Chapter 2 #2
From where she sat, she could see the tennis and basketball courts, and through the wire fence that surrounded them, the children’s playground.
The sound of children’s laughter radiated outward and drew her in.
She watched as guardians ran after their children, who were giggling the entire time.
Another grown-up sat in the sandbox with their child, wincing each time the toddler dumped a bucket full of sand over their legs.
Amelia sighed as she thought back to her own childhood; she and her sister playing with each other in the park, while their latest childminder read a book or chatted with their friends.
It reminded her of one of the first Welsh words she learnt after moving to the city; hiraeth.
To experience an intense longing, something like homesickness tinged with grief or sadness, for a Wales that no longer existed.
Amelia felt similarly about her childhood sometimes; desperately homesick for a childhood that only existed in her imagination.
A small child trundled past on a bright pink bike, tassels flapping in the breeze. She waited for the accompanying grown-up to pass, then cautiously got to her feet, testing her injured ankle with some tentative steps before making the long walk back to her car.
Amelia limped up the two steps to her blue front door, digging her keys out of her bag as she did so.
The sun’s bright rays seemed contradictory to the heaviness of her eyelids.
The door snagged and crumpled the post as she pushed it open, dragging letters and the doormat across the hallway.
Amelia glanced at it and decided she’d deal with it later.
The wide, tiled hallway led past white oak stairs, with doors leading to the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
Amelia placed her keys in the small basket she kept by the door and hung her bag over the banister.
She limped to the kitchen and made a beeline for the freezer, pulling out a large ice pack and wrapping it in a damp tea towel.
Next, she opened the fridge to decide what to have for dinner.
There wasn’t a huge amount of choice; her fridge was almost barren.
She’d been too busy to order groceries. One thing that was present, though, was a Japanese cherry blossom gin.
Gin was one of her few vices — not in quantity, but quality; usually, anyway.
She whipped up a large gin and tonic, grabbed the ice pack and a takeaway menu off the fridge, and hobbled to the living room.
Amelia carefully sat down on the sofa and rolled up her trouser leg.
Unsurprisingly, her ankle was more swollen than before; the discomfort scrunched her face as she tested the range of motion.
Definitely sprained, thankfully only mildly.
Grabbing one of the sofa cushions, she placed it on the coffee table, then delicately lifted her injured limb onto the soft fabric and wrapped it in ice.
The brightly coloured takeaway menu looked jarring in the clean, warm, neatly organised living room.
Amelia picked it up, but before she could begin perusing the options, the opening hours caught her eye.
It was barely ten in the morning; of course, they weren’t open yet.
She tossed aside the menu and opened a food delivery app on her phone, quickly finding somewhere that was open and able to deliver something that wasn’t breakfast food — her body was getting ready for sleep, not starting the day.
Order placed, she put her phone down, leant her head back, and closed her eyes.
She could imagine what she looked like slouched on the sofa with her leg elevated in front of her.
Her mother’s voice piped up in her consciousness like a shard of glass, telling her how improper it was to have her foot on the coffee table, and for mercy’s sake, sit up straight.
She pushed her mother’s voice from her mind.
Her mother hadn’t just worked her third consecutive overnight shift.
Her phone buzzed loudly on the sofa, the vibrations making it hop across the cushion like a skipping stone.
Amelia kept her eyes closed a little longer, the blissful near darkness soothing her headache.
Eventually, she cracked open her eyes and picked up her phone to see a notification from her group chat with her best friends, Evie and TJ.
TJ:
Yo pipsqueak, guess who’s assistant coaching the Blizzards women this season!
A GIF of a man pointing at himself with a double thumbs up, with text saying ‘this guy’ overlaid, quickly followed.
Omg, are you serious?
TJ:
As a heart attack
Evie:
TJ’s never been serious in his life, but yeah, he’s helping mum out this year with the coaching.
Nice!
TJ:
Yep, can’t wait to make you run shuttles and do my bidding :D
Ha ha, very funny.
When did you find out?
TJ:
It’s been in the works for a few weeks. Michelle didn’t know if there was enough funding after we signed a couple of new players, but they must have found some loose change down the back of the couch. The big wigs finally signed off on it today.
Amelia had a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
New players? I hadn’t heard anything about new players.
Evie:
Mum likes to keep people on their toes, even you.
TJ:
Yeah, now we’re semi-pro we needed to pad the roster a bit. We’ve signed Sienna from the U18s and Keira Morgan.
Who?
Evie:
She played college ball a few years ago, just returned to Wales from the USA.
I’ve never heard of her
TJ:
Stop the press! Pipsqueak doesn’t know something!
Amelia sent an eye-roll emoji and put down her phone, replacing it with the bulbous gin glass still untouched on the side table.
She took a sip, letting the gentle bubbles tickle her tongue and the delicate flavours cleanse her palate.
Her eyebrows creased with a slight frown.
TJ was right. They needed more players now, especially with the amount of funding it had taken to turn them into a semi-professional side.
But new players risked upsetting the delicate balance of the well-oiled machine that was her team.
The chemistry they had on and off the court was like nothing she’d experienced before, but it was finely balanced, and might easily become combustible.
It fell upon her, as the captain, to ensure that didn’t happen.
Sharp pain lanced through her ankle when she adjusted the position of her leg. She picked up her phone and took a picture of the elevated ankle, sending it to the group.
Not a great start to the season…
Evie:
What did you do?!
TJ:
ouch!
Someone accidentally knocked me over when I was on a run in Heath Park. It’s just a sprain.
Evie:
I hope you clobbered him!
Her
Evie:
Well, I hope you clobbered her, then.
I couldn’t, I was too busy being dumbstruck by how cute she was.
TJ:
Oooh, did you get her number?
No, I panicked and ran away. Well, hobbled away.
I wish I had, though.
She really was cute.
Evie sent a GIF of someone pressing their palm to their face, and Amelia put her phone back down with a sigh.