Calls...Missed

                                    

                                          
Weeks have passed and training sessions at Arsenal are much improved, there's a sense of calm and the rest of the girls seem less on edge. Of course it's still a little bit strange, Renee is lovely she's definitely a damn sight kinder than Jonas has been to us in months, though her style of training and leadership is different and it's taking a bit to get our heads round it and do as she asks. I'm particularly enjoying the way she handles things, Katie seems to think Renee has potential to maybe become permanent, though I'm not sure if she would jump to take the role of Head Coach for Arsenal Women at the first chance she's given. Though it would be pretty nice. 
We've definitely improved our game play and though we don't always win, we aren't always losing either. She's not harsh on us when mistakes are made and always seems to know the right things to say to help us with the game and to keep us focused when we start to struggle. Unfortunately a lot of us still go in ourselves when things go wrong, perhaps Jonas is to blame for our insecurity and self confidence issues that sometimes come out in full force. We are, however all getting weekly meetings with our team therapist to help us all rebuild our confidence as well as regular wellbeing sessions. Renee says that she wants the best for our team and that means doing all she can to support us in getting back on form. 
Today is another training session, we have 2 major sessions a week where we put our all in (not that we don't do this anyway) and then 2 days a week we have relaxed training sessions. We mostly focus on the things we need more practice on in those sessions. It's  a challenge but we make it fun, Renee is full of praise for us all and honestly, it makes it just that bit more enjoyable. Especially when one of us is having a bad day. 
We go ahead and join the training session, before an hour in the gym, followed by recovery. The atmosphere today was light, many of the girls were joking about, even Kyra seemed back into her 'annoy everyone' mood and it felt nice, no that's a lie. It felt normal, it felt good... no. It felt right. This is the team we are, we're not a bunch of naughty kids, constantly under the scrutiny of our shouty, unpredictable Head Coach, Jonas. Life felt like it was finally starting to get back to normal... aha or so I thought. 
 I kept getting the calls, calls I missed while my phone was in my locker in the changing rooms during training, media filming and well, randomly. At first I ignored it, the number was private so I couldn't call it back. It didn't bother me at first, I thought perhaps it was a journalist or something. My other thought was maybe my number had been leaked amongst the fans, I remembered Lauren experiencing it back at City and it was a total ball ache. Lauren was forever forgetting her number and for weeks she kept getting messages from the girls from City and the poor girl thought it'd happened again since she didn't have numbers saved. It was funny because Lauren truly showed her blonde side at that time and it gave us hours of laughs at her expense. We did eventually help her save the numbers and since then she seems to have managed to keep her number the same. 
The next week I'd come back to my phone and find one or two missed calls, never a voice mail left. I sighed. "Is it happening again?" Katie asked, noticing my change of mood after another call, some of us casually checked our phones after our afternoon match- which we won.  "Yeah, whoever it is, is ringing from a private number so I can't even do anything about it. It's getting annoying now." I frown, Katie takes my hand and gently rubs her thumb over my knuckles. "Hm, maybe it's time to change your number." Katie suggests, gently. I sigh. "I really don't want to have to." I pout. "I think I'm gonna try and see if I can catch whoever it is, I'll keep my phone on me at training, if Renee will allow it anyway. If it's a fan then I'll do it but it really is the last case scenario." 
Beth, Leah, Kim and Viv overheard the conversation between Lili and I and so they came over to see what was happening. "Is everything ok?" Kim asked, her voice full of concern. I sigh and my frown matched Lili's. "Lili's getting random calls from a private number." I state, I hated seeing Lili all frustrated and confused. "Oh, I get them occasionally. It's usually just scammers and telemarketers." Viv shrugged. "Yeah it's probably that, don't let it annoy you." Beth agreed with Viv. "Yes but it's 2 times a day and it's been happening for a week now. It feels weird. Like all of us I get them, but something feels off about this. I don't know, maybe I'm thinking too much into it." Lili rubbed her face.