Play the Game (23 page)

I spied Jackson in the corner doing voice exercises and I thought how nice he looked
in his Friar robes. We’d hardly spoken since I’d taken the part of Juliet – most
of my time had been spent with Freddy and the other actors I had key scenes with.
In fact, I’d pretty much spent every moment with Freddy, hanging out and watching
old
Romeo and Juliet
movies, or running lines. It had been nice when I hadn’t actually
had to face a real audience, but now that the moment had arrived, it was terrifying.

Freddy was still holding my hand. I wondered if he could just keep holding it while
I was on stage, because then I might make it through.

‘Freddy, I’m …’ I couldn’t even say it.

He squeezed my hand. ‘You’ll be fine. Just remember to breathe. I’ll be with you on
stage, okay?’

I managed a nod, but it wasn’t very convincing.

‘Two minutes to showtime,’ called Kerry as she walked into the wings. She squeezed
my shoulder, smiling at Freddy and me. ‘Break a leg, guys,’ she said.

‘I hate that expression,’ I said, making Freddy laugh.

‘Yeah, don’t break a leg. That would be messy and unfortunate. Just pretend you’re
her,’ he said softly.

He was right. That was all it was. Pretending. I could pretend. Couldn’t I?

As we heard the audience start filing in, we immediately fell silent. Then Freddy
lifted my hand and kissed it, smiling at me as he let go. ‘My lady,’ he said, and
then disappeared into the wings, headed for the other side of the stage, where he’d
make his entrance. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, as the curtains opened and
the play began.

The first two scenes passed quickly. I could feel my heart racing as I waited for
my entrance. I heard the Nurse call for me and I hurried on stage and took up my
place. But when I opened my mouth to deliver my line, nothing came out. I just couldn’t
remember what I was supposed to say. I felt totally panicked. Then for some reason,
I looked out at the audience, at all the hundreds of faces watching me. And I saw
Tess’s face in the audience, her smile. She nodded her head and I could imagine her
willing me to relax, to remember my line, and to stop being nervous. It must have
worked because I stood up straight, dropped my shoulders, took a breath and turned
to face the Nurse.

‘How now! Who calls?’ I said in a voice loud and strong. And suddenly I remembered
every line and every step. I could feel myself becoming Juliet. I wasn’t scared anymore.
This was what I’d wanted. It was my turn to star.

The play shot forward in a flash. As I prepared myself for the balcony scene, I watched
Mel and the other backstage helpers wheel out the beautiful balcony, with its cascading
flowers and vines. It looked just like the side of an Italian villa. They’d done an
amazing job.

I climbed up the ladder behind the balcony as the curtain rose on the scene. I felt
amazing, just like Juliet would have as she walked out into the night air, confused
about loving a Montague, a boy from the family that had been declared her enemy.

I listened as Freddy delivered his speeches perfectly. Then it was my turn. I looked
down into the audience.

‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name;

Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.’

As I finished my speech, I realised how much I was enjoying myself. I was on stage
so much that I barely even had time to worry about what was up next. I couldn’t believe
how fast it was all going. And then suddenly it was time for the death scene.

I rushed onto the stage and dropped to my knees, heartbroken that my beloved was
dead.

‘… and left no friendly drop

To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;

Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,

To make me die with a restorative.’

And then without hesitating, I reached down and took Freddy’s face in my hands and
kissed his lips. And even though I still thought he was super cute, and he had
that
accent, the kiss was just another moment in the play. At that moment I was Juliet,
not Edie.

‘Thy lips are warm!’

Then I snatched Freddy’s dagger from his waist and said my final line.

‘O happy dagger!

This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.’

And I drove the dagger down the side of my body, pretending to stab myself. I heard
someone in the audience gasp. As I lay down across Freddy’s body and pretended to
die, I felt amazing.

I loved every second of being on stage. Even the death scene, which had been so difficult
in rehearsals, now felt perfect in front of an audience. It was like Freddy and I
had finally found our rhythm, and the play just soared. As the curtain came down,
I heard the audience cheering like crazy.

Freddy and I stood up and before I could move away, he scooped me up, spinning me
around in a circle. ‘You were fantastic, Edie!’

‘So were you!’ I said, giddy. I’d never felt like this before. I just wanted to laugh
and cheer all at once.

