Surf
Kelley pulled out the surfboard and board shorts from the trunk of her car. Surfing is absolutely Kelley's second favorite activity, behind playing soccer, of course. “What is it about surfing that makes it so captivating?” Kelley pondered, as she slowly paddled away from the beach. 'Cause it's relaxing? The solitude? A chance to be alone? No, not that. Deep down, Kelley knew the answer, but didn't want to admit it. It's feeling of being able to completely surrendering herself to something while simultaneously trying to conquer it - the ocean, the tossing waves, the ice cold water...and well, Hope Solo too.
Since that hug in the locker room, Kelley's crush on Hope had only gotten worse. Hope, on the other hand, saw Kelley in a new light. All of a sudden the goalkeeper began finding herself noticing Kelley, paying attention to Kelley, and even wondering what's on Kelley's mind. Long story short, Hope was interested in Kelley. Or rather, Kelley had piqued Hope's interest.
Knowing Hope's personality, there is no doubt that she is one that pursues what she wants. She is a person that acts according to her heart, that more often than not, does before she thinks. That's Hope, the best goalkeeper in the world. One that goes along with her emotions, trusts her intuition, relies on her instincts. It is her biggest strength, and her biggest downfall.
On the bus ride to the airport after their last game of 2011, a 1-1 draw in a friendly against Sweden, Hope did something she had never done before - she took the seat beside Kelley (which, FYI, usually belonged to Mittsy or Buehler at the time). The move turned heads, as Hope and Carli had always been the two back seaters with “Do Not Come Near” written on their foreheads, but Hope didn’t care, not like she had ever cared. Hope never felt the need to explain or justify her actions.
Kelley, on the other hand, was looking out the window, completely unaware of Hope sitting beside her. Kelley had her headphones on, and was playing “Dancing on My Own” on her iPod. She bobbed to the tunes, heck, even lip-synced the chorus. The squirrel incarnate was clearly very excited to go home and couldn’t wait to catch her flight back to Georgia. It wasn’t till the song was over that Kelley realized who was sitting beside her. “Holy crap. How embarrassing was that!” Kelley thought to herself. Her heart was racing, and her face turned bright. From the corner of her eye, she could see Hope on her phone, with a visible smirk on her face. Kelley knew Hope wasn’t going to say anything, so she broke the ice. “Hey sorry I completely zoned out!” Kelley stuck her tongue out and made a silly face. Hope turned her head and smiled smugly. “Haha yeah I didn’t want to disturb you…didn’t know you like Robyn.” “Oh my gosh I love Robyn. Her music is DOPE.” Kelley replied enthusiastically. For the rest of the ride, the two chitchatted about nothing and everything. Everyone else on the bus was pretending to be chilling, but all of them were secretly eavesdropping Kelley and Hope’s discussion. “Kelley really had a way of making Hope open up”, they thought.
The bus pulled over. As much as she didn’t want, Hope knew it was time for them to end the conversation. Awkwardly, she pulled out her phone, unlocked and handed it over to Kelley, asking casually, “You wouldn’t mind if I text you sometime, would you?” “Not in a million years, Hope!” Kelley quickly plugged in her number. At this point, Kelley heart was about to burst. Hope could have easily got Kelley’s number through Barnhart or simply look through the team text group or team contact list, but that was Hope’s way of testing the water, Hope’s way of telling Kelley that she wanted to keep the dialogue going. Initiating relationships of any kind had never been Hope’s strong suit, as evident in her polarizing personality and tight circle of friends. She often appeared to be offhand and blunt to many, but unlike other people, Kelley found the keeper’s brusqueness quite adorable...
It was that time of the year again. The gals knew they would sure miss being together, but they looked forward to taking a break for now, before embarking on the road to London Olympics. They had a mission in front of them - not only to defend their Olympic gold medal, but also to retrieve what was snatched from them in Germany. The team hugged and waved each other goodbye as they boarded different planes. Two of them, in particular, had already begun to count the days till the next camp.