Play the Game (17 page)

I walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Mum was in there, cutting up vegies.
She must have noticed that I wasn’t wearing a tracksuit as usual, because she said,‘You
look nice, Edie. Where are you off to?’

‘Um, the football club disco.’

Mum stopped cutting the potatoes and looked up properly. ‘Really?’

‘Uh huh. I asked Dad if it was okay and he said yes.’

This was sort of what happened in our house. Mum was at work so much that usually
Jean or I would ask Dad’s permission for something. Then he’d forget to tell Mum,
and then she’d be all surprised.

Mum looked closer at me, taking in the lip gloss. ‘Who with?’

That wasn’t a question Dad had asked, and I’d sort of been hoping that Mum wouldn’t,
either. But in my experience, Mum always managed to ask the questions I didn’t want
her to.

‘A friend,’ I said, pretending to concentrate on doing up my sneaker.

‘Do I know this friend?’ she asked.

‘Um.’ I was about to say no, but then I realised that she did. ‘Yes. You do.’

‘Is it Tess?’ Mum asked, laughing.

I really didn’t want to be having this conversation just before Finn arrived, so
I shook my head. ‘Nope. Not Tess.’

‘Well, does this friend have a name?’

Dad doesn’t usually ask for details. Mainly because whatever I’m up to, I’m usually
up to with Tess, and he trusts us. I could see I was going to have to tell Mum. Finn
would be here any minute, and she’d meet him anyway.

‘His name’s Finn. He’s Maggie’s brother. You stitched up his eye once in emergency.’

‘Maggie from the team?’

I nodded, impressed that she’d remembered.

‘I stitched up his eye – last year? Football injury?’

I nodded again, amazed that she could remember every procedure she’d done in emergency,
no matter how minor.

‘His mum was with him. She held his hand the whole time,’ she said, like that made
a difference. ‘Is Maggie going too?’

‘I don’t think so,’ I said, trying to keep it vague.

‘So it’s a date?’ said Mum with a slow smile.

‘No. It’s the football club disco. I’ll be home just after eight.’

‘Honey, I know I stitched up his eye, but I’d sort of like to meet Finn again before
you go,’ said Mum. ‘Even if it’s not really a date.’

And just as she said that, the key turned in the front door and I heard Jean come
in. She was talking to someone. A boy. And it didn’t sound like Matt, her boyfriend.

‘Edie?’ called my sister.

‘In here,’ I said.

Jean walked in with a huge grin on her face. ‘Look who I found outside.’

I’m pretty sure I blushed as Finn stepped out from behind Jean. He looked really
cute. Normally he was in clothes as scruffy as me, but tonight he was wearing a shirt.
He smiled at me, and then introduced himself to Mum.

‘Remember me?’ he said.

She nodded and smiled. ‘You look a bit happier than you did last time we met.’

‘It healed really well. Look, there’s not even much of a scar,’ he said, stepping
closer to show Mum his face.

I couldn’t help but laugh. But Mum seemed quite keen to check out her handiwork.
Jean nudged me. ‘What?’ I whispered.

‘He’s cute,’ she whispered back.

I rolled my eyes at her. I knew this would happen.

She reached over to rub something off my face. ‘Hey!’ I pulled away, annoyed.

‘You’ve got lip gloss on your chin, Edie.’

‘Oh,’ I said, feeling like a little kid playing dress-ups. I let her rub it off and
even gave her a grudging smile. ‘Thanks.’

‘Well, you two have a good time,’ said Mum warmly.

‘Have fun,’ called Jean.

I pulled the front door shut before she could say anything I’d have to punish her
for later.

As we stepped outside, away from the house, I started to ask,‘Does Maggie know I’m
…’

But Finn shook his head. ‘No. Actually, I was going to ask you about that. She said
she had training.’

‘Yeah, we do.’

Finn looked at me strangely as I unlocked my bike and pulled my helmet on, wondering
why I’d even bothered brushing my hair.

‘But you’re not going?’

‘No,’ I said.

‘Because you love dancing so much more than netball, right?’

‘You discovered my little secret.’

Finn laughed. ‘Awesome. If you dance anything like you shoot, we could take out the
best dancer award!’

‘Unlikely,’ I said. I just hoped it would be dark enough that nobody could actually
see me dancing.

The football club had been decorated with streamers and lights, and they’d even hung
a huge mirrorball from the ceiling. I recognised a few faces from school, but most
of the kids were a year or two older than me, so I didn’t really know anyone well.
Finn, however, kept stopping to say hello to people. After he’d introduced me about
a hundred times, I decided to disappear to the food table.

Halfway through my third party pie, Finn walked up. ‘Sorry, you must be a bit bored,’
he said.

‘No, just hungry!’

He laughed. ‘I’m glad you came.’

‘Yeah. Me too. My mum’s a health nut – I never get to eat party pies!’

A new song came on and I recognised it as one that Jean loved. Suddenly everyone
seemed to be dancing. Finn looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I knew I couldn’t
avoid dancing all night, but I’d been hoping to stretch it out just a little longer.

‘May I have this dance?’ he said in a silly voice, holding out his hand.

I felt really strange. I’d never had a boy hold my hand before. Well, not since prep,
when we got paired up to walk to the library and I got stuck with Jimmy Jones. This
was much nicer than that. I was almost a bit sad when we got to the dance floor and
Finn let go.

It
was
actually pretty dark, and nobody seemed to be paying attention to how anyone
was dancing. They were all just having a good time. I tried to move with the music,
pretending I was in a drama class and we were studying movement. It actually worked.
I discovered I really liked dancing – especially with Finn, who was totally into
it.

‘I thought you said you couldn’t dance,’ he said loudly into my ear.

