"Toni! Toni! Wake up! We are so dead!"

I hear some shouting at me as they shake my body.

I shoot up and see out the bed and see Alex frantically pulling gin her shoes

"shit, what time is it?" I question jumping out my bed and putting my shoes on myself

"6:20, Jill us going to murder us," Alex says looking a little stressed.

After she's told me were only 20 minutes late I calm down a little knowing there's nothing to worry about

"Alex, trust me, we'll be fine," I say smiling and open the door for us both to leave

We walk down and I can see Alex is trying to hide the fact she's a little nervous as to what Jill might do.

"Just let me do the talking," I say giving her a wink as I walk through the doors

As expected, all eyes turn to look at us most of them with sympathy as they expect for us to get a bollocking from Jill

"Sorry we're late Jill, overslept, I'll buy you your favorite," I say and flash her my famous smile that seems to get me out of everything

"Thanks Toni, you and Alex just take a seat," She says and I grab Alex hand, pulling her in the direction of the free seats on the table with Ash, Ali, Kelley, and Christen.

"Yo, what the fuck just happened," Kelley says as I sit down with Alex

"what do you mean?" I ask

"Jill just let you off like it was nothing, we would have to do 10 laps if we where a minute late," Tobin says to me

"I know Jill's weaknesses," I say smirking as I grab my place and walk over to the food.

As I'm filling my plate up I can tell someone's behind me.

"I have to say I'm very impressed, you got the whole table quite for once," Alex says and I look back to see the rest of them sitting there looking very stunned.

"I guess you're right," I say smirking at her.

The rest of the night goes okay, I'm interrogated some more but I don't answer any questions about my past, there's no need for them to know any of that.

We all head up to our rooms and crash early since we've got training tomorrow and I'm going to head out before everyone else just to warm up my soccer feet a bit.

••••••••••••

My alarm starts blaring and I quickly turn it off not wanting to wake Alex up any earlier than necessary. I tiptoe to my wardrobe and get changed into the training gear Jill gave me last night and quietly grab all the things I need.

I slip out of our room taking one last glance at Alex still sleeping curled up in a ball before heading down to reception.

I go to the reception and see the same lady from yesterday

"good morning ma'am," I say smiling at her.

"Toni right? How can I help you this early in the morning" She asks me

"well I was wondering if you know where our staff keep all the equipment in this building?" I ask hoping she knows the answer.

"I do in fact, I unlocked it this morning when I clocked in, it should be open for you," She tells me smiling

"thank you ma'am, have a nice rest of the day," I say smiling back at her as I walk-off

"you're not going to ask me where it is" she says looking at me amused

"right. Where is it?" I ask awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment.

"2nd hallway on your left, 4th room on the right," She says laughing a little. I send her a toothy grin and jog off to where she's told me to.

I find the room and open the door to see it filled with everything; cones, ladders, balls, hurdles, you name it, this room has it. I open my bag and fill it with as much stuff as possible deciding I'll just have to carry the balls instead. With the bag securely strapped to my back and two balls in my hand, I make the short run to the training ground.

I haven't had a proper chance to take in the fact that I'm currently in France, also known as the 'City Of Love', gotta love the irony of it all. Never been in love and here I am surrounded by people who are probably on couples vacations.

I run through the streets, getting plenty of strange looks from locals and many photos being snapped from what I can presume are tourists.

Eventually, I make it onto the pitch by climbing over the back gate, I know security wouldn't let me in since no one knows who I am, so scaling a 2-foot fence was the best idea, obviously.

Once I've successfully climbed over and collected all my stuff that I threw, I set up some basic ball dribbling courses and get to work freshening up.

I take a seat on the grass and put my boots on, the same ones I've had since I bought a pair when I left that place, I haven't had the heart to replace them yet and they're in good enough condition so who cares.

It takes me a few times to get into the swing of things but once I have it feels like I've never stopped and I can't help but have a massive smile on my face because of it.

Knowing that my shooting needs practising, I take the two balls I could bring and set them up at the edge of the box first, trying to get the ball into in of the upper corners.

The first one is too far in the middle and I know it'll be easily caught by any keeper so I make sure the next has a little more curve to it and this time and it makes it right into the corner. I collect the balls and head out further, doing this again and again until I'm on the halfway line.

I used to be able to do these quite easily but I'm not sure today, maybe I'll get a little lucky. I take a few steps back and breath in a deep breath of air before puffing it back out again.

"Let's go Toni, you got this" I mutter to myself and do my run-up before striking the ball just below the middle with all the power I have. I stumble forwards and watch it fly towards the goal, getting higher and higher

"come on, dip, dip," I say and watch as it just sinks enough to clip the underside of the bar and hit the back of the net.

"you still got it O'Neil," I say smirking to myself

I decided to just have fun with this one and dribble it all the way to the goal doing any trick and flicks I can remember. I do a small rainbow flick and volley the ball into the back of the net giving myself a silent cheer

"and Toni O'Neill scores the winning goal for the USA! The crowd goes wild!" I say in an over the top voice.

I don't want to overdo myself too much so I just mess with the ball while the other a arrive. Basically, meaning I'm kicking it as high in the air as possible and seeing if I can control it to a standstill on my shoe.

I do it one last time and follow underneath it before bringing my foot up and scooping the ball to the floor, I then flick it onto my back and roll it off my neck to continue some around the worlds and keepie uppies.

"dang! She's got some skill, Tobin got competition when she's back" someone shouts making me drop the ball and see the whole team standing by the side.

"I was trying to break my record!" I shout smirking as the team laughs a little. I jog over to them all seeing Jill starting a talk.

"we've got 5 days ladies, 5 days till our first match against Thailand and we need to be ready. We've had a few problems recently but we use that to our advantage. They all think we are low in numbers but they don't know our secret weapon. Not a single video of Toni exist out there on the internet, at least not one where they'll recognise her in it anyway, and we don't have to announce her to the squad until the first game." Jill says as everyone listens in intrigued

"meaning they can't do any research on her until it's too late," Alex says finishing off for Jill

"exactly Alex, now I want you, Christen and Mal to spend as much time with Toni today just so you can all get used to each other and style of play." Jill tells the three girls who nod there head happily

"for the rest of you we'll be working on team dynamics; linking plays, spotting runs and interceptions. Anything to get our bond stronger. I believe we will in again this year ladies so show me what your made of" Jill finishes off saying as we all clap and go off to wherever we're needed.

"O'Neill, a quick word, please," Jill says making me spin back around and head to the coach

"yes coach," I say

"I know none of this is ideal for anyone, but I really believe in you kid, I knew from the day I met you when you were 12 that you'd be someone special I'm just sorry I couldn't help you get there," Jill said putting a hand on her shoulder

"It wasn't your fault Jill, I know you did everything you could that day, some things just don't turn out the way we want them to," I say smiling to the women

"one more thing Toni. I can tell all the girls are stressed and worried about everything, Pinoe's and Tobin's injuries were very last minute and it's worried the group a lot. Obviously, I need you to be serious and work hard but I also need you funny goofy side, might help the girls relax" Jill says to me

"sure think coach I'll get my joke book out don't worry" I reply

"alright Toni, go out there and show my team up will ya," She says giving me a small wink

"yes ma'am" I reply and give her a mock salute causing her to roll her eyes

"you know I hate it when you can me ma'am" She shouts as I jog off

"that's why I do it!" I shout back and laugh at her