Xena broke into a sprint on the path around Lake Michigan when she reached the beach volleyball net on the narrow beach beside the path. She had decided she was going to end her run in a half-mile sprint and she knew it was about a half-mile from that net to the stall where she had frequently rented bikes with Lao Ma and Ming Tien. Fuck, she thought and pushed herself harder. With Evie and Varia. With Ephiny and Terries. On her own. Why did her mind instantly go to them? She pushed herself even harder.

This was why she had spent so much time in Lexington, training on her own and living in her reserved room in her mother's inn. She really did not want to return to Chicago. Not alone. She wanted to put off walking into her apartment with so many pictures and memories that she had not yet packed away. But she had to at some point. She needed to report to her club team in a few days and Ephiny would not stop asking, even with Terries being in town as she recovered from her surgery.

She reached the bike rental stall and gasped for breath as she placed her hands on the back of her neck. She stood still for a moment but began walking at a comfortable pace down the path, then peered out onto the lake, which looked crystal blue under the bright sunlight. She did like Chicago, as she had told her mother back in Lexington. But, as Ephiny had alluded to, she was also desperately missing the possible future number one draft pick, who would also certainly not be going to Chicago.

Like normal Gabrielle was the first team member to arrive at practice for the Stanford women's soccer team. Her coach gave her a nod as a few members of the support staff smiled at her. Gabrielle was thankful for their subtlety as she began her normal warm up routine that she did before her other teammates arrived.

"And it appears our Icarus has not flown too close to the sun and managed to return to us," Ngara stated with an accusatory tone, but when Gabrielle turned to her, she was giving her a warm smile.

Gabrielle knew her two closest friends on the team would arrive and chastise her at some point. Ngara's slight British accent was peaking through, which was always on the only reminder for Gabrielle that she got semi-frequent call-ups to the U-23 English national team as a defensive midfielder. Thalassa was a good center back but worried she was not good enough to get drafted and had recently been focusing more and more and on her Corrections degrees. She was currently working as a counselor for halfway house for violent teenager offenders.

"You know ESPN has basically been playing your goal on a loop for weeks now," Thalassa told her. They all knew it was constantly on the televisions at her work.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes at them. "Please don't shower me in praise and drown me in questions. I have already had to deal with my roommates."

"Those literary nerds you choose to live with know anything about this part of your life?" Thalassa questioned as she pulled a ball out of her bag, kicked it around a bit, and then passed it over to Gabrielle.

"Barely," Gabrielle called as she flicked a ball up to her knee than bounced it to her chest, back to her foot and chipped it over to Thalassa. "Mostly only Stalounus."

Ngara ran at her attempting to steal the ball away but Thalassa managed to get around her and pass it to Gabrielle.

"This is why you should have agreed to live with us," Ngara stated as she charged a Gabrielle as she attempted to get the ball from her, but she managed to quickly nutmeg her and pass it back to Thalassa.

"My life can't only be soccer," she told them. "Plus, when I need help with literary essays the two of you aren't any use to me," Gabrielle joked with a smile as she grounded Thalassa's quick pass and set the ball to Ngara.

"The Bible does not come up?" Thalassa asked with deadpan seriousness. "You have not been in a fiction class in a while?"

Ngara sighed, being the only practicing Christian on the team and a theology major, she was used to this brand of banter. "Maybe it is better you did not live with us, Gabrielle. One heathen is enough," she jabbed at Thalassa.

"Speaking of heathens," Thalassa stated turning her attention to Gabrielle. "I have been spending some time in the USWNT team tag on tumblr and—"

"Oh my god," Gabrielle stated annoyed. "Nothing is going on between me and Xena."

Ngara gave a breathy laugh as Thalassa's jaw dropped at her.

"Oh shit," Gabrielle grumbled. "What did I just reveal?"

Thalassa shook her head. "I was going to say that you and Amarice seem like BFFs."

"Yes," Gabrielle agreed. "That. Let's please only focus on that."

Thankfully for Gabrielle, their coach walked onto the field and officially started practice.

"Is she always like this?" one of the new Chicagoland native signees asked as she leaned across the aisle to Xena. They were on the team bus in Portland taking if from the hotel to Providence Park Stadium in downtown Portland.

Xena peered back at Amarice, who had begun blasting Lady Gaga out of her Bluetooth speaker that she always seemed to have on her for some reason. She and the team's only current international player from Japan had stood up in front of their seats and began dancing.

Xena turned back to the rookie and nodded. "Yeah, she is always like this. Her Instagram did not exaggerate to you."

"Amarice, we are going like four blocks," Ephiny called back at her.

"Four party blocks?" the Japanese winger questioned.

"Get hyped, kids," Amarice called at the bus as she continued to dance in the aisle. "We are beating Portland in front of their 23,000 fans today!"

Though Amarice's style of hyping up players was completely different than Xena's, she had to admire it. Her unabashed confident and excitement was hard to argue with. And in so many cases, including the Red Stars' game that day in Portland, she was right. Diana was the team's leading goal scorer, but she was never utilized at well as she was on the Canadian national team. Yakut was the only U.S. national team player on the team, but playing against Xena, Ephiny, and Amarice's dance partner from the bus she was rendered almost useless.

