Play the Game (25 page)

‘Yep,’ I said nodding.

‘Does that mean we can always see horror movies now?’

The sentence made me smile even crazier than I had been. He made it sound like we
were going to see a movie every week. That was fine by me.

‘Maybe,’ I said softly, suddenly a bit shy.

The cinema was still dark, but I knew any minute the lights would come back on, and
the moment would be gone. My heart was skipping. It was like Finn could read my mind.
He leant across and gave me the softest kiss on the lips. I knew I was grinning even
as he kissed me. As he pulled away, he smiled too.

‘I’m so happy you’re not playing netball anymore,’ he said gently. Then he laughed. ‘This
is heaps more fun than your gruesome blisters.’

My heart was still racing. I couldn’t believe Finn had kissed me. ‘Agreed,’ I managed
to say, not really thinking about netball. But suddenly I remembered where we were
supposed to be. I checked my watch. ‘Netball! We have to go if we’re going to catch
the game. That was one long zombie massacre!’

We ran for our bikes. Luckily, it was a home game, so we didn’t have far to go. As
we rode along the back streets I kept flashing back to Finn’s kiss. If I didn’t count
that sloppy kiss when I was ten, Finn’s kiss was my first. And that made it even
more special.

We locked our bikes up and scooted into the stadium. There were heaps of people there,
but we finally found seats off to the side down one end. I saw Tess and Maggie in
the team huddle, and Justine giving them a pre-game pep talk, and for a second I
imagined I was still in the team. I shook the thought off.

I couldn’t commit to just one thing like Tess had. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t want
to do anything else. I loved playing netball, but I also loved acting, and building
sets for the play, and hanging out with Finn.

As the siren went and the players ran out onto the court, I jumped up and yelled,
‘Go Tess!’ I saw her turn and look into the crowd, so I waved madly. I’m not sure
if she saw me, though. Then the whistle blew, and she spun back to focus on the game.

As I sat back down, Finn leant over and asked,‘Does it feel weird sitting on the
sidelines?’

‘A bit,’ I admitted. ‘But not as bad as I’d expected.’ And it was true. I was happy
watching Tess star, passing to the girl who’d replaced me as GA, and shooting goal
after goal after goal. Tess knew that all she wanted to do was play netball. And I
was so impressed at how amazing she was. I’d never really watched Tess play before,
because I was always out there with her. Now I could really see what kind of player
she was. Hardworking. Dedicated. Never hogging the ball when she could pass it off,
and sharing the shots at goal with her GA. That was who she was. The perfect team player.

As the final siren went, Finn and I ran down to where the team was gathered, listening
to Justine’s post-game speech. I waited for Tess and Maggie to walk off the court.
Finally, Tess looked up and saw me.

‘Great game,’ I said with a smile. Then I threw her the bag of red snakes I’d brought
with me. She caught them in one hand. ‘Nice throw,’ she said, almost smiling.

‘Nice catch,’ I said lightly.

I remembered Finn was with me, but he obviously understood that I needed to talk
to Tess, because he’d jumped down onto the court and started walking out with Maggie.
I held my breath, waiting to see what Tess would do. She climbed up into the stand
where I was waiting and held out the bag of snakes to me. I grabbed one.

‘You know you shot seventeen goals, right?’ I said, totally impressed.

‘Really?’ she asked, surprised. It was always hard to keep count when you were playing.

‘It was pretty weird watching you,’ I said quietly.

Tess looked at me, a snake hanging out of her mouth. ‘Yeah, it’s still pretty weird
playing without you.’

‘I miss you, Tess.’

She gave me a huge grin. ‘I miss you too!’

I reached out to give her a hug, then pulled away. Her netball dress was sopping wet. ‘Phwoar, you need a shower,’ I said, laughing.

‘And you need to tell me all about Finn!’

I was surprised she wanted to know. ‘Really?’

Tess looked at me and raised an eyebrow. ‘Yes, really. Have you kissed him?’

I blushed, and she squealed.

‘You kissed him! Was it nice?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, looking at her and laughing. ‘It was nice.’

‘Told you he liked you!’

All around us, people were coming in to watch the next game.

‘So, Mum’s making chocolate cake …’ said Tess quietly.

I linked my arm through hers and we started walking out of the stadium. ‘Can I lick
the bowl?’

‘Only if you tell me everything!’ she said, grinning.

‘Deal!’

I realised that no matter how different we were, we were still best friends. We didn’t
need to play netball together to hang out. We’d been best friends since we were seven. And
we’d probably still be best friends when we were seventy. And that was a pretty amazing
feeling.

As the siren sounded, I felt sick. I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. It
went against everything I’d ever learnt about fair play.

It was our centre pass. As the whistle went, I dropped back to let Maggie take the
centre. It was a standard passage of play, and my opponent followed. Maggie was looking
to pass the ball to me, but the GD was blocking and I couldn’t get around her. Tess
couldn’t get out either, so Maggie had to pass it back to Becky, our Centre.

