Lily Daly. The 13 year old in foster care who has a passion for football. What will happen when her best friend Daisy surprises her with tickets to an England match?
Will Lily be able to live out her dream of playing football as a career?
Will Lily...
The bell had just gone, signalling that the school day was over. Thankfully i had managed to convince my foster parents to let me stay over at Daisy's house so that we could work on a school project but in reality she had invited me round to watch the football. I couldn't wait!
We meet each other outside my locker and talked about our lessons on the way to her car. After seeing Daisy's mum sat in their car (Daisy's family have a BMW X6 which is some big fancy car, where as my foster parents have an old run down estate car) we ran across the road and hopped into the back seat.
"Hello girls, how was your day?"
"Good, thank you" we both said in unison
"Well that is good to hear, excited to watch the football?" the huge smiles on our faces gave her the answer she was looking for.
The journey back to Daisy's house was around 15 minutes and throughout that time there was a comfortable silence in the air that was filled with the odd conversation. We pulled onto the cobbled drive of the rather posh looking brown and white house that the Smith family called home and i felt safe. A feeling that i experience in only a few places.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
(for reference ^^^)
Once the car was parked in the garage, me and Daisy helped her mum by bringing some grocery bags into their kitchen. Running back to the car, we collected our school bags and then found a snack. Daisy always had nice food, today we had these things called Crudités (basically just cut up vegetables with hummus) as well as a glass of juice. I helped Daisy with some science homework whilst also doing mine and to be honest she just sat on her phone next to me, but i didn't care as the homework literally took like 5 minutes and she probably would of taken about 20.
At this point it was about 5pm and kick-off was at 7pm, so me and Daisy were in her room playing fifa on her xbox to pass time. Her mum knocked on the door and told us that we had to leave to grab some bits in the centre of the city (Manchester). Luckily we managed to convince her to let us finish our game which only had 5 minutes left and then we got changed out of school uniform ready to go. Whenever i go round to Daisy's, i am lucky enough that she lends me some clothes to wear, so on this occasion she lent me a dark grey graphic sweatshirt paired with a pair of navy jeans and some white trainers. Daisy wore a knitted beige jumper but a pair of slightly lighter wash of jeans and some jordans. Once we had accessorised and applied some makeup, we left her room for the car. Some people may hear about my life and think i must have no clothes and look dirty and be covered in bruises and the truth is, yes i am/do but i also have a Daisy and she is makes sure that none of that happens. We got in the car and took some selfies on daisy's phone, and then we were off.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
(Lily is the blonde one and Daisy is the Brunette one - i know in this photo they look older but pretend they are both 13)
The drive took around 45 minutes and the whole time Daisy looked restless and full of excitement. Giggles kept escaping my mouth as it baffled my brain how she could be so excited to run a few errands. Her mum and her kept making eyes contact in the little mirror above the centre console and eventually Daisy let out a big breath and said,
"Can i please just tell her mum? Please...."
"Ok fine, if you really want to! Its under your seat"
She squealed and clapped her hands together like an excited puppy. She reached down and came back up with a small parcel wrapped in brown paper. I got given this parcel and Daisy indicated for me to open it. I did as i was asked and started to unwrap. Inside lay a white jersey with the letter D A L Y on the back. Immediately i knew what this was and matched Daisy's squeal from earlier. I said thank you and hugged my best friend. I took a moment to admire the shirt and then when i looked back up, Daisy had one in her hands that said had the letter B R I G H T. I then looked at her confused,
"You know what this means?" she said as i shook my head in reply
"We are going to Old Trafford to watch the match silly!"
When i say i screamed and cried at the same time, i am not joking. I was overcome with emotion. I hugged Daisy as hard as i could and said thank you to her mum about 10 thousand. For the rest of the journey we talked about all the player we wanted to get to sign our shirts, as well as a topic that had come up a lot recently.
"Lil have you ever thought about how weird it is that you and Rachel have the same last name?"
"Hmm, i guess yeah its kinda weird but i mean its also really cool"
"Yeah i know, but have you ever thought of it being a possibility?" i was confused
"What do you mean Dais?"
"Like how you don't know who your birth parents are and she has the same last names you? Coincidence?" she looked at me to say, fill in the rest of the puzzle lily.
"I mean i haven't thought of it in that way before. i guess there is a possibility but the chances are so slim, plus I am probably just related to some young single mum that couldn't cope so gave me up"
"Ok i guess you're right but still, how cool would that be!" I chuckled at her with a smile on my face. Looking out the window, i let my mind explore the point that Daisy had just made.
Before we knew it, were at Old Trafford. Daisy's mum parked up with us two in the back acting like little kids getting their dessert. The atmosphere was ridiculous as it was England vs Luxembourg and the fans for Luxembourg were definitely outweighed by the fans for England. We got through security and daisy's mum lead us to our seats. When I stepped out into the stadium I felt a smile put instantly on my face. We walked down the steps and got closer and closer the front row. I thought we were stopping to take a photo or to get closer a look at the pitch, but when daisy and her mum sat down front row right next to the sun bench I was gobsmacked. Before I sat down I gave daisy's mum a big hug and whispered in her ear,
"I appreciate you and all you do for me. Thank you" in which she replied by saying,
"You are part of the family kiddo"
It made a small tear appear in the back of my eye but before I could have an emotional moment, the stadium erupted with noise as the two teams walked on for their national anthems. Leah Williamson was captaining our side with the starting eleven also including Ellie Roebuck, Lucy Bronze and Kiera Walsh, Nikita Parris, Alessia Russo and Ella Toone, Georgia Stanway, Alex Greenwood and last but certainly not least Rachel Daly. Daisy was a bit sad that Millie Bright wasn't in the starting eleven but it was made up for by the fact that she was sat about 1 metre away from her on the bench.
They stood singing the national anthem, followed by the coin toss and then the taking of the knee. As soon as the whistle blew you could feel the stadiums energy making your heart want to burst. I was happy, I was grateful and most of all I knew that this was what I wanted to do when I grew up.
_____________
Thank you so much for all your support so far! I hope you enjoy this chapter and the rest to come xx
