Back to You (An International Story)

Biggest Supporter

July 2021

Jenni's POV:

Everything's been good. My sleep has improved due to the medicine and therapy.

Alexia and I have been stronger than ever. This tested us but brought us closer together.

Now a big test for everyone.

The Euros.

"ENGLAND!" Lola jumped around. "I love tournaments."

We were walking around to get our legs going. "Look who it is." Alexia smirked. "It's Mapi's girlfriend!" 

"Ladies and gentlemen! Portuguese captain! Mariana dos Santos Mendes!" We walked towards her and a few of her teammates. "What are the odds!" I laughed. 

Mariana stayed quiet. We talked about our upcoming games and the tournament. 

"Scotland's a good squad." Mariana looked up. "Very tough to play against."

"Any tips?" Mapi asked.

"Don't let them score."

"That's my job."

"Hope you're good at it."

"They call me the best in the world." The flirted back and forth

"Hmm. You don't look like Becky Sauerbrunn." Mariana crossed her arms.

"Is she the one who's terrible pass resulted in me scoring on the USA?" I asked.

"That's the one."

"Oh yeah. I like her a lot." I smirked. Alexia hit my arm. "What? I scored!" I whispered.

"Captain. You have a press conference." Tatiana said to her. "We should head back."

"You guys go ahead. I'll catch up." She said and looked back at us.

Her teammates left and we stood there with Mariana. "There is a way that we could end up facing each other." Alexia said.

"I know. But that's not for a while. I'm focused on the group right now." Mariana said. "Iceland, Sweden, and Switzerland."

"Big group." Virginia said. She nodded. "We should head back too. Good luck Mariana. We'll see you around." 

We walked away and left Mapi with her. "They're cute." I smiled. "Mapi's happy." 

"She is." Alexia nodded. "Let's hope we all have a great tournament." 

"You're going to be the star." I smiled. "I know it."

"No." Virginia said. "Alexia isn't going to be the star." She sighed. "There's only one star." 

Alexia rolled her eyes. 

"A beautiful little baby star." 

"Get to the point, Vir." I sighed. 

"Nahikari Garcia."

"Here we go." Alexia mumbled.

"The queen that she is. We are not worthy."

"Is she ranting about Nahikari again?" Mapi joined us.

"Yes, she is. Have fun with your girlfriend?" I asked

"Yes, I did. Have fun with yours?" She smirked.

"You know what. I'm going to allow it because I did." I smiled. Alexia laughed as Virginia continued to rant. 

Alexia's POV:

We were heading to the final of the Euros!

Sitting in our team meeting after beating Sweden, we all felt a weight off our shoulders. 

After last year's World Cup, we wanted to remind everyone that we've grown a lot. 

And we did. We now waited for the winner of Italy vs Portugal.

Would we face Mariana? We'll have to find out. After the meeting ended, Mapi rushed out to go watch Portugal's game.

"I'm so happy we're teammates now." Jenni put her arm around me. "I remember when I was in Paris." She smiled. "Whenever Barca played, I rushed to watch it."

"It's true." Irene said. "Hey Jenni wanna and she's gone." 

I laughed. We continued to walk back to the rooms. "Mapi! Wait up!" I heard Virginia. 

"Mapi's gonna kill her if she misses anything." Jenni laughed. 

"Mariana is probably dominating right now." I said. 

We got to the rooms and just sat around talking. After a few minutes, Leila came in. 

"What?" I asked.

"Something happened. I can't calm Mapi down."

"What happened?" Jenni asked.

"Turn the game on quick." Sandra said. We all watched Mariana get taken out on the stretcher. 

"Oh no." Jenni grabbed my hand. 

"I'll go check on Mapi." Patri ran to the room with Leila. 

"I hope she's ok." I said.

"Mariana's a tough one. She'll bounce back in no time." Jenni kissed the side of my head.

The next day Jenni went to the gym with Lola. I stay with Virginia and Mapi. She was pacing around waiting for Mariana to call. 

"I'm gonna snap her legs in half." I rubbed my forehead.

"Ale." Virginia said.

"You're thinking it too."

"Yeah but I'm keeping my thoughts to myself."

Mapi stopped and looked at us. "For once in your lives can you PLEASE go anywhere but here."

"We're just as worried about her too, Mapi." I stood up and walked to her. "But pacing around isn't gonna make her call you any faster. Her parents flew here to watch the games, she had to see them first."

"I know but she got hurt, was in the hospital and to top all of that off, her team was knocked out. I just want to make sure she's ok and if she's not I want to be able to comfort her in some way."

"I know." I reached for her

"No, you don't!" She pushed my hand away. "Alexia." She sighed. "You don't understand."

"Tell me then." I said. "What don't I understand?" I looked back at Virginia and closed her eyes. "Every time Jenni ends up down during a game you think I'm ok?" I whispered. "My heart drops when I see her go down. I do understand, Mapi."

"But when Jenni gets hurt, you can go make sure she's ok because you're teammates for club AND country. Mariana and I aren't even in the same timezone! She was hurt and I didn't know if she was ok. I couldn't go visit her or talk to her at all! I just want to know that she's fine because I l-" She stopped.

Virginia sat up. "Mapi?"

Mapi's phone rang. "Hello? Mariana are you ok?" She left the room.

"You know where that was going. Right?" Virginia asked me.

"Yes, I do. Vir, please." I sighed. "Stop teasing her. Mapi's never had these feelings before ok? Let her figure it out herself. No more jokes or comments."

"I don't do it to be rude. I'm just so happy that she's happy." She looked down. "Kind of makes me want something like that. Something serious." She shrugged. "It's stupid."

"No, it's not." I sat next to her. "Who was the biggest supporter of my relationship with Jenni the first time?" She looked at me. "You were. You told me to follow my heart, and now look? So I'm going to tell you the same thing. Follow YOUR heart this time, Vir. What does your heart want?"

What does Virginia's heart want? 

Cute little chapter going back to Mariana's injury.

Next update is Euro celebrations! Gonna learn more about Jenni and Alexia's relationship, past, present and future!