Alessia thought her first call up to the senior Lioness team went wonderful. She was nervous, well maybe even terrified, to be around the legends that are Beth England and Ellen White, but she was also nervous to be around players just a bit older than her like Leah and Keira. She’d done her best to be friendly and balanced spending time with the team and hiding in her room like the introvert she is. She got home and immediately dumped her bag into the wash, showered, and crawled under the blankets on her couch, sighing into the familiar comforts. She ended up nodding off for a bit before her phone ringing with incoming texts woke her back up.
She patted around, digging the offending device out of the couch cushions where it had fallen.
Random: Hello Alessia. I take it you had a good time at your first call-up.
Alessia: I did, who is this?
Random: Not important, just an interested party.
Alessia: An interested party? That’s weird. I have all the team’s contact information and you’re not in my phone.
Random: That’s just fine. You won’t be on the team long.
Alessia: Alright this isn’t funny. Who is this? What do you want from me?
Random: Like I said, an interested party who wants you to know you won’t be in the Lioness setup for long.
Alessia: I’m blocking you. Leave me alone.
Alessia stood up, leaving her phone on the couch trying to chase away the uncomfortable feeling left by the messages. She did her best to ignore the feelings, but the hair on the back of her neck was still standing. She felt watched.
She missed several attempts in front of goal and was more than a little annoyed by that still when she got home Saturday night.
Random: See what I mean?
Alessia: I told you to leave me alone.
Random: Now that’s not happening. Not at United and certainly not with the Lionesses.
Alessia: Who are you?
Random: We’ve been over this Alessia.
Weeks passed. Alessia started blocking multiple numbers a day, but they kept coming. She felt like she was going insane. She stopped going out with the girls when the number started texting her about how she shouldn’t be going out when she was doing poorly. But she didn’t think she was doing poorly, sure she missed goals, but she was still in the running for the golden boot this season.
At the next England camp she was jumpy. They were starting Euros prep and she was determined to be in the squad, but she couldn’t focus.
“Alessia? Are you alright?” Leah finally asked after overhearing Tooney do her best to get Alessia to talk to her.
“Fine Leah, thanks.” Alessia managed, looking around nervously.
“You’re clearly not, but I won’t push too hard. You can talk to me though, as a captain, and hopefully as a kind of friend too.” Leah explained gently.
Alessia’s phone dinged and she flinched at the noise. Leah blinked, confused at the fear on the striker’s face.
“I’ve got to go.” Alessia said tensely and all but ran from Leah.
“That was odd.” Sarina said, appearing out of nowhere.
Leah jumped, “God, Sarina you scared me. But yeah.”
Sariana leaned against the doorway she’d popped out of.
“Is she getting hate on social media?”
“Not anymore than the rest of us I don’t think. I mean she’s on fire in the league after coming back from her hamstring.” Leah replied frowning.
“We’ll keep an eye on her.” Sariana noted.
“Room her with me. I don’t…something is wrong. She’s been off for months now. Let me see what I can do.” Leah asked.
Sarina nodded, “When we travel tomorrow, yeah, I’ll change the rooming lists.”
Leah barely let Alessia out of her sight the rest of the day. She kept a mental log of every time she flinched. Every time her phone notifications went off. Leah also noticed some of the staff also hovering around, wondering if Sarina had put them up to it.
“Which bed?” Leah asked following Alessia into their hotel room for the next four nights.
Alessia tossed her bag on the bed by the window, collapsing back onto the bed.
“Alright there?” Leah teased.
Alessia groaned, shoving her head into the pillow.
“Yeah, delayed flights are the worst. Why don’t you shower the plane off first and maybe you’ll be asleep once I get out.” Leah recommended.
“Yeah, thanks Leah.” Alessia replied pushing up.
Alessia left her phone on the nightstand. Leah wandered around the room, unpacking her suitcase a bit. She plugged her phone in on the nightstand and knelt down to organize her charging cords for her tablet, laptop, and phone when Alessia’s phone made the low battery noise.
Leah plugged in Alessia’s charger that was on her bed and picked her phone up to place it on the charger. She didn’t mean to snoop. Maybe she was a bit curious. Maybe she hoped to see what notifications she was getting, but she didn’t quite mean to do what she did.
Which was fully snoop.
Because when she picked the phone up to plug it in the screen was alight with messages.
