.one.

Van Daniel Rodriguez Ter Avest was an American young man of immigrants parents, a Mexican father and a Dutch mother, whose sole aspiration in life was to become a footballer. He had grown up watching the legends of both his nations, with his love for Mexican football growing bigger, since it was a country he visited often, as it was just south of the border from the United States. He had only been to the Netherlands a handful of times when he was younger, and he loved his other country, it was the other half of his heart.

For one reason or another, he was never able to achieve his dream of playing football professionally. His parents were never able to afford soccer camps, and youth training, and he had been left to study at a university and work part time. He was working on his masters in physical education and sports management in the mornings, and worked the night shifts at a university near his home. On the little free time he had, he played football with some friends in an amateur football league at the park. It was the last rung of the football ladder, but it was all he had until he could earn himself the money to join the LA Galaxy try outs. His parents continued to tell him it was a dream too far out of his reach, but Van Daniel wasn't one to give up very easily.

Another thing he enjoyed during his free time was to learn football tricks to then perform them, film them, and upload them to his social media accounts. His latest one was a trick he had seen Kaka do in an old video. In it, he was dressed in a bright red Portland Thorns jersey that a viewer of his had sent as a present.

He had posted a snipet of it to his instagram account with a short caption.

vannydanny: the new vid is up on youtube, check it out pls! 

Minutes after, he scrolled through his newsfeed as he often did, replying to some of the comments that people had left for him.

He was several comments down when he spotted one that caught his eye.

alexmsmith13 just liked your photo!

alexmsmith13 just commented on your photo!

alexmsmith13: that's a PORTLAND THORNS JERSEY 

alexmsmith13: do u wtch the women's league??

alexmsmith13: sick trick btw, imma have to try it sometime

By looking at their username and profile picture, he couldn't tell very much. He was left as equally without information when he clicked on the person's account. Their username alexmsmith13, didn't say much to Van Daniel, neither did their display name. The only thing he gathered from the account bio was that they were a person named Alex M. Smith, and that they played footie. Their logo was the US National football team logo, and they had only uploaded three pictures so far, all of them of objects and none of themselves.

For the time being, he would assume Alex was a man. There weren't many women named Alex where he was from, and he had always known it as a boy's name.

What he did like was that Alex seemed to know about football, because he had complimented Van Daniel and said he would have to attempt the trick one day. He didn't know what it was, ultimately, but he ended up clicking the follow button on Alex's page.

It wasn't two minutes before he received something in his private messages from the mysterious commenter on instagram.

alexmsmith13: thx for the follow back :)

alexmsmith13: i had been watching ur vids for a while now. ur so talented!

vannydanny: no prob bro :)

alexmsmith13: so do u wtch the fem soccer league??

Van Daniel saw that Alex had asked him the same question again. Perhaps he was interested in watching the women's league. The twenty five year old typed up a response in his cellphone screen and hit send. He was currently in a class about the necessary steps to take in the event that a player would become seriously injured during a game.

vannydanny: nah man. it was a gift from a female viewer & i thought i would wear it to show my appreciation. i watch the liga mx, a bit of mls, a bit of pl, a bit of la liga and a bit of bundesliga. a bit of evrything. hahaha.

vannydanny: y? u kno the team??

alexmsmith13: yh i do! im living in portland rn so i sometimes go & watch the games. women's teams are so under appreciated.

vannydanny: tru bro. tell u what, imma check them out this weekend on tv just bc u recommended it. aha. 

.

As she got ready to exit the locker room for another day of training, Tobin watched her team mate with her eyes glued to her cellphone screen, while her thumbs typed away at a hunred miles per hour, a goofy smile on her face. With the excitement she noticed in her, Tobin thought Alex was probably talking to a boy. Over the last few months, Tobin had been worried about Alex. She had broken up with her long time boyfriend Servando and didn't seem like she wasn't taking it too well.

Tobin couldn't recall anymore how much her friend had suffered the break up. As long as Tobin had known Alex, she and Servando had been together. They had been high school sweethearts even, and they looked so in love with each other. But both being footballers, it was difficult to see each other and make things work. He had gotten a contract with Sporting Kansas City, while she was currently playing for Portland Thorns. The distance between them was too much and ended up straining their relationship to the point where they decided that the best thing was for them to end their relationship. Alex hadn't wanted it to end, but Servando had been certain that it was the best and she saw that it was no use to insist when there would only be effort on one end of the relationship.

The locker room was almost empty by this time, the rest of the team was already on the field and ready for practice.

Tobin walked past her team mate, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention. Alex, who had been distracted the entire time, nearly jumped ten feet off the bench she was sitting on. Finally noticing her surroundings and remembering she was supposed to be ready for practice, she furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "Where is everyone?" She asked the only other person in the room.

"They're all out on the pitch." Tobin informed the her friend with an amused smile on her face. "I stayed behind to make sure you got out in time."

