I sit in my car, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down. I'd signed my contract 2 days ago and Jonas was extremely happy that I'd accepted his offer which showed promise. He told me to come in today for my first training session and also to meet the girls. I didn't know how this was going to go, but I knew that Leah, Jordan, Beth and Lotte, my England teammates would be there so, it couldn't be that bad.

I push myself to get out of the car and grab my training bag from the boot of the car. I take another deep breath and walk towards the doors of the training facilities, counting my steps to distract my mind from the thoughts telling me to turn around that want to swarm my head.

I push the doors open and look around, not sure of where to go.

"Hey, you're the new signing, right?" I hear a voice behind me. It doesn't sound like they're English. I turn around and face the person that I recognise to be Vivianne Meidema, the dutch forward of the team.

"That's me." I nod. "Where do I go? Jonas just asked me to come in for training and to meet the team, but he didn't give me any specific instructions and I haven't been here before."

"That's alright, just follow me." Vivianne tells me and I nod as I let her lead the way.

"Thanks, Vivianne."

"Call me Viv." She says and I mentally take the note to call her that.

I begin counting my steps again to push away the nerves as Viv and I make it to a door. On the other side, I hear a group of voices laughing with one another.

"Do you want to come in now or should I call Jonas out?" Viv asks me and I stop to think.

"Could you call Jonas out?"

"Of course." And with that Viv disapears behind the door as I wait for the manager to walk out and greet me.

Not long after the door shuts behind Viv, Jonas walks through and smiles down at me. "Elena, nice to see you again."

"You too, Jonas. Again, thank you for giving me this offer." I shake his hand.

"I should be thanking you for taking the offer." A smile grows on my lips. "Are you ready to meet the girls? I understand you've met Viv now and you also know the four lionesses in there."

"Yeah, I'm happy there's some familiar faces on the team. It's a big change for me."

"I can imagine." Jonas says. He gives me one last smile before he turns around and opens the door, making the sound of voices and laughter get louder. "Girls!" Jonas catches everyone's attention. "As you all know, we've signed Elena Pugh from Houston Dash so, welcome her." He steps out of the way, revealing me.

Everyone's eyes scan me, making me grow shy, but Beth saves me when she cheers and begins clapping, getting the others to join.

"Thanks, Beth." I chuckle as she comes forward and engulfs me into a hug that newrly throws me off my feet.

"It's great to have you at the Arsenal." Leah comes forward and hugs me aswell alongside Lotte and Jordan.

"Thanks, girls."

"I'm Kim, the captain. If you need anything, you can come to me." The scottish player comes forward with a bright, welcoming smile and shakes my hand.

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Hi, I'm Katie." The Irish defender comes forward and shakes my hand.

The girls all come forward and introduce themselves to me one by one. I smile at each and every one of them and shake their hands or hug them depending on what they initiate.

The last three girls in the line come forward. "Hi, I'm Lia." The girl shakes my hand with a friendly smile and steps away to let the other two girls forward.

"Hey, I'm Steph. I believe we played each other during the 2019 world cup in the group stages." The brunette introduces herself.

"That was a tough game." I smile as I shake her hand.

I look past her at the brunette behind her, her blue eyes staring into my own green ones. I give her a smile, but she doesn't speak up.

"This is Caitlin." Steph says, pushing the girl forward by her shoulders. "She was on the bench for that game."

"Hi, Caitlin." I hold my hand out and the girl shakes it.

"Now that everyone's welcomed Elena, let's get onto training and show her how we do it around here." Jonas says and we all follow him outside. I place my bag on the sofa and grab my boots from inside the bag as everyone walks out with their boots in hand.

"It can get intense around here." Beth tells me as she holds her arm around me, making me feel calm. "We usually do some fitness games when we have a new signing so expect to be playing some primary school games like 'stuck in the mud' or 'bulldog.'"

"I haven't played those since I was a little kid in the playground. I hope we do play them then."

Only a moment later, Jonas announces that we'll be playing the games that Beth warned me about. I feel an excitement grow inside of me, knowing I won't be shy much longer once we begin playing.

