When Kristie wakes up the next morning, the bed is empty on the other side, while the file is gone. The blonde shakes her head.
Damn it.
Kassey, who is now on her car, makes the call.
"Hello ?" a girl with a British accent asks, worried.
"Hey, Lucy, it's Kass" the defender says, setting her jaw. "We're ready for phase two."
___________________
Two weeks later
Lucy Bronze enters the room, nervously walking toward her new teammates.
Sam Mewis is the first person to come to her, obviously excited. With everything that has been happening - and Julie Johnston still in the hospital because her pregnancy is demanding a lot out of her body - seeing some fresh blood on the team is pretty reassuring. When she catches eyes with the brunette tho, something in her changes.
God she's beautiful.
The current Stanford captain stands there, in front of her, not able to say anything. That makes Lucy smirk.
"Good morning" the British says in a casual voice.
But Sam is not casual at all.
"Hi, hello, I mean, good morning to you to" she awkwardly stammers, before shaking her head. "U-uh, sorry, I..."
"Yo, Sammy, let the girl breathe" Cari Roccaro says, putting her hands on Sam's shoulders. She then looks at the newcomer, before forcing a smile. "Welcome to Stanford ! You must be Lucy ?"
"I am"
Lucy's voice is pretty confident and deep, but Cari is not fooled easily ; the brunette might be talking to her at the moment, but her eyes are wandering on Sam. The defender then smirks, before dragging Sam by the arm somewhere else because she says something stupid.
Meanwhile, the British starts greeting the other girls who now are her teammates.
The truth about Lucy is that she's always been kind of evil ; that one day, when her and her younger brother were left alone by their parents, she forced him (more manipulated, to be honest) to do something dangerous. In the process, he broke three ribs and his arm, and when their parents came back home and found him like that - and Lucy peacefully looking at the TV in front of her, they decided to put her in a private school so that they wouldn't have to deal with them all the time.
Nevertheless, she got accepted at Cambridge before having her file transferred to Stanford because of her great soccer abilities. But things weren't that easy : Lucy's mother now hates her, and wanted nothing to do with her anymore. So money became an issue, until Hope Solo found her and offered to finance her studies as long as she helps her with something. Leaving the British kind of out of options, Hope made her accept the deal.
And Lucy doesn't regret it ; after spending a few months in Florida State University, Hope asked her to go to Stanford, and she accepted : who wouldn't go to one of the best schools out there ? It would be madness.
The brunette accepts the glass of juice Olivia Schough is handing her, before sitting next to her. Of course she knows who she is, because Hope filled her in. She's a possible target, so getting pretty close to her is one of the things she has to do here. Lucy's not here to harm anyone - even Hope knows that - but since she's pretty good manipulation skills-wise, she needed her here no matter what.
