Page 6

Before this can sink in, the coach is blowing her whistle, and she’s watching Maeve and Zuri go head-to-head with Nat and Milo.

Maybe it’s all a psychological game, because while she’s watching, Adriana can see that Maeve and Zuri are far more confident, being the aggressors even when they’re defending.

Maybe Adriana is imagining it, but she thinks Maeve’s passing to Zuri is particularly careful, as if she’s trying to make up for the earlier fumble.

Luckily, it seems to be working. Adriana watches her best friend rock-solidly defend, showing her class as their best centre-back, clinging to Nat like a relentlessly annoying shadow, allowing Zuri to score.

Maeve and Zuri retain possession the whole time, and Milo and Nat don’t manage to score against them.

Milo’s flaring nostrils look like they might catch on fire.

When it’s Adriana’s turn, paired with Rebecca against Charlie and Elisa, it’s neck and neck, but Adriana manages to score a goal.

Her relief is short-lived though, as Charlie then scores against Rebecca.

In the final few seconds, Adriana is faced with a lightning quick decision: with Elisa already lined up in the goal, she has a chance to score – a 50/50 chance.

It’s a simple luck of the draw. Adriana follows her instincts.

She pretends to go left, but double-bluffs.

And Elisa falls for it. She leaps to the right to defend, but Adriana’s already struck the ball hard to the left, and it hits the back of the net.

The whistle blows, and Adriana punches the air in celebration.

‘Yes! Woo-hoo!’

In the whole exercise, Adriana is the only one to score twice, showing her quality as the team’s best creative midfielder.

She can’t help celebrating a little further in relief, and perhaps also aiming to lighten the mood a little.

Not that she’s really thinking about it – scoring a goal is one of life’s great joys, and Adriana knows how to do that, savouring the moment.

‘Pow pow pow!’

To Adriana’s surprise, as she meets the coach’s eye, her finger guns shooting the air, she is rewarded with a rare smile. It’s even more elating than scoring two goals.

‘And your name is?’

‘Adriana Summers, Coach. Midfielder.’

‘Adriana Summers,’ she notes down on her iPad. ‘Good.’

That one word is enough to banish Adriana’s hangover.

‘God, I am parched .’

Adriana slumps dramatically on the bench in the dressing room, downing a whole bottle of Lucozade Sport.

For the whole of the afternoon, the new coach had been relentless in testing them all.

They had done further trickier drills, then played five-a-side, match after match, all with the added tension of her watchful eye and tapping of her iPad, constantly judging them.

Completely unlike Pappi, who would always tell people to cool off if there were rivalries on the field, Coach Hoffman seemed, if anything, to be sussing out and encouraging the tensions and hierarchies between the players.

Adriana isn’t quite sure what her endgame is yet.

‘Adriana!’ snaps Milo. ‘You just sprayed my shoes! They’re brand new! That orange colouring isn’t going to come out!’

‘That makes them unique?’ Adriana suggests, trying to joke. ‘Make them suit the Tigresses? Here, let me help clean them.’

Adriana reaches for the shoe, but Milo holds it tight and scrubs it furiously under the water tap.

‘God, the new coach is tough,’ Nat mutters.

‘Tough can be good,’ says Zuri.

‘Sure, but tough can also be... tough,’ says Nat, limply.

‘It’ll be alright, guys!’ says Adriana, offering another Lucozade to Nat, who takes it gratefully. ‘I know it’s all new, but we’ll get used to it! Change can be a good thing!’

‘Oh, you’ll be alright, sure,’ Milo tuts.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ says Adriana.

Milo imitates Adriana’s shooting gun celebration. ‘Just like with Pappi. Favouritism even on a hangover. I mean, jeesh, it’s–’

‘Enough, Milo,’ Maeve cuts in, commanding the room. ‘Today has been a lot for all of us. Let’s not take it out on each other.’

‘Okay, “Captain”,’ says Milo, but even their sarcasm is mercifully half-hearted. Maeve still commands respect among her teammates, it seems. Adriana wonders if Milo would even have said that at all if Maeve hadn’t fumbled that ball earlier.

One thing is clear. All the old ways and rules of their team are out the window. Now, everything is to play for.

After everyone else has left, Adriana and Maeve head out into the cool night air together. Maeve sighs deeply, from right in her core.

‘Oh, Sunny,’ Maeve. It’s an old nickname, from when they were kids together in the Manchester United Girls Academy, over a decade ago now. The nickname was basic, sure – from Adriana’s Summery surname – but it holds years of affection.

Adriana pats her friend’s knotted back. ‘Oh Moo, I know.’

That one’s origin was harder to remember, and the two of them still tried to debate it sometimes, when exactly it began.

Maybe it was from Maeve’s alliterative name – MM had become M&Ms had become Moo Moo, had become Moo.

Adriana would never dare to use it in front of anyone else, Maeve would probably kill her if she did, but between the two of them, it’s affectionately received.

Even now, Adriana can’t resist buying Maeve cow-themed presents.

Maeve’s bedroom is absolutely overflowing with little cow trinkets, which Maeve always jokes would be an issue if she actually ever had a woman round to see her bedroom.

‘I absolutely fucked it, didn’t I?’ Maeve groans.

‘No!’

‘You’re a terrible liar.’

‘It was good! It was good ! You were the fastest in the obstacle course!’

‘Sure, but that’s bare minimum for the captain,’ Maeve shakes her head. ‘It doesn’t correct missing a literal pass . A pass , Adriana! I can’t believe I fumbled a pass !’

‘And she remembered your name though,’ says Adriana. ‘That’s a good sign, right?’

Maeve shakes her head. ‘I’m even more under her scrutiny.

Sure, it’s obvious that she is watching me, for me to prove my worth as Captain.