The Red Stars fulfilled Amarice's predication and won 3-0, disappointing the 22,500 Portland fans and elating the 50 or so Chicago fans in attendance. They had been so high up from the field, Xena, Amarice, Ephiny, and a few other players waited on the field for them to make it down so they could sign some autographs and take some pictures.

When Xena finally headed into the locker room, her phone was filled with message including three from a number that barely every contacted her.

"Artemis?" Xena grumbled to herself. She had been a veteran on the team when Xena first joined, like Aphrodite but even a few more years older. Looking back on it as an adult, Xena almost understood the pettiness of Artemis' dislike toward her. She was a physical embodiment of her impending retirement that U.S. Soccer had been pushing her into. Xena played her same position and was 17 years younger than her.

Artemis: Watched you game in Portland. Excellent performance. I know it is short notice and might now work with your travel schedule, but I have exclusive, private seating at Stanford's stadium. The women's team plays tomorrow night if you would like to stick around.

Xena almost laughed. She had forgotten that since her retirement, Artemis had focused almost entirely on growing the women's game in California. She was one of the major faces behind the campaign for either L.A. or Sacramento to get an NWSL team.

Xena: I certainly would. Thanks for the invite. How many people does this exclusive seating fit?

Artemis: The more professional players showing up to support college players the better. Make them from the national team and I know Dite will agree.

Xena: I'm sure she will. Sign up me for at least three.

Artemis: I look forward to it. See you tomorrow, Xena.

Gabrielle was running through the warmups with the rest of her teammates before their game against the University of Washington. She could almost hear Cyane and Aphrodite correcting her in her head. U-dub, they yelled in unison. But she knew that. They were a big enough in conference rivalry that she did not need to spend time at Reign FC, in Seattle but recently Tacoma, to know the nickname for the largest college's team.

The game went incredibly well. Gabrielle was a bit amazed how easily she was able to slip back into the groove of Stanford's team after being away for so long. Also, Athena utilized a totally different style of play and Gabrielle could feel the difference in play as she utilized the skills she had learned from the national team, but her college teammates struggled to keep up with. Even, Ngara, who had spent so much time with the England youth national teams seemed to be falling behind.

But regardless of all that, Stanford won 4-0. Gabrielle was causally walking around the field and shaking hands with opposing players and staff when she felt someone watching her. She peered into the stands and was dumbfounded for a moment.

Gabrielle finished talking to one of the opposing center backs, who was also from Texas, and walked to the stands, where Xena was standing with her arms crossed against her chest.

Again, the simple placement of her arms and her tight-fitting black jeans and somehow perfectly fitted Stanford soccer t-shirt was driving Gabrielle's exhausted and endorphin-filled mind wild.

"Sign my shirt, will ya?" Xena called as she approached her. She pulled a sharpie out of her jean pocket and held it out to Gabrielle.

She laughed and she took it for some reason. "Are you serious?"

Xena shrugged. "Why not?" she told her with a wide grin. "Could be wroth somethin' someday."

Xena leaned over the metal railing so she could get her shoulder closer to Gabrielle. She shook her head and scoffed, but signed it nonetheless. Xena had turned her head so her lips were strangely close to Gabrielle's.

Gabrielle awkwardly chuckled and pulled away from her national team teammate. "What are you doing here, Xena?"

"I played in Portland yesterday," Xena explained.

Gabrielle nodded but raised her eyebrows as if it was not a proper explanation. "Yes, I know. But why are you here?"

Xena exhaled loudly and peered at the worn grass before turning her attention back to Gabrielle. "Artemis texted me. Said she had a private area, sorta like a box to watch Stanford play. She asked if I wanted to come and I agreed"

"What? So, you can just contact rich donors to my school and watch me play from a box suspended above the field?" Gabrielle asked with an accusatory tone.

"Well, it sounds fucking creepy when you say it like that," Xena admitted sheepishly.

Gabrielle smiled. "What would you prefer?"

"You're my teammate. Someone I care about. I wanted to see how you played in a different environment, with a different skill set."

"So?" Gabrielle asked. "What'd you think?"

Xena peered into her determined eyes for a moment and then a smile slid across her face. "You play better for the national team. Nobody here meets your skill level, so you are being held back."

Gabrielle peered at her seriously for a moment. "Like a problematic level of held back?"

Xena peered at her intensely and shook her head. She knew what she was thinking. Varia had gone pro at 19 and Eve had at 20 because they were so limited on their college teams.

"No, not like that. You're the lynch pin of this team. That ain't going to be overlooked. Certainly not by Athena or the coach of the club of whatever team you end up at. Plus, ya seem to like that English degree. You should finish that."

"Yeah, I guess," Gabrielle replied. "Okay." She had really not expected Xena to be so kind or understanding or supportive.

"Where ya like to go 'round here?" Xena asked her.

"What?" Gabrielle questioned.

"You beat an in-conference team 4-0. And you did real well playin' for a team ya ain't been with for weeks. Ya should be rewarded. I wanna take you somewhere. But I don't know this area, so where you wanna go?"

Gabrielle awkwardly laughed and shook her head. "Okay," she stated. "I'll think of somewhere."

"Good," Xena told her with a wild smile. "I should give you some time to shower and I'll make sure Amarice makes it back to the hotel okay. See ya later, Gabrielle."