Random: Terrible thing flight delays. It was so boring to just sit around all afternoon.
Random: Hope that doesn’t mess your game up this week.
Random: Though, then again, maybe I do.
Random: Maybe it’ll finally show you that you don’t belong in the Lionesses.
Leah yanked around, looking for Alessia to come out of the bathroom, but the music and shower could still be heard. Leah took a picture of it with her phone and slipped out of the room, nearly running to Sarina.
Leah banged on the manager’s door until she opened it.
“Leah! What’s wrong? Is anyone hurt?” Sariana asked surprised at the look on her face.
“I figured out what’s wrong with Alessia. Someone’s harassing her. Someone within the team or the staff. She doesn’t have the number saved; I took a picture. Here look.”
Sarina took the phone Leah shoved in her hands, reading it over.
“What the fuck?” Sarina exclaimed looking up at Leah.
Leah nodded in agreement.
“Alright, come in, I’ll grab my phone and see if I have the number saved anywhere.”
“You don’t think they would use a burner phone?”
“Probably, but I want to make sure they’re not even stupider than they must be to act like this towards Alessia.”
Sarina plugged the number into her phone and came up with nothing.
“I think we need to pull Alessia in here and talk to her.” Sarina said after a few minutes of pacing around her suite.
“She’s so jumpy and untrustworthy. Who among us could be this cruel?” Leah asked.
Sarina shook her head.
“Tomorrow. See if you can get her to talk tonight.”
Leah slipped back into the room to find Alessia leaning against the headboard.
“Thanks for plugging my phone in” Alessia said glancing up.
“Yeah of course. Look, um, Alessia I must apologize and ask you something.” Leah started.
Alessia looked up taking in the expression on Leah’s face. Leah was red, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.
“Uh, ok, what…um ok?”
Leah perched on the side of Alessia’s bed, fiddling with the comforter.
“When…when I plugged your phone in…it had just done the low power noise, and I was putting all my stuff together so I just grabbed yours to put on and um I didn’t mean to read your notifications…but I saw um I saw the hate messages. And I’m really sorry that I invaded your privacy like that, but I also really really need you to know that they’re wrong and you deserve better.”
Alessia’s face flushed bright red.
“I don’t know who it is.” Alessia whispered.
There was a long silence where they just looked at each other and then Alessia broke. Tears pouring down her cheeks, sobs hiccupping as she told Leah everything. Leah was horrified, her own tears mixing with Alessia’s as she tugged the younger woman into her arms and held her as she cried. Leah rubbed big soothing circles on the strikers’ back, doing her best to soothe her while also encouraging her to tell the whole of everything.
“Alessia. We have to figure out who this is so Sarina can fire them and report them to the FA. I’m so sorry this is happening to you, and I’m so sorry that you have been dealing with this alone. You’re not anymore though alright? I’m right here. I’ve got you.”
Alessia nodded into her shoulder, slowly relaxing into her embrace.
“Can you stay?” Alessia whispered, clinging just a bit tighter when Leah shifted back a bit as if she was going to get up.
Leah blinked in surprise, “Yeah, of course. I do still need to shower though ok. I’ll make it the fastest of my life and be right back.”
Alessia loosened her grip and Leah took a risk, pressing a kiss on her hairline as she stood. Leah was back within five minutes, her shirt sticking to her where she only half dried her hair with her towel. Alessia cracked a smile and stood, she came back with a towel and a brush and worked through Leah’s hair, plaiting it loosely before adding a hair tie at the end.
Leah started out on her side of the bed, before Alessia scooted towards her, tucking her head on her shoulder.
“Thanks Leah.”
“Anything for you Less.” Leah admitted sleepily.
The next morning, Leah and Alessia grabbed Tooney and made their way to Sarina’s temporary office. Tooney was confused and Alessia was clinging to Leah’s arm so tight she was sure to leave a bruise, but Leah kept her winces internal.
Tooney sat with her jaw nearly on the floor the whole time Alessia spoke. Sarina was mortified. She took Alessia’s phone for the day. Sarina documented everything Alessia was sent. Sarina walked around with Alessia’s phone in her pocket, watching her staff and players, looking for anyone on their phone when Alessia was getting notifications.
Sarina started with a list of names of consistent phone users, that she then decided to watch closer. By the end of the day, she’d narrowed it down to 10, including a staff member who hung around when they didn’t need to, not even interacting with the players.
