Tales of the Tournaments

2 August, 2023

Auckland

While Sweden and Argentina were preparing for their final group stage matchday, AT joined the rest of the USWNT in heading down to breakfast in their hotel, some feeling better off than others.

They were joined by the newly arrived Spanish team, who would be playing the first match of the knockout round here in a few days. The Spaniards stayed together at their own tables, minding their own business, and the Americans, feeling quieter than usual, were glad of it for once. Most of them weren't up to mingling after what had happened at the Portugal match.

Salma Paralluelo was seated between Jenni Hermoso and Alexia Putellas, the two making sure she stayed where she belonged and behaved herself. But when they were finished eating and they let her go, she was surprised by a diminutive whirlwind of energy, her fellow teen almost colliding with her in an effort to make the newcomers welcome.

"Hi, I'm Alyssa, but my friends call me AT," she said, switching to Spanish.

Salma stared at her. "I'm Salma," she replied in the same language, wanting to laugh at how excitable the girl was. "This is Jenni and Alexia. Her friends call her La Reina."

AT nodded, giving the older women a shy grin. "Sorry, I just got excited about new people," she explained, and Jenni nodded.

"I suppose that's understandable. Well, like our little one said, I'm Jenni," she agreed. "Are you a little one too, then?"

Blushing, AT nodded. "Uh huh. How could you tell?"

Jenni suppressed the urge to laugh. "It was a tiny bit obvious. So, you want to be Salma's friend?"

"If she wants to," AT said, feeling bashful.

"Sure," Salma agreed. "You want to show me what's fun to do around here?"

"As long as it doesn't involve trouble," Jenni warned.

"It won't involve trouble," AT promised.

"Are you sure?" Alexia raised her eyebrows. "Because the word is there was quite a bit of trouble around here, yesterday."

AT blushed. "It wasn't me, and it's all taken care of and forgiven, Miss Alexia," she protested.

"Just Alexia is fine, little one," Alexia assured her. "But as long as you don't plan on getting our Salma in trouble, I think we'll allow you two to go have your fun. So long as there's a responsible adult," she added.

"We could bring Laia," Salma suggested, looking down the row at their Barca teammate.

"Laia? Do you want to go with Salma and Alyssa?" Alexia prompted, and Laia Codina got up from the table.

"I'll take care of them, don't worry, Capitana. Come on, you two, let's go. Show us what you do for fun round here, little one." 

AT bounced excitedly and led the two Spaniards up to her and Alex's room, opening the door.

Alex had left breakfast early and was lying down on her bed when the trio arrived, but she sat up carefully, hiding a wince as AT entered with the two Spanish players.

"Tia Alex, Tia Alex guess what?"

"What, mijita?" Alex said, eyebrows raised.

"These are Salma and Laia and they're our friends," AT said promptly. 

Alex grinned indulgently, almost able to forget her pain. "Oh, I see. Well, hello Salma and Laia," she greeted them. "I think AT was going to do an art project today before practice."

AT nodded eagerly. The art supplies - the paper, scissors, crayons, and tape - were already set out on the table, and she took Salma by the hand, pulling the older teen with her.

Laia followed, unsure what to make of Alyssa. "What are we doing?"

"Fish," AT said promptly.

Salma blinked. "Fish?"

"Uh huh. You could do salmon, like your name," AT suggested.

"Like my name?" Salma stared incredulously at the younger teen.

"She's not really wrong," Laia mused, chuckling to herself. Salma poked her.

"Hush, you." she ordered Laia, who rolled her eyes at the impertinence. "Alright then, fish."

"Uh huh. Risse showed me how to do them for April Fish Day, because it's a French thing, but it's not April anymore. But it could still be a fish day anyway," AT explained. 

The explanation didn't really make sense to Salma, but she shrugged it off and nodded. "Alright."

The trio - joined by a clearly still tender Alex - sat down at the table, and now it was four of them coloring and cutting out their fish. "What do you do with them when they're finished?" Salma inquired. 

AT paused, giving Alex a sideways look. Alex was clearly pretending not to notice, though, so AT leaned in and whispered to Salma.

Salma listened to AT's explanation of what Poisson d'Avril were for, and wondered who she might be able to 'catch' with one. "Oh," she nodded thoughtfully. "Well, we might need a lot for that." She looked down at the fish she was coloring - to look like a salmon, to please her new friend.

