Meghan and Logan Klingenberg
When Meghan told Logan that they were going on a trip to finally meet her aunts, the six year old was stoked. She had never met the group of women that her adopted mom spent so much time talking to on the phone and facetiming. It’s not like they fell out of touch, it was just that everyone’s lives were so busy the team hadn’t gotten around to getting together after Logan was officially adopted. But as the departure date grew near, Logan felt herself fill with anxiety and the fear that not everything was going to turn out like she expected.
“What if they don’t like me?” Logan burst out from the back seat.
Kling gave her daughter a confused look through the rear view mirror, turning onto the I-5.
“What if who doesn’t like you?”
Logan fidgeted with the arm rest of her booster seat. She was slightly embarrassed for being this nervous.
“Your team” she said quietly.
Meghan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. So this was the reason why the typically chatty six year old had barely said two words since arriving in Seattle. The former defender stayed quiet for a few moments, navigating the rental car through the narrow roads leading to Hope and Kelley’s lakefront home. Once she found the address and pulled into the winding driveway, Meghan killed the engine and turned around in the driver’s seat, facing her kid.
Logan’s blue eyes were moist and filled with fear. It broke Kling’s heart to see her sassy kid so distraught.
“Why do you think they wouldn’t like you?”
Logan shrugged, trying to choke back her tears.
“Because I’m adopted and I haven’t known them for forever like the other kids and I’m just different.”
“Listen,” Kling put a hand on Logan’s knee “biological or not, you’re my kid and they’re going to love you almost as much as I do”
Logan sniffed, some of the anxiety being displaced “Yeah?”
“Oh yeah” Meghan agreed somberly “besides, you’ve met Aunt Morgan and she likes you right?”
“Right”
“And everyone sent you gifts for your birthday last month right?”
The little girl nodded slowly “Yeah”
“So you don’t have any reason to be nervous babe and if they don’t like you, I’ll fight ‘em” Kling shrugged.
Logan let out a laugh. Visualizing her tiny mom fighting tall soccer players was pretty hilarious in the six year old’s mind.
Seeing her daughter smile, Meghan took that as her cue to exit the car.
“Ready kid?” Kling raised an eyebrow
“Ready” small hands deftly unbuckled her harness and hopped out of the car.
Hand in hand, the mother daughter pair walked to the front door. With each step the noise of kids running around, meat sizzling on the grill and adults erupting in laughing grew louder. It was Kling’s turn to be nervous, all the progress they made in the car seemed to be for naught. Logan was curling into herself, leaning heavily on her mom’s hand for support; trying to shrink herself so she was invisible.
“It’s going to be fun Lo” Meghan squeezed her kid’s hand twice before ringing the doorbell.
Logan heard the high-pitched voice of a teenage girl holler through the house. She froze as the heavy oak door swung open.
“I GOT IT” the voice personified into a seventeen year old girl “AUNT MEGHAN”
“Hey Chloe!” never letting go of her daughter’s hand, Kling wrapped her free arm around the girl.
Logan studied Chloe. Chloe was tall, almost towering over her mom. Her face was covered in freckles and Chlo’s green eyes had a confident spark that intrigued the first grader. In less than four seconds, Logan decided she liked Chloe and allowed herself to relax around the girl.
“Clover,” Meghan prodded her niece “wanna introduce yourself?”
Chloe gave Logan a crooked smile and gave a little wave.
“Hi Logan, I’m your cousin Chloe. It’s nice to finally meet you. Can I give you a hug?”
Logan timidly nodded. While Chloe grabbed the smaller girl in an embrace, Kling gave the high school junior a look over Logan’s shoulder. Chloe O’Hara-Solo had never been this polite in her seventeen years on this earth. She wasn’t rude by any means; the kid just forgot about personal boundaries and figured everyone just knew her name like they knew her mother’s.
“How much money do you want? You’re never this polite unless you want something.”
Chloe rolled her eyes, taking Logan’s hand and pulling the girl inside.
