A Faded Love

Chapter 26 - Part One

Warm-ups were over and the whole team jogged back to the benches. Tobin was playing the role of a "team manager" so she helped fill up the water bottles and passed them out to her teammates.

"Having fun being a water girl Tobin?" one of her teammates teased.

"I better get paid for this," Tobin responded while rolling her eyes.

The whole team laughed at her response and proceeded to listen to Coach Neil's instructions and his announcement of the starting lineup. He started with the goalie, then the backline, then the midfielders, and finally the forwards. Alex was growing anxious and hoped that he would say her name in the starting lineup.

"...and the other forward is Alex Morgan." Alex's eyes lit up. "You proved a lot to me these past few weeks, I am expecting great things from you. You may be a freshman, but show me that you play like a senior, got it?" Coach Neil asked.

Alex smiled wide, "Got it."

Alex turned to Tobin who had a big smile on her face. She ran up and hugged Tobin, almost causing them too fall.

"Easy there, Alex. Got to save that energy when you're out on that field."

"I know I know. Wow, I can't believe I am starting in my first collegiate game!" She smiled and looked out to the crowd. The Golden Bears were playing at home so their stadium was almost completely filled. She smiled even wider when she saw that her and Tobin's parents were sitting in the stands. "Toby! Our parents are watching us, I mean me! Or us, I don't know, but they're here!"

Tobin was laughing at Alex's excitement. "I told them to be here, not my mom though. She called me yesterday saying that she was coming to the game because she misses me. But, she also wants to watch you kick ass."

Alex smiled and gave Tobin a quick peck on the lips.

"Good luck, kick ass out there. Don't injure them too badly and remember our promise."

"I won't disappoint you, Tobs," Alex responded while jogging to her teammates.

It was time to step out onto the field and Alex quickly jogged out to her spot and waited to see if Christen or Kelley would be in the starting lineup. To her luck, both Christen and Kelley were starting. Christen was a forward on her side, while Kelley was a defender on her side too. Tobin saw the starting lineup for Stanford and grew uneasy when she saw that both Christen and Kelley were on Alex's side. She saw Christen smile at Kelley and grew furious so she hoped that Alex would tackle the both of them hard.

Christen walked to her position and saw that Alex was right in front of her. Alex was tying her shoe and slowly got up to see Christen smiling at her. Alex glared at her and turned away, signaling that she has no friends on the field. Christen frowned and looked at Kelley who rolled her eyes.

"I'll get her for you, Press."

Christen sighed, "I don't know if-"

Christen was cut off by the referee blowing his whistle, signaling the start of the game.

"This is going to be a bloodbath," Christen thought to herself while running to chase the ball.

The ball was passed around between the Golden Bear's backline and midfielders, keeping possession. Finally, one girl was able to see Alex's run and passed the ball to her. Alex was running onto the ball when she felt a body slam right into her right side, causing her to fall and tumble. Alex laid on the ground for a couple of seconds, in pain because she took a hard fall. The referee blew his whistle to signal for a foul and Alex slowly got up to see who pushed her.