Play the Game (24 page)

I felt so charged as I ran out for the centre pass. The GD was rougher than me, but
not as quick. I made a short pass to Maggie, dropped back, caught a perfect throw
and found Tess ready in the ring. Goal. And we were away.

As each team scored, the crowd cheered. It was really weird having such a loud group
of supporters. I was pretty sure I could actually hear my dad yelling over everyone
else whenever Tess or I shot a goal. I tried not to look at the scoreboard or the
time clock – Justine had lectured us about staying in the moment – but as the siren
went for half-time, I snuck a peek. We were tied, eleven all.

‘Nice shooting,’ said Maggie grabbing Tess and I as we ran to get a drink. Most of
half-time would be taken up with a speech from Justine, so if we wanted water, it
had to be fast.

‘Their keeper’s elbowing me behind the play,’ complained Tess. ‘I’m going to be covered
in bruises.’

‘Elbow her back,’ said Maggie, surprising me. But Tess shook her head. ‘I hate playing
like that. We just need to beat them.’

‘Okay, girls,’ said Justine, ready to pump us up for the next half. ‘We need to break
their centre pass. It’s goal for goal at the moment. Edie, I want you to come all
the way out on their centre passes and defend their Wing Attack. Maggie, you take
their Goal Attack, okay?’

We needed to do something. There was nothing worse than a draw.

‘You just need to turn the ball over,’ Justine told us as the siren went. I noticed
Tess was still rubbing her arm. It must have really hurt – she usually never complained.
‘You okay?’ I asked her as we jogged back onto the court.

‘I’ll be fine, so long as we win!’

I smiled. It was just like her to be this competitive. And that Goal Keeper had really
gotten under her skin. She was right, though. There was only one way to get back at
someone who was playing rough, and that was to beat them.

As the crowd starting cheering as we returned to our positions, I realised that a
big part of playing netball at this level was playing under pressure. Weirdly, it
actually felt a bit like performing on stage.

The whistle went and I ran out fast, picking up the Wing Attack on the other team. Their
Centre hesitated, and I knew she’d look to pass the ball back to one of their defenders.
In the split second before she passed, I saw where she was going to throw. I leapt
up and intercepted it. It was perfect. Three quick passes down the court and Tess
had shot a goal. We were in front.

My heart was racing as I took off on our centre pass. Maggie caught it and passed
it back to me. I lobbed it to Tess, she did a quick pass back to me and I shot a
goal. Two in front.

Dad was going crazy in the stands. I couldn’t help but laugh as he jumped to his
feet and yelled. I’d never seen him take a game so seriously. What would he be like
if we actually made it into the finals?

The rest of the game passed in a blur. Goal for goal. Then they broke our centre
pass and we were back to being tied. With only a minute left on the clock, they were
desperate and threw a huge lob. I didn’t think I’d make it, but I jumped just at
the right time, and managed to hit the ball into Maggie’s hands. She spun around,
passed it to our Centre and I was off. Too fast for their GD, I got the ball down
to Tess, just as my player stuck her leg out in front of me and sent me flying. I
hit the ground hard.

Nothing was broken, but Justine asked if I wanted to come off.

‘Are you kidding?’ I shouted, trying not to show her how much my knee hurt. I didn’t
think it was serious, but it would be sore tomorrow, and I probably shouldn’t try
to run on it. But with only twenty seconds left, there was no way I was going off. Tess
shot for goal, but the ball bounced off the ring and started to drop. It was going
out of bounds. I couldn’t stand it if we drew. I shot my arm out and managed to whack
the ball back in. Tess caught it. I heard Maggie cheer behind me as everyone waited
to see if Tess could put it through.

She shot it up … and in. It was a goal! I couldn’t believe it. The siren went – we’d
won!

Grinning madly, we shook hands quickly with the other team, and then grouped together,
laughing. Even Justine looked happy, which didn’t happen very often. ‘Great work,
girls!’ she said. ‘That was a great win.’

The umpire walked over to our huddle. ‘Great game, girls.’ She looked at me. ‘Edie
Thomas?’

I nodded. ‘Yeah.’

‘Best on court,’ she said, handing me a medal.

‘Me?’ I sounded surprised.

‘Yeah!’ said Tess. ‘You were everywhere!’

As the umpire placed the medal around my neck, I was grinning even harder than when
Finn had kissed me on the cheek. This was incredible. I couldn’t believe I’d considered
giving up netball.

‘Thanks!’ I said, staring at the medal. I’d never had a best on court medal before.
In our old comp they only gave one out per season, so this was new to me.

‘See you all at training on Monday,’ said Justine, bringing us crashing back down
to earth. There were a few groans, but for once, I was happy to train. In fact, I
would have trained right away, if Justine had asked us to.

