Play the Game (19 page)

Since I’d confessed that Finn had asked me out and I’d really wanted to go, Tess kept
checking in to make sure I was happy with my decision. I was. Mostly. I knew that
the next time I saw him, I would probably regret not going to the disco. But for
the moment, at least, netball was taking up all my spare time.

‘Yeah, I am. Means I get to ride on a minibus with you every second Saturday,’ I
said, smiling at her.

‘And if we keep winning like we did today, we’re going to blitz the finals,’ said
Tess.

‘It wasn’t a real game today, Tess. I don’t think practice games count,’ I said.

Maggie frowned. ‘And first up, we have to beat the Warriors.’

I groaned. ‘Talk about a rough draw!’

Just about everyone in our team had a story about the Warriors. They were legendary. The
club had been premiers for years now, and nobody had even come close to beating them. As
if reading my mind, Tess shook her head. ‘They haven’t played us yet,’ she said, sounding
determined.

‘True,’ I agreed. ‘But I’ve heard their defenders are ruthless.’

‘So am I!’ said Tess in her most ferocious voice, making both Maggie and I laugh.

After Sapphires games Tess and I usually went to each other’s houses to hang out
and relive every second. We’d decided to keep the tradition alive, and it was Maggie’s
turn today. I was trying to come up with an excuse, because of the whole Finn thing,
which Maggie knew nothing about. As the bus pulled up outside the stadium, and we
said goodbye to the rest of our team, I blurted out, ‘Um, I told Dad I’d help him
clean out the study.’ I knew as soon as I’d said it that it probably wouldn’t fly.

Tess raised an eyebrow and gave me her special
yeah, right
look.

‘Just for a bit, Edie?’ pleaded Maggie, not knowing the real reason I was trying
to get out it.

Tess came to my rescue. ‘Actually, I just remembered the boys are at a party this
afternoon, so maybe we could go to my place instead? Avoid brothers,’ she said, winking
at Maggie. I silently thanked her, hoping Maggie would agree, but she just laughed. ‘My
brother is out too!’

‘Oh, well then, let’s just go to your house, Mags. It’s much closer. Edie?’ said
Tess, raising her eyebrows at me.

I nodded. ‘Okay, just for a bit, then I really have to help Dad with that thingy
…’

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Finn. I did. But I still felt bad for ditching
him. And besides, I didn’t want to be reminded of how cute he was when I couldn’t
do anything about it.

But as we rode up to Maggie’s house, chattering on about the game, someone rode up
the path in front of us. As he jumped off his bike and took off his helmet, I saw
that it was Finn. My stomach sank. He was wearing his footy shorts and club top,
and he was all splattered with mud.

‘What are you doing home?’ asked Maggie, sounding cross.

‘Nice to see you too, Mags. Hi, netty girls,’ he said, not looking at me. ‘Don’t worry,
I won’t be in your way. I just came home for a shower, then I’m heading out.’

Clearly he didn’t want to see me at all. I tried to focus on the conversation about
how we were going to beat the Warriors, but Finn kept dashing back and forth past
the lounge room, making it a bit hard to pretend he didn’t exist. Suddenly, to my
horror, I realised Tess and Maggie were staring at me.

‘Sorry, what were you saying?’ I said, pretending to yawn like I was just so tired
I couldn’t keep up.

‘Maggie was asking how we could beat the Warriors. And I said we could shut down
their centre passes,’ said Tess.

I nodded. ‘Hmm. It could work, but it probably won’t be enough. I think we’ll need
more than one trick up our sleeves.’

Tess shrugged. ‘Okay, shut down their attackers?’

Maggie laughed. ‘Justine’s been trying to get her teams to beat the Warriors for
ages. I’m sure she’ll have some secret weapon to roll out!’

‘Ooh, I like the sound of a secret weapon!’ I said with a smile.

Finn peeped around the corner and said, ‘I’m off. Don’t have too much fun without
me.’

I laughed without thinking. Finn looked straight at me and smiled. ‘Glad someone
appreciates my jokes. Thanks, Edie.’

I know I was blushing a bit – I was really pleased that things weren’t too weird
between us. But I was also a bit relieved that he was leaving, because it meant I
could concentrate totally on our game plan.

When Tess and I first started playing netball, we couldn’t practice shooting on the
school courts, because the goal rings were too high. We could barely even throw the
ball that high, let alone get it through a ring. But now we spent most of our lunchtimes
shooting goals. Nobody else ever bothered trying to use the court, because we were
always there.

‘Thirty-nine,’ I said, counting Tess’s goal. ‘Forty …’

‘Do you think I can make it to a hundred?’

‘I hope not, otherwise I’ll never get a go!’

‘You still haven’t told me all the goss about Finn,’ said Tess, shooting another
goal.

‘Forty-one, and there’s nothing to tell. He asked me out. I said no.’

She shot three more goals, then I added, ‘But I still think he’s cute. And it was
pretty weird seeing him the other day. He is cute, isn’t he?’

My question obviously threw Tess, because she missed goal number forty-five.

‘Finally,’ I said, grabbing the ball.

‘That’s cheating,’ said Tess. I smiled and shot my first goal.

‘He is pretty cute, those big eyes and that smile. Even the way he’s always joking,’
said Tess. ‘He’s kind of dreamy.’

‘I know what you’re doing. But it won’t work. I’m going to beat you,’ I said, shooting
goal number two.

We’d been practicing like crazy ever since we found out we were playing the Warriors
on Saturday. Whenever we weren’t training or sleeping, we were shooting. I practically
started dreaming about netball manoeuvres. I could tell Tess was pleased that I’d
started taking netball more seriously. And actually, I’d noticed a huge change in
my game.

