❝ we'll stay young forever ❞

•••

A few hours after the team had returned to their rooms, Sophie woke up Julie and Connie so they could help her wake up the boys. The three girls walked down the hall, knocking repeatedly and aggressively on the doors that stood between them and the boys.

Once they knew that at least one boy in every room wasn't going to immediately fall back to sleep, the girl went back to their room to get ready for their school lesson. It was still early and every single one of the teenagers hated being awake at the moment.

Sophie threw on a pair of blue jeans and a white tee shirt with her black belt before struggling to find something to put over it for her to snuggle into. Spotting Dean's flannel that she had yet to return, Sophie quickly put it on before slipping on her black converse. She left her hair down before grabbing the notepad that she had been using earlier before going down to the lobby to wait on everyone else.

"Looks like someone didn't get much sleep last night," Adam joked when he saw Sophie curled into herself on the couch in the lobby.

The girl rolled her eyes dramatically before returning her head to the arm rest and looking at the notes in her hands. Adam took the seat next to her and peered over her shoulder at the notes. Sophie shifted her body and leaned her head against Adam's shoulder so he could see the papers better.

"You would make a captain or coach one day," Adam spoke as he read through what Sophie had written.

"Charlie's our captain. However I would gladly become our coach right now," Sophie smiled before pulling her knees back to her chest and resting her eyes.

•••

The team was sitting in class while Miss Mackay was attempting to teach them. Key word: attempting. Almost the entire team was struggling to stay awake or was passed out.

The woman began waking up the ones who had fallen asleep one by one before scolding them for not paying attention. Everyone mumbled out apologies with guilty looks. No one made eye contact with the woman as she looked at them all.

"Sophie since you're the only one staying awake, care to explain what's going on?" Miss Mackay questioned as she singled the girl out.

The girl sighed before looking over at Adam who was next to her. The boy nodded causing the girl to take a breath.

"Basically the gist of it is Mr. Ick," Sophie began before Averman chimed in.

"Aka Captain Blood."

"Right Captain Blood," Sophie continued. "He yelled at us after the game for losing and then snapped at me because I called him out on his bullshit. He felt as if him going out with the Iceland trainer lady didn't affect our team. He then made us stay after the game to practice."

"Yeah I guess doing sprints until like two in the morning is practice now," Fulton retorted with an eye roll.

"Yeah yeah let me finish," Sophie groaned as she went on to explain what happened in the locker room once their practice was over. "After that we walked back to our rooms since it was so late and then everyone went to bed. I couldn't sleep so I stayed up the rest of the time coming up with ideas for practices," Sophie finished explaining.

Miss Mackay stood there for a moment taking in everything that had just been said. She looked over all the teenagers in front of her struggling to even stay awake to explain to her what was happening. She nodded her head slightly before speaking up.

"Okay what I'm going to do is cancel any practice you have with Bombay today. I want you all to go back to your rooms and sleep. Especially you Sophie. You're all dismissed."

•••

Sophie and Charlie had eventually gathered the rest of the team in Charlie's room to discuss their new game plan. Charlie being the team captain went to Sophie for help with what to do to help the team succeed in this tournament.

"Sophie has some things to share with us. I think it will really help us," Charlie spoke up first once everyone settled down.

"Okay so practice wise I have an idea. We need to find someone who is really good to do a scrimmage against. I know that it doesn't sound like much for practice but I have someone in mind and they can really teach us something," Sophie began with a smug look as she thought of the kid she yelled at during the Iceland game.

"Who do you have in mind?" Connie asked as the team looked at each other.

"You'll see," Adam said as he recalled Sophie's notes.

Sophie smiled at the blonde boy in gratitude. Charlie gave the two a knowing look as he held the notes Sophie had written. Charlie called the attention back to Sophie after a minute or so of the team questioning each other.

"Hey we don't need someone who only wants us to do well so he makes money. He forgot about putting his heart into the game and doing this for fun. He forgot where he came from. Guys we can't do that because if we do we lose ourselves and each other. We need to remember where we came from and what we stand for. We're not going to let one loss tear us apart. We can do this. I know it's really hard not having a coach there who is helping us but we're Team USA."

"All the way," the team said looking at each other with hopeful smiles.

Listening to Sophie gave Charlie an idea.