One For All and All For Soccer | Lauren Cimorelli x USWNT

One

Lauren's POV:

After receiving the news from the USWNT of soccer, I haven't been able to sleep for the past two days. Am I supposed to leave everything here in South Africa to go and play for them? It's a huge opportunity and if I would've been asked a year ago, I would have been on a plane immediately. But now, my life is different and I don't know what to do.

"Lauren?" Lisa asks me from across the table, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lisa is one of my older sisters and my best friend.

"Huh? Sorry Lise," I reply back, focusing my attention towards her.

"You zoned out. You ok?" She asks me with a concerned look while I nod my head.

"Just thinking."

"Oh well, I was just asking if you've given any thought into the offer from the coach of soccer in the USA?" She asks and I sigh.

"I don't know Lise. It's a huge opportunity and it's been my dream for ages and I would be stupid not to take it. But I have a life here, I'm still in high school and what about my friends and my family? I couldn't leave them behind." I say and she nods while walking out the kitchen. My family is huge, I have 5 sisters and 5 brothers, making me the eleventh child of my parents. I'm the youngest of us all.

I zone out again, thinking back to the day I got the phone call. I picked it up, thinking it was a prank caller but was completely shocked to hear the coach of a team I've always wanted to play with on the other line. She said she had seen me at one of my friendly soccer matches when she was over here with her team for a few matches and then after that, she couldn't get her mind off of my skills. Apparently, she called my school and got her staff to do a lot of stalking about me before making me the toughest decision of my life. I still don't know why they want me this much, I'm not that good and if I do decide to go, I'm going to be meeting my role models and there's no way I'm at the same level as them. I know I need to make a decision soon, because I could be in the roster of the World Cup if I do.

I sigh and walk out of the kitchen into my room to get ready for school. By now, the whole school is aware of what I've been offered, a place on the USWNT, but they don't know if I'm going to take it. My school soccer club congratulated me and were so excited for me while my outside of school soccer club did the same.

After I got dressed, I grabbed my bag and walked with my older sister Dani to my brother, Michaels car. Michael jumped in and drove us to our school where we said bye to each other and parted ways.

Michael is my oldest brother, he's 27 and still living at home with us, then there's Christina, 26, Katherine and Amy (who are twins), 24, Alex is 23 and the triplets, Christian, Nick and Joey are 21, then Lisa who's 19 and Dani who's 18 and then there's me.

Being the youngest of my family is kind of hard because everyone babies me and is always so over protective. When I got the phone call from Coach Ellis, they were all on different sides. However, my mom and dad made it my choice and completely supported me either way, which makes it a lot harder to choose.

Bring Bring

The school bell rings loudly, indicating the start of first period which I make my way to slowly.

*

"Hey kid, how was school?" Lisa asks me as I climb into her car. I nod my head at her and smile. A few minutes later, Dani comes rushing out and into the car as well. We greet each other and then Lisa drives off.

When I reach my bedroom door, I take off my clothes and change and then sit on my bed. If I'm really going to do this, I think to myself, then I need to be one hundred percent certain that it's what I want to do.