Saved by the Whistle

thirteen || ebullience

ebullience : bubbling enthusiasm

The trio arrived at the field a half hour before their training session started, Carli and Megan showing her around the major parts so she could navigate through City Football Academy, the stadium where they trained and played their home games. After they gave her a short tour, they led her to the locker room to meet the rest of the team and get the rest of her training stuff. They entered the locker room, everyone there before them and chatting up a storm. Most of the team spoke English, thankfully, and when Carli and Megan entered with Georgia behind them, they all drew their attention to them. 

"The newbie's here!" Captain Steph Houghton said, standing up with a huge grin on her face. "Welcome to the Blues, Georgia Jacobson." She added, sticking out her hand. Georgia took it with a grin, shaking her hand firmly along with other hands extended to her. 

"You guys can call me GJ if it's any easier." She informed with a grin. They showed her where her locker was, which had a pair of Nike cleats and gloves waiting for her to take out to the field with her.

"Well we don't have time now, but we would all love to get to know you better. How about an early dinner after training?" Karen Bardsley, the starting goalkeeper, suggested with hopeful smile, and some of the other players agreed.

"Come on, we've got to head out to the field and get warmed up. You ready for your first training, rookie?" Steph asked, Georgia nodding enthusiastically as she followed the rest of them out to the field for her first training as part of Manchester City. 

After a short introduction and welcome, they got to work. Georgia caught on to things quickly, and she was thankful she did or otherwise she would truly be a newbie. She had done professional college camps that warmed up and did some of the drills they did, so she had an idea what was going on while they went through short activities before splitting up by position, Georgia able to work with Karen Bardsley and Ellie Roebuck, going through simple drills and Georgia able to show what she was capable of. 

Near the end of their training session before stretching out and cooling down, they did a short field scrimmage, Georgia tag teaming between Bardsley and Roebuck for time in the net. She saved most of the shots she faced, once in a while one slipping by her finger tips. She was up against the best, so she did not let it phase her, for the other goalkeepers let goals in as well.

"Alright ladies, great work today, very productive. I will see you all tomorrow morning over at the fitness center at nine o'clock." Coach Cushing said as they stretched out after their two hour training session, and Georgia was beat. Although exhausted, she was still surging off of the small amount of energy she had since she woke up to talk to Antonio.

"Are we still on for dinner?" Lucy Bronze asked, catching the teams' attention, and all eyes landed on Georgia. 

"I'm down." She said with a smile, a contagious one that led the others to smile as well. 

"There's a really nice family diner down the road from here that we can go to." Steph suggested.

"Mama Pauline's?" Karen asked, getting a nod from the captain. 

"Are you two going?" Georgia asked Carli and Megan. "If not I can catch a ride with someone else." She added on quickly.

"No, we're coming. You can ride with us." Megan said with a small smile, and Georgia smiled back. They all headed to the locker room to put their things away and switch out cleats and whatever else they needed before heading to the family diner down the street from City Football Academy. Everyone who was coming all arrived in bunches, and eventually everyone was seated and looking through the menu, deciding on what to order. Georgia was not sure of some of the things on the menu, so she played it safe and went with a chicken stirfry once the waiter came and took their orders.