Chapter II - Love's a game, wanna play?

The drive to the training facility was short, but to Clara it seemed like it took ages. She had woken up three hours before, had had lunch and a shower, grabbed her keys and her sunglasses and headed out. She sipped obsessively from a bottle of Powerade, trying to recover some of the energy she had lost the night before.

It all still seemed unreal, having spent the party with an international superstar and a squad of Victoria's Secret Angels...It was beyond her most bizarre dreams. Meeting Amy, though, that was beyond her wildest dreams.

Clara was reluctant to getting ahead of herself. Sure, Amy seemed to be interested in her, to say the least, but that didn't mean that the model would ask her out or anything. Maybe she just was a fan, like hundreds of other girls in the country.

Finally, the striker made it to training. She had arrived early, which was good because she still had to tell her coach and other people that she had drunkenly invited a bunch of supermodels to train with the team. She decided that she should probably keep the 'drunkenly' part to herself.

After some convincing, Clara managed to have everything ready for training. Sarah Jane didn't give her such a hard time, but she did tell Clara that if her friends disrupted training in any way, the whole team would have a double session the next day and the captain would be responsible.

Almost exactly as she finished her conversation with the coach, Clara received a text from Cara saying that they were on their way. Clara rushed to the field to tell her teammates about their guests. The players had already gathered for training. Some were playing around with a ball, others -the ones who had attended the fashion show and afterparty the night before- were just sitting on the grass still trying to wake up entirely.

"Okay, girls, listen up!", the captain started. "We're gonna have some guests coming over to train with us today. Make them feel welcome and show them a good time, alright?"

"Wait, who's coming?", asked Susan, seemingly more awake all of the sudden.

"A few models I met last night. They're all very nice, I'm sure you'll love them." Just as the brunette finished speaking, a group of tall blondes and a ginger were crossing the field headed towards them. Some of the footballers gasped in awe at their company.

"Clara!", shouted Cara as she ran to hug the player.

Clara laughed at the model's antics. "Hey, Cara." She greeted the other girls and turned to the team. "Girls, these are Cara, Martha, Karlie, Taylor and Amy. Be nice to them or you'll be running laps the whole week", she joked.

Sarah Jane set them to work on some light bodybuilding workout. The new girls all blended in with the footballers, except for one.

"Hey". Amy's long red curls were trapped in a tight bun. Her legs somehow seemed even longer than Clara remembered them when barely covered by her fucsia Nike shorts. Even though she didn't have an ounce of makeup on, she still looked like an angel.

"Hey", Clara replied. She couldn't tell if Amy was blushing because of the smile she had given her or because of the afternoon sun. She hoped it was the former. "I'm glad you could make it."

"I already told you, I wouldn't miss it for the world." She was repeating her words from the night before, however this time it sounded more sincere rather than seductive. Clara's big brown eyes got caught in Amy's hazel ones. She wanted to say something -anything, but words just wouldn't come out.

"Hey, Clara! Care to join us, captain?" Sarah Jane's voice broke the moment between them, and the footballer sighed. Whether it was in relief or annoyance, she couldn't say.

"Coming, coach!"


Once the physical part of training was over, it was clear that the models could definitely keep up with the footballers. Martha and Karlie had barely even sweated, and Amy wasn't far behind. Cara had decided that she would joke around rather than exercise, and busied herself mostly teasing Taylor for trying so hard and exhausting herself in the process.

They took a little break, after which they would do some reduced game practice.

"Okay, shall we do models versus pros?", Martha Jones suggested.

"Oh, hell no!", jumped Cara. "You're gonna kick our sorry asses all over the field! Also, I don't want Taylor on my team, we'd lose, for sure."

"Hey!", the singer protested, but everyone laughed. "We should put Martha and Karlie in different teams. I mean, they're the ones fighting, after all."

In the blink of an eye, two teams of five players plus a goalkeeper each had been formed. Team Karlie was formed by Karlie, Taylor, Jenny, Susan, the right centre back Rose, Clara and left full back Donna. Team Martha had both Martha's -the model and the footballer-, Cara, centre midfielder Ace, second goalkeeper Barbara and Amy. It was on.

However the seriousness of the game didn't last much. Except for Cara -who was actually pretty good-, the models and the singer had a hard time controlling the ball, and the match got very playful very fast. All of the sudden, Cara was scolding her colleague Martha for "ruining her brilliant play", Taylor was chasing Karlie, who was laughing at how the singer had gotten soaking wet when she had failed to catch a bottle of water Rose had thrown at her.

The match was tied 1-1 with ten minutes of training left. Clara had the ball and was heading straight for the goal. However, a ginger model came at her determined to stop her, even though she lacked the ability. Clara had pretty much left her behind when two thin arms illegally wrapped around her waist, making the striker squeal. Amy pressed her full against her front as she laughed, proud of having successfully detained Clara.

"Ow, Amy! That's not fair!", the footballer complained, laughing as well and struggling to free herself from Amy's grasp. Nevertheless, when she turned to face the model, their laughter died down, tension and silence settling between them. Clara looked up into those hazel eyes that had haunted her the entire previous night and couldn't stop her eyes from getting a glimpse of her pink, tempting lips.

"I would've scored", the brunette said to stop herself from doing something she might regret.

"'Course you would've. This seemed like more fun, though", the model replied with a cheeky smirk and wrapping her arms slightly tighter around the shorter girl's waist.

Eye contact was finally broken when Amy looked away, distracted by the sounds of more laughter coming from around them. When Clara had lost the ball, it had rolled to Taylor's feet, who was conveniently standing on the perfect spot to shoot. Somehow, the kick was good enough and she scored. Immediately, the singer had tackled Karlie to the ground in a hug of celebration, and then proceeded to make fun of Cara as payback for all her teasing.

In no time, training was over and they were all heading to the showers as Karlie's team loudly sang We Are The Champions, mocking Martha's team.

"It was really nice meeting you, Clara. We need to get together again next time we're here", Karlie said. The models were saying goodbye to the footballer after leaving the locker room. The Americans and Cara were flying back to the States that night.

"Or give us a call if you ever go to New York", the singer added.

"Sure!", Clara replied excitedly. "It really was lovely to meet you all." She hugged her new friends and walked them to their cars.

"Are you going back too?" She had been afraid to hear Amy's answer: she didn't want her to leave.

"Nope, I travel a lot but I'm based in London. I'm staying home for a few weeks."

Clara's eyes lightened up at the possibility of seeing Amy again soon. She hoped that she didn't sound too hopeful when she asked. "Do you want to...hang out? Soon maybe? We can grab dinner or coffee or something." Clara swore kicking the last penalty at a shootout at the World Cup final would be less stressful than this.

"Dinner sounds great. Tomorrow. I'll text you my address so you can pick me up at 7." Did she just agree to go on a date with me?

"It's a date." Clara wanted to slap herself for saying such a stupid line.

"You bet it is", the model said before entering her car.