A young lioness

Post game day

Maeva's point of view:

I got through the whole game. It was exhilarating, exciting, and exhausting. We won and I managed to grab myself 2 cheeky assists and a nice goal so for me, that's a good day out. Yet, I seem to have forgotten all of the pre match worries that I now would have to confront. Whilst most of my teammates were hugging me and saying congratulations for my splendid debut, Leah was staying far away from me as possible yet still somehow not taking her eyes off me. Part of me was disappointed in myself, it feels as though I kinda let her down a bit but if she only knew how my mind worked then maybe, just maybe she would understand the method in my madness.

Whilst we walked around the ground, applauding the fans for their tremendous support once again, I noticed the beautiful, brown haired girl from the warm up. I decided to play it cool, and sign a few of the fans' match day programmes and shirts before reaching her.

"Took you long enough to come over" She said with a twinkle in both her eyes. "Slightly in demand" I breathed out, taken back by the confidence of her which was extremely attractive, may I add. She put out her hand towards me, "the name is Jaime, very nice to meet you" she stated. I took her hand and it stayed in mine, "Maeva, and the pleasure is all mine". We exchanged numbers, and continued to chat a little bit about the game before she cleared her throat, catching my attention. I sensed a figure behind me which would explain her gesture, and guessing by the amount of little girls screaming her name, I knew it was Leah. "Hurry this up Maevs, we have a chat to be having and you need to get checked out by the medic" she whispered quietly so no one would hear. I finished up my chat with Jaime, who definitely was not seeing the last of me, and clapped the fans one last time before running into the tunnel.

I walked into the dressing room, where a few of the girls came up to me and hugged me again. "Proud of u kiddo" Millie said, which made me smile. "Ayyyyy there she is, star girl" Rachel shouted before launching herself at me. I went to sit down before I was quickly grabbed at my the shoulders and whisked into another room. "Did you really have to do that now?" I questioned Leah. "Maeva, you have just played 90 minutes of football, practically high on pills so yes it has to be now" her face emotionless and her words sounding stern. "You know, I managed to get 2 assists and a goal and I still very much feel grounded" I darted back at her, the annoyance in my voice coming to light. "And god knows how you did it" she said, her voice staying calm, "do you even understand how dangerous that was Maeva?". I just stared at her, part of me wanted to stamp my feet and shut her out and the other part of me recognised that she cares, and it's been forever since someone cared for me like she has been doing. "Maeva, you are just a kid, your body is still growing" she said with a sigh, "I will not protect you if you don't start getting help, because I love you but I will not love you to death". Her last sentence shutting me up, my mouth felt dry and I felt my eyes well up. I felt her bring me into a hug, "right no tears, we are not crying on your debut" she said, making me laugh, "and since no one is here for you, we are going to celebrate you like family does". I nodded and we went back into the changing room, I knew that conversation wasn't finished but I appreciated Leah giving me some time to celebrate and I couldn't think of a better family to do it with.

Since I wasn't even legal, of course no one allowed me to drink any alcohol. I felt like I was sat on the kids table at the Christmas family meal. Whilst everyone was busy chatting and playing weird drinking games, I found my mind wandering to Jamie. I thought out our interaction earlier and how confident she was, she seemed different and I liked that. I had her number in my phone now, and I did think about texting her but didn't fancy bothering her at this time. I must of had her number up on my screen as Lucy shuffled her way over to me, "text her kid" she said with a smile. I, immediately, shut my phone away and turned bright red which caused a laugh out of her. "You know it's nothing to be embarrassed about, it's quite cute actually so give her a text" she seemed insistent this time, and I did trust her word- I mean her and Keira are going pretty well so she must know what's she on about. I opened up my phone again, staring at the number for a little while before typing out a message.