Play the Game (4 page)

‘More nervous than you were before the netball tryouts?’

‘Oh god, way more,’ I babbled. ‘Imagine kissing Freddy in front of hundreds of people!
And the whole school!’ I suddenly felt the butterflies in my stomach start up. I
knew it would be weird to kiss Freddy on stage – I’d just have to remember I was
acting!

‘You’ll be fine,’ Tess said, sounding distracted.

Sometimes Tess could be a bit funny about my crush on Freddy. I think it was because
of what happened between her and Josh. They’d gone to the school dance together, but
then he’d started hanging out with Becky Sanchez, and dropped Tess like a hot potato.
I really didn’t like Josh after that.

That was around the time Tess had decided to throw herself into preparing for the
state tryouts to make sure she’d get selected. I admired her dedication, but I hadn’t
been able to practice with her as much as she’d wanted, which I think bothered her
a bit.

I steered the conversation away from the topic of Freddy. ‘Jean offered to do my
make-up, and help me with my lines!’

‘Really? Is she feeling okay?’ Tess knew exactly what my sister was like.

‘It might have been the nail polish fumes. She’ll probably change her mind. And besides,
that was the first conversation I’ve had with her in weeks,’ I said.

I lay back on my bed and stared up at the netball posters on the wall. The Vixens
stared back at me. Jean said it was freaky having posters of sports players in my
room, but that was just because her walls were covered with pictures of singers and
actors. Jean wasn’t into sport.

‘I was hoping we’d find out about netball today,’ said Tess quietly.

‘It’s only Monday!’

‘I know. But I hate waiting!’

I laughed. ‘Just try and concentrate on your English project instead.’

Tess groaned. ‘See you in the morning.’

On Friday night, after forcing down some weird chicken dinner that Dad had read about
in a magazine, I was lying on my bed reading over
Romeo and Juliet
when my phone
rang. Of course it was Tess.

‘Hey, did you get a text message?’ asked Tess, sounding like she was bursting with
excitement.

‘Huh?’ I had no idea what she was talking about.

‘Check your phone,’ she said, and hung up on me.

As soon as she hung up, I noticed that I had a new message. Actually, two messages.
One was from Tess, asking if I’d heard anything about netball tryouts. The other was
a message telling me to be at the State Netball Centre at 10 am on Saturday.

My phone rang. ‘Well?’ demanded Tess, before I could say anything.

‘Tomorrow morning?’

Tess’s squeal almost blew out my eardrum. ‘Yes! Oh, thank god you got one too! I reckon
we’re in!’

‘You don’t know that. It might just be a callback. Or they might want to tell us
in person that we didn’t make it.’

‘I have a good feeling. Wow, you’re going to be super busy with the play
and
playing
state! And I’m not going to sleep at all tonight,’ said Tess dramatically. I’d had
enough sleepovers with her to know it was probably true. Once she got excited about
something, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

‘So Juliet, see you in the morning. I’ll swing past and pick you up?’

I couldn’t believe how good it sounded to be called Juliet.

‘Sure. See you then. Get some sleep!’

As I hung up, I kept picturing Freddy’s face, and that gorgeous grin. Tess wouldn’t
be the only one not getting any sleep tonight.

By the time we got to the netball centre, I was starving. Neither of us had managed
to eat breakfast – we were too nervous.

‘Wish I’d brought some toast with me,’ I said.

‘I can’t even think about food. What if …’

I didn’t want to have another ‘what if ’ conversation, so I started running towards
the stairs. ‘Last one to the top buys the hot chocolates on the way home,’ I yelled,
trying to distract Tess.

Tess followed half-heartedly, but it was clear she wasn’t trying. ‘Edie, you still
haven’t promised me that you’ll play even if I don’t get picked,’ said Tess.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to play without Tess. But now didn’t seem the right time
to bring that up.

‘Come on, doors are open.’

I held out my hand and she grabbed it, squeezing hard.

‘Hey, what did your mum say about Juliet?’ Tess asked.

‘Shh,’ I said, suddenly feeling a bit funny that I’d told Tess when I didn’t really
mean to. ‘You can’t mention it to anyone.’

She laughed. ‘I haven’t. I won’t, I promise!’

She took a huge breath, smiled, then reached out to open the door. ‘Let’s do this.’

There weren’t that many girls walking into the stadium, which made me wonder if they
were staggering the announcements. ‘Where is everyone?’

Tess looked around, frowning. ‘I don’t know. It’s weird, isn’t it?’

‘Girls? Here for the state team announcement?’ called a woman from behind a desk.