"Reina made them promise not to get in trouble, Morgan," Laia commented, looking sideways at Alex.

"I'm sure they won't get in real trouble," Alex said. "They're not planning to hurt anyone."

"Whatever it is, don't do it to me, little fish," Laia ordered Salma, who sputtered.

"Hey!"

Between the four of them, they managed to come up with twenty-four fish. Salma took them and wrote a name on each - one for each of the Spanish squad, plus one each for Alex and AT. All of Salma's were colored to look like salmon, and AT took the time to make one more, putting Salma's name on it. "Because you need one too," she explained.

"Thank you," Salma accepted the fish from her new friend, and Laia picked up 'her' fish, looking at it. "What are you going to do with all these?" she asked Salma, who shrugged.

"You'll see. I need them all back except Alex and AT's when we go, though," she said.

Alex tucked the paper fish into an envelope, to keep them from getting lost.

"Don't go yet though," AT pleaded. "We have time to watch a movie, right?"

"What film did you have in mind?" Laia asked.

AT looked appealingly at Alex, who searched on the TV, and it wasn't long before she turned up Finding Nemo.

"Ah, a perfect film for you, Little Fish," Laia smirked. Salma pouted, but agreed to watch, as long as Laia could please stop calling her that.

"It's alright Salma. We'll call you whatever you like," Alex promised, turning on the film for the four of them to watch.

Before long, the two teenage littles were enthralled, and AT was even chiming in with some of her favorite lines as they came up.

Eventually, when the action moved to Sydney Harbor and the seagulls made their first appearance, AT bounced in place. "Mine."

"Mine?" Salma echoed, tilting her head at AT.

"Mine," AT agreed, chiming in with the flock as they chattered. "Salmine," she added, hugging the older teen as the seagulls were left behind.

"Salmine?" Salma repeated doubtfully, raising an eyebrow.

"It's better than little fish," AT said. "Do you like it?" 

"Salmine," Salma said again, thinking it over. "Well...alright then." She smiled slightly. "It's not bad," she agreed. "You can call me that if you want sometimes. But don't forget my name's Salma, okay?"

"Okay Salma," AT agreed. They went back to watching the movie, enjoying themselves immensely.

"Salmine," Laia mused. She wondered if AT was the only one allowed to use the name or not, and looked at Alex, who shrugged.

When the movie was over, Laia finally checked her phone and realized she'd missed three texts from Alexia and two from Jenni.

"Oops," Laia grimaced. "The Captains want us, little--I mean, Salma." 

Salma sighed. "Okay. Thank you for inviting us over, AT." 

AT smiled. "Anytime. Well, not any time, cause I guess we're going soon, but if we get to see each other again I mean."

"Let's hope so," Salma agreed.

The teens hugged.

"Bye, Salmine," AT chirped, and Salma laughed.

"Goodbye, little one."

Salma took the envelope of paper fish and left with Laia, stowing the envelope in her go bag. They headed down to practice, and while Laia apologised to the Captains for getting caught up in the film, she kept quiet about the fish. 

It wasn't clear what Salma had in mind, but she intended to be kept well out of it. And there were only three days left until they met Switzerland here in Eden Park. Hopefully, whatever their little Salmine had come up with would have blown over by then.

Laia would have to wait and see. At least she could hopefully trust Alex Morgan that the fish wouldn't lead to any serious trouble.

August 5, 2023

Eden Park, Auckland

Spain vs. Switzerland, round of 16

The mood in the stadium as the round of 16 opened was electric - it had barely taken five minutes to get Spain off to a rousing start, when Aitana Bonmati scored the first goal of the match. Ona Batlle was screaming with joy as her friend got them ahead, and Salma squealed, cheering, as their teammates celebrated Tana. 

But it took only five more minutes for the wind to be knocked out of Spain's celebrations, when Laia Codina blocked an attempt by the Swiss, trying to pass the ball to Cata Coll, so Cata could sweep it out of the way. Her Barca teammate missed by a mile.

Which was a problem, since Cata was Spain's goalkeeper.

Laia swore as the ball went past Cata, into the net- earning the Swiss a goal. She must have practiced this move with Cata a hundred times, she thought in frustration - it hadn't ever been a problem in practice! But now, with the actual other team in front of them....fuck everything, she thought, tears stinging her eyes. 