Then he grabbed my hand and spun me around and around until I bumped into him, and
found myself standing super close. He looked down at me and smiled. Flustered, I
stepped back, pretending to lose myself in the music.

We must have been dancing for about half an hour when a slow song came on. I automatically
went to leave the dance floor, but Finn grabbed my hand and pulled me back. All around
us, couples were dancing, and I was a bit nervous that Finn was expecting me to slow
dance with him. Instead, with a laugh, he stretched out our hands in a sort of tango,
and started pulling me around, dipping me back and swinging me out. It was silly
and fun, and it made me like him even more.

As the song finished, Finn tipped me back, his arm around my shoulders. I couldn’t
help but look into his face. And he was looking right back. I think I could have
stayed like that forever, but then he slipped, and almost dropped me. Looking a bit
embarrassed, he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me awkwardly back to my feet,
then let go of me and jumped back.

‘Sorry, Edie,’ he said, blushing.

Before I could think of something to say, a man grabbed the microphone and tapped
it. ‘Is this thing on?’ he shouted loudly.

Everyone yelled back,‘Yeah!’

Finn leant close and whispered in my ear. ‘That’s our coach.’

I nodded. I still hadn’t quite recovered from having Finn’s arms around my waist.

As the coach started talking about the past season, I felt my phone vibrate in my
pocket. I sneaked a look – it was a text from Tess.
How are you feeling?
I felt awful.
Here I was, on a date that I’d lied about, and my best friend was checking on me
in the middle of a training session. Worrying about me. Maybe Tess was right. Maybe
boys and state netball just didn’t mix.

I sent off a quick reply –
Ok. Missing training.
– just in time to hear Finn’s name
being called. Everyone around us cheered. Finn had just been named the best and fairest
player on his team. I had no idea this was one of
those
nights, where awards were
given out. I’d thought it was just a social thing. I was thrilled for him as he walked
up onto the stage area where the coach was. I felt my phone buzz again, but this
time I ignored it. I wanted to hear Finn’s speech.

‘Thanks, Coach. I’ll pay you later,’ he grinned, making his teammates laugh.

Then Finn’s eyes found mine and he smiled as he said, ‘I wasn’t expecting this. I’d
sort of had my heart set on winning the best dancer award, but I guess this will
have to do.’ There were more cheers, and then he said, more seriously, ‘It’s a great
team and I feel lucky to be part of it. We’re going to nail it next year, boys!’

The room erupted and Finn gave his coach a huge hug. His words made me feel even
worse. Here I was at a disco when my whole team was doing extra training just to
get ready for Saturday. I tried to shake off the thought as Finn jumped off the stage
and walked back towards me. As he moved through the crowd, everyone slapped him on
the back, congratulating him. ‘So that’s why you wanted me to come,’ I said, smiling.
‘To show off your trophy.’

He nodded. ‘Absolutely. Look at this thing!’ He held it up. It was a huge gold statue
of a footballer taking a mark, and his name had been engraved on the plaque at the
bottom.

‘Pretty impressive,’ I said.

‘I bet you’ve got heaps of these at home,’ he said, looking at me.

I shrugged. ‘Only fifty or so. Not that many.’

He laughed. He had a great laugh. ‘I can see I’m not impressing you!’

I handed back his trophy. ‘If you’d won best dancer I would have been more impressed,’
I said with a smile.

‘Uh oh. If you don’t want to get stuck helping with clean-up, we should go,’ said
Finn. I looked around and realised that the disco was coming to an end. ‘Unless, of
course, you want some more party pies?’

I grinned. ‘I’m good, thanks.’

While Finn said goodbye to some people, I walked out onto the balcony. It was a perfect
night. Warm, but not too hot, and almost dark. The fairy lights across the front of
the clubhouse looked beautiful. I wondered if Tess was on her way home or if she
was still at training, and for a second I wished I was with her. But I’d pushed the
thought aside by the time I heard Finn say, ‘Can you take my trophy in your basket?’

The trophy didn’t quite fit in my basket – it kept threatening to jump out whenever
we rode over any bumps. As I stopped to secure it for the millionth time, Finn rode
up next to me and softly said, ‘So, will you come to the next disco?’

‘Only if you’re winning a trophy.’

He smiled at me and said, ‘That can be arranged.’ Then he looked really serious for
a second. ‘Thanks for coming, Edie.’

‘I never thought I’d admit to finding dancing fun!’

‘So you had fun?’

I smiled and got back on my bike.

‘You never did tell me how you managed to get out of training. I thought your coach
was super strict!’ said Finn.

I didn’t really want to go into it, but I figured I owed him an honest answer. After
all, I was asking him not to tell Maggie. ‘I said I was sick.’

Finn raised an eyebrow.

‘I know it wasn’t the best thing to do, but I was just so tired of training all the
time. Of course it’s important, and I really enjoy it, but I want to be able to do
other things too,’ I said, hoping he’d understand.

He nodded. ‘Yeah, I get that. But that’s the thing with a team sport. The team’s only
as good as everyone in it. You can’t play state netball part-time.’

‘Are you saying I should have gone to training?’

He laughed. ‘I’m glad you came to the disco. Otherwise, who would have eaten all
the party pies?’

‘But if I’m playing in a team, then I should be a team player. Right?’ I said, feeling
like I’d messed up. The problem was, I just didn’t know if I could commit to state
netball the way that Tess and Maggie had. But did that mean that I wasn’t a team
player either?

I heard my phone vibrate again and knew it would be Tess checking in. I didn’t want
to keep lying to her, so I figured it was best if I just pretended I’d been asleep,
and answer her in the morning. That was the problem with lying. Once you started,
the lies just got bigger and bigger.