‘Yes,’ we said in unison, then started giggling. Talk about nervous!

‘Names?’We told her and she crossed lines through both our names.

‘Just through those doors,’ she said, pointing at a room behind her.

Tess was still giggling as we walked in. I nudged her to be quiet – everyone else
was looking deadly serious. A few more girls filed in behind us, and Tess leant over
and whispered,‘Is it good or bad that there are only this many people?’

I shrugged. I had no idea what it meant.

‘Okay girls, let’s get started,’ said a woman at the front of the room. ‘I’m Kathryn
Fraser, the convener of the junior state teams. As you may have guessed, you are the
girls who have made it through. Congratulations.’

There was a long silence in the room. Then a few people started squealing and talking
and laughing.

Tess called out,‘Really? We’re in?’

Kathryn Fraser smiled and nodded. ‘Yes, you’re really in.’

It took a second for us to process what she’d said, then suddenly Tess and I started
jumping around like we were five. ‘We’re in! We’re in!’

As I hugged my best friend, I couldn’t believe my luck. First Juliet, now state netball. What
a week!

‘I know you’re keen to celebrate but I just need to tell you about training and give
you an information pack to take home to your parents,’ said Kathryn. ‘We train twice
a week and games are played across the state. Playing netball at this level is a
big commitment, so you need to understand what it will mean for you.’

‘It will mean extreme happiness,’ called Tess, making everyone laugh.

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Kathryn warmly.

My bestie squeezed my hand. She looked like she was about to burst with excitement.

‘We start training properly next week but you’ll meet your coach and the rest of
your team Monday night, here at the centre. At six on the dot!’

Wait, Monday night? I put my hand up. ‘Um, excuse me, but what nights do we train?’

‘Mondays and Wednesdays.’

‘Every week?’ I asked. I could feel Tess staring at me, no doubt wondering what the
problem was.

Kathryn nodded. ‘Every week.’

I felt sick. This couldn’t be happening. There were seven days in a week – how could
training fall on exactly the same two nights as rehearsals? It wasn’t fair. I couldn’t
possibly do both. But how could I choose which one to give up? I was so busy trying
to work out how I could do both of the things I loved that I didn’t hear the rest
of Kathryn’s speech. Suddenly everyone was leaving, and Tess had me locked in another
bear hug.

‘Can you believe it? State netball!’

‘Yeah,’ I said, not really listening.

Tess pulled away to look at me. ‘Edie? What’s up?’

I sighed. ‘Training is on exactly the same nights as rehearsals.’

Tess sagged. She totally understood – I knew she would.

‘Oh, Edie, I’m really sorry. I know what playing Juliet meant to you. But Kerry will
understand. I’m sure they can cast someone else.’

‘Cast someone else?’ I repeated, confused.

‘Well, yeah. They can’t do
Romeo and Juliet
with no Juliet,’ she said, looking at
me like I’d lost my mind.

I stared at her, shocked. She
didn’t
understand. Not at all. She expected me to pull
out of the play, assuming I would want to play netball as badly as she did. And I
did. But I also really wanted to play Juliet.

‘It’s not that simple, Tess. I love acting, and I’ll probably never get another chance
to play Juliet.’

Now it was Tess’s turn to look shocked. ‘Wait, you’d choose the play over playing
state? You can’t be serious!’

I lowered my voice. There were still a few girls talking to Kathryn and I didn’t
want them to overhear our conversation. ‘I don’t know. I love netball. And I love drama.
How am I supposed to choose?’ I whispered.

Before Tess could answer, Maggie raced up and hugged Tess. ‘We made it! We’re going
to play state netball together. This is so cool!’

Tess smiled back at her, but I could tell she was still processing what I’d just
said. ‘Isn’t it great? I’m so glad you’re in, too, Maggie. Let’s go celebrate! Hot
chocolate?’

‘Sounds good!’ Maggie turned to me and smiled. ‘Coming, Edie?’

Before I could answer, Tess jumped in. ‘Edie has other things to celebrate.’

I felt horrible as Tess and Maggie walked off together, chattering excitedly. Why couldn’t
Tess understand how hard this was for me?

Normally we made all our decisions together. We did everything together. The chance
to play state netball alongside my best friend was a dream come true. How could I
even think about passing that up?

But playing Juliet was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, too. I’d worked so hard
to nail the audition, and I still couldn’t quite believe I’d landed the lead role.
The thought of turning it down made my stomach twist – but could I risk losing my
best friend in the whole world, just so I could play Juliet?