But being in the spotlight like that means I cannot get away with any mistake, none at all.

Not a stupid basic mistake like today. God, it’s so humiliating!

I have been passing since I was a toddler!

Our Academy coaches would be so ashamed! My mum would have disowned me…’

‘Maeve, sweetie, you’re spiralling. Come back to earth. You are being way too hard on yourself. You know that, right? I mean, sure it’s not ideal that the first time you touched the ball in front of the new coach it was a dud.’

Maeve groans again.

‘But she’s played the game at the highest level!’ says Adriana. ‘She’ll know that doesn’t mean you fumble every pass. I mean, you’re the captain for a reason!’

‘For now,’ says Maeve, her voice cracking. ‘And if I keep playing as terribly as I did today, I won’t be the captain for long.’

‘What do you mean, “as terribly as today”, come on! You fumbled the ball once ! Out of a hundred times!’

‘Once is already a hundred times too many,’ Maeve says sternly. ‘I need to practice more.’

‘You need to relax,’ Adriana urges her.

‘Relax?’ says Maeve in a high pitched squeak. ‘Do you realise how insane you sound right now? I can’t relax!’

‘Do you realise how insane you sound right now? I know you can’t relax, that’s exactly the problem!’ Adriana. ‘You’re getting in your head already, I can see it. Please remember Maeve, that I know you. I’ve seen you go through this before! Remember the end of league game at the Academy? Under 16s?’

Maeve puts her head in her hands.

‘Oh my God, Addy. Reminding me of all my past failures is not helping me right now.’

‘No, no, because you only failed then-’

Maeve winces further into her hands. All Adriana can see is her ponytail, waving from side to side as Maeve shakes her head repeatedly.

‘- I mean, you only didn’t succeed as perfectly as you wanted to-’

‘Keep digging, that’s right,’ she mutters.

‘Because you were so in your head! You were so worried that if you let them score a single goal, there was no way you’d make the team, that you got rigid! You need to be able to be dynamic and play without fear out there.’

Adriana looks at her friend, how devastated and tense she is, and fears that she knows the end destination to her spiralling. She feels her own chest getting tight in sympathy too. She can’t let them both sink under. Her friend’s feelings are her responsibility, and Maeve needs cheering up. Fast.

What would cheer anyone up?

‘Look, I have an idea,’ says Adriana. ‘Let’s go out tonight.’

Maeve’s head springs up so fast Adriana’s worried it might pop right off.

‘You’re joking. Please, for the love of God, tell me you’re joking.’

She looks so utterly horrified that Adriana has to laugh.

‘No, I don’t mean out out. Seriously, I have learnt from yesterday, that was the last time.

I’m not going to get drunk before training under a new coach, I do have some sense of self-preservation.

I don’t mean go out out. Just hang out. A soft drink, somewhere relaxing. The Old Pig! For old time’s sake.’

The Old Pig is their local pub, a studenty bar with cheap pints and free-flowing gossip, and the place the team go to all the time when no one has made other plans. All of their best stories start, ‘Remember that time at The Old Pig, when…’

‘We can get two piglet mocktails and a vegan sausage roll,’ coaxes Adriana.

‘I want to tell you all about this man I met last night. Maeve, he was so cute, honestly. If I was ever going to break my no repeat rule, he’d be a contender.

I told my taxi driver this morning – he was as generous with his bank card as he was with his tongue. ’

‘Addy!’ Maeve laughs, and the sound is music to Addy’s ears.

But then Maeve puts a hand on Addy’s shoulder.

‘I do want to hear about it, you know I do. Just not tonight. I’m sorry, I know when you’re stressed you just want a distraction and a good time, but I am not like you.

I’ve had a big day, and what I need is some small sense of routine.

I need a meal-prepped high-protein dinner, and to do a Peloton workout to get rid of this lactic in my legs, before an early night. ’

Adriana’s heart sinks. Not just because she made the wrong suggestion – which feels as terrible a mistake for a people pleaser as, say, a footballer missing a basic pass – but also because she really doesn’t want to spend the evening alone.

The truth is, Adriana hasn’t actually spent an evening alone in.

.. weeks. It’s part of why she’s been going out so much.

Recently, it’s been feeling better to wake up in an unfamiliar bed with someone else than to wake up alone in her flat which feels too empty.

She can’t hear her own thoughts if she’s grinding up against some stranger in a dark nightclub.

‘Okay! Okay!’ Adriana says quickly. ‘That was completely the wrong suggestion. Come to mine! Or I’ll come to yours! I’ll cook us dinner! I can make high-protein meals!’

‘Addy, I say this with love, but the last time you tried to cook for me you literally set my kitchen on fire.’

Adriana had been trying to make them smoked aubergine directly from the fire of the gas hobs, and had somehow set the aubergine on fire. One of Adriana’s favourite memories in the whole world was of Maeve, throwing the flaming aubergine across the room perfectly into the cold metal sink.

‘Okay, but that baba ganoush was delicious right?’

‘Best goddamn thing I’ve ever eaten,’ Maeve admits.

They smile at each other and Adriana’s heart lightens.

‘I’m sorry,’ says Maeve, sighing. ‘I love you, you know I do, but I really need to just be alone tonight. And if I’m honest? I think that would do you good too.’

Adriana’s stomach twists again. Maeve suggesting she needs to change her habits hits way harder and deeper than criticism from some new coach could.

‘If you want to hang out, meet me here at 7 a.m. tomorrow,’ Maeve offers. ‘I’m going to do extra drills before training. Clearly, I need it.’

They both know Adriana won’t be there. Adriana and mornings to not mix. Maeve puts a hand on Adriana’s shoulder and squeezes it firmly.

‘Have a restful evening, okay, Sunny?’

‘You too, Moo,’ says Adriana, swallowing hard.