Setting her phone down on the bench next to her, she hurried to tie the laces of her cleats, which she was being paid by Nike to wear whenever she had games or practices. "I'm always on time." Alex announced in her defense. It was only the first time she was letting herself become distracted in a way that was interfering with her focus at practice. She was back on her feet in no time and picked up her cellphone off the bench again.

alexmsmith13: i have to go to practice. can we talk later, bruh?

At the moment, she had been having an interesting debate with her new friend about the MLS and the Liga MX. Van Daniel was taking the Mexican league side, since he had grown up watching it and being a fan of the teams. Alex insisted that the leagues were at a par. She knew there had been a time when the Mexican league was better, but she also believed that the MLS had done a great job catching up. Van Daniel's strongest argument was that Club America of the Liga MX had defeated Montreal Impact of the MLS at the CONCACAF Champions League final. Alex was beginning to run out of arguments and come backs.

vannydanny: yeah. goodluck bro :p

Bro.

Ever since they had started talking over a few days prior, she had noticed that he kept calling her bro. That meant that he thought she was a male. Alex hadn't even tried to correct him. Each time she tried to voice her opinion on social media, she was often ignored because she was a woman and was thought to know nothing about sports. It was the reason she had created a secret account without any pictures of herself on it, where she could interact with people and have conversations about football, real conversations about football.

That was what she had with Van Daniel, but because he thought she was a man named Alex. For the time being, she would let him continue to believe that. She was in no rush to reveal the truth, especially when they had great and intelligent conversations about football.

Dropping her cellphone into her locker and letting the small metal door shut with a clank, she followed her team mate out of the locker room and onto the field.

.

By the time the two young women reached the field, they spotted the rest of their mates in a group, getting their stretches done before getting started on their practice for the day. A tall one with ivory skin and bright blue eyes jogged over to meet up with them. "What took you two so long?" Allie asked, "I thought you fainted in there and we'd have to go save you." Their team mate smiled at her own joke. Allie was like that. Even if her joke happened to not be funny, at least she would laugh. Allie would laugh at anything. She had a light personality and found something positive in everything.

Tobin let a smile form on her lips knowingly, looking like a proud older sister. "I was just shaking Alex out of her daydreams. I wonder who's the siren trying to take down the SS Talex." The two had become very close friends since they had joined Portland Thorns in 2013, and had become even closer in their time with the national team. Tobin had also been there for Alex after her breakup with Servando, which served to make their friendship much stronger. Their friendship and love for each other had earned them the ship name Talex. Allie was a close friend of theirs as well and they were the trio that was always together. Since Alex was younger than both of them, they saw her as the little siser of the team.

Allie grinned knowingly, she also knew how much Alex had suffered the breakup with Servando. "Was he talking to a boy?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Alex is in love." Tobin announced.

"No I'm not." Alex denied it with a shake of her head.

"What's his name?" Allie asked, ignoring Alex's words completely. "If you tell me, I'll let you meet Gyasi and his team mates." Ever since Allie had started dating Gyasi Zardes from Los Angeles Galaxy, it was her bribe offer when she wanted to get her way. 

Alex argued, giving a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't want to meet Gyasi, or anyone from Galaxy."

"Oooh." Tobin laughed.

Allie gasped, outraged. "You don't want to meet my Gyasi?" He feigned being heartbroken. With a shrug, he added, "More Gyasi for me."

"He is your boyfriend, Allie." Tobin pointed out.

Before her mates could say anything more, the coach walked over to the three girls and clapped his hands together to get their attention. "Alright ladies, enough gossiping." He scolded them in an authoritative voice. "Get over with the rest of the team and give me four laps around the pitch before we start today's training."

The three girls nodded and jogged over to join their other team mates.

Alex thought about the young man he had met online.

Was she doing the right thing by hiding her true identity from him?

She knew that if he could know who he really was, then there was a slight chance that he would only like her because she was a footballer.

For the time being, Alex decided it was best to let her new friend think she was someone a man. Then maybe later on, if they became really good friends, she would tell him. But she couldn't tell him, not now. She wanted someone to like her for her thoughts and for herself, not just because she was Alex Morgan.

-

i actually had a really hard time adapting the last part because sadly i dont follow women's football, so i didnt have prior knowledge as to who was on the team and which of them are friends. so bear with me, guys. im trying really hard. but thank you all so much for reading and supporting this story, it means a lot to me.

just a note: gyasi zardes is married in real life. but for the purpose of this story, lets just pretend that he isn't married and that he's dating allie long. if you don't know zardes, i recommend that you look him up. he plays for la galaxy and he is absolutely gorgeous. 

oh and my main character is dutch-mexican. the reason is because i like diverse characters, but also i like to write about what i know. so if i make him a halfer, i can write about a diverse character, but since he's mexican it won't be totally unknown territory to me. so yeah. i hope you like the combination.

i hope you all have a great weekend!

-clary xx