golden blonde¹

a joyous reunion

late november 2022
on their flight over to italy, elena gets the news. beth had suffered an acl injury and she'd be out for the season. it was also very unlikely that she'd make the world cup.

there was no denying the connection that they had on the pitch. elena would somehow always find the winger, and she had assisted beth's goals since the season had started. she felt deeply saddened when she realized that she was going back to barcelona after this season was over.

if beth and herself had more time on the pitch, she wondered if they could have done great things together.

they train at allianz stadium the day before they're set to play the italian team. elena notices viv staying behind when everyone else heads back to the locker room.

she dribbles her own ball towards the dutch striker, who was currently kicking balls into the goal over and over again.

getting closer, she can hear viv talking to herself in dutch, but she has no idea what the forward is saying.

"can i join you?" elena asks viv. she looks up then laughs.

"yeah, come on, let me try to shoot on you," viv says dribbling back, standing at the edge of the box.

viv and elena practice their one versus one skills. elena spends more time defending rather than being on attack, and viv does the opposite.

every time elena pokes the ball out from viv's dribble, the dutch woman curses.

"verdorie, i can't dribble around you," viv says exasperated. elena juggles the ball, keeping it up in the air.

"sure you can. i think you have a lot on your mind right now, that's all."

when vivianne doesn't reply, elena dribbles to the edge of the box.

"how about i try to score, and you can defend? you teach me some of your attacking moves, and i can improve some defensive stances of yours," elena offers. slide tackling people had always calmed her whenever she was angry. she assumed viv was feeling angry, most likely at the world.

beth didn't deserve to have a long term injury such as an acl, especially with the fact that it was a world cup year. especially after she had just had her best season for both club and country the year before.

maybe elena wasn't going at least 75 percent. it was a little too easy for viv to dispossess her, but it seemed like she was venting out her anger with every tackle she made.

and if elena got her feet swept out from under her a couple of times, there was no harm done.

even better, after their session was finished, viv taught her a couple of phrases in dutch. she'd be sure to show off to jill the next time she saw the midfielder.

when gameday arrives, elena can't help but feel disappointed. she doesn't know if her performances in training have dropped off, or if it's something else.

instead of starting in midfield, she's on the bench as jordan starts in her place once again. 

since beth's injury, stina replaces her as right wing as viv starts in the 9.

she had thought it was maybe possible she'd start as left wing and caitlin would start on the right, but that was an irrational part of her thinking that, the part of her that wanted to start no matter what.

she calls jana on the bus ride to the stadium to wish her and the barcelona girls good luck for their game against bayern.

"wait! one more thing," elena says quickly.