Play the Game (8 page)

‘Break’s over, girls,’ yelled Coach Justine. ‘Back on the court.’

Everyone else jumped up, raring to go, but I still had to put my sneakers back on.
I was stalling because my foot was aching. In fact, my whole body ached. I didn’t
know muscles could hurt so much.

‘Come on, Edie,’ said Tess impatiently. She was sipping from her drink bottle, her
face red and sweaty.

‘Ergh,’ I said as I examined the blister on my heel. It was a gruesome, bloody mess.

‘Yuck!’ said Tess.

I ripped open a new band-aid, but it only covered half the blister.

‘I don’t think that’s going to hold it, Edie,’ said Tess with a smile. She started
ripping open band-aid after band-aid until my foot looked like it had been mummified.

‘That should do it,’ she said hopefully. ‘Actually, it’ll have to – you’ve used them
all.’ She shook the empty box.

‘Lucky they supply us with band-aids, or I’d be using up all my babysitting money,’
I joked. I winced as I pulled my sock back on.

‘I think we’re supposed to be doing drills,’ said Tess. Everyone else was already
hard at it.

‘Coming,’ I said, sounding cranky. I didn’t mean to. I loved training, but we’d been
at it for nearly two hours and I was ready for a real break. And maybe dinner. And
a footbath. And about ten hours of sleep.

I managed to get my sneaker on, ignoring the pain as it rubbed against the blister.
Then I hobbled down from the stand and followed Tess back onto the court. We’d only
been training for a week, but already I was beginning to understand what Kathryn
Fraser had meant when she’d said that state netball would become my whole life. She
wasn’t kidding. Netball had even taken over my dreams.

We trained at least twice a week for two hours, and once the season actually started
we’d be playing games all over the place. Some weekends we’d be driving for hours
just to get to the game. Tess and I were excited about that idea – we loved the thought
of sitting in a minivan together for a whole day, just chatting.

The rest of the team seemed really nice. Most of them already knew each other from
netball camps and other teams, but they’d made us feel really welcome. The only downside
to choosing netball (apart from not seeing Freddy at rehearsals twice a week) had
been breaking it to Kerry. She made me promise I wouldn’t give up acting forever,
and that I’d come back to classes soon. But even though I’d promised, I wasn’t sure
when it would happen. As long as I was playing state netball there wouldn’t be time
for anything else – just homework, school and training.

‘Think quick,’ called Tess as she shot me the ball. I didn’t, and it hit me in the
face.

‘Ow!’ I yelped, feeling my eyes water.

‘Sorry, Edie,’ said Tess, jogging over to check my nose. ‘Don’t think it’s broken.’
She smiled and scooped up the ball. ‘Try it again?’

‘Sure.’ I groaned, wondering what sort of state I’d be in by the end of the training
session. I felt totally broken.

As we practiced our passes, our coach Justine moved from pair to pair, checking our
technique. She was tough, but I liked her.

‘Tess, I want to see you throwing more one-handed passes. From the shoulder, remember. You’ll
get more power behind you, and more power means more distance.’

Tess threw me the ball from her shoulder, but it went off track. I jumped for it
half-heartedly – I didn’t want to land too heavily on my blister. I missed, and had
to hobble over and pick it up. I heard Justine call after me. ‘Faster, Edie. We haven’t
got all day.’

‘Sorry, I have a bad blister. My foot’s killing me.’

Justine nodded. ‘Salt water. Best thing for it. But you’ll have to learn to play
on it. It won’t be the only blister you’ll get this season.’

Without meaning to, I sighed. Justine raised an eyebrow at me. ‘Hope you’re not questioning
your commitment already? The season hasn’t even started yet.’

I could feel Tess glaring at me, wanting me to say the right thing. I nodded. ‘I
know. Sorry. I’m totally up for playing, I just have a sore foot. Salt water, right.
I’ll do it tonight.’

‘Okay. Keep passing,’ Justine said, and walked off to grill someone else.

She wasn’t like our old coach Lisa, who made practice fun. Training with Justine was
like boot camp. But I guess that’s how she built such strong teams.

