golden blonde¹

new signings

early january 2023
the first day back at arsenal had elena buzzing. her break was perfect and she was happier than ever to get back to football here at arsenal.

she grabs her stuff from the trunk and walks into the now familiar building beside lia and caitlin.

"welcome back girls, quickly get changed and before we head out onto the pitch jonas wants everyone in the briefing room," a staff member tells the trio.

the girls split up as they enter the changing rooms. everyone had their own little cubbies and they were sorted by the time you were at the club. people such as leah, kim and katie were on the earlier end, which meant they had spent more years here, while people like laura, frida and elena were at the end.

there were two things that elena immediately noticed, the locker next to katie's, which was jordan's, was now cleared out.

the second thing was that there was someone next to her, which didn't make sense at first. she was next to frida and then she'd have an empty locker to her left.

the kit read the number 21, but as far as elena was aware, there was no number 21 here at arsenal.

someone tapped on her shoulder, elena recognized her as one of the newer staff members.

"the housing director wants to speak with you in the conference room," she told elena.

the spaniard hurriedly puts on her training top before following the staff member outside, completely missing the brunette that had just walked pass her.

"elena, welcome!" the man exclaims as soon as elena enters the room. "don't worry, i won't take up much of your time." he hands elena a couple of papers.

elena skims through the papers, but she doesn't fully understand the meaning of them all.

"we've found you an apartment to live in for the remainder of the season, and you'll be housed with one of the new signings."

elena nods. she knew that her time with lia and caitlin wasn't permanent, but she wasn't really looking forward to moving all her stuff to someplace new. besides, she had actually grown to love living with the pair.

"who will i be living with?" elena asks still flipping through the numerous amount of papers.

"well, i misspoke earlier, she isn't really a new signing. we had her out on loan at everton but now with the injuries and all we've recalled her. gio queiroz? she's a brazilian forward, i'm sure your teammates have mentioned her before," he says rather quickly.

all it takes for elena to drop the papers in her hand is that one name.

this could not be happening right now. no way.

elena hurried to pick up the papers off the floor, "sorry, how clumsy of me. i really must get to the briefing room now, thank you," she muttered politely as she ran out of the room.

"don't lose those papers! they've got your apartment information and everything!" he yells after her.

elena can't comprehend any instructions right now, her vision is blurred, maybe from tears? she can't really tell.

how could she have been so stupid?

she should have known.

it all comes back to her now.

leah's dinner party. rafa was telling the team about a new signing that arsenal made, how she went on loan. but elena had completely let the words fly over her.

this was disasterous. she could not spend another six months living in a small apartment with gio queiroz, no way in hell.

like elena said, her ex-girlfriend wasn't a bad person, but their relationship hadn't exactly ended on good terms.