Castles Crumbling

Pre game rituals (Chapter 29)

I spent the rest of the week preparing for the upcoming game. It was at home against City, and I was excited about it.

Leah and I had planned to go out for dinner the day after the game. She had decided to take me out to a restaurant of her choice and then show me a bit of London. Even though I have lived here for over a month, I was still not fully familiar with the city. I was more like a tourist still. That was kind of embarrassing.

I started my game day routine with oatmeal and a piece of rye-toast with butter and cheese. I also had a cup of tea, my favourite with lemon, and ginger. After that, I put up my hair for the first time of the day. I only had to redo it seven more times before I was done. I packed my bag and checked that I had everything with me.

Boots, check.

Towel, check.

Washbag, check.

I counted every item three times, just like before every other game I had ever played.

Lucky for me, Leah had offered to drive me. My road rage was nothing to joke about. I was a passenger princess through and through. I stood outside my door five minutes earlier than agreed. I was always early.

"Early I see." Leah said as she walked out of her door a second after me. "Just like you, Le." I answered with a smile. "Fine." She agreed and showed me towards the elevator. "We are taking the stairs, you know." I told her and pulled her away from the elevator and towards the stairs.

"Are you serious, Otto?" Leah asked me. "Yeah, the elevator is scary." I responded truthfully. We ended up walking down the stairs, after many ifs and buts.

Leahs car was parked right next to mine in the garage. Thankfully, she drove us almost every time. She liked driving, and I liked sitting beside her, controlling the music.

Luckily, Leah loved Taylor and always sang along with everything I put on. It made every car ride with her enjoyable. The drive was quite long. Almost 45 minutes. That was over ten songs that we could listen to.

"Excited for dinner tomorrow, or do we need to reschedule?" Leah asked me, suddenly looking a bit embarrassed. "You know I am Leah. Our first real date. Even though we did it in the wrong order." I admitted with a laugh. "Thank god!" Leah said, her embarrassment gone and instead excitement showed on her face.

"How excited are you about the game? Are you nervous, because I am. I kind of hope you also are because that would make me feel less alone." I said to Leah. "I am excited about the game Sparkles. But still kind of nervous. You play better when you are nervous. At least I think so." She answered. Her simple words calming down in seconds. I wasn't alone. Everyone was nervous, even though no one showed how nervous they were.

We got to Meadow Park quite quickly. For me and Leah, it was a shorter journey than for some of our teammates. When we got there, it was early. We had 15 minutes until we had to be there, most certainly someone would be here already.

We walked inside, and quite surprisingly, we were first. "We could have left fifteen minutes later and still be on time. That is fifteen more minutes of sleep Sparkles. Fifteen!!" Leah complained loudly as we walked inside. That girl was obsessed with her sleep. Well, not when she had been drinking, then sleep was less important than other things. "At least we are here on time. And with each other." I answered with a smile. "Someone is soppy today." Leah replied quickly, wiping the smile of my face. "I am so not soppy." I retorted, and we started bickering. Going back and forth with "am not" and "you so are". Being with Leah was comfortable, even though we were just friends.

Just friends.

I got injured this weekend and it sucks. I'm also going to have to play while injured, even though I can barely get through practice. Is it healthy? Probably not

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