The girl and her child | Kyra Cooney-Cross

The meeting

Today was the day you joined Arsenal. But first you had to get your 5 year old daughter, Hailee, ready for school. 

"Hailee! Are you ready for school?" You shouted as you packed your daughter's school bag. "Yes mama!" Hailee replies. You quickly put your shoes on and grab your daughter's bag and your own kit bag before opening the door and hurriedly drove Hailee to school. After dropping Hailee off, you drove to the Arsenal training grounds to meet your new coach, Jonas Eidevall. 

You get out of your car, getting your kit bag out of the boot of the car and make your way into the building. Whilst walking into the building you see two girls staring at you. Steph Catley and Kyra Cooney-Cross. You smile at them before continuing your walk to Jonas' office. Once you arrive you pause outside of his door before knocking twice. The door opens quickly "ah! Y/n good to see you!" Jonas lets you into his office. "Please, take a seat" he says. You sit down in the chair opposite his desk whilst he makes his way back to his desk. "It's good to finally meet you y/n." he smiles at you "it's amazing to meet you too Jonas, thanks for taking me on." You smile back at him, before he continues the conversation. "So, the plan for today, I'm going to introduce you to the team then we are going to start training and play some small games so I can get a better idea of your playing style. Then finally we will finish today with a team lunch in the cafeteria, does that all sound okay to you?" He questions. "Yeah, that sounds amazing, I can't wait to start." You smile at him. "Good, oh you might need this before you go to the changing room." He places your kit on the desk. A tracksuit and training gear. "Thank you." You smile at him again. He stands up, gesturing for you to follow. "Cmon let's go meet the team." You follow him out of his office towards the changing rooms. 

You arrive in the changing rooms, and get changed into your new kit, then meet Jonas outside the changing room. You both walk out to the pitch to meet your new team members. "Girls! Gather round please!" Jonas shouts. The girls come over, some jogging, some walking. Some by themselves, some talking to others. Once everyone gathers in, Jonas tells you to introduce yourself to the team. "Hi, I'm y/n, I am the new transfer from Manchester United!" The girls wave at you as you introduce yourself. Beth, Alessia, Leah and Lotte smile at you, knowing you from the lioness squad. 

After introducing yourself, Jonas keeps you, Alessia and Kyra behind. "So y/n, since Alessia and Kyra are also quite new to the team I thought it would be a good idea for you to be partnered with them for training and throughout the day." He says. "Yeah, that's fine with me." You smile cheekily at Alessia "besides, me and less are already best mates." Alessia smiles back and gently pushes you. "Best mates a bit far isn't it?" She teases. "Wow Alessia, wow." You jokingly roll your eyes at her. Kyra watches the two of you interacting, smiling at the thought of you all being a group, she gets so lost in her thoughts she doesn't realise you waving your hand in-front of her face. "Kyraaaaa, are you away with the fairies?" You giggle. "Huh? What?" She looks at you, confused. "You zoned out. We're gonna go do a training drill." "Oh, right let's go." She smiles at you and follows you over to Alessia who is already set for the drill. "Finally! You two took forever! It's like you were away gossiping without me!" She looks between the two of you. "We would never!" You chuckle. "Cmon let's start the drill, I don't want to be on the bad side of the team on my first day." You say as you get into position for the drill.

After training, you follow the rest of the girls into the changing rooms, talking to all of the girls as you go. You all get change then head to the cafeteria for lunch. You walk with Beth and Viv to the cafeteria. "Y/n/n I missed you soooo much! I didn't even get to see you at the England camp last time cos of your stupid calf injury." Beth says as you walk into the cafeteria. "I missed you too bethy. Yeah can't believe I missed that camp, but yknow how clumsy I am, tripping myself up. I was bound to hurt myself at some point." You say, and Beth chuckles. "Yeah that's true, you're like Alessia you are." I laugh and we go and sit with the rest of the team. 

"Y/n! Come sit with us!" Kyra shouts. You nod then walk over to the seat beside Kyra. "Hey guys" you smile at them. They both say hi and you start talking about all of your lives. After a while the food arrives and everyone starts eating, talking in between each bite. "So y/n/n how's my little Hailee?" Leah asks. You look at her surprised before answering the question, not wanting to bring too much attention to it. "Oh i- errr yeah she's good thank you." You look down, avoiding eye contact with the team so they don't say anything about it. Kyra however, has other ideas. "Who's Hailee? Is she your dog or something?" She says "oh, no. Well Hailee is... my daughter." The whole team look at you surprised and start to say things like 'you have a daughter?', 'how old is she?', 'who's her dad?'. You look around panicking, before quickly excusing yourself from the table, not wanting to talk about the situation. You walk out into an empty room, shutting the door and sliding down the wall breathing heavily. You hug your knees as you try to comfort yourself about the situation, not trying to think about your past. Suddenly the door opens but you don't look up, trying to calm yourself down and focus on not letting the tears fall from your eyes.

"Y/n/n? Are you okay?" Instantly you knew it was Kyra from her voice. "Y-yeah I'm okay.." "you don't sound okay... sorry I shouldn't have said that." She stands awkwardly in the doorway. I chuckle "no, it's fine Kyra, honestly" you hear her deeply exhale from relief, then she shuts the door sitting down beside you. "I'm sorry for the question I asked earlier, I should've read the situation more instead of just asking." She fiddles with her fingers. "It's okay ky, you don't know about my past so you were just curious. It's normal." I smile at her, then gently hold her hand, stopping her from fiddling with her fingers. She smile back at you, then looks down slightly blushing. "Thanks for forgiving me, it means a lot." "Of course Kyra, you didn't mean any harm." You say, and she shakes her head. "No, I didn't." You decide to ask her a question. "This might be a bit forward but... since you were curious, do you wanna come pick Hailee up from school with me?" She looks at you surprised with her mouth wide open. "You want me, kyra cooney-cross to meet y-your daughter?!" You chuckle at her response. "Yeah, I do. You seemed curious about it earlier and... I want to get to know you better." You smile at her. "Yeah I'll come, I want to meet Hailee. And I want to spend more time with you of course." She smiles back, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Cmon on then you, we better go." You stand up and start walking out the room. "Wait for me!" You chuckle at Kyra and continue walking down the corridor. "Oi! Don't run away! She runs up to you and jumps on your back, making you stumble and laugh. "Ha! That's what you get for leaving me." "Awww I'm sorry Kyra, I'll wait for you next time... not." You laugh and start running with her on your back. "Y/n/n stop runningggg." She says, her voice going up and down from the impact of you running. You both grab our stuff and walk out to your car, Kyra now on the ground. You get in and start the car, driving to pick Hailee up. Out of the corner of your eye you see Kyra fiddling with her hands and clothes, looking out the window. "You nervous?" You ask. "What? Me? Nervous? Never!" She says, stuttering slightly. "Sureeee. There's nothing to be nervous about though, promise. Hailee is a good kid and she knows how to read emotions well. I'm here for you though yeah?" She nods her head as you drive the car into the school car park.