‘Girls, I’m calling an extra training session next week. Our first game is coming
up soon and it’s going to be a big one. I want you ready,’ yelled Justine.

‘Which night?’ I asked, biting back a groan at the thought of extra training. As
if my feet didn’t hurt enough already.

‘I’ll let you know,’ she said.

We threw the ball back and forth for what felt like another hour, but was probably
only ten minutes. By the time Justine told us to stop, I could barely shuffle over
to the stands. My foot was killing me and I just wanted to go home. But Tess had
a different idea.

‘Maggie’s invited us to her house to watch the Vixens game. Her mum recorded it so
we could all watch it together. Cool, huh?’ said Tess.

We’d been spending quite a bit of time with Maggie. She was great, but I sometimes
missed hanging out with just Tess. It seemed like overnight we’d gone from being
a duo to a trio, and I wasn’t sure that was quite what I wanted. I also had a big
blister, aching legs and a burning desire to watch hours of bad TV while eating ice-cream
from the tub.

‘Now?’ I asked, shocked that they could think of doing anything other than lying
down.

‘Yeah, now,’ said Tess, smiling at my reaction.

I started to say no, but Tess gave me her best pleading look, then said the words
she knew I could never refuse. ‘Her mum’s buying pizza for dinner. With extra salami!’

Tess always knew exactly how to win me over. I never got pizza at home because Mum
was on this constant health thing. Salami was also off the shopping list, despite
being just about my favourite food in the whole world. Except maybe chocolate cake.
Besides, Tess and I hadn’t spent much time together lately outside of training. It
would be nice to just hang out.

‘Extra salami, you say?’

She grinned. ‘I’ll go tell her we’re coming,’ said Tess, disappearing before I could
change my mind.

I’d always been a bit envious of Tess’s endless energy, but never more than then.
She never seemed to get tired. Then again, she didn’t have a blister the size of
a tennis ball on her heel. I packed my things, moving carefully, and waved to the
other girls as they left. Tess ran back.

‘Come on, Edie,’ she said.

I limped towards her and she pulled a face. ‘Salt water is what you need, young lady.’

‘Thanks, coach.’

By the time we’d made it to our bikes, my foot was killing me and I was glad to be
able to sit down. We rode next to each other so we could talk.

‘Did you see that pass Brigid made today? It was perfect. She knew exactly where
Eleanor would be,’ Tess said excitedly.

‘Well, it helps that they’ve played together for ages,’ I said.

‘I know. I can’t wait for the season to start,’ said Tess, ‘so we can see how we
play as a team. Training’s great, but it’s weird starting again, don’t you think?’

I knew exactly what she meant. We’d played with the Sapphires for so long, we understood
everything about each other’s games. But on this team, we were all still testing
each other out.

‘Mum’s worried about me getting behind with my homework,’ Tess continued. ‘She says
she understands that I want to play state netball, but it shouldn’t be the only thing
I do. It’s the only thing I’ve ever done – I can’t believe she hasn’t realised!’

I laughed. ‘Yeah, it’s not like homework has ever really featured in your life.’

‘I just don’t get the point of it. Don’t we do enough learning at school?’ Tess complained
as we coasted down the big hill near my house.

‘Maybe your mum’s right, though. Netball shouldn’t be the only thing we think about.’

Tess shot me a horrified look. ‘Why not?’

I tried to think of an answer, then smiled. Maybe Tess was right. Why not?

We pulled up outside Maggie’s house. Tess knew where to go – she’d obviously been
here before. She hadn’t mentioned it, though, which made me feel a bit weird.

Maggie opened the front gate. ‘Hi! You can bring your bikes in if you like,’ she
said with a smile.

I followed Tess into the front yard and we locked our bikes up together.

‘My brother’s home, so I’ll just apologise now,’ said Maggie, pulling a face.

‘Ergh, brothers. At least yours isn’t nine-year-old twins!’ said Tess dramatically.
It was always funny hearing Tess whinge about her brothers. She actually adored them,
and they worshipped her. She was the reason they could shoot a perfect goal from
three metres out.

‘Maggie would love it if I was a twin!’ came a voice from inside the house.

