Play the Game (20 page)

With a mouthful of lasagne, I nodded, and gave him the thumbs up.

‘Game of chess after dinner?’

I swallowed. ‘I think I’ll be in bed. Sorry, Dad. Big game Saturday, and I’m exhausted.’

Poor Dad. We used to play chess all the time, before netball took over my life. Then
Jean piped up, ‘I’ll play Monopoly with you.’

Dad laughed. ‘Only if I can be the car.’

‘I’m in too,’ said Mum.

Normally I loved an all-in family game of Monopoly. We were ruthless, and shamelessly
tried to bankrupt each other. But that night, I barely made it through dinner.

‘I can’t practice anymore,’ I moaned as Tess met me after our last class. We’d been
planning on shooting goals for a couple of hours, just like we had every other night
this week, but I was exhausted. I expected Tess to be snippy with me, but she surprised
me. ‘Yay, me neither! Let’s go get ice-cream instead.’

‘Really? I thought you’d be mad,’ I said.

She shook her head. ‘I’m not that horrible. I don’t want to train every minute of
my life, Edie.’

‘Oh, thank god. Come on, I can already taste the lemon gelati.’

‘Should I text Maggie? See if she wants to join us?’ said Tess.

Without thinking, I pulled a face. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Maggie. I did. But
I wanted to hang out with my friend. Alone. Tess saw my face and laughed.

‘You’re not still funny about Maggie, are you?’ said Tess.

‘No. But I kind of just want to eat ice-cream with you,’ I said, feeling a bit embarrassed.
But Tess just smiled.

‘Sounds perfect.’

As we rode down to the ice-cream shop near school, we started yelling out all the
flavour combinations we wanted.

Tess started. ‘I’m going to have chocolate, mango and peach.’

‘What about blueberry?’ I asked.

‘Oh, I love blueberry. Okay, so mango, peach and blueberry.’

‘I’m having banana. And cookies and cream.’

‘Gross! That doesn’t go together,’ said Tess, locking up her bike to mine.

‘It might.’

We were kidding ourselves, of course. We always got exactly the same things.

We queued up with the other ten or so school kids waiting in line. Tess went first. ‘Can
I please have a triple of nougat, strawberry and vanilla?’

I looked at her. ‘What?’

‘I’m trying something new!’

But I didn’t want new. I wanted the flavours I always got. ‘A triple with mint, orange,
and cookies and cream please.’

Tess groaned. ‘Predictable!’

We handed over our money and grabbed our cones. ‘I just know what I like.’

‘But you’ll never know what else you like if you don’t try something new,’ argued
Tess.

‘I can just try yours!’ I said, leaning over and licking her ice-cream before she
had the chance to stop me. Tasting the nougat, I pulled a face. ‘Yuck. See, I’d be
really unhappy if I was stuck with that.’

We sat down outside under a huge umbrella.

‘What if we lose tomorrow, Edie? I’m worried that Justine will be furious with us.’

‘She can’t be. Not if we all try our best.’

But Tess still looked worried. ‘I’ve never heard her so determined. I hate it. I mean,
I’m competitive. I like to win. Right?’

I grinned. Tess hated losing. ‘Right,’ I agreed.

‘So I really don’t like it when our coach makes it sound like if we don’t win, it
means we didn’t try hard enough. If the other team is better, then they’re better.
We can’t control that.’

‘I’m sure Justine will be cool if we lose. She’s probably just trying to get us psyched
up for the game, that’s all,’ I said, hoping that was true.

Tess licked her ice-cream then screwed up her face. ‘I hate admitting that you’re
right, but … nougat’s horrible! Next time, can you remind me that I don’t like trying
new flavours?’

‘Sure, if you tell me more about Finn’s big eyes and his cute smile,’ I said, teasing
Tess.

She punched me on the arm. ‘He’s not my type. I was just trying to get you to miss
a goal, that’s all.’

‘I would have won if the bell hadn’t gone,’ I said.

She raised an eyebrow. ‘Maybe. Maybe not. Come on, I’m ready for bad TV and the couch,’
said Tess, tossing the last of her ice-cream into the bin.

I woke up so early it was still dark outside. I knew I should have gone back to sleep.
Today’s game was a home game, and it wasn’t until ten. But I’d just lie awake anyway,
so I got up and went downstairs.

When Mum and Dad had finally agreed to get me a mobile phone this year, the deal
had been that I couldn’t have it in my room overnight. They knew if I did, I’d probably
just text Tess all night. This meant that when I woke up super early, and figured
Tess would also be up super early, I couldn’t just lay in bed and text her. I had
to go downstairs to get my phone.

Nervous?
I texted.

Terrified!
she sent back.

I smiled. I knew she’d be up. At least she’d still be in her warm bed. I flicked
on the lights and grabbed a glass of water. I’d have my first breakfast while we
texted back and forth – and then maybe even my second. I always ate two breakfasts
before a game because I burned so much energy. There was nothing worse than having
to play sport when you were starving.

Making toast
, I texted.

Jam?

I smiled.
How did u know?

She sent back a smiley face. I always had jam. Dad made this huge batch over summer
and it was delicious.

