After a three and a half hour plane ride we landed on the Atlantic island Tenerife where we'd play UDG Tenerife tomorrow evening. Our flight had been delayed due to a storm, so it was already pitch dark outside when we made the short bus ride to the hotel.

To my luck, I would be rooming with Alexia for the next two days.

As we entered the spacious hotel room, I let myself fall onto the bed next to the window.

"Is it okay if I take this one?" I asked Alexia.

"Of course" the queen of Barcelona answered. "I prefer the bed closer to the bathroom anyway."

"We're a perfect match then" I chuckled lightly, kicking my shoes of my feet.

Alexia raised her brow as she followed the shoes with her eyes. "I don't know about that."

I threw a quick glance on my phone. Tenerife being in a different time zone luckily gained us an hour of free time more on this busy day.

"Do you wanna do a movie night?" I suggested.

Alexia excitedly clapped her hands. "Yes! We could watch my new documentary."

My jaw dropped slightly. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Of course, I am." Alexia smirked. "Although it is very good, you should watch it sometime."

Annoyed, I threw a pillow to her, not wanting to admit that I had already seen it. "You're so annoying!"

"Bend it like Beckham is always good classic" the Barcelona captain proposed. "Do you mind if I invite Jenni?"

Now it was my time to smirk. "You guys are too cute. I don't mind at all."

As I grabbed the remote and tried to find the movie, Alexia was texting Jenni on her phone.

"Jenni is rooming with Mapi, so she's coming too" the brown-haired midfielder let me know.

"Oh." I hadn't gotten the chance to speak to her ever since our little disagreement two days ago due to the defender avoiding me as much as possible.

Alexia glanced at me with a questioning face. "Oh? What does that mean? Do you not want her to come?"

"No, no, of course not!" I quickly brushed it off, not wanting to create any unnecessary tension.

Jenni and Mapi entered our room in that exact moment, saving me from more of Alexia's questions, however creating the next problem when Jenni naturally took a seat on Alexia's bed. This left Mapi with no other choice but to sit next to me.

"Hola princesa" she greeted me with an unsure smile, probably not meaning to start any drama in front of Jenni and Alexia.

"Hi" I shyly smiled back, finally having found the movie on Netflix.

We all stayed relatively quiet during the football classic, not only exhausted from the previous training session and our journey to Tenerife, but also lost in our thoughts and memories as the movie hit close to home. As girls, we all had to struggle with others telling us we were not supposed to play football.

"If the movie was set in 2024, Jess and Jules would have definitely ended up as a couple" Jenni finally stated her opinion on the two main characters when the movie was just about to finish,.

"The whole point of the movie is to contradict stereotypes such as every female footballer being into girls" Alexia disagreed.

"But our whole team is gay" Mapi chuckled.

"That's not true!" Alexia defended her opinion. "Lieke, Aitana and Rolfö are straight."

"So are Jill and Jana" Jenni laughed.

"They don't count. But isn't Ingrid straight as well?"

"Definitely not straight" Mapi winked.

"Joder, María León please tell me you did not hook up with Ingrid." Alexia pleaded to her best friend.

"I don't kiss and tell. Nor do I fuck or tell."

I sighed. There was the Mapi I knew again.

The Mapi, I could definitely never let myself fall for.

As our game was scheduled for 18:15, we had the next morning off and I found myself strolling through the streets of San Isidro with Alexia, Jenni and Mapi. It wasn't a particularly beautiful or big town by any means as it practically only consisted of a ton of small but colorful houses, but it was close to the football pitch.

Nevertheless, we had found a delicious café to go at a local shop and were now enjoying our beverages while engaged in a lively conversation.

"Are you at all upset that you couldn't travel home for international break?" Jenni asked me curiously.

I could feel Mapi's eyes lingering on me, after all she was the only one who knew that I definitely wasn't sad that I missed camp, even though she was still being extremely hostile towards me. Since last night she had not spoken a word more than necessary to me, but at least she wasn't avoiding me anymore.

"Not really" I finally provided Jenni with an answer. "I mean, I couldn't have visited my family anyway as the camp would have taken place in the north of Germany and they live in Munich."

"Do you miss your family?" Alexia wondered. "It must be so hard not seeing them a lot."

"Absolutely" I nodded sadly. "They were gonna visit me for my birthday next week, but unfortunately they can't make it due to my father's work."

