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By the time Roy arrived in small lobby at the staff entrance of Nelson Road, a crowd had gathered.
I didn’t take him long to figure out why.
Rebecca and Higgins were stood in front of an open set of double doors, talking to a contractor. Behind them, his team had gathered, like a flock of lost ducklings, craning their necks to look down the corridor.
“A hundred bucks says this wasn’t there yesterday.”
“Swear down, it wasn’t!”
“It’s like we unlocked a new area. Like in a video game.” Colin whispered in awe to no one in particular.
“Maybe we levelled up? Does anyone feel any different?” Isaac chimed in, looking around the assembled crowd like he expected to see them with unfamiliar clothes, or maybe armour.
“What are the odds we slipped into an alternate universe last night?” Bumbercatch asked, matching Colin’s whisper tone.
“Roy blew my back out so good last night I passed out for a bit, so we could have, I wouldn’t have noticed.” Jamie answered.
“Jamie!” Roy barked, scandalised. It wasn’t like they were a secret, but he wasn’t used to Jamie sharing this candidly, or maybe it just felt extra dirty because it happened outside the locker room.
“Sorry, coach.” Jamie didn’t sound sorry at all.
A few heads had turned towards them, and a few players, plus Rebecca, gave him an approving nod, so Roy couldn’t be too mad about it.
“Okay, but Bumber is right though. No way this was here before.”
“Wait, hold on a minute.” Rebecca looked around, glancing at the players that were now taking up the better part of the lobby now and seemed to be queuing up behind her for no discernible reason. “You lot seriously think a whole new corridor manifested itself in our hallway overnight?”
They all nodded in unison. Roy shook his head, which made a couple of them change their minds and shake their heads alongside him.
“What did you think all the construction workers were doing here the whole summer?” Keeley asked, clearly aiming to give the boys a chance to redeem themselves as a group. The question was met with a chorus of shrugs and “I dunno”s.
“Maybe the door was always there, and it’s just never been open before?” Sam suggested.
Jan had queued up with the rest of them, but seemed as baffled by the exchange as Rebecca was. “You are all incredibly unobservant. Of course the door was here before.”
Rebecca turned around to find that the lobby had now become completely packed as staff members who didn’t know what was going on had started to arrive and ended up trapped in a crowd of baffled footballers.
“None of you have ever noticed this door?” She asked, but didn’t bother waiting for an answer. “Well at least you can find the ball on the pitch. Leslie, shall we?”
“My pleasure.”
And while, to Roy at least, it was clear that the contractor was only expecting to show Rebecca the renovations, the poor man now found himself leading the whole team, plus some other staff members who had gotten caught up in the enthusiasm down the hall.
“This is the locker room.”
Roy tuned out the details about the tiling that Rebecca and Keeley had hand picked, he had seen and heard it all before during his Monday morning catch-ups with Rebecca. Instead, he hung back and watched his guys take it all in. They all knew the women’s team was going to have their first training next week, and they were all terribly excited about it. They had gone so far as to write letters to their respective equivalents on the other team to welcome them, and a welcome party had been organised at Ola’s. It seemed to not have occurred to anyone where they might have their facilities.
Watching in amusement as they aww’d and ahh’d at the place, he could only shake his head fondly. They had their hearts in the right place, what more could he ask for.
The tour continued down the hall to the physio facilities, training rooms and then further down the hall in an area that would usually be locked for games, towards the visiting team’s locker rooms. It had turned out nice. Roy had seen the area pre-renovations. Unlike the men’s facilities, the women’s section hadn’t been renovated since it had been built. And no one had touched the place for more than routine cleanings every few months ever since Rupert had shut the team down in the 90s. Somehow, they had managed to really make this place come to life again. It was inviting, bright, clean, functional. It felt good, and he hoped the new team would feel welcome here. Soon enough, the place would be full of life again, like it was always meant to be.
“You were right, we totally levelled up.” He overheard Colin say as the guys started heading towards their own locker room, having seen everything there was to see.
“I hope they wanna be friends.” Isaac whispered back to Colin as they passed Roy.
Jamie found him on his way back, bumping his shoulder into Roy’s to make him walk with him.
“What do you think?” Roy asked.
“It’s nice, real nice.” Jamie was beaming. “Can’t wait to come watch a game I’m not playing in around here. I don’t even know what snacks and drinks we sell.”
Roy huffed a laugh.
“Seriously though, I’m glad we’re finally getting a women’s team. You’ve met them, right?”
Roy fell into step with Jamie, guiding him back to their own locker room. “Some of them, yeah. I think you’ll get on.”
Jamie preened. “Obviously we will, I’m likeable as fuck.”
He paused for just a moment, and Roy could hear him pull in air to speak. “No cap, were those doors always there?”
“There, but closed, yeah.”
Jamie looked like he was having a revelation about how he processed his environment. “So… you didn’t fuck me into another dimension then?”
Roy gave him a shove towards the locker room. “Go get warmed up.” He laughed, heading into his office, shaking his head fondly.
The anticipation in the air was electrifying. Just one more week until they all got to meet the new team. He couldn't wait to see them play, he almost felt as giddy as the rest of the guys.
Not much longer now, not much longer.