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

Chapter 9

"Okay. Are you ready."

"I'm ready." Riley tapped the top of the desk of which she was sitting at.

To the left of her was Bev, the team sheet for the Argentina match in her hands. To her right was Nicole sat in a chair getting her hair and makeup done before the two of them would be running around the city talking to fans again.

"Okay the team to face Argentina..."

Riley had already started the type out the basic details into the layout on the screen in front of her. Being in charge of social media for the Lionesses meant that she was the one that got to share the lineup to the fans, and that meant a lot for her ego.

"Telford..."

But suddenly the smile was wiped from Riley's face.

Carly. Carly was in goal. Carly was starting today's match. Carly was making her World Cup debut!

"... and Taylor." Bev finished up and then looked over at Riley. "You haven't typed anything. Were you even listening?"

Riley jumped out of her daydream and looked at the screen. "Sorry!" She turned to look at Bev. "I'm sorry. I got a little distracted."

Bev let out a sigh and shook her head. "Well try to listen this time, I'm not repeating myself again." She cleared her throat. "Telford, Bronze, Houghton..."

The team lineup did actually get filled out this time. Once Riley had finished and Bev had left, Nicole moved to take a better look at the screen. "Another good team. And a debut for Carly too."

"Yeah." Was all Riley could say as she stared at that first name on the list. After all this time.

"What's with the stupid smile on your face?" Nicole asked with a laugh.

"What?... Nothing." Riley glanced over at the other girl. "Just really happy for Carly. She's worked really hard for this. And I know we're going to win this one." She awkwardly cleared her throat and posted the team to social media.

Whilst Nicole was talking to one of the cameramen, Riley quickly grabbed her phone. She wouldn't have time to see the team before warmups and even then it would be hard to talk to them. So she needed to opt for the next best thing. As fast as she could, Riley wrote a text to Carly and sent it. Whether she saw it before or after the match didn't matter, Riley just knew it's what she wanted to do.

Nicole came back over now, soft grin on her face. "You ready to go?"

"Oh I'm definitely ready for this."

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The noise in the changing room was almost deafening, but for Carly it was all a part of the buzz. But there was a lot of excitement today, a good win from the first match and even more World Cup debuts had improved the mood in the group, which was already the highest it could go.

Carly was almost calm in all her excitement though, a lot of nerves were setting in now. She had been sitting on the bench for the past few minutes watching the younger girls dance around to the tunes that Leah was blasting. Next to her sat Jill, who had not left her side since finding out her best friend would be in today's team. She had been told many times, and not just by Jill, how proud everyone was of her.

She was just about to start getting herself hyped up and ready to go, doing her traditional finger taping, when she heard her phone go off. Carly was hesitant to answer it at first. It was probably her dad or her siblings. And really, she didn't want to get too overwhelmed before she went out there, she was already very nervous. But something in the back of her mind made her pick up her phone and check her message.