My Cure - Mallory Pugh/USWNT (Sequel to Attached)

Chapter 7

June 14th, 2022

Morgana's POV

"I booked one bay, which is enough for all of us. I didn't include my parents or sister though." I told Mal when we were up in my room getting changed. 

"That's fine." 

"Alright, this parent thing is stressing you out isn't it?" I sat down next to her. 

"You say that as if we're having a kid or something." She laughed. 

"What is it. Tell me." 

"I just don't want to tell them yet." 

"Then don't. But you will eventually." 

I wasn't about to make her answer a million questions about why she was scared and stuff, because that would make me an extreme hypocrite if I tried to help her. 

"I need to pack up my stuff." Sophia said, walking into my room. 

"Alright." I said. 

"Did I interrupt something or-" 

"No you're fine. Go ahead and pack up." Mal said, and we both went downstairs. 

The 3 Washington girls had shared the guest room, and Sophia had gotten the airmattress on the floor of my room but had pulled an Ashley because she hated it. 

When we got downstairs, Ashley and Hayley were at the kitchen table, coloring. I took out my phone and took a video of them before Ashley knew. 

"Ariel is my favorite." Ashley said, picking up a new crayon. 

"Well I like Belle because I can read a little bit." Said Hayley. "Is Ariel your favorite movie too?" 

"Yes." 

"My favorite movie is actually Trolls. But Beauty and the Beast if my favorite princess movie. I want to go to Disney World one day." 

"Me too. I went to Disneyland, but I hear Disney World is better." Ashley said, taking a sip of water. 

Mal and I walked to the table and sat down with them. 

"Aunt Mal, what's your favorite princess?" Hayley asked. 

"That's a good question." Mal said. 

"How about you, Aunt Morgana?" 

"My favorite was always Belle because she's French." I replied. 

"That's the coolest thing. That's the reason why she's my favorute too. Also I can read like her." 

"Are you having fun coloring with Aunt Ashley?" I asked. 

"Yes. She's so good at coloring. And she liked princesses too like me. Tell your mom to learn more about them because she doesn't count as my grandma until she learns the ones other than Belle and Cinderella and Snow White." Hayley said, throwing her crayon down. 

"She's still your grandma, Hayley." I said. 

"Yes but she's boring because she doesn't get it!" 

"Hay, your grandma loves you." Mal said. 

"Morgana? Are you down there?" Chloe called from upstairs. 

"Yeah. You need me?" I replied.

"For one second, please." 

I went to her, and she had put a bunch of boxes in the room that used to be hers and our parents made Hayley's room. 

"What's all this?" I asked. 

"I was looking for something of mine that I left here, but I found this and I thought you might want it." She pushed a box towards me. 

"It's just old jerseys and stuff." I said after opening it and looking inside. There were a few medals and trophies, but nothing I really needed to take back to Chicago. 

"Under all that." 

I dug under a bit, throwing jerseys and medals to the sides. 

There were 2 photo albums, one of my teams and pictures of me playing soccer from when I was younger, but the other one was Lena's. 

I opened it and slipped through carefully. It was just a bunch of pictures of the three of us, but mostly just her and I. Some were us from when we were babies, from from when we were older. 

"Why'd she make this?" I asked. 

"I dunno. I did see it once before though." Chloe replied. 

"When?" 

"Last time I talked to her." 

"When was that?" 

"About a year ago. Right before you left for college. She told me to give it to you because she's been working on it since she was 6 years old and wanted to give it to you for your 18th birthday, but that didn't work out obviously. "I teared up, and before she left the room, Chloe said, "Mom and dad don't know she left it here, so don't let them see it or they'll take it." 

I cleaned up the stuff I had thrown on the ground, put that box in my room and the photo album in my suitcase. I had to just pretend like it wasn't killing me to know if there was a note or something. She always had a nice handwritten note with everything. 

I shook it off quickly. "Ready to go golfing?" I asked everyone when I got downstairs. 

----------

I was alone bringing everyone to the airport, because Mal went to her parent's. The Washington girls had their flight at 8:00, so we got there at 7:00. Sophia was supposed to fly out at 8:45, but bad weather in Portland pushed her flight back to 9:00. So I stayed with her in the airport and we got food and hung out. 

"I'll see you next week, alright?" I said. 

"Yeah. You be good." 

"I'll be as good as I can." 

"Keep Mal out of trouble." Sophia laughed. 

"She's a tough one." I joked. 

"I promise you'll be okay. Mal will take good care of you." She gave me one last hug before she got in line to board the plane. 

I stayed to watch the plane take off, then I texted Mal and my parents I was on the way home. 

As I walked to my car, the bad weather in Portland was now bad weather in Denver, and it started pouring. 

It was hard to drive, but I made it out of the city faster than I thought I would. I felt safer on the not as busy roads, and didn't feel like I would hit any pedestrians. 

I was about 30 minutes from home when traffic started to get bad again, so I made sure to let my parents and Mal know that it would be longer. I think Mal was still at her parents's place, because none of them had mentioned that she was back. 

Finally the traffic wasn't bad, and I was actually driving more than 5 feet at a time. I was about 15 minutes from home when the rain started coming down so heavily I couldn't see anything, and as I tried to pull over to the side I heard the skid of tires, and had a bad feeling. 

As soon as I felt my mom's car get smashed, I screamed.