanted to stay for, and I didn't want my dad to get a chance to change his mind. I ran out.

**

"Julie, glad you could make it." Coach Ellis met me as I ran over to the sidelines, apologizing for being late and out of breath.

"Looks like you've already warmed up, so perfect timing." She joked, and I let myself smile slightly. I put my bag down and ran out on the field to the position Coach ordered me to play. Luckily for me, it was right by Christen's attacking side and she spotted me quickly.

"Julie, are you okay?" She jogged over to me, and I opened my arms for her. I had seen her at school, but I had to go home after and just the few hours in between was enough for me to miss her probably more this I should.

"I'm fine. What did I miss?" I tried keeping the subject in the soccer for now, seeing as I got emotional just thinking about that other thing. I'm pretty sure Christen caught onto it, and gladly let me be distracted.

"Me scoring just got a whole lot harder." She joked, hinting to the backline I now completed. Lindsey and Moe both smiled and waved eagerly as I looked up now, before the game started up and we all got focused.

Well, that's not exactly right. We did not all get focused, actually not even close. Hope was quite literally a mess in goal, not even trying at all at this point. Moe and Kelley kept trying to distract each other, and it worked. Alex and Tobin were giggly and cute over on the left side, and I suppose my focus wasn't top shelf either seeing as Christen was looking way too hot for her own good and I hadn't seen her all that much today.

Everyone seemed to be overall distracted and Coach Ellis noticed. She eventually called it off about 15 minutes early.

"Go do something else please, and bring your focus back on Thursday." She said with a sigh, before leaving the early practice.

"Anyone up for pizza?" Ashlyn suggested, and was met with great enthusiasm.

**

After having called my dad and explained, he agreed to let me go, saying it was probably better than I got home later. I didn't want to overthink that too much.

We made it to the best local pizza place, at least half the team present. We all squeezed around in a rather large table, and ordered our food.

"I'm scared Hope's gonna poke a whole in that table soon." Christen leaned closer to me, and whispered as she hinted across the table. The goalkeeper was staring not-so-subtly towards Kelley, or more correctly Kelley and Moe. I was seated next to Moe, who sat next to Kelley so really I didn't get the chance to talk to her much at all. They seemed to have a thing going on that no one wanted to interrupt. Hope on the other hand definitely wanted someone to do anything at all to get them apart, and took her frustration from lack of support out on the wooden table with her fork.

"I wanna be happy for Moe, but it just seems too good to be true, doesn't it? Hope's clearly not giving up." I looked back at Christen, who nodded in agreement. I wanted Moe to be happy more than anything, but I still had a bad feeling this would end up in heartbreak.

"How did your mom let you come, by the way?" Christen changed the subject, and I knew she had been dying to ask questions. She deserved to know, even though I wasn't thrilled about the chosen topic.

"She didn't." I said simple, letting out a sarcastic laugh from the thought of it.
"My dad came home as we were yelling at each other, and he just told me to go." I continued, giving her the brief version of what happened. The look Christen have me was not one I particularly liked, but I know she cares and that's why she feels sorry for me.

"I'm glad your dad is finally speaking up though." She said, taking my hand in her under the table and stroking it carefully with her thumb. It felt warm and comforting.

"Me too. He actually told me to invite you over for dinner sometime, he wants to meet you." I looked up to meet her eyes, and the smile that spread on her face was contagious.

"Really? I would love that." She said back, sincere as she spoke. I then remembered what I had initially told my dad, and that I said I was gonna do it 'after we made it official'. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted this beauty to be mine, and I feel pretty confident that she'd want that too. But maybe we shouldn't have to label anything just yet, keep it the way are for a little longer. Things are going so great between us and there's no need to rush anything. We both know that we're not seeing other people, and it's not like we're just friends. Technically I guess we are dating, but there's just no need to rush the whole meeting the parents and make it officially just yet.

I think.