It's Our Secret

Chapter 21 - Sisters

We were soon set to join together as a team, leading up to the Tokyo Olympics. Team GB. I was so excited to go to Tokyo. After winning the season, it would be the icing on the cake to win the Olympic games. We've never done it before. First time for everything.

"I'm excited," I said to Leah, as we were packing up the apartment. We weren't going to be back for a few months, so we put some things in boxes, cleared out the fridge and cleaned the apartment so it would be spotless when we returned.
"Me too. It's going to be weird though, no crowds."
"Yeah, but we've played with no crowds all of last season, so I guess it will be kind of similar," I replied.
"True," she added.

We rejoined together as a team for camp. It was kind of interesting to have a mix of girls from Scotland and Wales as well as just from England. Caroline, I knew from Manchester, and I play with Sophie at Chelsea, and everyone knows Kim. Kim is definitely one of the all time best players.

The draw was announced and in our group we had Canada, Japan and Chile. Japan, as the host nation, were going to be a hard team to crack. They had a lot of potential, especially with players such as Iwabuchi, and similarly, Jessie is on the Canadian team, and has really been the shining light for them over the past few years. Jess and I are quite friendly as we both play for Chelsea, however, similar to me, she is a hard egg to crack. She's shy and reserved, timid and quiet. But we all love that about J Flem.

"Georgie!" I said to Georgia, as Leah and I arrived at camp. I ran to her and hugged her tight, sad that I hadn't seen her since I last played against Manchester City.
"Ett!" she replied back.

I saw Leah go over to Keira, who I didn't see when I walked in. She was beside Lucy (like always) and as I moved away from Georgia, Keira came rushing over to me.
"I've missed you," she whispered into my ear.
"I'm here. We both are." Being a twin is, for us at least, the best feeling in the world. My best friend for life will always be her. Will always be Kie. Which makes me even more sad that I have to hide so much from her. Hiding something from her that, for the first time in a long time, was making me happy. Truly, and unconditionally happy.

"Hey Luce!" I said, as I walked over to her, wrapping my arms around my honorary sister.
"How are you going?" she asked, seriously.
"Yeah, I'm good. Really good." As I said this, I looked at Leah secretly. My eyes gravitated towards her. I couldn't help it.

The June camp went quickly, and as trained for the Tokyo heat, we were all excited to just be there and start playing. The last major tournament we played in was the World Cup in 2019. And to say that it was a roller coaster would be an understatement. It was crazy. We made it all the way to the semi finals just to bow out to the US. We were so close, yet so far. We knew we had ambitions and dreams, and for me, it is to win a trophy, a major trophy.

We did a media day before we left to go to Tokyo, to try and help the people of Great Britain get behind us at the Olympics. The one thing fans really love is the relationship between me and Keira, and so we were asked to do a video.

"Why do we do so many videos?" I said to Keira, as we were about to walk into the media room.
"It's because we are one of the first pairs of twins to go to the Olympics together. It's a special moment."
"Well, there's another pair of twins going to Tokyo for Britain. The gymnastics girls."
"Yeah the Gadirova twins."
"So, why are we so special?" I asked, seriously.
"Because Ettie," Keira replied, "we just are." I knew there was no good reason. I knew that there was no reason as to why we were often plastered on the front of newspapers or the headlines of articles. It's all publicity.

As we sat in front of the camera, we were told we were doing a fan question and answer video.
"Hi I'm Juliette Walsh."
"And I'm Keira Walsh, and today we will be answering your questions. Let's get started." Keira picked up a question from the bowl, and read it aloud.

"What has been your favourite football memory?"
"Hm, that's a tough one," I replied, "well our World Cup run in 2019 was really good. Getting to the top four is such an accomplishment and I loved being able to do it with you."
"Yeah, for sure," Keira added, "France was amazing, obviously disappointing with the result, but it was a great experience. It was my first World Cup, but your second, so first one together and hopefully a few more to come." Keira smiled as she said this, as I leant down to pick up the next question.

"What's been our best moment together? On or off pitch." I thought about this as well, as I asked Keira, trying to decipher what our best one together would've been.
"I mean, having you on the pitch when I debuted was so surreal. Debuting alone was amazing but having you there was just the icing on the cake."
"That was so special, not only for you but also for Mum and Dad, and me, so I do agree. Also, when we scored that combination goal a few years ago. That was fairly cool, because, as we're both defensive players, we never really score too much, so being able to score off a pass you gave me, was so cool."
"It was a great goal too," Keira added, "I sliced the ball in and you ran down the wing, dribbled into the box, and somehow got the shot away."
"Yeah, it was great."

Keira then leant to pick up the next question.
"Oh my god," Keira said laughing, "what's it like at the dinner table after you play each other in the Super League?" I laughed.
"Well, it's actually funny, because, due to covid, we actually haven't been able to have a family dinner in ages, and so it has never actually happened. But sometimes our family facetimes can get quite intense."
"Yeah, that first game against one another, Mum and Dad were so conflicted."
"Poor things."

"What's our funniest memory playing together when we were kids?" I asked Keira.
"Oh my, so many to choose from," Keira replied, laughing.
"Yeah, literally."
"Well, when we were about eight, I want to say..." Keira started to say.
"Oh no, not this one." I put my head in my hands, laughing slightly. Keira just started to laugh.
"Let me speak," Keira said, laughing, "when we were about eight, we were playing together just for our local team. And, we were both playing forward, at this point, cause if you can run fast, when you're eight, normally you play at the top. So, we were playing the game, and winning fairly easily, and at one point, a ball came into the box and both Ett and I were in it, and as I went to kick the ball into the net, Ett did as well, and you ended up kicking me, studs up, against my leg, but it was just to the left of my shin guards, so I ended up with big grazes against my leg. Anyway, I obviously went down and it hurt a lot, but Ettie just ended up starting to cry, and Mum was so confused. Cause she thought I was the one who got hurt, but Ettie was crying. So, it was just weird."
"I cried," I started to explain, "because I was so embarrassed that I had done that, and I thought people would think I was a bad player!"
"But yeah, that's our funniest moment, because now whenever I look back on our time as kids, playing forward, all I can think of is how lucky we are that Ettie plays defence."
"So rude!" I said, laughing.

We asked each other a few more questions before we signed off.
"I'm Juliette Walsh."
"And I'm Keira Walsh, and we hope you've enjoyed this Q and A. Make sure to tune in as we take on Chile in the first game of the Tokyo Summer Olympics."

Note:
- an update probably won't come for a few days but stay tuned !!