"We'll start off with stuck in the middle. Beth, Steph and Katie, you guys can be the taggers." The girls cheer and high five each other.

"This is going to be a short game." Katie says as she rolls up the sleeves of her training top.

"Whatever you say, McCabe." I hear Leah say.

"Go!" Jonas calls and steps back as he watches us run around the pitch, trying to get away from the taggers.

I hear someone panting behind me and look behind me to see Katie catching up to me. Luckily for me, I'd been preserving my speed. I smirked back at her and dove under Leah's arms, letting her out of the mud so that she could help me free the others that had gotten caught.

"You can't keep running, Pugh." I hear Katie say behind me.

"Bet."

I keep running and letting people out of the mud, but at one point, Katie gets so close to me, her fingertips just about miss my back. She seems to be mainly aiming for me and tagging a few others here and there.

'Full speed, Elena.' I tell myself and run as fast as I can. I realise I'm the only one left when I see eveyone's eyes on me as they cheer me on.

Beth tried coming at me from the front, but I quickly change direction, loosing the two of them behind me. I laugh as I look back at Katie and Beth chasing me, but just as I think I'd gotten away from them, I feel a hand on my collar bone and I hear an Australian voice tell me I'm out.

"Dammit, Steph." I look at the Aussie, who high-fives Katie and Beth.

"You did put up a good fight, Pugh." Katie tells me and shakes my hand.

"You have some speed, Elena." The girls tell me while I just smile.

"That'll be good in a game." Jonas tells me. "Now, everyone besides Elena and Lia since you two were the last ones out, line up against the sidelines."Everyone did as they were told, getting ready to play bulldog. "Elena, Lia. you two will have to tag as many people as you can before they make it to the other side of the pitch." The two of us nod and smile at each other, ready to take the team down when Jonas yells go.

I immediately run for Beth, knowing she's an easy target. I tag her and then reach out and tag Manu and Kim. I see Lia's gotten Katie and Lotte out.

I groan when everyone else gets to the other end of the line without being tagged. Jonas tells the girls who are left to run back and I tag as many players as I can.

In the end, 3 people are left. Caitlin, Steph and Viv. Jonas tells them to go again and I immediately run for Steph, trying to get her out for playback. I just about reach her back and touch her, laughing when she groans at me.

I see that Caitlin's the only one running now so, I race Lia, who's a few steps behind me towards her. Caitlin's only a few metres away from the end line now, but I'm faster than her. I pick up my speed and dive forward, grabbing onto her waist as I push her to the ground to stop her.

I hear the girls behind me cheer again as I managed to stop Caitlin from just about getting past the line.

"Well played." Caitlin says and I finally get to hear her speak, her australian accent giving her voice this added warmth.

"Thanks." I get up and place my hand infront of her. She hesitates at first but then takes my hand and lets me help her up.

"Well done, Elena." Jonas shakes my hand and I thank him before we end our training session and go back inside to cool off before we all drive home.

"Elena, we were thinking of going to a local bar later on, wanna come?" Beth jogs up behind me, sipping on her water.

"I'd really love to, Beth, but I need to find a place to stay permenantly so, that's my main priority right now."

"You need a place to stay?" I turn my head to see Steph beside me.

"Uhh, yeah." I nod.

"I've got a spare room at my apartment, I wouldn't mind you moving in. It gets a bit lonely sometimes."

"Really?" I ask. "I've been staying in a hotel for the past week."

"Of course, how about you drive back to your hotel, check out, grab your stuff and I'll send you my address." Steph suggests.

"Thank you, Steph." I reach forward and hug the girl.

I could tell I would feel at ease and at home at Arsenal pretty quickly.

After checking out of my hotel, I get an adress sent to me from a number that I add to my contacts, knowing it's Stephs. I type the adress into my phone and let the voice tell me where to go.

It doesn't take me long to reach the address Steph sends. I send her a text back telling her I'm here and park my car in the carpark, hoping I haven't accidentally taken someone else's claimed spot.

I get out of my car and see Steph running over in a pair of blue jeans and a dark blue tanktop. She helps me grab my suitcase out of the boot of my car and into the building.