Worse, Irene's attempt at goal bounced off the crossbar, and another couple attempts got fumbled. Laia was stressed, feeling guilt claw at her chest. Then the ball bounced loose, and Alba Redondo swept it up, the Spanish forward heading it into the net.

1-2 in Spain's favor. It had only been seventeen minutes, but they were already the longest seventeen minutes of this World Cup to Laia.

Attempt, block. Attempt, block. This was what Laia was seeing from Spain's players against the Swiss keeper, who seemed to have collected herself and was fighting every intrusion into her goal now. They battled back and forth like this until, finally, Aitana broke through for another goal.

1-3 goal for Spain. Tana had gotten herself a brace, too, two goals in this match already, a remarkable achievement considering they were only thirty-six minutes in. It was Tana's third goal of the entire tournament, and Ona, Salma, and Laia were among those screaming themselves hoarse for her.

Switzerland were scrambling, on the back foot. They tried for a set piece just as halftime was drawing near, and muddled it badly.

The ball landed at Laia's feet, and she knew what she had to do, hammering it past the Swiss keeper.

Goal.

1-4.

The knots in her stomach loosened considerably, as her teammates erupted in cheers for her.

Salma attempted an effort on goal, too, but didn't quite get there before the halftime whistle blew.

Laia followed her teammates down the tunnel, keeping an eye on her Little Fish, little Salmine. She exhaled, collapsing on the bench between Salma and Ona.

"Jesu," she groaned, burying her face in her hands. "That was so fucking close."

"But you did it, Laia," Salma said encouragingly. "You really did."

“Yeah,” Laia agreed. She was keeping her eyes averted from Esther Gonzalez. The older woman was wearing the armband today, and her thirty years felt like a not insignificant gap to the twenty-three year old. She didn’t revere Esther quite so much as Jenni, Irene, or Alexia, but the thought of being in trouble was making her nervous.

“It’s alright, Laia,” Ona encouraged. “You might be in for a bit of trouble, but you did make up for it, so it shouldn’t be too bad.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Ona,” Laia nodded, feeling better about it. “I scored for us, I shouldn’t be in trouble for it really.”

“Uh huh, and if you are, there’s always the fish,” Salma added encouragingly.

“Fish?” Ona raised her eyebrows, and Salma smiled charmingly.

“Nothing important, Ona.”

“Hmm.” Ona raised an eyebrow at Salma, but then Laia heard Esther calling her name and butterflies filled her stomach.

Reluctantly, she went to stand in front of Esther. 

“You’re lucky you made that second goal, Codina.” Esther frowned. “I would have you over the bench getting your bare bottom whipped, if you didn’t.”

And she could very well mean whipped, Laia knew, grimacing. The martinet, or fouet, favoured by Les Bleues wasn’t unknown to La Roja, though Laia couldn’t think of the last time she’d seen Alexia, Irene, or Jenni pull it out. 

Esther, though…she just might, especially if it was more commonly used by Madrid than Barca.

“I’m sorry, Esther, Capitana, I’ll be more careful,” Laia promised nervously.

Esther ignored Laia’s apology and braced her foot on the bench. “Bare and get over,” she ordered, and Laia wasn’t slow to obey, though she very much didn’t want it. She was bent over Esther’s thigh for ten hard swats from the forward’s hand, and the one mercy Laia felt was that it was over quickly. She was allowed to get up, pull her clothes back up and get her tears under control. 

Fuck, she smacks as hard as Jenni, Laia thought, though Jenni hadn’t smacked her in a while. “S-sorry,” she sniffled. “I’ll do better.”

“See that you do. And send Cata to me,” Esther added. Laia was headed in the keeper’s direction almost before Esther had finished speaking, but she met Cata halfway. Cata was obviously feeling as guilty about allowing the own goal as Laia had been about doing it.

Well, Esther would fix that.

Laia made a beeline for Aitana, almost on pure instinct. She missed Tana, they’d been each other’s whole world until things had gone wrong. Slowly, they’d been getting better, she thought - at least looking at each other didn’t have Aitana in tears anymore, and they could handle each other’s presence. Maybe…maybe Laia could try again?

“Tana?” Laia offered quietly, and looked at the older girl meekly. “I’m so--”

“Come here,” Aitana interrupted, pulling Laia into her arms, crushing Laia against her.

It wasn’t forgiveness, but it was a start, Laia thought dizzily as she clung to Tana. There was something again.

