The Known (On Hold)

41

Sunday morning rolls around and after spending most of the last two days with Mal and in her arms, Charlotte's bed feels cold and empty when the alarm goes off. 

Alana gets up and heads into the bathroom to complete her morning routine as Charlotte continues to lay in place, not feeling overly inclined to get moving as of yet.

She closes her eyes and is on the verge of falling back asleep when she's hit with a face full of cold water and screams out, "WHAT THE HELL, LAN!" 

"Get up! We don't have any extra time this morning remember, Sundays mean early kickoff." 

"Urgh, I'm beginning to hate Sunday games!"

Alana shrugs, "I'd rather an early kickoff than another late one, it totally screwed up my beauty sleep schedule."  

"You could sleep non-stop and never be beautiful, Lan." 

"Shut up and get dressed before I refill my cup." 

Charlotte reluctantly peels back the now wet bedding, gets up, collects her team gear and heads into the bathroom to get changed and make herself presentable.

When she steps back out of the bathroom, the room is empty and she assumes that Alana got tired of waiting and went ahead down to grab something to eat, so she follows suit and makes her there as well. 

She loads up a plate and takes a seat with her teammates, "Alana was telling us that your future in-laws are going to be attending the game today, you nervous about screwing up in front of them, Charlie?" 

"Nah, I'm perfectly capable of screwing up regardless of whether Horace and Karen are in attendance or not." 

"That's for sure, how many turnovers were you responsible for last game?" 

"We can't all be perfect like you, Lan."

"Okay, you two save your bantering for later and get eating!" 

"Yes, Captain!"

A few hours later, the Cardinal arrives at Prentup Field to take on Colorado. They head inside and go about completing their pre-game routines and getting changed into their warmups. 

Charlotte is listening to her usual pregame playlist when she gets a notification of a message and picks up her phone to see it on the screen. 

New Message

Mally: Good luck today, baby. See you afterward, Love you 💋

C.J.: ❤️

 After sending the message she gets back to completing her routine with her teammates and waits for the calm to take over the room as they edge closer to the game and turn to focusing on the task at hand. 

As they head out for pregame, Charlotte is surprised by the number of people already in the stands and cheering as their herd of Buffaloes makes their way out to the field. 

They complete their warmups and head back into change into their game uniforms, listening to the coaches spiel before retaking the field to start the game. 

4 minutes after the first whistle, Charlotte gets the ball and seeing an opening sends the first shot of the day on goal, the keeper is able to make the routine save and rolls the ball out to her defender as the teams reset. 

The Cardinal as has become their norm continue to dominate both the possession and shots. Charlotte sees another shot blocked by a defender's leg and then her third attempt of the half hitting the Colorado keeper in the chest.