The play went back and forth like that for a while. It was so frustrating. I knew
if I couldn’t make a break out, we weren’t going to get a goal. I took a deep breath,
hating what I was about to do. I called for the ball and ran forward, my opponent
going up against me. As we jumped for the ball, I bumped her hard, crashing into
her strapped leg. I heard her gasp as we landed. Ignoring my conscience, I passed
the ball off fast to Becky and took off down the court, ready for the pass back.
The GD was trying to catch me, but I could see she’d slowed down. I had to make the
most of it. I passed the ball to Maggie and ran for the goal circle. I caught it
just inside the ring and shot a perfect goal. A few more like that, and we might
be back in the game.

Instead of high-fiving me, Tess threw me a look. ‘What was that?’

She’d obviously noticed the bump. I shrugged. ‘Nothing.’

She didn’t look like she believed me. And besides, the GD was now limping her way
back to the line.

It was their centre, but with my opponent unable to catch me, I could help defend
their attackers. I tapped the pass off and Maggie caught it. We were off again. This
time Tess shot the goal.

As we walked back for the next centre pass, I saw their coach talking to the umpire.
The GD was called off the court. I felt horrible as I watched her limp to the bench
and sit down, clearly in pain. They had ice on her in seconds and I knew they’d probably
get a doctor up to check her out. This was my fault. I’d let Justine tell me what
to do and now it was on me. She might have torn her ankle ligament – or worse. She
might not be able to play for the rest of the season.

Suddenly, I didn’t want to play anymore. The thought of what I’d just done made me
feel sick, and I couldn’t pretend that I was okay with it. Just as I was about to
rip off my bib and storm off the court, Tess came up behind me.

‘Edie? We can win this. I don’t know what’s going on, but you need to focus.’

I wanted to tell Tess what had happened, but there wasn’t time. They were sending
on a replacement GD.

‘Okay?’ she asked, catching my eye.

I nodded. ‘Okay.’

I played the rest of the game in a bit of a daze. My new opponent wasn’t as good
as the other one, so I managed to beat her without much trouble. Once we’d scored
a few goals, the rhythm of the game changed, and we started to play differently.
More determined. More like a team.

Suddenly we were fourteen-all. It was our centre pass and I could hear Justine screaming
instructions from the sidelines. I shot her a look and as I did, I noticed the injured
GD crying on the bench. I felt like my feet were glued to the ground.

The whistle went and I snapped back to the game. I ran out and caught the ball, passing
it off fast to Maggie. She flicked off another fast pass to Becky, and then I was
down in the goal ring. The ball came flying in my direction and I snatched it clear.
I could make this shot. I was quite a way out from the ring, but Tess was stuck behind
two defenders, and she couldn’t get out.

‘Shoot, Edie!’ I heard Justine yell. I knew the siren was about to go. I had to make
a decision. If I hadn’t injured my player and caused her to land the way she had,
we would have been thrashed. The game was only close because I’d cheated. I didn’t
want to wear that. Not for anyone.

I lined the shot up. I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. But then the ball
left my hands and I saw it hit the ring and bounce off, dropping just short of a
goal. Tess tried to grab it and take another shot, but before she could, the siren
went. The game was over. We’d lost by one.

I shook hands with the other team, and waited for Tess to come and grill me. It didn’t
take long.

‘No way you could have missed that. What’s going on?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, feeling like I’d let everyone down. First by cheating, and then
by missing a shot I could have nailed.

‘What for? Did you deliberately miss?’ asked Tess, looking horrified.

‘Yeah.’ I couldn’t meet her gaze.

‘Why?’

I realised that everyone else had left the court, and it was just Tess and I still
standing in the ring.

‘Justine told me to target my opponent because of her ankle. So I did, and now she’s
over there crying. Because of me. That was the only reason we were winning,’ I admitted,
relieved to be able to tell someone.

‘Why didn’t you just say no?’ said Tess, making it sound simple.

‘I tried. Justine told me if I didn’t bump her, I’d be benched. Now I wish I’d taken
the bench.’

Tess looked horrified. Her mouth was open, but no words were coming out. ‘That’s …
that’s …’

‘Shocking? I know. So that’s why I deliberately missed the goal. I didn’t think we
deserved to win, not like that.’

I waited for Tess to get angry with me. Bumping a player was one thing, but throwing
the game was even worse. Losing this game could make all the difference to where
we ended up on the ladder. Tess didn’t say anything. Instead she just threw her arms
around me. I couldn’t believe how good it felt, knowing she completely understood
why I’d done what I’d done.

We walked off the court and I grabbed my drink bottle, trying to avoid Justine. I
figured there’d be a big lecture to come. The rest of my team looked shattered. We’d
come so close to beating the Warriors. They were probably all pretty mad at me at
that moment, but I’d just have to deal with it. There was no way I could tell them
what I’d done.

‘Thought you’d been practicing shooting from that far out,’ said Justine, looking
furious.