Porridge 4 me.

So she wasn’t still in bed.
Yuck
! I replied.

Brown sugar AND maple
, she told me.

We texted back and forth for a bit, killing time until we had to get ready: strap
our ankles, check our nails were short enough, tie back our hair and take off our
jewellery. We had to get to the court early, because Justine liked running us through
moves before the game started.

I’ll swing by soon
, texted Tess.

OK.

By the time I’d showered and dressed, and was making sure my laces were as tight
as humanly possible, Mum wandered out in her dressing gown. She went straight to
the coffee machine.

‘Morning, Mum,’ I said.

I got a grunt in reply. She must have worked late.

I felt all jittery – I kept sitting down and then standing up again. Tess was right.
It was just a game. A season game too, not even a final. We’d play our best, and
if we lost, we lost.

‘What time’s the game?’ asked Mum, sipping her coffee and opening her eyes properly.

‘Ten.’

‘I’m on call, but I’ll come down and watch. Let’s just hope no-one gets injured,
so I get to watch the whole game!’

I smiled at her. I liked it when she came to my games. She always cheered really
loud when Tess or I scored a goal, and afterwards, if she didn’t have to rush off,
we’d go and celebrate – or commiserate.

I heard the doorbell and I knew it was Tess. She was really early, but I was glad.
It was better being together when we felt this nervous.

‘See you there, Mum,’ I said, kissing her cheek.

‘Bye, honey. Good luck,’ she said sleepily.

I opened the door and Tess took one look at me. ‘Drink bottle?’

‘I’ll just go grab it.’

I filled up my sports bottle and ran back to Tess. ‘Bag?’ she asked.

‘Oops, hang on.’

My bag was in my room. I raced upstairs and grabbed it off my bed. If it wasn’t for
Tess, I’d forget everything. That’s what nerves did to me.

‘Okay, good to go now,’ I said as I jumped on my bike and followed her down the driveway.
She stopped and looked back at me, smirking. ‘Helmet?’

I started laughing as I dashed back to grab it.

Finally, we were on our way. We arrived at the stadium around the same time as the
rest of the team. As we walked out onto the court, Justine pulled me aside.

‘Edie, can I’ve a word?’

I nodded and let the others go on ahead of me.

Justine leant down and spoke softly, so nobody else would hear. ‘Your GD has a weak
ankle. I want you to target her.’

I wasn’t sure I’d understood. ‘What do you mean?’

She smiled at me. ‘You don’t have to look so worried, Edie. I’m not asking you to
trip her over or anything, I just want you to bump her a bit. And stay on her left
side. She’ll be protecting her ankle, so you need to make that a bit hard for her.’

I really didn’t like what Justine was asking me to do. I’d be exploiting an injury,
something I’d been taught never to do. ‘Um, isn’t that playing kind of dirty?’ I said
quietly.

Justine looked at me, surprised. I’d never questioned her before. ‘Do you want to
win this game? They’d do it to you in a heartbeat.’

I must have looked concerned still, because Justine leaned in close. ‘I’m your coach,
Edie. And what I say goes. Do you understand?’

Nodding, I felt sick. This felt really wrong.

As Justine jogged off to warm up the rest of the team, Tess dropped back to see if
I was okay. I must have looked really shocked, because she slid her arm around my
shoulders. ‘Edie?’

I didn’t want to tell Tess. It seemed like the less people who knew, the better.
I decided I’d just ignore Justine and play normally. Hopefully we’d always be in
the lead and I wouldn’t have to even think about her request again.

I smiled at Tess. ‘I’m okay. Just nervous, that’s all.’

She narrowed her eyes at me, trying to suss out if I was telling the truth. ‘You sure?’

I nodded. ‘Absolutely! Come on, let’s go warm up.’

The rest of the pre-game was a bit of a blur. I couldn’t stop thinking about what
Justine had said. It wasn’t like netball didn’t get a bit rough sometimes, especially
at this level, but I’d never been asked to go after someone just because they had
an injury before. And besides, how did Justine even know about it?

As the siren went, we stripped off our tracksuits and took to the court. I saw my
opponent before I saw anyone else – she had strapping halfway up her left leg. It
must have been a bad injury, and they obviously weren’t taking any risks with it.

The whistle went and the game started. It was so fast. I still hadn’t got used to
the speed of state netball, and we were down three goals before I’d even caught my
breath. The first quarter passed in a blur. By the time the siren went and we could
grab a drink, the Warriors were seven goals in front. Not a good start.

Before I could run back onto the court, Justine gave me a fierce look. ‘Edie, I asked
you to do something and you’re not doing it. Now either you play the way I’ve asked
you to play or I’m benching you. It’s your choice.’

I was shocked. I couldn’t believe she was going to bench me if I didn’t target the
GD! I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t feel great about targeting my player like
that, but I really didn’t want to miss the game. I still felt like we had a shot
at beating the Warriors. Should I follow Justine’s order and bump my player, possibly
making her injury even worse? Or should I let Justine bench me, and make my point?
I didn’t have time to ask Tess – there were only seconds left before the next quarter
started. I had to make a decision.