Maggie groaned loudly. ‘Finn, you promised!’

A boy popped his head around the doorway, grinning at me. ‘Hi, I’m Finn. You must
be the other netty girl.’

I couldn’t help but stare. He wasn’t a
younger
brother. He was older. And he was
gorgeous. He had really dark brown eyes and scruffy hair, and he was even taller
than Maggie – and she was super tall.

Rolling her eyes, Maggie introduced us. ‘This is Edie, and you already know Tess.’

Finn smiled at both of us. Tess clearly wasn’t interested – she just barged past
him into the house. Maggie went after her, clearly relieved that her big brother
wasn’t going to spoil the netball game. I moved to follow, but Finn was leaning in
the doorway, and I’d have had to squeeze past him.

‘I guess I should say thanks,’ he said. ‘If you girls weren’t here then there definitely
wouldn’t be pizza for dinner.’

‘That’s the reason I came,’ I said, only half joking.

Finn pulled a shocked face. ‘Surely not. Aren’t you excited about watching, then
rewatching and maybe even re-rewatching, a game of netball on our rather small television?’

‘Um, yeah, totally,’ I said, sounding unconvincing, even to myself.

‘Don’t tell me there’s a less-than-committed netballer in the house?’

‘No. That’s not what I meant. I love netball.’

He shrugged. ‘What a shame. Thought I could challenge you to a computer game marathon.’

Just then Maggie called out from inside the house, ‘Edie!’

Finn took that as his cue to step back and wave me inside. ‘Better not keep you!’

I walked down the hall, my heart racing. Maggie didn’t go to our school, so I didn’t
know much about her, other than how she played netball. The fact that she had a totally
cute brother was a big surprise. I couldn’t believe Tess hadn’t mentioned him. Trying
to shake off the thought, I found Tess and Maggie curled up on the couch in the lounge
room, a big bowl of popcorn sitting in front of them. They were clearly waiting for
me.

‘What took you so long?’ asked Tess.

‘Sorry. Just checking out your house,’ I said to Maggie. ‘It’s a lot like mine.’

‘Hope Finn wasn’t hassling you. He likes giving my friends a hard time. He thinks
being a year older means he can tease everyone.’

I’m pretty sure I was blushing as I stammered, ‘No, no. He was fine.’

I could feel Tess giving me one of her looks. She knows me so well, she can totally
tell when I’m not quite telling the truth. I pretended to be ridiculously interested
in the shelves of books lining the walls.

‘Wow, Maggie! And I thought
we
had lots of books.’

‘Yeah, my dad owns a second-hand bookshop – we’ve got more books than furniture.
And he actually expects Finn and I to read them all.’

‘I do read them all,’ said Finn. I jumped. What was it with this guy? Did he just
think he could keep creeping into rooms and making me nervous?

‘Really?’ said Tess, obviously not believing him. ‘I don’t read books unless I have
to. Edie does. She even reads plays.’

‘Cool,’ said Finn, walking up behind me.

I started examining the books, hoping he’d be gone by the time I turned around again.
No such luck. I could sense that he was right next to me. Not knowing what to do,
I spotted a book I’d been dying to read and reached for it, just as Finn did the
same thing. Our hands sort of touched and I pulled away quickly.

‘Were you going to grab this one?’ he asked, holding up the book. ‘It’s awesome. You
can borrow it,’ said Finn, handing it to me.

‘Okay, thanks,’ I said.

I realised Tess and Maggie were both watching us. I felt a bit embarrassed.

‘Test me,’ said Finn, running his finger along the spines of all the books.

‘Finn! Get out. This is not about you,’ said Maggie, fuming. I was relieved that she
sounded so annoyed. It gave me the perfect excuse to move away from Finn and join
Tess on the couch.

‘Can’t I stay and watch it with you? I promise to cheer for the right team this time,’
he said with those twinkling, laughing eyes.

I really hoped Maggie would say no. I wasn’t quite up to being around a boy as cute
as Finn. Not today, especially, with my sweaty training clothes, dirty hair and blistered
foot. But she surprised me by sighing loudly, rolling her eyes, and then nodding.