the girl
(two weeks ago)
The game had been bad. Actually, bad did not nearly do it justice. The game was atrocious. It was the season opener for Sky Blue and afterwards, Kelley had decided she hadn’t seen a team that disconjointed since high school soccer. So after the game, Christie and her sat down with the head coach to give him a couple pointers on coaching a professional team. In the pre-season, the team showed promise. Any team with Christie Rampone as captain was bound to have some sort of success. Well, that's what Kelley thought anyways. She was wrong.
“Awh Ann,” Kelley said to herself as she walked in the front door. It was a dark night, as the day had been overcast and add that to the fact that it was almost one in the morning, she could barely see a foot in front of her face.
Ann always watched her games, whether the national team games or just regular team games, and she always made sure to text Kelley at the end to let her know she was thinking about her. Usually, Ann was asleep or working (she was a nurse) when the games were done, but her texts always reminded Kelley how much she cared about her. One time, after the worst game of Kelley’s life, she left a dozen of roses on her porch for when she got home.
But, as she got closer to the flowers and package on the coffee table, she realized the handwriting wasn’t nearly loopy and girly enough to be Ann’s, and she had never mentioned it in her post-game text.
Kelley ripped open the package and a stack of cash and a card fell out. She screamed, probably waking up some neighbours and grabbed her phone. Without hesitation, she dialled the number of the biggest, scariest person she could think of.
While it was ringing, she read the card. An address, a phone number and a message.
Buy yourself a dress.
The call went through.
“Hope?” She whispered, “I think I need help.”
---
(a week and a half ago)
Kelley played the late night call to Hope off as ‘she thought she saw something in the dark’. The two ladies talked for a bit regardless, because Hope could sense the uneasiness in Kelley's voice. Nevertheless, when Kelley eventually did go to bed that night, she left Hope’s contact open as she slept that night. Just in case.
The next day, she went to morning recovery and sat through the hour speech from her coaching staff. She then decided it was time to grab lunch and... dress shopping? On her way to the car she opened her wallet, making sure the card (and the cash) was still there.
The address on the card led her to a secluded little shop, with few customers and an Italian man attending to the cash.
As she was touring the little shop, with no idea what type of dress she needed, he approached her, asking if there was anything he could do to help her. Kelley, being ever so clumsy, accidentally dropped the card (who she later learned, was from Geheim) on the ground. The Italian man simply giggled and went to retrieve it from the floor.
He looked up at her in shock, then back at the golden card, flipping it over in his fingers.
“Oh… you must be…” he stopped talking and rushed back to his counter with the card and started eagerly flipping through a spiral bound book. “Miss O’Hara!” He smiled widely, his Italian accent heavy.
“I do believe I have the perfect dress in mind! Please, give me just one minute.”
And with that, he disappeared into the dress inventory.
—-
(two days ago)
Ali’s phone buzzed constantly. Literally every single minute the damn thing was vibrating, from Instagram notifications to calls from Kyle. But this time, it was her team.
Some of the rookies had recently discovered the art of the GroupMe app, which allowed everyone to text in a group chat. Not everyone on the team had iPhones and the time they tried to use Facebook, Pinoe whined non-stop because the app didn’t work on her phone.
So now, as she was getting groceries, the notification list on her phone kept getting longer. And longer.
mewsy: idk what to do with myself for an entire weekend off though??
arod: anyone wanna babysit lol
HAOReilly: I’m happy though, I needed a break
pressC: Honestly me too cuz i can go tan non stop for days
TheHeath: @PressC tanning? im in. :D
K_OH: jeez @PressC you think you need a tan? my freckles are the darkest part of my body
AlexMorgs: @PressC @TheHeath lets keep it PG babes!! there are young ears in this group chat
captain-christie: awh thanks @alexmorgs
aharris: I’m going home, moms making me dinner LOL #freefood
K_OH: @aharris ali is actually letting you leave her sight for more than 25 minutes??? im impressed.
Rapinoez: ^^ seriously tho. ash is usually whipped?? how drunk did u have to get ur girl there hun @aharris? ;)
Ali just smilled. She loved soccer, endlessly, but it was nice to have a little break from her team duties, even if it was just a weekend. At first she was a little concerned about how to tell Ashlyn she was going to go to Germany on their only weekend off, but when Ashlyn had told her that she wanted to go home for the break, it was easy.
AK11: @K_OH she pretends i make her stay bc she misses me too much ;)))
---
(present time)
“Kelley fucking O’Hara” Ali hissed. The freckled girl spun around so fast that the champagne in her glass slooshed out over her hands, making her freckles shimmer under the dim light. “What in God’s name are you doing here?”
The girl just stared at her with her jaw basically on the floor. Ali ripped the glass out of her hand and dragged her teammate towards the empty dining cabin, Kelley tripping on her dress and heels the whole way.
Ali lifted her mask off and snapped Kelley’s off, without loosening the grip on her arm.
“Who are you?” Kelley snorted, ripping her arm away, “and how dare you drag me in here like this. I have a right to be here just as much as-"
The sound of Ali smacking her wrists actually echoed, followed by Kelley’s screach. Right before Kelley started screaming, Ali pushed a thumb against her lips and pointed to her Liebe tattoo.
The realization seemed to hit Kelley like a brick wall.
“Oh shit, hey Als, what brings you to Germany,” Kelley awkwardly smiled.
“I asked you first.”
“And I asked you second.”
“Did he invite you here?” Ali voiced dropped to a whisper and Kelley just nodded. “Then who else is here?”
“No idea. I got a letter a couple weeks ago. At first I forgot about it because I left for camp the next day, but then got back and saw it on my counter. Noticed it was the only weeked that the NWSL was off so I decided hey, I want to get away from my annoying girlfriend for a week. So now I’m here. And also like everyone else on the team was either going home or leaving right, so it didn't look suspicious or anything. Wait weren't you supposed to be here for some girly shit or something?”
“Oh never mind that, " Ali rolled her eyes, "but it's the same deal here. WAIT, a girlfriend?”
Kelley just laughed and pulled her phone out of her sparkling, black clutch, showing Ali the lock screen on her phone. It was Ann, sitting crosslegged on someone’s (presumably Kelley’s) bed. Her hair was everywhere and the sheets were tangled, but her happy laughing face was probably the cutest thing Ali had seen.
“Awh squirrely!” Kelley blushed and Ali kissed her cheek, “you two are the cutest. Except make sure you clean those sheets.” Ali winked and Kelley's blush shot up to her ears.
“Want to go back?" Kelley tried to change the subject as Ali was still giggling, "someone has to figure out who ‘killed’ that poor guy and it seems like we are the only two sober enough to do it. We can be a team?”
“Team work makes the dream work girl!”
And back to the ballroom cabin they went.