Mal wasn't a really nice person whenever she felt like her friends were in danger. And that danger had a name. At least, that was her point of view.

Ever since they resumed practice, Gabie Jenkinson - that everybody called Jenko now - was very aggressive on her line, already making some of her friends fall. It was the case for the young Lena Riley, and then for Moe and Ashley. Even though the goalkeeper was way taller than Mal was, and also very impressive, the young lady couldn't stand her. She just wanted to punch her in the face.

So when Jenko fouled her, Mal just got up and nearly made their bodies touch because she was standing very close to her.

"What the hell ?" Mal yelled, which got everybody's attention.

"What ?" the tattooed blonde asked, shrugging.

"Hurting your teammates on purpose isn't a good way to help the team !" the tiny girl flew into a rage.

Jenko just looked at her, frowning. But she was not impressed. She's had to deal with way scarier people in her life, so her tiny rich teammate wouldn't scare her. She looked down at her, smirking.

"I didn't hurt them. I just did my job." she pleaded, looking around. "Do you see anyone crying on the ground ?"

"Maybe you should be" Mal angrily let out.

Tobin chose her moment to separate the two young girls, looking at Mal with disappointment. Alyssa was pulling Jenko by the arm so she'd calm down and go back to her position. Tobin looked at both girls, before saying :

"Your stupid fights can wait" the co-captain sharply said. "Now we are at practice, and in case of you forgot, this is a professional team, so even though you obviously don't like each other, you have to tolerate each other's presence."

Mal nodded.

She didn't feel any shame. She knew this girl wasn't going to be her best friend. She really wanted to strangle her during her sleep. Hopefully, they weren't roommates or something, otherwise a murder would have been committed.

"Fine" she muttered. "But if that bitch fouls Ashley one more time..."

"Mallory Diane Pugh" Christen warned her, crossing her arms on her chest.

Mal let out a small sigh and got back to training. She couldn't argue with Christen, because she was like a big sister to her - and almost like a mother - and scared her to death whenever she was angry. The worse case scenario was when both Julie and Christen were telling her something. They really were like two lesbian mothers with their turbulent daughter. And even though Mal was 21, she still was their baby.

She stood next to Ashley, and looked at Steph and Kristie make a nice cross and score against Jenko, who was just rolling her eyes.

"She spends her time looking at you" Ashley whispered into her friend's here. "I mean, when you don't look"

"I'm sure she doesn't" Mal argued, quite tired of all this drama on the second day.

Her friend just smirked and winked at her, before running to the box. She scored against Alyssa, and came back running. Saskia, who was standing right next to Mal for about a second, smiled at her.

"That was nice" she let out.

"Yeah, it was okay" Ashley said, blushing.

She hated being complimented. And Saskia was obviously doing it on purpose. She high-fived Mal, before quickly turning around and run towards Tobin because the co-captain had to tell her a few things.

Mark Parsons was a coach that insisted on teammates helping each other. Like, midfield beginners would go to either Tobin or Allie to have advises, while the defenders could just talk to Julie. The pillars of the team were helping the newbies. And that way of doing things was working pretty well, because almost everyone was integrated to the team on some ways.

Ashley looked at me, clapping her fingers in front of my face. I let a small groan out, glaring at Jenko from the corner of my eye.

"MAL!" Ashley yelled.

The forward was snapped out of her thoughts. Jenko had seen her glaring because she had become too long obvious.

"Uhn?" Mal asked.

"Are you paying attention to anything I say ?" Ashley asked, quite angry.

"Yes" she lied, but immediately rephrased : "No."

"Worse fiend ever" Ashley let out, rolling her eyes.

°

The thing with Lindsey was that even if three years had gone by since she last kissed Sonnett - and since she got with that guy - she could still feel her lips on her, and her touch burning her skin. She would life if she said she was over with her. She was far from being over.

Moe was the only one who really knew about her love for Sonnett - because yes, it was true love at that point - apart from Saskia, who heard a conversation between Moe and Lindsey, and also Allie, who knew the brunette way too well.

Lindsey was done with the whole I love you but I'll let you date a guy because I'm nice thing. She recently decided to change her strategy. She would be taking every opportunity she had to show Emily that she still loved her. Yeah, but she's still dating this douche. Those were Moe's words when Lindsey told her about her new plan.

Moe was sitting in front of her, as Kristie and Sam were having a debate on the new disposition of the locker rooms. Stephanie and Emily were always part of the squad - and yes, Emily and Lindsey agreed on staying friend when they saw that the tensions between them was affecting both their national team and the Thorns.

KMew was pretty confused.

"Why do we even need an extra-blanket ? I mean, it's not like two weren't enough!" she said.

"Yah, but like, they wanted us to be totally covered all the way through the showers, so we wouldn't see each other naked" Sam explained.

"As if it never happened before..." Moe added, rolling her eyes. "They'd better put the money they spend on those extra-blankets on the hotels they let us stay in during the NWSL season. They're awful."

"Totally" Steph let out.

"But, intimacy is important for a woman" Sonnett argued. "We need to feel comfortable."

Lindsey silently smirked.

Sonnett was next to her. She moved her hand and tried to slowly reach her friend's upper leg. When Emily felt Lindsey's cold hand squeezing her leg sexily, her whole body tensed up. She tried to hide a sudden high pitched cry, and didn't dare to look at Lindsey.

Meanwhile, the girls were still on their debate.

"We've seen each other naked a hundred times !" Steph explained. "Furthermore, the guys also see their teammates naked. There's nothing to do with being a woman or not."

SMew frowned. "Sonnett, you alright ? You're as white as fuck."

All eyes were now locked on Sonnett. Lindsey, on the other hand, moved her fingers and touched the inside of Emily's leg. She tried to keep it together, getting her legs closer to each other, catching Lindsey's hand in between them.

Emily had a hard time swallowing her saliva. In fact, she almost chocked on it.

"Y-yes I'm okay I-I" she hid another impulsion, putting her hand on Lindsey's in order to stop her. "Just a little bit nauseous, that's all."

"You should get some rest" Lindsey said, teasing her. "It would be stupid to go down now."

Emily's eyes went wide because of the reference. She got up on her feet, blushing deeply, grabbed her plate and looked at her confused friends.

Lindsey was just very happy of the effect she still had on Emily. The defender forced herself to smile.

"She's right" she confessed, avoiding Lindsey's gaze. "Imma uhm-well, go to my room"

"Do you need anything ?" Moe asked, worried.

"Loneliness" Emily blurted out before turning around. Before crossing the door, she just turned her head. "But thank you!"

With that said, she went out of the room and ran straight at hers. She then sat on the ground.

She needs to stop doing that.