Once I got back from the Tournament of Nations I spent about a week doing fitness training and after that I got tired of doing the same old thing everyday so I made a call.

"Hello."

"Hi I'm looking for the coach of the girls soccer team."

"This is she. May I ask who's speaking?"

"My name's Cairo and I play for the US National Team..."

"Ahh yes. You're the talk of the team right now."

"I hope thats a good thing."

"It is. How may I help you?"

"Well as you may know I don't have a club right now so I was wondering if I could come train with your team?"

"I'd be more than happy to have you. We are in preseason right now and we are practicing today at three if that works for you." It's 1:35 right now.

"Sounds good. I'll see you then."

"See you then."

After I hang up I go change and gather my kit bag making sure I have my pre-wrap, shin guards/pads, boots, extra boots, earbuds, sunscreen, then grab my bag of soccer balls and put everything in my car.

I make the 40 minute drive to the high school and once I pull into the parking lot I see the coach getting practice ready. I then get out of car and grab my stuff and make my way down to the coach.

"You must be Cairo. I'm Coach Stewart, but you can just call me Emma" The coach says and puts her hand out to shake.

"Nice to meet you Emma." I say and shake her hand. "Have you told the team?"

"I haven't said anything yet. Do you have any ideas?"

"Not really."

"I'll figure something out." She says then her phone rings. "Excuse me I need to take this." I nod and she walks away and talks on the phone. I go to the bench and start getting ready

Once I have everything on I grab a ball and mess around until the team gets here. I hear Emma yell for the girls in the parking lot to hurry up so I do a quick run then cut inside and strike the last ball into the far upper 90 and then collect the balls from the goal and turn around to see all of the team staring while their coach is laughing.

"I guess we found a way to tell them." She says after laughing.

"I guess so." I say and walk up to the team who are all staring. "Hi girls."

"Hello" some of them mumble causing me to giggle.

Their coach gets their attention back on her. "Alright well I guess as you can see we have a special guest at practice today. Girls this is Cairo." I nod. "She'll be here today to train with us and help with whatever she can."

"Hey Coach?" A girl in the front says.

"Yes Lexy"

"I don't mean to be rude, but why is she here?" Emma looks to me to speak.

"Well as some of you may know I don't have a club team and wont have one until 2019 so I asked your coach if it was alright if I could train with you girls so I could keep sharp and not just do fitness stuff or train against air and she graciously agreed." The girl nods and everyone goes to warm up and stretch then practice starts.

- - - - -

The team is doing a half field scrimmage to end training and Emma and I are standing back watching.

"Is your keeper always this quiet?" I ask.

"She wasn't last year when she was on JV, but we had an all state player in goal for us last year who went off to college so she may be a bit nervous."

"Do you mind if I talk to her?" I ask and Emma she shakes her head and blows her whistle signaling the team to stop. I walk up to the keeper.

"Hey...you alright?" She nods. "are you nervous to be on varsity?"

"No" She says quietly.

"Be honest. It's okay to be nervous."

"I'm fucking terrified. What if I mess up? What if I let a goal in and lose us the game?"

"Well firstly that shit happens. I've made plenty of mistakes while playing. It happens to everyone. But you got to trust yourself and your fundamentals. You also need to trust your teammates. You need them just as much as they need you. And they need you to be a little more vocal. Your coach told me about who you are replacing and I know that's a big task, but there is nothing you can do about that. All you need to do is be the best you that you can be and be the general of the defense like you were last year. Alright?"

"Alright." She says and I nod and walk back to Emma. The team resumes their scrimmage and the keeper is way more vocal this time. After the scrimmage the team comes over and sits on the bench as Emma and I stand in-front of them.

"Great work today girls. We improved in a couple different areas today." Emma says and looks at the keeper. " Now Cairo has agreed to let the team ask her questions so raise your hand and wait to be called on." After she says this everyones hands shoot up.

"Alright well I see you all have a lot of questions. So why don't we just go down the line and every one who wants to ask can ask something. I'll answer most anything, but I'll tell you if I wont answer. Deal?" I say and they all nod.

I point to the first girl. "Why did you start playing soccer?"

"It was my escape. I had a rough home life so I would always take a ball to the park and practice."

"How did you get scouted?" The next girl asks.

"I attended a camp that had scouts from Europe and the scout from Athletic Club Femenino saw me and liked me so I flew out to Spain and had a tryout and was signed."

"Do you think skipping college to play professionally is a good idea?"

"I don't think I can answer that. I don't know your background or what you want to do in life. But if you do skip and play professionally I recommend getting your degree so you can have a backup plan should anything not work out."

"Why did you turn pro and skip college?"

"Well I was offered a decent amount of money to play professionally in Spain and I needed to get away from my home life."

"Are there cliques within the National team?"

"Not really everyone has their close friend group, but we know we need each other to win so everyone is good friends with each other. "

"Who is in your close friend group?"

"Lindsey, Christen, Ash, Ali, Tobin, and Alex"

"Do you think the US will win the World Cup again in 2019?"

"Well we need to qualify first. But I do think we have a very good chance of winning again."

"What do you do to keep yourself in match shape?"

"Well in the mornings I do yoga for an hour then about an hour after breakfast I go on a ten mile run then swim 3 miles in the ocean."

"Whats your natural position?"

"Midfield and forward."

"Do you think the NWSL will have a team in LA?"

"I would love it if they did. I think there is speculation that the league is bringing a team here."

"Do you have any superstitions?"

"Yeah before each game I do a walk on the pitch. If you come to a game you will see me do it. And then I also have to wear a headband which is just like the one I'm wearing today."

"Are there any relationships on the team?" Of course they'd ask this.

"Not to my knowledge, but I have only been on the team for two camps." They probably don't believe me.

"Is it hard to be away from your family for long periods of time?"

"For me no it isn't. I've been away from my family since I was 15 and we weren't close to begin with so for me it's not. But the girls on the team have become like a family to me so I guess it is difficult since I'm not able to be see them for like 3 weeks out of the month."

"Are you going to come to more practices?"

"If your coach would allow me to I'd love to keep coming." I say and the team look at Emma.

"You're welcome to come anytime." She says and I nod. The girls then ask to take pictures so we do that for half an hour and after all the girls have gone I help Emma gather the stuff we used for practice. I then grab my stuff and put it in my trunk and head home. Once at home I take all my stuff inside, shower, make and eat dinner, lounge around, then go to bed.