Sarina called Leah into her office and gave her the rundown. The two split the list, Leah taking three players and two of the staff to keep an eye on while Sarina focused on the rest of them. Leah decided to rule out the three players first, calling a round of competitive games in the team room and convincing everyone to put their phones up and just play together. She eyed them occasionally and none of them had their phones out the whole two hours they were together playing.
Leah met up with Sarina before lunch to look at the messages Alessia was sent while they were playing. It was a constant stream for those two hours.
“Well, that rules out the three players who are just addicted to their phones then.” Sarina said sitting back in her chair.
Leah laughed dryly rubbing her face. Seven to go now.
“Leah!” Sarina called Leah and Alessia were leaving the team room later that night.
“Hey Sar, what’s up?” Leah asked hopeful Sarina would get the hint and pretend she hadn’t texted her they needed to chat.
“Captain question for you, come with me? Less I promise I’ll send her up in a few.” Sarina said.
Alessia shrugged, “See you in a bit, good luck.”
“We’ve got a bit of a problem.” Leah admitted once Sarina shut the door to her suite.
Sarina quirked an eyebrow as Leah held out her phone, showing a series of messages regarding how close she and Alessia seemed to be and how much of a shame it would be if it got out the captain was soft on the young striker.
“So that confirms it’s someone within the setup then. We haven’t been outside of the bubble. The room list is only available to a handful of staff, right?” Leah asked as Sarina scrolled through.
“I’m having a no phone day tomorrow. We’re shutting this shit down the old-fashioned way if we have to.” Sarina said eventually.
The next day, no messages came through during the phone ban.
Sarina called in the FA for the last day before the game. She explained everything, showed the documentation, and set up a flytrap for them. The two FA officials set up near the few staff still under scrutinization. They were unaware of their presence, thinking that they were just part of the stadium staff. One of the staff even cracked a conversation with one of the officials, chatting for a good 10 minutes before she had hopped into work. The other hung back, leaning against the ad banner on his phone.
Sarina was frowning, focused intently on the game while also keeping an eye in the back of her head towards the young physio. Alessia’s phone vibrated in Sarina’s jacket pocket. During half time, after the team talk, Sarina went to the bathroom, confirming the stream of messages. The undercover FA nodded once to Sarina confirming that it was in fact the 30-year-old physio sending the messages.
Sarina leaned back against the ad banner, just a few feet down from him, changing her vantage point while she watched. He slipped his phone in his pocket, glancing over at Sarina.
“Good game yeah?” Sarina asked lightly.
“Oh, yeah. Always good to see them out there winning like this.” He replied easily.
Sarina hummed, turning back to the game. She’d put Alessia’s phone on full volume as a message came through. He looked over at her when the phone dinged.
Sarina laughed, “I’m getting older, gotta have the phone all the way up ya know.”
He shook his head, “You’re not old Sarina! But do you need to get that?”
“Oh no, I won’t check until after the game, but if I turn the volume off I’m way more likely to set it down and loose it.” Sarina leaned forward as Alessia and Tooney made a link up at the midfield leading Alessia to score.
Sarina jumped in the air cheering and turned to the physio with a grin, “She’s just fantastic, don’t you think”
“Oh, uh, kinda think she’s overrated actually.” He admitted.
“Oh.”
“She’s not very nice either.” He shrugged.
Sarina creased her forehead looking at him. Alessia was one of the nicest young women she’d coached.
“So even with her scoring goals like that, you wouldn’t start her?” Sarina asked walking back to the ad banner in the 80th minute after Alessia put another one away.
“Nope.”
Sarina shook her head, leaning back as more texts came through. She walked back to the touchline as the game came to an end, greeting the players, shaking hands with the opposition and hugging the players and staff. She reached out, tugging the physio around his shoulders and pulling him into the tunnel, flanked by the two FA officials, and the whole team. She led them into the locker room, holding him in a vice grip.
