Depth

19

Cairo's POV

"Is that everything?" Lindsey asks as we put the last of my stuff in the spare bedroom in her and Emily's apartment in Portland.

"I believe so." I say then lay on the bed only to be joined by Lindsey seconds later. "That drive sucked."

"I'm glad we broke it into two days."

"Same. 15 hours in a car would've sucked.

"Yes it would have."

"You sure the two of you don't mind me staying here?" I ask.

"We wouldn't have offered if we didn't want you to stay here."

"What time is it?"

"Almost midnight."

"Okay well how bout we get some sleep." I say and Lindsey nods and cuddles up to me.

We slept in till around 11 which was nice, but the way we were woken up wasn't nice.

"WAKE UP LOVEBIRDS." Emily yells and hits us with a pillow.

"Alright we're up" I say.

"Good. We have that meeting in a couple hours and both of you need to eat."

Lindsey and I go and do our morning routines in our separate rooms then go to the living room and eat and relax then go to the Portland team meeting.

Before the meeting I go and sign some stuff then the coach and I go to the meeting room.

"Ladies welcome the new number 11 Cairo." The head coach says and motions for me to join him at the front.

"Hi" I say. The coach tells me I can sit down then starts the meeting. Midway through the meeting he has to take a phone call so the meeting turns into the team asking me questions.

"What position do you play?" Hayley Raso asks.

"Where ever I'm needed."

"Where did you play before you got called up to the National Team?" A girl asks. I think her name is Ellie Carpenter.

"Striker." I say.

"Where did you play before this?" Christine Sinclair asks.

"Italy.

The head coach came back in the room and the meeting continued. After the meeting Emily, Lindsey, and I head back to the apartment and pack for the SheBelieves Cup.

- - - - -

The Portland girls and I flew into Philadelphia a couple days ago for the SheBelieves Cup. We then trained the past couple days for the first game against Japan which is going on right now.

Pinoe has a cold so I'm starting up top on the left. The first 40 or so minutes was an all out attack by us, but the Japanese keeper kept everything out sadly. Right before halftime Kelley was with the ball and was fouled giving us a free kick on the side of the box.

I step up to take it, because I'm told to, and send the ball into the box and I see a bunch of heads go up to meet the ball then it hits a head with brown hair and it ends up in the back of the net. I gather by everyone hugging Tobin that she scored. That was the last action of the half.

In the 65th minute Japan attacks our goal, but Ali steals the ball and starts running up field. I see her look up so I take off toward the left flank and point to my head and she looks down and slams her foot into the ball. The ball soars towards me and lands right in front of me and I let it bounce once then control it on my head and keep running toward the left. I can tell the crowd is shocked by this move since all I hear is loud cheering. I also hear the Japanese defender yelling. She seems pissed.

After I see the corner of the 18 yard box I drop the ball and act like I'm going to shoot with my left then Ronaldo chop the ball making the defender lose her balance as I drill the ball into the far side of the net with my right making it 2-0.

"WHAT THE FUCK" I hear Mal yell then I feel the grass making me realize I was tackled to the ground by her.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" Alex yells before she jumps on the pile followed by literally the whole team. Even the people on the bench. Even Alyssa made the journey up from the other end.

Finally they get off of me and I can breathe again. I stand up only to be hugged again.

"Guys we have 25 minutes left. Let's go." I say and everyone breaks the hug and walks to where they are suppose to be. After that goal went in Japan played more aggressive and there were a few rash challenges, but nothing to major happened for the rest of the game.

Once the whistle blows we shake hands with everyone. I say we, but I was left hanging by the first three Japan players so I just walk off the field, down the tunnel, and into the locker room where I take my jersey off and sit in my locker.

I close my eyes and relax for a while until I feel someone sit on my lap and I feel lips on mine making me immediately kiss back since I know who those lips belong to.

"Well hello to you too." I say to Lindsey.

"Hey miss trickster." Lindsey says making me chuckle.

"I didn't think that would work."

"How did you do that?" Kelley asks as I notice the rest of the team in the locker room.

"I don't really know."

"How did the ball stay there?" Mal asks.

"No clue. Weirdly I've never dropped a ball while doing that trick or during my seal walk."

"Why don't you do that more often?" Kling asks.

"Well it's hard to time it and when I do that trick I usually get kicked and I don't like to get kicked so I rarely do it." I say then Jill comes in and does the post game talk then we change and go back to the hotel and sleep before we leave in the morning to go to Nashville.