‘Nine,’ said Tess.

As I ran off to grab the ball, which had rolled under the trees, I saw Freddy and
Zoe from drama, in full costume, doing a photo shoot in the playground. It must have
been for the poster or something. It looked like Zoe was dressed as Juliet – I wondered
what had happened there.

Tess obviously noticed them too. I heard her say ‘Wow!’ behind me.

Wow all right. They looked amazing. Zoe made a stunning Juliet, and Freddy looked
perfect as Romeo. Freddy saw me watching and waved.

‘You okay?’ said Tess, grabbing my arm.

I looked back over as they moved into another position and tried to imagine what
it would have been like to be in the play. ‘I’m okay,’ I said, surprising myself.
It was true. There was a little twinge of regret, of wishing I was the one getting
photographed in that dress, with Freddy holding my arm. But then, here I was, out
in the sun, shooting goals with Tess and preparing to play the biggest game of our
lives.

‘Ten!’ I said, as I got another goal.

‘I want you to go hard on Saturday. I want you to be tough and I want you to be ruthless,’
said Justine, looking even more intense than normal.

‘Um, isn’t that what we always do?’ asked Tess from where we were standing at the
back of the group.

Justine fixed her with a stare. ‘I want more. We’re going to beat the Warriors. I
don’t care how.’

I nudged Tess and pulled a face, making sure Justine couldn’t see. She made it sound
like we were going to war, not playing a netball game.

‘Righto, I’ll see you on Saturday.
Early
,’ said Justine, dismissing us.

Justine had trained us so hard that even Tess looked exhausted. She was the colour
of a beetroot, and I looked like a rosy red apple. We grabbed our stuff and headed
for the door.

‘I never thought I’d say this, but it
is
just a netball game,’ Tess said softly to
me as we walked outside.

I nodded, totally agreeing. ‘I know. It was pretty strange. She must really want
to beat them.’

‘Yeah, but it’s not like any of us slack off. We play our best, every single week.
I hate being made to feel like I could play harder than I do,’ complained Tess. It
was the first time I’d ever heard her criticise Justine. Normally she just went along
with everything she said.

‘Well, I plan on slacking off when I get home. I’m exhausted!’

We rode home slowly and quietly. Neither of us could even be bothered saying goodbye
properly. We just grunted tired farewells and rode off in the directions of our houses.

I couldn’t even be bothered rummaging around in my bag for my key, so I just rang
the doorbell and hoped someone would answer.

After what seemed like ages, Jean opened the door with a face covered in pink goo.

‘Ergh, what happened to you?’ I said, pulling a face.

‘Face mask,’ she said, through narrow lips, and I realised she couldn’t open her
mouth properly because the goo had dried. If I’d had more energy I would have tormented
her about that, but tonight I just wanted to lie down.

I could smell something yummy in the kitchen. ‘Hey, honey,’ called Mum. ‘Dinner will
be ready soon.’

‘Okay! I’m just going to have a bath, Mum,’ I called back. Normally I’d have gone
and said a proper hello, but tonight there was no room for manners. I doubted I could
even make it up the stairs.

‘Have you got any of that salt stuff for the bath, Jean?’ I asked. ‘I’m aching in
every muscle!’

She mumbled something through her half-closed mouth, and I thought I heard the words
‘upstairs’ and ‘cupboard’.

I ran the bath and hunted around in the cupboard for the bath salts, but before I
could find them, Jean barged in, pushing me out of the way.

‘Jean,’ I whined, sounding about five.

She was washing her face madly, trying to get the goo off. I just wanted to have
my bath in peace! Finally, she looked up at me, her face all red and blotchy. ‘Ew,
is it meant to look like that?’ I asked, wondering why she did these things to herself.

‘It’ll settle down,’ she said, sounding like she did this every day. Then she opened
the top cupboard and pulled out a small bottle of green liquid.

‘Two drops in your bath and you’ll feel like a million dollars,’ she said in a silly
voice.

I laughed. ‘Thanks. You really should go into advertising!’

I opened the bottle and smelt it. It was sort of minty – much better than sports
rub and sweat, which is what I currently smelled like. I put two drops into the bath
and ushered my sister out.

‘I’ll be a while,’ I said, locking the door behind her.

‘Mum’s cooking lasagne,’ she said through the door, knowing that would get me out
in a hurry.

The bath was hot and full and I could have almost fallen asleep in it, but I was
starving, so I didn’t last as long as I’d have liked. The green stuff must have done
something, though, because by the time I dried off and put on my old track pants
and hoodie, I felt, and smelt, well, probably more like a hundred dollars than a
million, but certainly better than I had before.

‘She’s alive!’ said Jean as I walked into the kitchen. The rest of my family was
sitting at the table, obviously waiting for me. That was the problem with training
nights. Either everybody else ate before me, and I’d have to heat something up when
I got home, or, like tonight, they were all sitting around waiting for me, probably
as hungry as I was. Actually, nobody could be as hungry as I was.

‘A huge serve for me, thanks, Mum,’ I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. I hadn’t
seen her for a few days.

‘Do I look peachy?’ asked Jean as I sat down next to her.

‘Yeah, like one that’s been left on the tree for too long,’ I said, making Dad laugh.

Jean rolled her eyes. ‘You wait. By tomorrow, my skin will be radiant.’

‘It was radiant before you put the mask on,’ said Mum, joining in the argument.

‘How was training?’ Dad asked me, keeping Jean’s goo from derailing our nice family
dinner.