As the curtain opened again, Freddy grabbed my hand and we rushed forward to the
front of the stage to take our bow. Tess was already on her feet. My family joined
her, and then the whole audience leapt up and gave us a standing ovation. Freddy
and I took a huge bow, then held out our hands for the rest of the cast to run on
and join us.

I stood up and looked out over the audience, my hand still in Freddy’s, a stupidly
huge smile on my face. I saw Tess grinning back, and I felt like I was just about
the luckiest girl in the world.

‘Whoa!’ I whispered to Tess as we stepped inside the stadium. There were just so
many people. And they’d all come to watch us! Okay, not
just
us, but still. I’d never
played netball in front of a crowd of more than about forty. The practice game we’d
played was nothing compared to this. I suddenly felt really excited.

‘Tess, I can’t believe we’re here. It’s not like a Sapphires game, is it?’ I said,
grabbing my bestie’s hand and squeezing it. I was so glad I’d decided to stay on
the team.

Tess shook her head, looking a bit dazed. Suddenly she started waving madly. ‘Look,
there are our folks.’ Her parents were sitting in the front row, next to my parents. I was amazed to see
that even my sister had turned up, and Tess’s brothers. ‘We’d better play well today,’
said Tess nervously, grabbing my hand.

I laughed. ‘You always play well.’

Tess shot me a worried look. ‘You think?’

I raised an eyebrow. She totally knew how good she was. ‘Yeah, for sure. You’re a machine!
Sometimes it pays to practice. It’s only thanks to you that I finally get how important
it is to train!’

‘Thanks, Edie,’ she said. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’

In all our excitement, Tess and I hadn’t even realised that the rest of our team were
already warming up. Suddenly we heard Justine yell,‘Tess! Edie! You joining us?’

We raced out onto the court, apologising madly. Ever since I’d made the decision
to fully commit to netball, I’d been training super hard. And now that we were here,
about to go up against the Warriors in our first proper state game, I was so glad
I had been. I couldn’t wait to get out on the court and show my team how I could
play when I was totally committed.

Even the blisters seemed to have stopped forming – though that might have had something
to do Maggie’s mum’s miracle udder cream, which, amazingly, actually seemed to work.

As Tess and I ran through our drill passes, I tried to ignore the butterflies in
my stomach. This was my chance to see if all those hours of training had paid off.
To see if I’d improved as much as Justine said I had. I still didn’t love training
as much as Tess or Maggie, and I still sometimes wished that it didn’t have to take
over all of my spare time. But I also knew that I’d never felt stronger, or more
in control of my game. I’d never pushed my natural skills as far as they could go
and that was pretty exciting.

I loved the adrenaline I felt right before a game. It was exactly like the feeling
I used to get just before going on stage. It was such a rush!

‘Running passes,’ yelled Justine. Tess and I had done this so often we could almost
do it with our eyes closed. We nailed ten perfect passes, back and forth. As we reached
the bottom of the court, I heard my name being called. I looked around at the stand
and saw Finn waving at me. It was the first time I’d seen him since I’d explained
that I was going to focus on netball. He’d been really good about it, but warned
me that if he came to watch a game, he’d expect a dance afterwards.

I was so busy waving at Finn that I missed Tess’s pass. I heard him laugh as Tess
rolled her eyes.

‘He’d better not distract you,’ said Tess, running over to me.

I shot her a look and she smiled. ‘Nothing’s going to distract me today.’

Ever since I’d decided to concentrate on netball, my head had been completely in
the game. Maybe over the holidays when we weren’t training I could hang out with
Finn, but right now, it was game time!

Justine blew her whistle and we ran in for the huddle.

‘Okay girls, I want to see those passes we’ve been working on, and the play where
Edie drops back to feed the ball to Tess. Got it?’ She didn’t wait for an answer
before saying in her most serious voice,‘We can win this.’

‘Yeah!’ agreed Tess, totally pumped. The rest of us laughed as the first siren sounded.

‘Edie, can I have a word?’ asked Justine as I headed out onto the court. I turned
to run back to her, but the other team was already lining up, and the siren was about
to go. Justine seemed to change her mind.

‘Just play hard,’ she said.

Nodding, I hurried onto the court to get into position. Tess grinned at me from the
goal circle. I grinned back. This was it.

Lining up next to the GD I was pleased to see she was about my height. As we jostled
around each other, desperate to be first out when the whistle blew, she tried to
block me with her elbow. Just as the umpire blew the whistle, I dodged around behind. The
game was on.