"Wait, your birthday is next week?" Jenni excitedly clapped her hands. "When? We have to celebrate!"

"It's on October 2, so in 4 days already. It's too late to arrange something" I shrugged. Last year I also hadn't been able to celebrate my birthday due to being in the hospital with my injury, so it wasn't news to me.

"Bullshit" Alexia intervened. "Just leave it up to me, I'll handle it."

Before I could say anything else, Jenni excitedly pointed to a small shop at the corner of the street. "Look at all the jewelry! Please, can we go inside?" She looked at Alexia with huge puppy eyes to which the Barcelona captain obviously couldn't resist. The four of us barely fit in the tiny store filled with jewelry and colorful stones of all kinds.

"Wow, it's beautiful" I mumbled, looking at a golden necklace with a little, pinkish stone heart and a slightly smaller, round diamond in the same color.

"Absolutely. You should get it" I heard a familiar voice behind me.

After a quick look on the price tag, I firmly shook my head. "Mapi, I'm not spending 690 € on a stupid necklace. That's literally just a little less than what I earn in a week."

"Wow, you really need to negotiate your salary" Mapi grimaced. "It's just a little more than what I earn on a day."

My jaw dropped. "Are you kidding me?"

"Maybe a little, but you really need a better contract" The blonde woman laughed. "I think some of the stupid refs have a higher salary than you."

I couldn't help but to roll my eyes. Frankly, I had thought my first real conversation with Mapi these days would have been about something else than her insulting my salary.

She was right of course, but it still hurt.

Quite annoyed, I decided to wait outside, Alexia and Jenni joined me shortly after.

"Did you find something?" I wondered.

"Alexia got me a bracelet" Jenni blushed, showing me a beautiful golden bracelet that was already wrapped around her wrist.

"It's beautiful."

In that moment, Mapi left the shop as well.

"What did you buy?" Alexia asked her curiously.

"Nothing, it's not really my kind of jewelry" the tattooed blonde shrugged, not caring to explain what took her so long.

A few hours later, I was sat on the bench next to Lucy and Aitana, who had both already gotten the chance to prove themselves on the pitch, the latter even scoring a goal in the progress. With Alexia and Claudia scoring as well, it meant we were currently leading 3 – 0. After half-time, Jonatan had told me to warm up, but after 30 minutes of doing so I had chosen to take a short break, not wanting to be exhausted if he still decided to let me play.

"Tenerife is getting tired" Lucy stated, secretly pointing to a girl who had just tripped over her own feet. She'd never admit it, but she was definitely exhausted as well, just having been subbed off in the 75th minute with Mapi going on the pitch for her.

"I'd be too if I had to play against us" Aitana chuckled.

"Emilia" Jonatan exclaimed. "You're going on for Alexia, come on."

I swallowed audibly. Me going on for la reina, was he out of his mind?

After a few more warm-up stretches, Alexia came running towards me, pulling me in a quick hug. "Score for me" She whispered, before I ran onto the pitch, joining my teammates.

Not much happened during the first 5 minutes, until I finally managed to get the ball in Tenerife's penalty area. My heart started beating fast when I realized that none of my teammates were available for a pass as I was surrounded by three defenders. I focused the goal, getting ready to shoot, when suddenly one of the defenders managed to kick the ball far away, at least leaving us with a corner kick.

Mapi, who was responsible for corners on this side, ran over, while we gathered close to the goal.

I watched Mapi as she was getting ready to take the corner, our eyes suddenly connecting, her head just slightly pointing further away. Nevertheless, I knew what she wanted me to do. As she shot the ball, I ran away from the gathering in front of the goal, leaving me totally alone with the ball. Before the others realized what had happened, I kicked the ball to the goal, scoring beautifully in the right corner.

What a goal.

Mapi and I sprinted towards each other, forgetting the tensions of the last few days as she jumped into my arms.

"Mi princesa de los golazos" She screamed, holding my face in her hands. "That was fucking amazing."

I didn't care that our teammates had reaches us as our eyes locked, making me forget about my surroundings. "Couldn't have done it without you."

Liked by marialeonn16, alexiaputellas and 19'983 others

emiliacortes20: unstoppable @marialeonn16

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marialeonn16: princess of the pitch

alexiaputellas: you scored for me;)

lucybronze: 🐐

mapileonfan16: I'm so confused...

A/N: Who found my little Tiktok reference? : ) Also, y'all aren't ready for what's gonna happen at the birthday...