You can't Outrun the Truth

We're not that close

"IT'S GAME DAY!" Kelley yelled jumping on my bed.

"Yes, it is. Stop jumping on me," I said rubbing my eyes. I looked at the clock that read 6:30 a.m. and then over to Kelley. "Why did you wake me up so early? Breakfast is in two hours!"
"I'm excited!"

I went down to the hotel entrance and was going to go on a walk when the person working at the front desk stopped me.

"Are you Anika Adair?" She asked. "Yes, why?" I responded hoping I was wrong. "This was dropped for you this morning." She handed me a white envelope and I thanked her before leaving with the envelope. There's been one everyday since we arrived in Spain with the same thing inside. I got to this little coffee shop I found our first evening here and opened the letter once I had my drink.

ENJOY YOUR GAME TODAY. FOR YOUR SAKE I HOPE YOU WIN.

With the note were ten more polaroid pictures of me in my hotel room, training, and walking down the streets with the girls. I sighed and stuffed it all back into the envelope. I needed to be in a good mindset today. I heard a camera and looked up quickly seeing someone taking a picture of their coffee. I stood up and left the coffee shop walking back to the hotel shoving the envelope into my back pocket.

"Señorita!" Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and saw a woman, probably early-mid twenties standing there. "You dropped this." She said holding out one of the pictures of me in the hotel room. I was clearly unaware my picture was being taken and was pulling off a sweatshirt. "Gracias, what is your name?" I said taking the picture and putting it in my wallet. "Leila, and you?" "London."

After my encounter with Leila, I made sure the envelope was sealed shut before I continued walking back. It wouldn't end well if my teammates found out. I got back to my room and put the envelope in my suitcase and then went down for breakfast.

I walked with Alex out to the field for warm-ups. I saw the girl from this morning warming up with Spain and groaned.

"What?" Alex asked from next to me.

"Nothing, is there a girl named Leila on Spain's team?"

"Yeah, she's a defender. We watched film on them yesterday London, did you forget?" She asks.

"No, I just forgot her name."

"You're starting on the same side she is. I have no doubts you'll beat her, just remember the film." Alex wrapped her arm around me. "Thanks Lex."

I jumped a few times while we waited for Spain to kick-off. Fueled by the loss against France, I was hungry for a goal. Spain started the game and immediately the press was on. Kelley won the ball back for us and sent it up to me. I trapped it and found Rose running through the center and ran up the left side. I found myself between Leila and Rose as she passed me the ball back. I spun away from Leila and fired the ball at the goal. We were up 1-0.

In the 30th minute Spain got a corner and were able to score off of it making it a tied game. We went into half time tied and Jill wasn't happy.

"We need to be taking advantage of interceptions, counter-attacks, breakaways, don't be scared to be selfish and take the shot."

I was going to be coming off around the 70th minute so I had 25 minutes to try and help the team score. We had kickoff this time and Alex started the half for us. It was a constant attack from the whistle for us to get the winning goal. I was able to get the ball from their number 11 through a slide tackle and send Rose on the opposite side of the field. Rose took the ball to goal and found Chris in the box who converted it to a goal. We all celebrated with her and reset.

I came off for Sam in the 74th minute and sat down with Andi.

After the game we were talking with the Spanish players saying good game and all that. Leila found me after Mal walked away and pulled me to the side.