“It won’t be a bad thing.”
“You’re still babysitter of choice number one?”
I nodded. “That’s why I’m not going home any time soon. She was gone two days the other week.”
“Without okaying it with you?”
“She said she was meeting a friend for a coffee, then sent me a message saying she’d be out a little longer. I checked her Instagram four hours later and she was in London.” It was another reason for staying off social media – I’d see more of what my sister was doing.
Genny picked her phone up and put it into her bag. “Okay. Let’s get out of here and you can tell me more. Time for a change of scenery.”
I stood up. “I like that plan.”
“Me too.” She grabbed her jacket. “As long as we’re away from footballers.”
CHAPTER3
Rowan
I turnedup at the pitch well before I was due there, a good forty-five minutes early. My reasoning was two-fold: I wanted to get a better idea of what I was going to do, beyond being a token footballer. If I was helping coach kids, I wanted to be coaching.
I’d earned some extra money when I was a teenager, coaching under nines and then refereeing when I was sixteen. We’d been short on cash, and every extra pound helped. I hadn’t resented the time I’d spent with the kids; it was just time I’d have squandered on video games or hanging round somewhere with Rhys, probably not getting up to anything good. When I wasn’t sure whether I’d make it as a professional footballer, I’d considered teaching PE as a career.
Dino Walker was one of the kids' coaches, employed by the club on a full time basis, along with another half dozen men and women, to link with the local schools and get kids involved with grassroots sports and encourage them to get involved playing at a young age. He did a good job, as the kids’ teams were really popular and usually oversubscribed. The clubs grounds were in an area of high deprivation and I knew from talking to Dino that the kids pretty much signed themselves up – there was nothing much else to do at home, plus they also got a free lunch which they possibly wouldn't get elsewhere.
I found Dino unloading equipment from the back of a van which told me he'd probably been doing an early morning training session somewhere else. I didn't want to get into too much conversation about it, as Dino could tell a story that was the same length asWar and Peace.
“Didn't realise it was you leading this,” I said, grabbing a bag of footballs. “If I'd known, I would have found a better excuse not to be here.”
Dino chuckled, rubbing a hand over his bald head. He'd been one of the first people I'd met when I joined the club as he was knocking around the offices, trying to drum up some support to get a second minibus for one of the teams as he didn't want some of the kids to miss out going to away games, even if they’d only be playing for a couple of minutes. I’d known him to find reasons to drop food off at certain kids' houses, or call in with some lame excuse if he knew things weren't going too well for them at home. If I wanted to piss him off, I'd refer to him as Saint Dino, for which he’d usually get some form of revenge, generally in the form of spiking my shower gel.
“It's me who should be complaining.” He picked up a box I knew would contain bibs and other kit. “No one told me until yesterday that you'd be turning up here. I'm guessing this is some sort of punishment.”
His glare was more amused than anything, and I knew he wouldn't ask for any further details. Ultimately, Dino would take any help he could get from the first team squad, as he knew it would only inspire his kids. This hadn't been the first time I'd help him out, although I intended to keep what I did lowkey. The truth was, I'd had a Dino in my life when I was about thirteen, and that guy had been my saving grace. Maybe I could have done with him last week, and then I might have made some better choices.
“Well, you've got me now, better make the most of it.” I followed him from where the van was parked over to the area that was already half set up, a few cones dotted around the pitch, and on a bench a range of cereal bars, chocolate milk and flasks which I guessed were probably full of coffee. The club didn't scrimp in terms of providing what Dino said the children needed, but I knew for a fact if something extra was required he'd go out of his way to pick it up for them.
For the next fifteen minutes, we didn't chat. The only conversation was from Dino, instructing me what equipment to set it up. It seemed today we would be focusing on drills, skills and some fitness work, judging by what he was setting up. We'd almost finished when two of the other coaches turned up, one of them starting up a conversation about our pre-season training and Ryan O'Connell joining us. I said as much so the guy would think I was being polite but didn't give away anything he wouldn't read in the media.
At least a dozen kids were already there, but there was no sign of Dee. This wasn't what I was expecting; I'd guessed that Little Miss Perfect would have been there before pretty much everyone, maybe sprinkling petals and sunshine to pave her way. But the pitch was surprisingly empty of her big, beaming smile and over-the-top gestures. Rhys had a saying that if you found beauty everywhere it was probably time to lower the dose, and that definitely applied to the women's captain.
I was talking to a couple of brothers who’d shown up asking if they could join in when Dee appeared. I'd never seen her looking anything other then completely put together before, but today she resembled someone who'd spent the morning navigating a treacherous, overgrown pathway in some uninhabitable forest. Her usual pony tail was missing, and instead her hair was tight up in a messy top knot that made her look even younger than I knew she was.
I overheard her giving a quick apology to Dino, before sitting down on one of the benches and pulling her football boots out of a plastic bag, something else which surprised me because I would’ve bet that Dee would have some environmentally friendly, ethically sourced, vegan approved backpack. Clearly, today wasn't a day when I was going to be right about everything.
After Coach had offered breakfast to more kids than had been on his official list, he set us each up with a small group to start practising a warm up routine, making it into a competition to see which group coach came up with something that would trend on TikTok. This didn't faze me, as I'd seen enough ridiculous things in our changing rooms, and at our training ground to give me ideas. I'll be honest, my main measure was simple – I wanted to at least beat Dee. I took inspiration from Mickey Morgan, one of our starting centre backs, he was convinced he should be a social media star and had amassed a decent following mainly through posting videos of practical jokes and made-up dance routines.
I had a mix of kids, all of them somewhere between seven and eleven, and once they’d gotten over me being there, they just became a combination of eager to please and wanting to show off, something I could really understand. I also wasn't afraid of making a fool of myself, to be honest, I did it often enough.
A few glances over to what Dee’s group were doing, showed me that she wasn't afraid of doing that either. I didn't know whether to be irritated or amused by the completely stupid moves she was trying to get the kids to follow.
I went with irritated.
My group consisted of eleven kids, most of whom were pretty gangly apart from one lad who was more on the plump side. I could say he was self-conscious from the way he tried to hide behind the rest of the children, following the rather lame moves that I got them to do to get them to warm up properly. Kids usually found the warm ups boring and tedious, but if we didn't get them into a decent routine at this age, they’d get into bad habits in their early teens and end up picking up injuries that could prevent them from reaching their potential.
I paused what they were doing when a couple of them started to get particularly out of breath, although one girl looked like she could carry on moving forever and never get tired. We stopped, and I gestured for them to get into a circle, explaining a getting-to-know-you game that was more for my benefit than theirs. Yesterday had been the first day of their summer camp, but most of it had been spent in different groups or letting them choose to be with their friends. Part of Dino's aim for this was for the kids to develop their confidence, and meet other people who they could be friends with, so today the groups had been deliberately mixed up.
We went round the circle simply getting them to say their names. Alex, Tyrese, Georgia, Jessica, Rylan, Keenan, Eloise, Billy, Cael, Tyrone, Rhea. I studied each child as they said their name, trying to fix it in my memory because I didn't want these kids to feel that they didn't have a place here. By the end of today I knew Dino would have the names of all of them memorised – nearly fifty kids. And he'd still remember them in another five years.