“Well, great game everyone, and I will happily let loose the celebrations in just one minute.” The whole team cheered. “But first, I want to address something with you all that’s been happening behind the scenes. See here, our Alessia has been the recipient of a near constant stream of hateful messages telling her that she doesn’t belong in the team.” The atmosphere of the room shifted immediately. “And I want to address all of you and ensure you that we took that seriously and investigated the messages and the throw away numbers behind them. It took us a bit, and I hate to say that you all were under scrutiny at first but I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.” The physio in her grip kept trying to pull away. “And we’ve had these two lovely folks here watching and doing their own investigations on behalf of the FA. So, I wanted you all to see what happens when you harass another person the way our young physio here has been harassing Alessia.” Sarina released him partway as Leah and Tooney stepped closer, both looking absolutely murderous, Alessia tucked protectively under Mary’s arm behind them. “It is my pleasure to let you all know that this physio here, is absolutely fired. The FA has banned him for life from working in football. A public statement was just released explaining that he was fired for harassment of a player. Anyone have anything to say?”
“Yeah.” Alessia croaked and everyone turned to her, shutting their protests down to let her talk, “I just want to know…why me?”
The physio was looking around frantic, pale, sweating visibly, but when Alessia spoke up he turned to her with a change in demeanor, “I meant everything I said to you.” He spat, “And everyone will see how you croak and that I am right.”
“Well then.” Sarina said. “I think you can pack your bags and fuck right on off then. Please escort him to collect his things and leave.”
“I’d quite like a word actually.” Mary said as she held Alessia, “I will follow you wherever you go. I will ensure any interview you get will end in nothing. You harassed a perfectly wonderful person and player because you felt like you could. I hope one day when you are old and alone you’ll realize that whatever this was about, it was never worth it.”
“I’ll second that. I’ve got a few contacts within the NWSL and France that I’ll be reaching out to as well.” Lucy spoke up, her arm around Alessia’s other side. Keira was holding her in a way that said she was actually holding her back.
“The captains of about a dozen countries have a group chat. I’ll be letting them know the situation as well. They will ensure that they spread the word around the professional environments all over the world. You fucked up.” Leah added.
“I’d quite like to just kick your ass.” Jill Scott added stepping forward.
There was a chorus of agreement. The physio scoffed, rolled his eyes, then shrugged.
“Do your worst.” He taunted as he was half dragged from the room by security.
The team stood in shocked anger, looking around at each other.
“Well, that can never happen again.” Beth Mead announced, “Leah, that captains group chat, maybe we can sit down and chat about broaching the subject, I don’t want any other players being treated like that within their setups. I mean we all get the online hate, but to spoof the phone number and essentially stalk Alessia? Unacceptable.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. Maybe I can reach out to some retired players too, get their feedback and support.” Leah agreed.
They carried on for a while as they slowly moved Alessia around the room, each of them taking hold of her, hugging her, talking to her, whatever they all felt like. Alessia was a mess when she finally was tucked in between Leah and Tooney at the front of the room.
“Thanks everyone.” Alessia managed once Leah got their attention for her.
Later that night, after a proper celebration, a few drinks, and a lovely dinner, Leah and Alessia collapsed onto their respective beds.
“I’m so tired.” Alessia groaned.
“Oh, me too. I’m sure you’re emotionally tired too.” Leah agreed.
Alessia laughed, “Oh so exhausted. I need to have a week off after this.”
Leah hummed, “I wish I could offer that to you, but we do need you for the Australia friendly, I made a bet with Steph and Caitlin that I’d rather not lose.”
Alessia rolled onto her side too peer at Leah for a few moments, “Thank you Leah.”
Leah cracked her eyes open to look over at her, “Anything you need Alessia. You’re an amazing person and a fucking phenomenal player. You’re practically made of sunshine, and I hate that anyone dimmed that even a bit.”
Alessia blushed, “You’re too sweet.”
“Well, you’re too cute to not be sweet too.” Leah admitted.
Alessia grinned, “Now now Williamson, we’ve got a tournament to win this summer.”
Leah smirked, “We’ll revisit this then.”
Alessia flushed pink, rolling back over.
After both showered, Alessia was sitting up against the headboard worrying her lip. Leah raised an eyebrow in question. Alessia looked up, thinking, before slowly scooting to the other side of her bed, giving Leah the option. Leah flushed pink then as she put her phone to charge and climbed in beside her, turning out the light.
Alessia scooted closer, resting her head against Leah’s shoulder. Leah sighed as Alessia relaxed next to her.
“Night Leah.” Alessia whispered.
“Night Alessia.” Leah murmured as she pulled her closer, kissing her temple as she cuddled her.