Don't Give Up, I Won't Give Up On You

Chapter 3

The alarm rang loudly throughout the room, waking Riley suddenly from her dream. Letting out a long sigh, she reached for her phone to turn it off. But as she sleepily blinked her eyes open and picked up her glasses, the good dream that she was having faded away and she couldn't remember what it was about. She hated when that happened.

It was 7am. Media day was starting at 9am sharp and realistically Riley needed to be down in the hall before all the Lionesses got there, hence the early wake up call. She was not a morning person. It was going to be a long day.

Once she was finally awake and ready to go, Riley grabbed her camera and headed down to breakfast. She was going to need some serious energy before she got to work. As she walked into the dining hall she wasn't surprised to see the lack of Lionesses. Steph, Ellen and Jade were sat at a table quietly talking, Fran was helping herself to some fruit on the buffet, and Kaz walked past Riley with a huge cup of coffee, frowning at her as she took a sip which made Riley laugh. She greeted Fran as she got some food and the two went and sat down.

"Morning." Riley dropped into a seat next to Ellen. "I'm surprised to see any of you guys up actually."

"Well I was starving." Ellen replied through a yawn. "And Steph needed coffee which I'm sure you can guess." She gave Steph a little nudge and got a punch on the arm in response.

"You got to set much stuff up today Riley?" Fran asked. "If you need help we're here."

"Thanks for the offer. But I'm good. As far as I know I'm just taking photos, unless Phil or anyone change their minds." Riley patted her camera. "I suppose it's the same as yesterday, following you around until it's over." Another easy work day, but it was going to be tiring.

"Morning all!" Came a chipper greeting and Riley turned her head to see that Carly had walked into the room. The older girl caught her eye and offered her a soft smile as she went to get her breakfast. Riley couldn't help but smile back.

"So I don't know where everyone else is, but I do know that Jill and Jodie have gone to get coffee." Carly called over her shoulder.

"Wait, they've gone out to get coffee? But they can have all the free coffee they want here." Steph said as she put her cup down. "Where have they gone?"

"Costa." Carly replied with a shrug. "They said it was important."

"Well as long as they're back on time I don't think it really matters." Kaz said as she stood up. "At least they have taste." She nudged Riley playfully and then ruffled her hair.

"None of you are ever going to let me live this down are you?" Riley laughed.

"No." Everyone else replied in unison and also laughed.

Soon enough the rest of the Lionesses started to file in to get their breakfast. Checking her watch Riley saw that it was 8:30. She better make a move to make sure she'd be ready for the media day to start. As she exited the room, she saw Jill and Jodie down the other end of the corridor.

"Mini Shiv!" Jill greeted brightly as she bounded over to Riley. "Just the person I was looking for."

"What's up Jill?" Riley asked, slightly cautiously as she spotted the cups in Jill's hands.

"So I know you said you don't like coffee, but me and Jodes were talking and we don't want you to feel left out when we go on our coffee shop trips. So we wanted to find you an alternative." Jill handed Riley a tall cup. "It's some sort of berry ice cooler smoothie, I don't know. Anyway it's new and it doesn't have coffee in it."

Riley couldn't help the smile on her face. It was sweet, in an odd sort of way, but the fact that the girls were thinking about her this early into knowing them made her feel quite special.