"So, what did you think of your first day with the team?" She asks me as we enter the lift.

"It was good. Better than I thought it'd be." I admit.

"I'm glad. Are you gonna come out with us tonight then?"

"Yeah, I had no other plans for today other than apartment hunting which I can check off now so, I guess I'll come."

"Great, team outings I have experienced are the best." Steph says. "I only signed here last summer so I'm just about as new as you."

"You seem to be settled in." I say as Steph helps me pull my suitcase out of the lift.

"Yeah, the girls here are really welcoming. They treat you as if you've been here all along." Steph tells me while she unlocks her apartment door.

We walk in and I instantly feel a cozy atmosphere hit me. I look around at the warm colours that Steph has decorated the place in.

"Wow, you've really decorated the place." I say, admiring the paintings, frames and plants around the place.

"I like to spend my money on decorations and things to make the apartment feel like home, if you couldn't tell by the Australian pictures around here."

"I like it."

"Thanks. How about you jump in the shower and then we can get going."

After I showered and Steph helped me dry my hair with her hair dryer, she told me we'd take her car and I hopped in. I was wearing these silver leather pants I'd bought just before leaving for the airport to come here. I didn't have time to match outfits so, I had to borrow a holter top from Steph which she didn't mind letting me borrow. She was being really nice to me and it made me feel settled, I was really greatful for that because at the start of the day I was having to convince myself not to listen to the thoughts telling me to not go in to training today.

She drove us to the bar the girls were at and we got out. "It's pretty chill in here so don't worry about any fans coming around us. They usually give us the VIP table at the back of the bar."

"That's nice 'cause I was actually thinking about fans swarming us." I let out a light chuckle as we entered the bar. Steph nodded to the bartender and we walked to the table where I saw all the other girls.

"Hey." I smile at them as I slide into the booth beside Leah, who bumps my shoulder playfully.

Just as Steph sits down, the bartender comes over, sliding a drink infront of her. "I wasn't sure what you wanted since you're new here so, I got you the same." He tells me and I thank him with a smile.

"What is it exactly?" I ask the Australian beside me.

"A tequila sunrise." Steph replies and when she sees my face of confusion she chuckles. "Try it, it's nice."

"Fine, but I'm not big on trying new things when it comes to food, by the way."

"She's like me." Leah says and everyone groans.

"Not another one." I hear them mumble, making me laugh.

I take a small sip of the drink in my hands hesitantly, but I can't tell if I like it when I swish it around my mouth before swallowing. I take another sip and feel the flavours in my mouth this time.

"So?"

"It's good, I like it." I smile at Steph.

The night goes on with us all talking around the table. The only person I don't hear from all night is Caitlin who speaks to Lia quitely beside her. They sit opposite me and I glance at them every now and then, trying to work out what they're talking about, but I finally give up when I feel myself growing tired.

I lean back in the booth and rest my head back, closing my eyes. I listen to the girls' conversations around me until eventually their voices start to merge into one sound as I begin to drift off.

"Elena."

I hum as I look around the table, trying to work out who said my name. Leah nudges me and nods her head to Steph on the other side of me.

"You wanna go home?"

"No, it's alright. We can stay." I say as I try to hide my yawn.

"Come on, you're tired. You did well in training today and I think all of us were planning to go now anyway." Steph says as she slides out of the booth and gives me her hand to take to help me out.

"See you tomorrow, girls." I hear Beth say as Steph escorts me across the bar and oustide to the car.

"I've been tryna fix my sleep schedule to fit England again and I suppose it's starting to work." I say, climbing into the car.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it all again. How long were you at Houston?" Steph asks as we begin to drive. She flashes her lights at Katie's car, who flashes them back as we all leave the bar.

"8 years. It's the only other club I've played for."

"Wow." Steph gives me a surprised look.

"Yeah, it was hard to leave it all behind after spending so much of my life around those girls and in that country, but I'm also glad to be back in England and playing in the WSL has always been my dream."

"I'm glad Arsenal could make it come true."