Always You - Leah Williamson

kit

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I could feel the well-known burning sensation spreading down the back of my thighs as i finished my final rep of squats, collapsing down onto the soft gym floor as i leant over to pick up my water bottle. But as i went to reach for the bottle, somebody else quickly grabbed it and was extending their hand out towards me. I looked up as i took the bottle, met by a smile from Beth Mead as she sat beside me.
"Thank you" i started to say to her, chuckling lightly as i lifted the large bottle of water towards my lips.
"I swear you were meant to be taking it easy" she said looking over at me, a cheeky grin on her face. I lifted my arm to wipe the sweat off my forehead as i looked over at her.
"Well someone better put in some graft around here" I replied in a sarcastic tone, receiving a loud laugh from the blonde striker. Although i was clearly having a joke, i was being monitored on my fitness after passing my medical a week ago, pushing me to work harder than usual.
My eyes scanned the room, carefully watching my new teammates as they completed their individual exercises. Until my eyes got caught on a certain blonde. I watched as she curled the weight up towards her chest, her toned arms showing muscle as she lowered the weight down. The blue of the training kit really complimented Leah, although i'm convinced anything could - she managed to pull of anything from what i've seen from her instagram. My attention was torn away from the defender as more of the girls started to come and sit around me and Beth, making conversation between themselves. I eventually joined in, but for some reason i couldn't stop discreetly glancing at Leah every so often.
It only took around 5 minutes more for everybody to finish their final exercises, meaning everyone was slowly starting to walk back towards the locker room. Although it was only a light session, everybody had managed to work up a sweat and wanted to shower for the upcoming media shoot. I'm not quite sure how many showers there are since i only quickly walked past earlier, but i'm assuming that it would take quite a while for everybody to get showered and ready.

Somehow, i had managed to be one of the first to shower, which luckily meant i had more time to get myself looking presentable for the pictures - or at least more presentable than before. When packing my bag, i had somehow managed to throw in one of the grey arsenal tracksuits i was provided with, which (luckily for me) most of the other girls seemed to be wearing for the meantime. We had came back into the locker rooms to our kits hanging up in our lockers, but i presume everybody was waiting until after getting their makeup done to put them on. Unlike before, the locker room was slowly starting to fill back up, most people returning from showering. As i started to notice this, Leah came and sat down next to me, her damp blonde her hanging over her shoulders and onto her white shirt. I looked up from my phone and gave her a quick smile.
"Are you excited?" Leah started to question, a childlike excitement lingering in her tone. For something she seemed so excited for, i had no clue what she was on about.
"What for..?" I replied, a clear look of confusion spread across my face. "Excited for media?" I mean i wasn't the biggest fan of having my picture taken, well i'm not quite sure anybody is, but i don't understand how she could get so excited for that.
"No!" She stated while rolling her eyes, "It's your first time in the Arsenal strip." I hadn't thought about it that way, in fact, i hadn't thought about it at all - but i'm not surprised Leah had, it was clear she had a real loving for the club. You could tell the club and team meant a lot to her, even by the way she said the word 'Arsenal', with so much love and admiration.
"To be honest, i never thought about that." I stated, turning my body to face more towards her. "If you couldn't tell, i've been more preoccupied trying to figure out which kit was for training, even though the options were very slim" A slight smirk crossed my lips as i said this, looking straight into her eyes. She seemed to find this quite funny as her lips formed into a large smile as she let out a laugh.
"But now that you've mentioned it, I am quite excited, as long as i look good in the pictures" I said with a sarcastic tone, not meaning what i said.
"I'm sure you'll look absolutely beautiful" Katie said, sending me an over exaggerated wink as she walked past. I shook my head while laughing as i turned my attention back to to quickly getting ready. Leah sat beside me while we were waiting to get our makeup done, it was clear she was already ready to go. Her management of time amazed me, she was always in the right place at the right time.

After a while of both of us sitting scrolling on our phones, we heard a small mummer of voices giggling from the opposite corner of the room. Trying to figure out what was going on, Leah stood up and started to walk over to them, turning back to give me a small smile. From what i could tell was going on, Beth Mead and Jen Beattie were attempting to make a tiktok in their kits but it wasn't going so well for them.
With quite a bit of time to waist, i found myself back scrolling instagram, but unlike before, i was considering posting something on my story to tease my followers, but i didn't know what. Looking around, there isn't much i could post, so i settled on the back of the kit: Gray, 18.
After quickly uploading the story with no second thought, i turned around to where most of the girls were now gathered in their kits.
"Bella!" i heard Beth Mead calling over, "You're better at tiktoks than Jen, get your kit on and give us some a claim to fame" I stood up and took my kit off of its hanger in response, starting to quickly get changed while laughing.

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i have been on holiday so very sorry for making yous wait agessssssss

im so tired writing this and have defo not read it through so if u see any mistakes pls just tell me

hope yous are all good 🤭