Tess tucked her arm through mine as we headed over to our parents.

‘We’re going to go all the way, Edie. Under-15s today, the national team tomorrow!’

I saw Finn waving at me. I stopped on the court and did a silly little dance. He
laughed, and I grinned back. The end of the season wasn’t
that
far away.

‘Edie? You okay?’ said Tess, looking surprised.

I smiled. It had taken me a while to work out how much I loved playing netball, but
now that I had, I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.

‘I’m great, Tess. Let’s go celebrate!’

‘I’m sorry Tess,’ I said. The look on her face told me I didn’t need to say anything
else. She knew I was dropping out.

‘Won’t you at least think about it?’ she asked sadly.

‘I don’t think I’ve stopped thinking about it since I joined. That’s why I whinge
all the time about having blisters, and training too much. It’s just not for me, Tess.’

‘Yes it is. You’re a natural. You’re an amazing netballer. I’d do anything to be
able to play like you,’ she said quietly.

I suddenly felt guilty. Tess worked so hard at being a good netballer – I wondered
if she thought I had a duty to use my natural abilities.

This was probably the hardest conversation we’d ever had, but I wanted to be honest,
even if it upset her.

‘I can’t play just because you would if you were me. I have to do what I really want to do. And that’s not playing state netball,’ I said,
feeling sad as I said it, but also kind of relieved.

‘Are you choosing Finn over netball?’ asked Tess.

I shook my head. ‘No. I’m not. It’s got nothing to do with Finn. I just don’t want
to give up everything else for netball. I’m sorry.’

Tess started crying. I tried to give her a hug, but she moved away from me. I sighed,
wondering if I was making the right decision. It wasn’t that I didn’t love playing
netball – I just didn’t love it
enough
. But no matter how much I tried to explain
that to Tess, she just couldn’t seem to accept it. I knew it might be a while before
we were really okay again.
If
we were ever really okay again.

Tess hadn’t spoken to me since then. It had been almost a month. I missed her like
crazy but I did like having my Saturdays to myself again. If I’d stayed in the team,
every Saturday would have been about netball, but now, instead of nursing sore legs
and aching muscles, I was going to the movies with Finn.

‘Okay, what’s it going to be? Heads, horror, tails, comedy,’ said Finn as he flipped
a coin high into the air.

It was heads. Finn pumped the air dramatically with his fist. ‘Horror! Awesome!’

I groaned. ‘Best of three?’

‘No way. You have to sit through the horror film,’ he said, smiling at me.

‘Fine, I’ll just cover my eyes the whole time,’ I said, grinning back.

‘Bet you don’t. Bet you love it. All that gore!’

I pulled a face, but I didn’t actually care what film we were going to see. I was
just excited to be seeing it with Finn, and about to eat the biggest box of popcorn
I’d ever seen.

After the movie we were planning on surprising Tess and Maggie at their game, and
cheering louder than anyone. I just had to hope Tess wanted me there.

‘Front or back?’ asked Finn as we walked into the cinema.

‘Back,’ I said, heading up the stairs.

The last time I’d been at this cinema was when I’d seen Freddy and Belle together. That
seemed like ages ago now. A lot had changed since then. Belle wasn’t even in the
play anymore – she’d had to move suddenly when her mum got some big new job overseas.

When Tess stopped hanging out with me, I didn’t really have anyone to sit with in
class. Luckily, Mel from drama class had included me in her group of friends. And
they were really nice. They were all working backstage on the play, and Mel had talked
me into joining them. She even bought me my own hammer, and found me a pair of her
brother’s overalls that fitted almost perfectly.

So Mel and I ended up on the set-building team together. I discovered that I was
pretty good with a hammer. And I really loved doing the design stuff. It felt like
I was getting a chance to be part of the school play but from a distance, which suited
me right now.

Finn and I raced to get the aisle seat. I won, so he sat down on my lap, laughing
at me.

‘Get off,’ I said, pushing him. I didn’t actually want him to move, but he did, his
long legs crashing against mine. I smiled to myself in the dark.

The movie started, and within seconds I was glued to the screen. I’d never seen a
horror film before. It was hilarious. I think they were zombies or something. They
wandered about a lot, looking dead, but it so wasn’t scary. I couldn’t believe I’d
avoided horror movies for so long. I did scream at one point, when a character’s
head fell off, and Finn grabbed my hand. It was pretty cute because he didn’t take
it away again, even though it was really hard for him to reach the popcorn with his
left hand. As the credits rolled, Finn left his hand where it was for a few seconds,
and then let go. I realised he was grinning at me. ‘You loved that, didn’t you?’