Everywhere || N.H

Football And Lap Dances // Chapter 39

~ Athena's eyes

There are several things I have learnt during the span of my brief career. I'm really attracted to men with dark hair and blue eyes, a lot of people hate me, a lot of people love me, I have amazing friends, and...

I completely suck at football.

It was a simple cold Monday when I arrived at one of the biggest stadiums I had ever seen in my whole life. So big that I had to squint my eyes to make out every single chair in it. I had woken up with high spirits, with hope that this was a new experience that would add up to the adventures I was going to tell my children when I grew up. I was excited, very excited, and I don't even know why, since I knew from the start that the only sport I was half good at is volleyball.

While I was softly running down to the locker room in which my team was assigned to, both of my necklaces gifted by Niall rattling in my neck while I ran, I couldn't help but think: 'What the fuck was I thinking when I agreed to do this?'

Turns out, nobody I knew was with me on my team. Niall was playing against me, which really wasn't the greatest, and I was basically forced to socialize. Not that I don't like making new friends, it's just that...

I was really bad at actually making new friends.

I entered the women's locker room and immediately my eyes explored my surroundings. It seemed as though I was really early, since there was nobody inside but me.

I walked over to one of the benches and unzipped my duffel bag, taking out the shorts and shirt that I would be using for the match. I quickly got changed into the soft baby-blue shirt and long shorts that honestly, were quite comfortable. I looked at myself in the mirror and immediately hate for those shorts grew in my chest. I was definitely not used to this type of clothes. I put away the clothes which I was using earlier, sat down, and grabbed my phone to check my social media. I opened Twitter first and started typing in a tweet.

@AthenaRivers: About to go out and play some football! Get your cameras my friends, cause this is gonna be quite a show.

The responses were immediate and positive, which made me very glad. After scrolling absentmindedly on TikTok for a good 7 minutes, I decided that I should probably get out there and start warming up. So, as I thought so I did so, and put my phone away in my bag, and then put my bag under the benches. I quickly tied my hair up in a high ponytail and softly ran out to the actual stadium.

My heart was beating weirdly fast because of the amount of adrenaline I was experiencing at the moment, which was amazingly weird, because I was never, ever in my life excited for sports. Normally the only emotion I felt before having to play a sport was nervousness and laziness, but never, ever in my life, it was happiness.

As soon as I stepped onto the field my eyes met with unfamiliar brown ones. A woman dressed up in fluorescent clothes, with her blonde hair tied up in a hairstyle very similar to mine, her brown eyes with crinkles at the sides, waved at me and motioned for me to go over to her. I softly trotted over to her and smiled once I reached her.

"Hello," She greeted me with a sweet smile which I returned while greeting her back and delivering a polite 'how are you?'. "I guess you don't know who I am so I'm going to introduce myself real quick. My name is Linda James and I'm going to be the referee for this match. I recommend that you should run one or two laps around the field to warm up"

And suddenly in the blink of an eye, all the excitement was replaced by the usual feeling of rejection against any physical activity. I grimaced and closed my eyes, trying to not complain to the amazingly polite and nice lady like I used to complain to my P.E teachers at school.