“So funny Aunt Kling, come on Logan”
Meghan watched amusedly as Chloe pulled her daughter through the throngs of people, introducing her to the aunts as well as the pack of 15er girls they affectionately called “The Tribe of Five.”
“KLING” Tobin Heath yelled from her spot at the counter, prompting the rest of the house to cheer in response to their tiny defender’s arrival.
Meghan grinned, setting her coat on the hook and walking to the kitchen where the team was gathered. Everybody was gathered around two large dining tables drinking various beverages and reminiscing about college days.
Their nostalgia was fitting, considering the entire reason they were gathered together, aside from missing the shit out of each other, was to celebrate and reveal which universities Hallie, Chloe and Vanessa had decided to sign with.
“Hiya Klingy,” Pinoe slipped a beer into her hand
“Oooo thanks Pinoe. Hi Keegs” Meghan bent down level to the little girl with white blonde hair, clinging to Megan’s leg.
Keagan Rapinoe blushed, burying her face into her mom’s thigh. The women laughed, knowing that in five minutes Keagan would be holding court with her cousins, hamming it up.
After poking her head into the backyard to say hello to Cap, Abby and her son Hudson, HAO, Carli, Lauren and Becky who were all quite tuned into the mini talent show that twins Emma and Katie Holiday were giving, Meghan entered back into the kitchen.
“Solo, where’s your wife?” Kling looked around the room for Kelley
Hope waved her hand in the direction of the stairs.
“She, Ali and Syd are off making calls to their families about which schools the girls committed to”
“I missed University reveal? Damn it, what schools are we going to this year?”
“Double trouble committed to Stanford and Queen V is headed to USC”
The defender and Hope shared a look of amusement. Vanessa Dwyer’s sole mission in life was to piss off her mother. The latest blow came in the form of committing to Syd’s rival school of USC. While it infuriated Sydney, the rest of the team got a huge kick out of Vanessa's antics.
Kling took a drink from her beer and sat in a chair between a very pregnant Julie Press-Johnston and Morgan Brian.
“Hey dude” Meghan nudged Moe.
Moe returned the shoulder shove and looked around her friend.
“Where’s Kid Kling?”
“Chloe” was all Meghan had to say for Morgan to get the gist.
Meghan caught up with Julie and Christen who were expecting their first baby, a girl, by the end of the month. Ashlyn, who sat across the table, recapped on the happenings of her older boys while Tobin and Alex updated the family on Kellan’s freshman year at Duke.
During a pretty intriguing tale about the oldest Harris-Krieger son running off to LA, Kling couldn’t help but sneak a glance around the room for her kid. What she saw made Kling’s tiny heart grow about ten sizes.
Chloe, Hallie and Vanessa had Logan sitting on the counter so she was facing the trio perched on barstools. The girls were taking turns telling their newest cousin a wild story about some trip they had taken a few years back where absolutely everything went wrong. Logan was in stiches. The little girl was laughing so hard that Kling was convinced her kid was going to throw up.
If there was any one moment that Meghan Klingenberg felt inexplicable gratitude towards her teammates it would be that one. Without hesitation, her honorary nieces and nephews had taken it upon themselves to welcome this scared little girl into their lives like she had been there since the beginning. They didn’t happen to be gracious and accepting. They had amazing parents who taught them that no matter who came into their lives, they treated them like family.
For that, Meghan was eternally grateful and a little teary eyed.
“Oh my God Kling why are you crying?” Morgan whispered alarmingly into her best friend’s ear.
Kling hastily wiped her eyes and took a long pull from her beer. She may have been a mom but she was still a tiny badass.
“Allergies”
“It’s October,”
“ALLERGIES MORGAN”
Moe let out a laugh, turning her head to see what made Meghan tear up. When Morgan saw the older girls pointing around the room, explaining personalities and how Logan was related to each family member, she felt herself getting a little worked up too. Her teammates raised a good group of kids. She hoped that one day her own would be just as accepted and loved as Logan was.
“Damn Klingy,” Morgan teased, tears springing into her own eyes “motherhood’s made you soft.”