Chapter 19
After her fifth day of camp, Ella threw herself onto her bed in exhaustion. The forward did not have a good day, she didn’t connect with her team well during scrimmages and didn’t hit the net once when she got chances. Ella let out a deep breath, she knew Erin wouldn’t be done her training yet, as they always told each other their schedules for the next day the night before.
The forwards head was swamped with negative thoughts and she was on the verge of tears. After a few minutes, she reached into her bedside table and pulled out a letter titled: “Open when you’re doubting yourself” She wiped away her tears and opened the letter.
“Open when you’re doubting yourself”
~Ella;
I’m going to make this as clear as I possibly can, because I know if you are doubting yourself that you aren’t going to be in the mood for anything complicated.
You are amazing Ella, you are so incredibly talented and you are where you are for a reason. Your talent was recognized and I know sometimes you have a hard time believing that you belong there but you do. The way you carry yourself on the field and play your heart out for the full ninety, even when you aren’t on the field you are a leader, and you are someone that is looked up to by the people you play with. You’re talent is extraordinary and I’m so glad that it is being recognized. I have no doubts that you will named to that world cup roster by the time this camp ends. You’re incredible baby and I can’t wait to keep watching you grow and succeed. I know it seems hard sometimes, but I have faith that you will push past this little bump in the road and come back stronger. And always remember; “You don’t know what you are made of until you are broken” We all have bad days love, even the best of us.
I love you.
Keep your head up beautiful.
-Your keeper xoxo~
Ella was crying again, but this time they were happy tears, she didn’t know how the keeper always knew what to say, even before it needed to be said.
The forward took a picture of the letter and sent it with a text to the keeper.
//Thank you for this, I definitely needed it today. I love you so much.//
“Hey Ella?” The forward’s head snapped up, she hadn’t heard Ali enter the room.
“Hey what’s up?”
“I know you didn’t have the best day today, so I was wondering if you wanted to go out for ice cream with Kelley and I? We can talk about how we all have a thing for keepers.” Ali finished with a wink.
The forward smiled at the gesture. “I’d love to, thank Ali.”
They walked down to the lobby and met Kelley before walking down the street to an ice cream shop.
Once the girls got their ice cream the took a seat in a booth.
“So Ella,” Kelley started. “you get to start first because you’re the newest member to our club.”
“Club?”
“Yup, the dating a goalkeeper club.” The freckled girl laughed, patting Ella on the back. “So, how’d you and your girl get together?”
Ella blushed a bit, thinking about Erin. “Well uh.. It’s kind of a long story, but basically I was in a really bad place when I met Erin, and she showed me happiness for the first time in a while. I hadn’t had the best time family wise for the last few years since my dad passed away, and Erin and her mom basically took me in once I let down my walls enough to let her help me. She’s really the reason I’m here, I’ve gotten a few call ups in the past but I never came because I didn’t believe that I deserved it, and also because of my mom… but that’s another story that I’d rather not get into right now.”
“Well it sounds like you met her at just the right time, and I’m glad you’re here, you are definitely a great addition.” Ali smiled, putting her arm around the young forward.
“I agree, sooo what else do you have to share?” Kelley asked with an evil grin. “I want allll the details, first kiss, first date, first time.” Kelley finished with a wink, this got another blush out of Ella, who thought back to her and Erin’s first time.
“Well, I wish our first kiss had gone a little better, unfortunately I kissed her first and then I sort of ran away…”
“No way! How come?”
“Well at first I thought I ran because I was confused about having kissed a girl, and I felt so guilty because I’m pretty religious and thought that I couldn’t possibly like another girl, but then I realised that girl or not, I ran because I didn’t want to hurt her by bringing her into my messed up life. After that night I tried to avoid her, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t deny what I had felt when I kissed her, no matter how brief it was. So the next night I ended up going to her house and telling her everything, and I guess that’s kind of the beginning of it all. The day after that was when what I count as our real first kiss happened.”
“Wow. That was just only the first kiss story, we’re going to be here a while.” Ali joked.
Ella blushed as she went on about the keeper again, sharing more than she ever thought she would with girls who she had only just met. She felt safe with the girls on the team, everyone was so accepting and welcoming.
After a while Ali started gushing about Ashlyn, when Ella got a text from her keeper.
//I’m glad the letter helped babe, and I hope you day is going better now. Love you//
Ella smiled down at the message and typed out her reply, not noticing that Ali had stopped talking and her and Kelly we’re staring at her with a knowing smile.
//It is, Ali and Kelley invited me for ice cream and made me spill every detail of our relationship. Kind of made me miss you more though//
//I miss you tons babe, skype later tonight?//
// of course, I’ll call you later. I love you.//
//love love love you too Ella.//
When the forward finally looked up from her phone, she finally noticed Ali and Kelley looking at her and blushed again.
“Man you are so in love and I love it, Kelley you’re up.”
“Alright well, things are actually really great right now, Hope and I have been talking a lot about our relationship and well… we made it official yesterday.” The freckled girl smiled wide.
“Finally! That’s awesome Kell, I’m happy for ya.”
“Thanks. We’re are going to wait a little while before really going public, but I don’t really care about that right now, I’m just happy I can really call her mine.”
The three girls talked for a little while longer, before heading back to their hotel, Ella and Ali both bugged Kelley for getting to room with hope because the coaches didn’t know that they were together.
“We are going to tell them after this camp, we’re scared if we tell them now that they will think we didn’t tell them so we could room together, which isn’t the case because technically we weren’t dating.”
“Whatever you say squirrel, just remember that the walls in this hotel aren’t very thick.” Ali joked, and Kelley shoved the defender playfully.
“You’re one to talk Kriegs, Ashlyn’s room is right next to ours y’know, so trust me when I say I know how thin the walls are.”
Ella just laughed at the two girls joking back and forth on the walk back, grateful in knowing that she had made some real friends at camp that she knew she could trust.