Chapter 8
*Abby’s POV*
I was surprised with how much fun the sign language lessons were. It didn’t feel like classes. It just felt like trying something new with my big and crazy family.
We all laughed as Pinoe signed “Hope Solo is a giant donkey” smiling proudly.
Hope glared at her, but looked too calm. “You have 2 seconds to run” She signed.
That was another cool thing about our lessons, we were allowed to say whatever we wanted to each other, but only through sign language. The instructor spent the first day's teaching us all the basic words, and then after that all of us basically had a competition who could memorize the most words, though most of them were of course swear words or insulting phrases.
I laughed as I watched Pinoe squeal as she narrowly avoided Hope’s grip. Running around the room. I tightened my arm around around Sarah as she laughed with me. Spending this week with Sarah has been amazing. I missed her so much, and the crushing feeling that I may never see Victoria again had made it worse.
“Alright, this looks like a good time to call it a night. Good work tonight ladies!” Coach called.
Sarah hopped up and grabbed my arm, basically pulling me down the hallway, making my teammates laugh.
‘It’s like watching a mouse drag an elephant!” Kelley snickered.
“Watch it O’Hara!” I snapped. But even I couldn’t hide the slight smile from my face. As I heard everyone laugh I couldn’t help but think how much I love this team.
As we got into the room we both sat down on our bed and Sarah immediately curled into my side.
“So love, tell me why you dragged me down here. Lord knows Hope will never let me live it down.” I chuckled.
Sarah laughed, smacking my shoulder. “Well your face went kind of dark, and I know the classes make you think about her, so tell me about the girl who’s got you all broody and motherly.” She said.
I blushed a little, shoving her gently as she laughed a little, the concern and interest never leaving her eyes. I hadn’t said too much about Victoria besides the fact that she was mute and the obvious fact that though I only met her briefly, she meant a lot to me.
“Well she has to be sixteen, maybe seventeen. She has hair kind of like yours actually.” I smiled, playing with a stray strand of her hair absentmindedly, making her smile as she motioned for me to go on.
“She’s awkwardly tall like I was at her age, and she seemed excited that she played striker like I do.” I said, pride in my voice. Something about sharing a position with someone is so special. Especially someone like Victoria that I have an inexplicable connection with.
“I guess what I remember the most was the look in her eyes, and her demeanor. Her eyes, the blue is clouded over with pain and fear. Like she feels like she deserves to have people treat her horribly, like she’ll never have a place, it’s like she doesn’t know what it’s like to have someone care about her you know?” I say. My anger flashes a little, wanting to kick whoever made her feel like that in the shins.
“Hey, It’s okay. So you want to be that. You want to be the one to care about her?” Sarah asked gently as she interrupted my fury-filled reverie, rubbing my back.
“I don’t know. I mean I’ve met her for all of 20 minutes. Am I crazy?” I asked, throwing my arms up, for the millionth time since I nearly ran over Victoria questioning my sanity. I’ve met so many people at games, why is she effecting me so much?
“Hey, no, it means you’re growing up!” She says a small smirk on her face. I gasp, pinning her playfully and tickling her sides.
“You did not!” I called, my laugh joining her hysterical laughter. We both settled down, our laughter slowly dying down, and Sarah curled into my side. I sighed in content; not knowing what I’d do without. She always knew how to keep me sane.
“Now stop getting so on to yourself. You know how I feel about fate. If you feel such a connection with Victoria, I think you’re meant to have a big part in her life. Just know I’ll always support you. Whether that means a kiddo or not. Now how about we look up some more sign language, a few insults to shut Solo up when she tries to tease you plus we meet the newbies tomorrow, and then we’ll head to bed. I just know everything will work out.” She said, soothingly rubbing my arm.
I grinned, pulling her even closer to me. “How did I get so lucky?” I wondered.
“I don’t know, you just hit the lottery I guess.” Sarah shrugged, a small smirk present, but relief in her eyes, showing that she was glad that I’m finally at ease. Knowing for sure that she’s on my side with this lifted a weight off of my shoulders. Now I just have to hope that We can help Victoria in some way.
*Victoria’s POV*
The van-ride was uncharacteristically silent. Even Steph was silent, not cracking jokes or being her weird self as Jill drove the van toward the team hotel. The only sounds were the slow passing traffic. I watched the sun slowly get higher in the sky and listened to Taylor Swift sing about how Everything Has Changed.
I jumped slightly when someone poked my shoulder. I looked up to see Coach standing there, a soft smile on her face. “There’s no need to be nervous Victoria. The team is like a big family. They’re all excited to meet you. Everything is going to be okay.”
I nodded, smiling a little and climbed out, gratefully accepting my duffle bag that Mal offered out to me. She looped her arm through mine, a nervous smile on her lips.
“We got this!!!” Steph yelled, obviously over her nerves. I rolled my eyes as everyone in the lobby turned to stare at us.
I tried to ignore the shaking in my hands as Jill lead us toward the conference room. We could hear loud laughing and probably running coming from the room, and Jill rolled her eyes. “A bunch of children, I swear.”
She pushed open the doors, causing everyone to fall quiet, Megan Pinoe dropping the bucket of popcorn she was attempting to throw at Kelley O’Hara, dumping it over Hope Solo’s head instead, earning her the scariest glare I’ve ever seen.
“Ladies!” Jill yelled, breaking up the inevitable fight, “Meet your new teammates.” I froze when I felt a pair of familiar blue eyes land on me.
“Abby?” I signed.
“VICTORIA?!” She signed back, shouting it at the same time, shocking everyone, me included, how the heck did she know sign language.
She started rushing toward me, but instead of feeling scared, I smiled, and ran toward her, wrapping my legs around her as she wrapped her arms around me tightly, making me feel safely for the first time in my life.
“I knew you’d keep your promise.” Abby whispered.
Even though I was surrounded by strangers which usually scared me to no end, but right now, with Abby, I’ve never felt more invincible. Maybe things could be different after all.