Forgotten?

"Welcome Home"

Karlä's first training session wasn't that bad. She mainly stuck by Mal who obviously knew what she was doing. Lindsey and Rose seemed to be giving her warm smiles and looks of encouragement as well. Training mainly consisted of drills before ending with a scrimmage. Karlä was on a team with Mal, Lindsey, Rose, Sam and Emily. They competed in a tournament style six a side where in the final they faced Christen, Tobin, Allie, Ali, Kelley and Ash. "You've not even got a fuckin' goalie!" Ash roared. "How are you gonna beat us?" Which to the goalkeeper's fury they did. In a 5-4 win, Karlä and Mal both scored twice with Lindsey grabbing the winner.
They had a friendly in 2 days. Against Ireland. The team that Mal made her debut against. "You nervous?" Mal asked her younger sister. Karlä laughed. "I'm not playing probably so..." Mal now appeared nervous. "It's not just that." Karlä was confused. "What?" Hesitant to say it, Mal admitted "Our parents are coming." Karlä shouldn't have been that surprised. It was in Denver after all and of course their parents would support Mal. But Karlä was now panicking. "I'm not meeting them am I?" Mal appeared a bit stunned. "Karlä they're excited to see you." She attempted to soothe her. Karlä sighed. She was now terrified for the match in 2 days.

They were leading 1-0. Mal had scored which made Karlä happy as usual. Then Andonovski turned to her. "You're coming on." What? Giggling at the teens lack of preparation Ash said "You're screwed." Karlä flipped the bird at her before getting up to do warm-ups. A few minutes later and she was on for Tobin.
Karlä looked around the stadium and saw them. Her parents seemed...proud? They seemed to be applauding their younger daughter as she came on. It was now the 81st minute. The team was pretty tired out. Christen however won the ball and carried it from midfield into the final third. She then found Mal who dribbled past 2 players then the keeper before squaring it.
Karlä then tapped into an empty net.

Everything went by slowly but all Karlä wanted to do was celebrate with her sister. So she did. Running up to Mal, Karlä jumped into her arms and to her surprise, Mal was able to carry her. "You're light as a feather." Her older sister whispered. For a moment this caught out Karlä and made her feel guilty.
Then everyone else caught up with them to celebrate and Karlä forgot about it.
The game would finish not long after with the final score line at 2-0.

With the team given a break, Karlä followed Mal into a cab and reluctantly to their house. It wasn't until the taxi stopped that Karlä looked up and realised, the house hadn't changed. "Welcome home." Mal beamed while holding the door for Karlä to scramble out of. There was one thing for the teen to clarify. "Do they know I'm coming?"Mal's smile slightly faded. "Yeah." She confirmed.

Karlä stood behind her sister as she rang the doorbell. Looking down she saw the same WELCOME HOME mat, now scruffy. Had her families stress inflicted it's condition? Karlä would never know. Then the door opened.

"Karlä Denise Pugh. It's about time you came home."