Pariah

Could you tell me like it is

A.N. Hello! I've been working on this for a while! Even before Your Heads Only Medicine. It's a take on how the summer of 2016 changed the team emotionally and how things seemed to tumble out of control for Hope. I hope you enjoy it! Word of warning this is a bit dark and some of the characters are OOC. For example, Hope is an absolute asshole in this. A loveable asshole, but an asshole nonetheless. You'll see what I'm talking about eventually. Just read the story. Hope you enjoy.

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Now could you tell me like it is? Pretty little fears. Music to my ears.

Melody looked up to the sky as she was guided to the pitch. The sun was out, beaming down onto her dark skin, but it was colder than the Arctic. Or maybe it wasn't and it just felt that way being from Malibu.

It's a bad idea, she knows, but she looks directly into the Sun, briefly wondering how long it would take to burn her retinas and never be able to use them again. It's obvious it takes longer than the amount of time she's allotted. There are only the little purple and black splotches, and the floaters that you try to trace with your eyes but they just keep floating downwards.

She's still walking toward the pitch, toward the USWNT who she knows is going to expect things of her. Things she's going to have to try her hardest to live up to. It's like when you go your whole high school career without needing to study for anything and suddenly you get to college and you're failing because you don't know how to fucking study.

She's going to have to actually work for it now. And yes, she knows that's pretentious as all fuck and just as arrogant, but it's the truth. Unfortunately. Some of them will even know who she is. What she's here for, whose shoes she's filling, even though she's not quite sure herself. They'll think they know all about her, even though they don't and they won't.

Jill blows a whistle to get the team's attention. Melody would have flinched if she was a lesser woman, but she merely blinks and watches as all of those eyes land on her. She takes a deep breath and stills herself. The first day of the rest of her life. How dramatic.

She doesn't want to be standoffish, so as she's introduced, she waves and smiles shyly. She's happy to be here, she really is, she's just a little overwhelmed.

She's getting thrown into the lion's den, and her hands are cuffed behind her back and her shoelaces are tied together. It's going to be an uphill battle, she knows, but she takes a deep breath. She's ready to fight.

"This is Melody Bordeaux. A forward, played a bit for U-20, and was with Man City for awhile. Now she's with us, so make her feel welcome." Jill pats Melody on the shoulder a bit before backing up and leaving the team to their mini-break. Melody tries to keep the eyeroll subtle but she's sure someone catches.

"Melody Bordeaux."

Melody turns her head to address the person, "Yes?"

"You've missed like maybe 3 shots your entire time with Manchester? How?" Ashlyn asks with a suspicious smile. Her hands are on hips and there's a towel on her shoulder but she doesn't look to have been sweating at all. Melody isn't really sure what that says about her. But she decides she'll indulge for her own sake. She can perform character analyses later.

Melody laughed a bit, "I can show you better than I can tell you." She gestured for a ball, Tobin passed her one, she then walked onto the pitch, approaching penalty kick distance. The rest of the team follows her. Well, the ones were curious anyway. Most stayed to enjoy the rest of their break.

Hope got in goal, partly because she was already there, she looked at the forward with a raised eyebrow. Her face was about as serious as it normally was during games, but Melody didn't let that stop her from smirking at the goalkeeper.