Page 16 of Couple Goals

Maeve is panting heavily when Coach Hoffman finally blows her whistle to signal the end of the training drills.

‘Take five,’ Coach instructs. ‘Kevin, collate this data with the players’ ongoing record, please.’

Maeve wipes the sweat from her brow. If there’s one thing intense exercise is good for, it’s helping to distract her from everything whirling around in her mind.

Now she’s stopped, she can’t help noticing Kira nearby, taking long gulps from her water bottle. The two of them had been neck and neck in the drills. She had tried to just concentrate on herself, but it’s hard when every sense in her body seems to be magnetically pulled to Kira. As if feeling Maeve staring at her, Kira looks over at her too, their eyes meeting as they both breathe heavily. Maeve turns away before Kira can see how tomato red she’s going again.

Maybe it’s natural, Maeve tries to convince herself, to be obsessed with her new teammate, her last team’s MVP. Perhaps this overwhelming sensation, of being set alight every time she is anywhere near Kira,is just a warning, signalling she should be wary. She is her rival after all – and that’s not just Maeve being defensive, even Kira herself said this morning that she would fight Maeve for the captaincy, and with her history with Coach Hoffman, she’s well-placed to get it.

Maeve is determined to keep her head in the game of these drills, especially after that intense speech from Coach and Jacob Astor about how they’re expecting a lot of moves in and out of the team. Sheneedsto remain as Captain of the Tigresses.

Adriana has run up to her, her eyes wide and hair wild, like she has news. But Maeve knows it’s just going to be her asking her about what happened with Kira earlier, and she can’t be distracted like that right now.

‘Maeve! Maeve!’

‘Not now, Addy,’ Maeve hisses, feeling terrified that nearby Kira will overhear Adriana grill her for gossip. ‘We need to concentrate.’

‘No, Maeve, you don’t understand.’ Adriana’s voice is high-pitched. ‘I need to talk to you. Urgently.’

‘After training,’ snaps Maeve, her muscles tense. ‘Can youpleasetry to be professional?’

Maeve is so tense from Coach’s announcements, and the gruelling training, that it comes out way harsher than Maeve intends, and she regrets it immediately.

Adriana blinks, almost tearful, like Maeve’s slapped her.

‘Addy, I’m sorry–’ Maeve starts, but Adriana just shakes her head rapidly and then Coach is blowing the whistle to begin again.

Maeve feels a ball of guilt and worry in her stomach, but then Coach is speaking.

‘Okay players, I want to see you all in a friendly. Eleven v eleven.’

Even the word ‘friendly’ doesn’t sound quite right in Coach Hoffman’s mouth. Maeve stands up rigidly. Exercises and drills are never going to fully show a player in action. This is the real test. She needs to put all distractions from Kira and Adriana out of her mind.

‘I want to see how you’ll perform in a game,’ says Coach. ‘But just because it’s a “friendly”, doesn’t mean I want to see players being passive on this pitch. You’re Tigresses! Live up to your name and show me how fierce you are.’

Kira grins, giving Coach a salute. Maeve tries to catch Adriana’s eye, but she’s still looking off out at the technical box. God, her friend really needs to learn to focus, Maeve’s worried about her.

She remembers Adriana’s well-worn advice not to get too in her head about things, but she can feel that the pressure is getting to her.

Maeve is not an aggressive player. In fact, she prides herself on having never received a red card in her whole professional career, which is unusual for a centre-back. Her disciplinary record is good. Maeve’s well-known for her analytical, rock-solid defending and showing the opposition just enough respect to stay calm in the heat of a match, and she has excellent timing in her tackling, so she’s never seen a red card for a late or reckless challenge.

‘I’m going to read out who I want on each side. First team, wear bibs.’

Maeve stands there overthinking who is being assigned to each side. It feels like in a talent show, when the auditionees who are going to be called up to the next round are asked to step forwards. Are the players she’s calling out in the top or bottom half of the training skills warm-up? Or is the coach trying to get a more even split of ability to make it a tougher test? More mind games from Coach.

‘Kira, centre forward of course.’ She throws her the last fluorescent bib.

‘Aye aye Captain,’ says Kira, obviously the only person to have answered back playfully.

‘Murphy,’ Hoffman calls. ‘Home team, centre-back.’

Kira and Maeve’s eyes meet across the huddle. That means they’ll be on opposing teams and Maeve will be marking Kira. Kira grins a slow, wolfish grin at her. Maeve shudders. She tries to convince herself it’s just anticipation of the game.

The players quickly huddle in their teams, and Maeve tries to breathe. She instinctively notes the position of Adriana’s bouncing red curls tied up in a generous bun on the top of her head, when they get into formation ready for the whistle. Adriana is on the bib team alongside Kira, slotting into her preferred central midfield position, meaning she’s an enemy too. It feels rather too apt for how paranoid Maeve is feeling right now.

‘It’s just a game,’ she thinks to herself, though this phrase has never worked for her. ‘It’s just a game, where my job and lifelong dreams are on the line.’

Rebecca and Zuri call the coin toss, and the bibs get to kick off.

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