golden blonde¹

she sees right through me

late january 2023
before their fixture against aston villa in the continental cup, the arsenal team are introduced to sabrina d'angelo, their new goalkeeper. manu was currently the only first team keeper and jonas thought bringing in another goalkeeper would be good for their team. it would be their last action in the january transfer window.

against aston villa, the team plays well. elena gets more minutes with victoria, and the pair proved quite the duo as elena constantly fed the dutch long direct balls on the right side. elena assists on frida's goal in the first half.

she also played a bit of left back as kühl subbed on for katie, shifting elena to be a fullback. it wasn't her favorite position, but the villa side was battered and bruised, leaving elena to get some good defensive reps in.

they win the game comfortably, with frida scoring a brace and caitlin finishing the scoring, ultimately setting them up for their next fixture in the conti cup, manchester city.

but before that, they had an fa cup fixture against leeds united.

in between their aston villa game and their fa cup game, the team goes out for a night. it's sort of a way to initiate the new signings, but also to just spend time together as an entire team; they had very little time to do so in the past, so leah and kim organized something for the team.

they were in the midst of their season, so everyone took it light with the alcohol, even if it was just a little bit. elena however, steered away per usual.

she sat behind the darts, watching leah and lia go at it, sipping on her club soda as the two traded jabs.

she cheered every time leah did well, and laughed lightheartedly whenever lia missed what she was going for. leah blew her a kiss every round she beat lia, and it was safe to say everyone was enjoying the night out.

"hey," a voice strolled up to her. elena turned to her left, seeing kathrine walk over from the pool table.

"hi, what's up?" elena averted her eyes from the darts.

"uh," the girl mumbled nervously. "i lose a lot to victoria and katie in pool, so i am taking a break," she chuckled softly. "help me get more drinks for them?"

"sure," elena grinned softly as she followed the girl towards the bar.

"what can i get you ladies?" the bartender strolled up to them as elena and kathrine took a seat at the bar.

"just 3 beers," kathrine answered quickly. "anything for you lena?"

elena hesitated with her response, the nickname had caught her off guard.

"no drinks for me, thank you though," she smiled softly.

"and a two sodas," kathrine said slowly, the smile never fading from her face.

"thanks," elena said as the bartender walked away.

"i owe you, remember? you showed me around my first day?"

that could hardly be classified as showing around, elena thought. she was having a breakdown and kathrine happened to be lost as elena was rushing to get inside the locker room. if anything, elena was the one who owed her.

despite the urge to contradict her, elena nodded along silently.

"i actually want to ask you something, if it is okay?"

elena nodded again, easily. far too easily.

"did something happen between you and gio?" she asked quietly.

elena wanted to dismiss her, shake her head no. tell the danish girl that everything was fine between them.

instead, she replied even quieter, "why do you want to know?"