"Do you want me to grab her stuff for you" I offer to Beth knowing that she couldn't carry everything
"Yes please, I'm not going to wake her up I'll just take her to mine and Lotte's room for the night"
"Ok I'll bring it up and walk with you then"
" I'll grab your stuff as well Beth '' Leah says, reaching up to grab Rosie's bag passing it to me as I walk off the bus, Beth closely following me with Rosie wrapped around her like a koala.
Sitting in the changing room is hell. With the women's game becoming as popular as it has done over the last few years the crowds are just getting bigger. It's alright when we are at Meadow Park and there's only a few thousand but this is a sold out stadium with over 30,000 people in it. The crowd is noisy. The horns are going off. You can hear all sorts of different chants going around the stadium.
I'm sitting in my cubby knees up to my chest head down, trying not to focus on the noise that is overwhelming my brain. I knew it would be loud but not this loud. I can hear my chant going around the stadium now
*gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, a Rosie from up north, number 26, and she plays up the front (like the song from ABBA)*
I can also hear the sound of the girls' boots walking round the changing rooms, almost getting ready to go and warm up. I can hear a pair of boots getting closer to my cubby and I feel someone crouch down in front of me and list my head up. It's Leah, I also notice that it's only us and Beth in the changing rooms now.
"Hey, Roro, what's wrong?" Leah says to me, "I just look at her not being able to communicate my problem "Is it too loud?" I nod at this looking back down to the floor. I see Leah's body move and Beth comes to sit next to me, she pulls me onto her lap and into her chest covering my ears, slightly rocking me back and forth.
After a few minutes I see Leah walking back in the changing room, this time Sarina behind her walking towards me.
"Hey Ro," I hear Leah say ", I spoke to Sarina and she said we could get you some ear plugs for when you get subbed in, during the match and we can also sort you with some ear defenders for the warm up and when you're sitting on the bench"
I just nod at this playing with the end of Beth's warm up t-shirt.
"Should you and I go and get them then Ro?" Beth asks lifting my head up to meet her eyes
"Ok" I say in a quiet voice, now able to communicate without feeling as overstimulated. I stand up holding tightly onto Beth's hand walking next to her. We walk into a room I didn't even notice was there on the way in and meet with Danielle, one of the staff members, she looks up from her desk and goes into her drawer. She pulls out a pack of earbuds and some ear defenders for me and holds them out.
"There you go my love" She says to me as Beth takes them out of her hand.
"Thank you Danielle" Beth says, shoving the pack of earbuds into her pocket. She nudges me slightly to get my attention.
"Thank you" I say, still quiet but louder than the last time I spoke. She smiled up at us
Leah's POV
The changing room before any match, the atmosphere is always different. From singing and dancing whilst getting ready, to everyone silent the only thing you can hear is the sound of our boots on the floor.
Today was a mixture, Millie and Rach were singing and dancing around the changing room to a variety of songs. Most of the girls were singing along, Mary even joined them dancing around. Until David came in to tell us that it was time to go and warm up for the game that was to come.
