You can't be my mum (a Lucy Bronze fanfic) - Book 1

Chapter 6 - bruises

Rosie's POV:

It has been 2 full days since game day. I couldn't go to school yesterday because the bruises were too bad, even with makeup trying to cover them. That, and the fact that I was locked in my room for the entire weekend. From Saturday night until this morning I hadn't been let out, not for food, not for a shower, not even to go to the toilet. My phone had also been taken away from me, presumably when I was unconscious after my dad knocked me out because I can't remember them taking it off me. I hadn't been able to text Amelia that I was even still alive at this point. My parents have fully convinced themselves that I told her what they did to me but, the only person who's witnessed the smallest bit was Lucy Bronze.

My ribs ached and my head throbbed in pain but I needed to leave  this house, so I went about my normal routine. I got showered before they woke up, got dressed and put a shit ton of makeup on. I then left the cell I had been living in for the past 2 days and went downstairs. I made them both breakfast before gladly leaving the house.

Before heading to school, I walked towards the chemist to buy some numbing cream for my ribs. As I expected, I was ID'd so I showed her the fake ID that Amelia had got me when she took me to my first party a year ago. As soon as I arrived at school, I was enveloped into the biggest hug I had ever received from Amelia, "are you okay? You didn't reply to my texts, what happened? Everyone has been asking where you were yesterday". The last one caught me off guard a bit, seen as I didn't have very many friends. In fact, I only had Amelia, "what do you mean everyone?" I questioned. She just laughed at me as if I was supposed to already know. "The engwnt are here, how could you forget that?". I just shrugged my shoulders and looked down at the floor. I hadn't planned what I was going to say to Lucy if she asked about my parents. I looked at my timetable for the day but remembered that we had a game on Wednesday which meant a whole 2 days of training. A whole 2 days of training with the engwnt. Under normal circumstances, I would be incredibly excited, but given that Lucy will be there and I can barely walk without my ribs stabbing me in pain, I was the complete opposite.

Lucy Bronze's POV:
"I'm going to tell her today" I kept repeating to Keira. I wasn't really telling her, I was just trying to convince myself that it had to be today. Usually I was a calm and collected person but I must have paced up and down the room about 300 times in the last 5 minutes. Rosie didn't turn up to school yesterday, and after what I saw on Saturday, I was growing increasingly worried. Just as I was about to start overthinking even more, Steph knocked on mine and Keira's hotel room door, "guys come on, we're all ready to go". I turned around to Keira, who came me a reassuring look and placed her hand in mine. They interlocked perfectly. At least I didn't have to do this alone.

There were only a few of us visiting schools this week, the rest had decided to take a look around the city and take a break from all the constant travelling we had to do. Steph was driving me, Keira, Ellen and Lauren to Rosie's school which was only 15 minutes away. I couldn't sit still, I was either redoing my hair in its signature bun, looking at my phone for the time, bouncing my knee up and down or asking anyone who would listen whether we were nearly there. "For God sake Lucy will you calm down or we'll never get there", Steph said frustratedly towards me. I opened my mouth to protest but Keira tapped me on the thigh and pointed out the window. We were here.

We got out the car and walked towards the office to register that we were here, then we made our way over to their football pitch and locker rooms.

It was 9.05 and the girls were already getting changed so we put down our bags and began to set up for the day. In groups of twos or threes, the girls came filing out. I scanned every face looking to see the blueish-greenish eyes and hazelnut brown hair I was hoping for but she wasn't there. Or so I thought. Last out were Amelia and Rosie. It felt like a spark has been reignited within me as I made my way over towards them, "nice to see you again Amelia, great session yesterday by the way" I turned my attention to Rosie, "you weren't in yesterday, are you alright? Were you just ill or something?" I questioned. She probably felt like I was interrogating her with all those questions.

Rosie's POV:

"Yeh something like that" I replied shortly before jogging off to join the rest of the group. Even though I really badly just wanted to tell Lucy everything and let it all out of me, I had to shut her out. I just didn't know if I was ready to tell someone I had just met.

We started off with some passing drills, then we were split into groups and me, Amelia and a few other attacking players went with Ellen, Lauren to do some shooting. Midfielders went with Keira and the defenders went with Steph and Lucy.

Even though my ribs were still hurting like a bitch even with the numbing cream, I threw everything I had into shooting. I could tell the players were impressed because they just watched, no critiques, no comments. They just watched as I did everything perfectly from top bins to the panenka.

After the group work, we had a drinks break. I took this time to go to the locker room/toilets and apply more numbing cream. Just as I had finished applying it, Lucy walked in as I was pulling my shirt back down. She looked me up and down, raised an eyebrow and said, "you okay? Are the toilets just through here?". I nodded and pointed towards the cubicles and left the locker room, avoiding her first question.

The next thing we did was 1V1's. All the attackers were paired with a defender. If you beat your partner, you moved to the quarter finals, then the semis, then the final. One hard tackle and I knew my body wouldn't be able to take it. I had to make sure I won.

I beat all of my defenders easily with either a nutmeg or my signature rainbow flick which everyone on the team 'oooooed' at. Amelia kept shouting out things like "and that's why she's captain everybody!". To be honest, it was quite annoying and for split second I was going to correct her by telling her I was only vice-captain but I remembered that the official captain had resigned because she was going to be homeschooled for the rest of the year. I only just found out this morning from Amelia but I was too focused on other things to actually take it in.

I had won the entire competition and I just gave a small smile. I saw Lucy give me a concerning look. I was confused because I didn't know what she wanted me to do. Did she want me to start spraying everyone with champagne and start singing 'we are the champions'. Everyone thought we had finished for another break until Steph started talking, "because you won the competition you get to prove yourself up against the best player in the world....Lucy Bronze!". Lucy looked just as confused as I was but she stepped towards me, picked up the ball, span it on her finger and mouthed "game on". I was officially terrified.

I tried to play it safe for a while, hoping she would go easy on me and I wouldn't risk injuring myself further, but she just kept running at me forcing me to turn with the ball and run my hardest in the other direction. I finally managed to get the ball away from her by faking going one direction but actually going another and I was running towards the goal. I could tell by the distance she was keeping from me that she wasn't going to do a slide tackle on me so I switched the ball over to my left foot to give my right side a break. I just needed to dribble the ball round her and slot it in the goal but as I was just about to do that, my feet got caught underneath the ball and I fell into a tumult of darkness. My eyes fell into black pits and I heard a crack before my ears closed themselves off from the world. That was my ribs finally breaking. All they had needed was one little push and that was it...