1. Kick (Thomas Muller)

in which Libby practices a skill

Libby tried to put off her emotions by training all day and sleeping all night. She made her life revolve around soccer again, so that she had no time to have actual emotions.

Hope started to notice the change in Libby. Instead of being happy and excited to train, Libby was back to her normal self, moping around and keeping her face in the same furrowed-eyebrowed expression.

And there was nothing anyone could do about it.

As Libby went out for a cup of coffee across the street, she was bombarded by reporters, flinging their incredulous questions and comments at her like she was some animal.

"Are you trying to rip apart the Geman Team to get the US team to the top?"

"Why are you so angry about all of this fame? Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Do you even care about the German's world cup journey?"

And the one Libby just happened to hear right before she escaped:

"Are you sleeping with the team to get training?" 

And that was when Libby entered her house and slid down her door in utter defeat. 

How was she going to survive another four months like this? 

The next day at training, Libby angrily stomped on to the pitch. She didn't get enough sleep the previous night due to the amount of questions from reporters that roamed around her head. 

But that didn't matter. Soccer. Sleep. Soccer. Sleep. That was her life now.

"Hallo Liebe!" Bastian engulfed Libby in a hug while she was trying to set her bag down. Libby forced a smile, which she tried to gulp down her tears and quickly turned away.

"Liebe, what wrong?" Bastian touched her shoulder, but Libby pulled her arm away and grabbed a ball, sprinting to midfield.

Bastian shrugged it off as usual behavior and followed her lead, the rest of the team gathering as well. after warming up.

The team hadn't really talked much after the interview, it was more tension than they could handle. No one had really checked up on Libby, but she was fine with that.

"Thomas teach Liebe skills, und Manu take 'Ope for skill also." Philipp commanded, kicking balls to a spot on the field.

They all broke in a hushed murmur,  Mesut and Philipp joining Thomas, while Erik and Bastian joined Manuel.

"Okay Liebe, do thing that I show yesterday!" Thomas yelled out to her. She nodded and dribbled the ball toward Mesut, who was backed by Philipp. Libby turned around but kicked the ball under herself, hoping this could be the time she did it right.

She face planted as she brought her foot back to kick it away. Libby fell with a thud and lay there unmoving.

"Liebe?" Philipp called out. His voice seemed distant and far away, but he was just right next to her.

"It okay, let's try again," Thomas clapped. Libby got up and brushed herself off. There was no way she could do that same thing again.

She began with a deep breath and dribbled toward Mesut and Philipp, turning around and kicking the ball backward, almost beautifully completing the skill, until Libby got tripped by Mesut and flung forward.

Libby was definitely frustrated. She had never taken more than a week to learn a skill like this. This was by far the most excruciating thing she had ever experienced.

She let out a huge sigh, and got pulled up by Mesut, who smiled at her.

"It okay," Thomas said, with a thumbs up. Libby rolled her eyes. It was always okay, wasn't it?