“Sorry I fucked up,” she whispered eventually, unsure whether she meant the own goal, or them, or both. Probably both.

“We’ll figure it out, Laia,” Aitana said quietly. “For now, let’s focus on today. You scored a good goal, too, and I’m proud of you.”

I’m proud of you. Laia’s heart soared. “You scored two, Tana. That’s even better. I’m proud of you, I knew you could do it.” 

Laia and Aitana caught sight of Alexia watching them, and blushed a little. “Tana?”

“Mmm?” Aitana ran her fingers through Laia’s hair idly, making Laia shiver at the gentle touch.

“Little Fish - I mean, Salmine - she’s up to something.” Laia had to tell someone or it would drive her crazy.

Aitana blinked at the change of subject. “She is? What for?”

“I think she’s mad with Esther for smacking me.” Laia grimaced. “And a few days ago, when we were spending time with the Americans’ kid, she had Salma make all these fish…” Quietly, she explained.

“...Huh.” Tana frowned. “Well, I guess we’ll have to see. Do Jenni and Alexia know?”

Laia shook her head. “I promised them I’d keep her out of trouble.”

“Mhmm.” Aitana looked doubtful of this. “It’s time to go back out there. Let’s win ourselves a match and worry about Salma - Salmine, did you call her? - later.”

“Okay,” Laia nodded, following her maybe-girlfriend back out onto the field. 

Switzerland made a number of halftime subs, but Spain hadn’t made any. Nor did they until well after the hour mark - nothing too notable had happened on either side so far in the half. But then Esther left the field alongside Teresa Abeillera. Eva Navarro and Maria Perez came on, and then Switzerland made another mistake.

They botched a pass, and it fell to Jennifer Hermoso. Jenni knocked the goal home easily.

1-5 in Spain’s favour. 

Just a few minutes after that, Jenni was subbed off for Alexia, who’d been resting on the bench. Irene Guerrero came on for Tana, and Laia watched her go reluctantly. There were only about fifteen minutes left of the match, Laia reminded herself. Then she could go back to Tana, work on whatever they needed to work on, and find out what the hell their little fish, their Salmine was up to. In the 84th minute, Salma was subbed off.

Now, Laia thought, whatever it is, she’s going to do it now, while she’s in the lockers with Esther. But Tana was in there, too. And Jenni, Laia comforted herself. Jenni and Tana wouldn’t let there be a catastrophe.

After five minutes of stoppage time, the second half was brought to an end, the final score remaining 1-5.

Spain had won, Laia realised. Switzerland were going home. And Tana had won Player of the Match. That deserved something nice. She knew how she would have rewarded Aitana before, but now…well, they’d figure it out. 

Laia made her way back down the tunnel and into the dressing room with the rest of the team, going to join Tana and kissing her cheek. “Has whatever’s going to happen, happened yet?”

Tana shook her head. But then they saw Esther heading for her locker, and Laia was immediately suspicious. She grabbed the giggling Salma by the collar.

“Alright, little Salmine, what’ve you done?”

“Shhh,” Salma hissed.

Esther opened the door of her locker - and at least two dozen paper fish exploded out of it, falling in a shower over Esther’s head.

Laia couldn’t help it - she burst out laughing at the comical image Esther presented.

“Jesu, Laia! What the hell is that?”

“They’re revenge fish,” Laia giggled.Tana found herself laughing, too. 

“Come on, Laia did a good job,” she said supportively. “Almost as good as me.”

“I should whip you both,” Esther grumbled. “Brats that you are.”

“We didn’t do it,” Laia promised earnestly.

“Then who did?” Esther demanded.

That point, Laia refused to make clear.

“Does it matter, Esther? The fish didn’t hurt you, and we won. Let it go.”

Sighing in exasperation, Esther rolled her eyes. “Fine. Have you two sorted your shit out then?”

Laia exchanged glances with Aitana. “We’re…working on it.”

“Good,” Esther said firmly. “See that you do.”

They nodded. “Don’t be mad about the fish?”

“Alright. They’re funny, I guess. But it’s not April,” she added. “Don’t do it again.” That was addressed to the room at large, since Esther couldn’t prove Laia and Tana had done it.

“Yes ma’am,” several of the players chorused.

With that, peace was restored.

Spain was moving on. The quarterfinals were waiting.