You’re looking outside of your window, trying to calm down your nerves. You’ve always been a little frantic about flying but it is nothing you can’t handle. You’re part of the national team. You basically have no choice but to get used to being up in the air all the time. Thankfully for you, Ali let you sit by the window. For some reason sitting by the window makes you feel more in control of the situation. You get to see exactly the moment when the plane takes off which it will in a few more minutes and it gives you a sense of security.
Your teammates are walking up and down the aisle, talking and laughing and seeing them at ease makes you relax a little more in your seat. If they can all be this comfortable than you can too, right? When you look to the row of seats next to you on your right, you see your favorite goalkeeper hanging over a little notebook, scribbling down notes. You watch her for a few seconds and you notice she keeps looking up and then quickly down again before writing down words. She looks up again and you try to follow her eyes. They’re going up and down the entire plane. She is counting something. And that is when you notice her left hand rapidly tapping on her upper leg, that leg bouncing up and down. She seems nervous, scared almost.
“Hope.” you call in her direction, but you get no response. She looks up again, eyes going over your teammates. Her cheeks are a little flushed and little drops of sweat have started to show on her forehead. Without even asking Ali to get up, you climb over her and you head toward Hope. She barely even notices it when you sit down in the empty seat next to her.
You take a better look at her notebook and you see that she has been working on what looks like a map, a map of the plane. The map shows where all your teammates are seated, the amount of seats and the emergency exits. So that is what she has been doing. She has been counting the seats, exits and all the people on the plane including staff members. She continues to draw her map when you put your hand over hers. She looks up at you, her eyes slightly wide. She obviously didn’t expect you to be sitting next to her.
“It’s okay.” You whisper as you continue to hold her hand. She is still looking up at you, panic evident in her eyes. “There is no need to be scared.”
“I’m not scared.” She says.
“Sure, you’re not. Well, there is no need to be nervous.” Of course badass goalkeeper Hope Solo would never admit that she gets scared too.
“I’m not nervous, I’m just taking precautions.”
“Okay, you’re just taking precautions.” You know pointing out to Hope that she makes it pretty clear that she is scared or nervous is not going to work. Hope always has been an open book to you but pointing that out to her has never ended well. So you decide to keep your mouth shut and just sit there, waiting for the plane to take off. The least you can do is be there for her when she realizes that her fear of flying isn’t something she has to tackle on her own.
In the corner of your eye, you notice she has gone back to writing in her little notebook, this time writing down how many fire extinguishers are within this compartment of the plane and how many first aid kits there are within a fifteen feet radius. This is getting ridiculous. You need her to relax and the only way to do that is that have her attention elsewhere.
“Tell me something I don’t know about the almighty Hope Solo.”
“Excuse me?” she looks up at you quizzically.
“You heard me. Tell me something about you that I don’t know already.”
“Well, let me think about that for a second and I’ll come back to you later.” She answers as she returns her attention back on her notebook. Obviously this isn’t working.
“Okay, if you have nothing you want to share with me, then I’ll share.” Somehow that seems to get the goalkeeper’s attention. Now all you need to do is keep going before you lose her.
“I grew up on this huge old farm that had been passed down generations before my granddad gave it to my dad. We had some sheep, a few pigs, and the most adorable dog running around the property. My parents owned acres of land around the house and me and my siblings would spend days building forts in the trees and playing soccer.” You pause for a second, a subtle smile tugging at the corners of your mouth as you think of all the memories from your childhood. You notice Hope has put down her pencil and has turned her full attention to you now.
“One day, on my sixth birthday my granddad gave me a little baby chicken. My mom was furious with my granddad but she let me keep the chicken. I named her Cheese ball and….” Your story is interrupted by a little laugh coming from the goalkeeper. She looks up at you with sincere innocence.
“You named your chicken Cheese ball?”
“I was six, Hope ‘why so judgmental’ Solo.”
“Okay, okay, my bad. Please continue.” Her hands up in defense.
“So, I had Cheese ball and we basically became inseparable from day one. I even took her to school the next day and all the children in my class thought I was so cool for bringing a chicken to school, except for my teacher. It might have had something to do with the fact that Cheese ball pooped on her pants when she tried to pick her up. But anyway, I taught Cheese ball some tricks and I would invite my mom and dad to come to my shows that my chicken and I had put together. Not going to lie, but I was a pretty good chicken trainer. You can imagine how devastated I was when I came home one day after school to find out that Cheese ball wasn’t in her pen. My mom told me she had run off. I was so pissed, you know. I actually felt betrayed and I was mad because that chicken thought she could just take off and leave me behind. I told my mom that I wanted to eat chicken wings for dinner that night as some sort of revenge for my broken heart. It took my mom years to tell me that Cheese ball hadn’t run off but got out of her pen and got run over by the neighbor’s truck.”
Blue piercing eyes are staring at you, Hope hanging on to your every word before she bursts out in laughing.
“That can’t be true.” She says between laughs.
“It actually really is. Glad my broken heart seems to have such an effect on you.” You see, trying to keep your own giggles inside.
“I’m so sorry, but that was just……that was just…okay, give me a second to breath.” Hope gets out.
You’re relieved to see Hope isn’t as anxious. She has completely abandoned her notebook and her cheeks are still flushed but not from fear, this time it’s from pure joy.
“You haven’t even noticed we have taken off.” You say, once Hope has settled down a bit. As soon as she comprehends what you’re saying, she tenses up and looks out the window.
“Relax,” you say as you put your hand on her shoulder. “Relax, you’re fine. It’s just a plane.”
“Just a plane? Do you have any idea how many people die in a plane crashes?”
“People rarely die from plane crashes, Hope.”
“Yes, rarely but it happens, doesn’t it?” you see Hope tense up again and her leg has started to bounce.
“Come one, Hope. There is nothing you can do about it now so you might as well enjoy the flight.”
“I guess you’re right.” She says as she falls back in her seat, her hand on her chest as if to will her heart to slow down.
“You’ll be fine, trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Kelley, you’re so small I can fit you in my pocket. How the hell are you going to stop a plane from crashing?”
“Thanks for your trust, Yolo and I’m not sure how I will stop a crash from happening but I’ll do anything for you.” You have no idea where that last part came from and this time it is you whose cheeks are turning a light shade of red. Yes, you’ve been having feelings for Hope for a while now but now is not the time to talk about that. You just pray Hope hasn’t picked up on your words yet. If she has noticed, she doesn’t mention it.
“Thanks, Kells. You’re a really great friend.” She says as she takes your hand in hers and gives it a little squeeze as if to give her statement extra power.
The rest of the flight goes relatively smooth. The two of you have such a fun time, Hope doesn’t even notice the plane descending.