Where To Next?

C H A P T E R 3

I woke up very anxious today. I got little to no sleep last night after team bonding ended. And today was my first ever practice with the team. How could I not be nervous? Like would it be normal if I wasn't nervous? Okay, now I'm overthinking this and that's making me even more nervous. Holy farts, I'm already sucking at my first practice with the national team.

I had a feeling that something would go wrong today. Something bad would happen.

"Raven? You good?" Mal spoke, breaking me out of my thoughts. My head shot up and I looked at Mal before quickly nodding my head. I grabbed my team sweatshirt and threw it over my long sleeve shirt before quickly exiting the room. I didn't care that I left Mal in the room. I couldn't even focus on that right now. I could barely focus on my breathing right now.

I quickly hurried down the stairs, not really watching my feet on the steps. And that's where everything went wrong. My foot missed a step and I slipped and fell backwards on one of the last steps on the floor. I stuck my left hand out behind me, trying to break my fall but only my thumb caught on the top of a step and all of my weight pressed on that sole finger. I let out a loud cry as I felt my thumb pop out of place. I clutched my hand to my chest as I tried not to let the tears fall.

"No, no no no. No!" I mumbled as I looked at the dislocated joint. I knew what I needed to do. It's been a few years since the last time I've had to do it, but I remember how. I closed my eyes as I took in a big shaky breath before looking down at my hand. I winced a little at I took a firm grip on my thump before pulling it. I let out whimper as it popped back into place. I stood and wiped the few tears that escaped.

I took a deep breath and pulled my sleeve over my thumb to attempt to hide the swollen and bruised joint before continuing my journey down the staircase. Except this time much MUCH slower.

"Finally!" Sonnet said just a little bit too dramatically the minute I sat down at the table with a bowl of cereal and an apple. "Mal said you left the room before she did. So how did she get here before you?" Emily questioned. I glanced around the table to see Mal, Emily, Christen, Lindsey, and Tobin sitting at the same table. Christen on my left and Lindsey on my right.

"Um, I took the stairs," I stuttered before shoving a spoonful of frosted flakes into my mouth. I could feel Christen's eyes watching me. I could tell she didn't buy my excuse, but she didn't say anything.

The conversation at the table continued on as we all continued to eat our breakfast. I hid my hand between my thighs as I continued to eat my breakfast. I was going to see the trainers after I finished with my cereal. I could eat my apple on the way.

"Where are you going?" Tobin asked once I stood up. All eyes at the table were now looking at me.

"I have a call I need to make," I said as I gave them all a small smile before agreeing that I would see them on the bus. It was just a little white lie. It wouldn't do any good to worry them. And who knows, they might even say something to Jill! 

I threw my bowl away before making my way out of the room. I walked up the stairs, carefully this time, until I was eventually standing in front of the room the trainers were staying in. I raised my good hand up and tentatively knocked on the hotel room door.

"Raven, come in come in. Is everything all right?" Maria, one of the trainers, asked as she held the door open and led me over to sit on the end of one of the beds. It looked like she was the only one in here.

"I fell this morning and I bruised my thumb. Could you tape it for me? I promise it doesn't hurt too much and I'll take it easy at practice. Could you tape it as a precaution though? Just to be safe," I rambled. I could tell she was a little hesitant to the idea of me practicing, but she eventually nodded and agreed to tape up my thumb.

After she was done, I still had like 20 minutes until the bus left so I just grabbed my bag from my hotel room and headed down. About half the team was already in the lobby with their bags. We still had about 10-15 minutes until we left so we have time.

"Hey little bird," Kelley said with a smile as I sat down next to her. There was some space between us, but that quickly ended when she wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into her side. I blushed as a few others chuckled at our interaction. It felt kinda nice though. 

"Excited for your first practice?" Becky asked from where she and Ali were sitting on the couch across from us. I looked around to see Alex, Kelley, and I on one couch. Ash and Ali on the one across from us. Mal sitting in a chair and Sonnet sitting on the armrest. And Becky sitting in another chair.

"Nervous," I blurted out. "Very nervous." My foot was tapping and I kept fiddling with my sweatshirt zipper.

"Relax dude. You've got no reason to be nervous. I've seen videos of you at Lyon," Ash said making me feel a little better. 

"You can do this, Raven. I know you can," Ali said, giving me one of the bright encouraging smiles. 

"Any family members coming to the friendly?" Mal asked. I opened my mouth but I didn't know what to tell her. It's a complicated story.

"Um, no. I don't think they were able to get work off," I said. It wasn't a complete lie. The people I considered my family lived busy lives and they lived across the world. But even I had an actual family to come to the came, they probably wouldn't because I was called into camp pretty late. Jill called me a little less than 2 weeks ago and it's April which is only a few months away from the start of the World Cup. 

After I said that there was a bit of an awkward silence that filled the room. Nobody knew what to say.

"What's up," Tobin said when her, Christen, and Megan walked up to us.

Thank God they have great timing.

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Author's Note:

Hello!

First things first, I want to throw a big fat giant THANK YOU out there yo every one who's read this book! And an even bigger THANK YOU to those who voted and/or commented! It really means a whole lot to me! Wow that was a lot of exclamation marks. Not a bad thing though.

Oh and second thing! Almost forgot! But I know I haven't updated in a while (I've had a lot of not so fun stuff going on in the past few months, so I wanted to say sorry about that!! I won't leave you hangin' for so long next time!

See ya later alligators!