Xena had been lying awake in the team hotel for what had felt like hours. She turned to check the time on her phone on the nightstand.
4:30 a.m. God damnit.
She knew she should have given herself more time to readjust to the time difference before reporting to camp in Tampa. But everything had been going so well, she should not think of a reason to leave China early. She also had a text from Lao Ma wishing her good luck for the start of camp, which Xena was supposed to have seen when she actually got up for training in a few hours.
Fuck it, she thought to herself.
She quietly got out of bed not wanting to wake Ephiny in the room's other bed, grabbed some of her training gear, and changed in the bathroom.
With the hotel being right beside the training facility, it didn't take her long to reach it. She headed for the field with the track around it so she could run for a bit. She began her run and then spotted a young-looking blonde on the far corner of the field doing footwork drills.
Xena assumed she must have been the new right back. She looked a little small for a defender, Xena would have guessed midfielder. Xena shrugged to herself. Her footwork seemed good.
The team captain ran around the track a few more times until the blonde's concentration broke enough for her to notice there was another person nearby. Xena slowed to a stop as she turned the corner near the blonde's edge of the field.
"Sorry," Xena said in a friendly grumble. "I didn't want to scare you earlier. You seemed pretty focused."
The blonde awkwardly nodded.
"I'm Xena," she told her.
She nervously laughed and nodded. "Yeah. I'm Gabrielle."
Xena shook her head, recognizing the starstruck admiration she had seen on so many young players' faces. "You look familiar. You capped before?"
Gabrielle wiped the sweat off her forehead with her biceps. "Four times," she answered. "The-they were all during your shoulder injury last year," she hesitantly added.
"Hmm," Xena replied. "What club you play for?"
"Uh," Gabrielle uttered as she inhaled nervously. "Stanford."
Xena scoffed. "Okay, still in college. Good job on the call up."
"Thanks," Gabrielle replied with an awkward nod. She timidly went back to her equipment but seemed unsure which drills to run.
Xena watched her and smiled. With the soft, Xena assumed, Texan accent, the blonde bangs, and her attempts to cover up her starstruck nerves, she seemed like the nicest and most genuine young call they had had in a while. Gabrielle pulled up her shirt to wipe the sweat off her face, reviling that she was much more ripped than Xena had expected. A feeling inside Xena that was usually only reserved for Lao Ma rose up for only a moment.
"Why, uh, why are you out here so early?" Gabrielle nervously asked her new captain.
Xena shrugged as she began stretching just off the edge of the track. "I got back from China less than a day ago. Have not gotten used to time difference."
Gabrielle nodded like she fully understood why Xena would have been in China. It caught Xena off guard for a moment, but she just assumed the young player had forgotten her recently announced divorce.
"What about you?" Xena questioned.
Gabrielle pressed her lips tightly together and bit her lower lip before answering. "I could not sleep. Nerves, about all this."
"Don't worry, Gabrielle," Xena told her confidently. "I'm sure you'll do great."
Xena strongly wished her prediction about Gabrielle had been more accurate. When it came to drills, skill tests or anything strength or cardio related, she kept up fine. But not so much when it came to gameplay. Varia ran circles around her scrimmage. Most of her forward passes got intercepted and a few of her clearances went wide.
Yakut was getting rather frustrated with her, being directly in front of her in the midfield. Ephiny was visibly annoyed but Xena assumed that was not fully Gabrielle's fault. When Athena stopped the scrimmage, she decided to end training for the day.
"You'll get the hang of it," Minya told the deflated looking new call up as she walked by her.
"We were all the new bitch once," Amirace added as she jogged past toward the locker room.
About an hour later, Xena was one of the few remaining players in the locker. She was seated in front of her area, putting the last of her stuff into her bag when Athena approached.
"Xena, a word?" the coaches asked.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Gabrielle."
Xena looked up at her coach and nodded. "She's nervous."
"I noticed that."
"Team building event?"
Athena nodded.
"I'll get on it, have Aphrodite help me. She could turn it into a cute video or something."
"Thank you," Athena nodded. She paused but continued peering at Xena.
"Anything else?"
"Heard you came straight from China," Athena stated.
Xena sighed as she stood and slung her bag over her shoulder.
"We aren't going to have any problems are we, Xena?" Athena questioned.
"You know it's been a long time since I was that 15-year-old rookie that needed you to look out for me," she shot back.
Athena smirked. "I'm still looking out for you. And I'm your boss now," the coach added as Xena began to walk away.
"I know what I'm doing. And I'll keep an eye on the kid," she called back at her.
