Play the Game (9 page)

Finn grinned. There were heaps of empty chairs for him to sit on, but instead he
plonked himself right down between Tess and I. Now how was I supposed to concentrate
on the game? I could barely think!

Tess leant around Finn and gave me that look that said she wanted to talk to me in
private. ‘Didn’t you want a drink, Edie?’

I nodded furiously. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I do.’

‘Is that two drinks or one?’ said Finn with a smile.

‘I’ll get you a water,’ said Maggie, jumping up.

But Tess shook her head. ‘No, it’s okay. You put the game on. We’ll go.’ I followed
Tess out of the lounge and limped my way down the hall. She waited until we were
in the kitchen before turning to me and whispering, ‘Are you okay?’

I nodded. ‘Yeah. Except for the fact that I have a blister the size of a golf ball
on my heel.’

Tess didn’t look convinced. ‘You don’t seem okay. You seem a bit …’

‘Tired. That’s all.’

‘Oh. Okay. Good,’ she said, opening a cupboard to find a glass. She filled it with
water and handed it to me. I drank it, surprised at how thirsty I was.

‘You sure it’s not because of Finn?’ said Tess quietly. I should have known I couldn’t
put one over her. She sees everything.

‘He’s a bit cute, isn’t he?’ I smiled at her, relieved to admit it. She smiled back.

‘Yeah. He is. And he clearly thinks you are, too.’

I blushed. ‘Does not.’

Tess shrugged. ‘Well it doesn’t matter, because he’s Maggie’s brother. And we’re
here to watch netball. And we don’t have time to check out cute boys! Okay?’

She sounded so serious. I didn’t really get what the big deal was.

‘I just said he was cute, that’s all.’ I sounded more defensive than I meant to,
but it irritated me. Why couldn’t I say a boy was cute? Tess had always been pretty
hardcore about netball, but she’d never been this bad. Now that she was playing state,
she acted like we couldn’t even
think
about anything else.

‘Tess?’ I elbowed her playfully, hoping she’d realise she was overreacting.

She shrugged and nudged me back, making me spill water everywhere. ‘Oops, sorry!’
she said, laughing. ‘All right, he is cute,’ she whispered, and chucked me a cloth.
‘About as cute as watching you mop up your T-shirt.’ Tess laughed and I threw the
wet tea towel at her head.

To keep life simple, I’d decided to ignore Finn and concentrate on watching the Vixens
thrash the Eagles. I was doing really well, until he started talking to me.

‘What do you play?’ he asked quietly.

‘Mostly Goal Attack,’ I managed to answer without sneaking a look at him.

‘You’re a shooter?’

‘Yep.’

‘Finn,’ Maggie said sharply. ‘No talking.’

‘I’m just finding out about your new friends,’ he said, sounding irritated.

Luckily, Maggie’s mum walked in at exactly that moment, carrying a big stack of pizza
boxes. Finn leapt up to help her, and Tess seized the opportunity to wriggle along
the couch into the spot where Finn had been sitting.

Maggie paused the game to introduce me to her mum.

‘Nice to see you, Tess. And Edie, it’s lovely to meet you finally. Maggie has told
me a lot about you. I think your mum might have been the doctor who stitched up Finn’s
eye in emergency last year.’

‘Really? What happened to your eye?’ I asked him, wishing I could take a closer look.

He shrugged. ‘Got into a fight.’

His mum laughed. ‘It’s called football.’

‘Mum, you’re destroying my image,’ joked Finn.

‘Image! Huh! Go and grab some plates from the kitchen, Finn. And napkins.’

‘Plates! Napkins! Now my image is totally shot. Thanks a lot,’ he said, pretending
to be devastated. He wasn’t just cute, he was funny, too. I liked the way he mucked
around with his mum.

‘So how was training?’ asked Maggie’s mum.

‘The best,’ said Tess.

Maggie’s mum laughed. ‘You sound just like Maggie. Nothing’s as great as netball!’

It felt strange hearing how similar Maggie and Tess were, but it was true. They lived
and breathed netball. I wondered why I didn’t feel the same.

Then she smiled at me. ‘And you, Edie? Are you enjoying it?’

‘Yeah, it’s great. Except for the blisters.’

She gave me a big smile. ‘I’ve got just the thing for blisters,’ she said warmly.

Maggie looked panicked. ‘Not the cream, Mum!’

‘Why not? It worked for you. And your brother.’

I was intrigued. ‘What cream? I’ll try anything.’

Groaning, Maggie explained. ‘My grandparents have a farm. And Grandad makes this cream
for the cows.’

‘For their udders,’ said Finn, walking back in with a stack of plates and napkins.
He looked straight at me and smiled. ‘It works for blisters, too.’

Maggie pulled a face. ‘I was leaving the udder bit out, Finn.’

I couldn’t help but laugh. ‘That sounds great, thanks. I’ll definitely give it a go.’

‘I’ll get you some before you leave,’ promised Maggie’s mum. ‘Now, make sure Finn
doesn’t eat all the salami. He has a bad habit of picking the bits off the top and
adding them to his slices. You watch him, girls.’

‘This is character assassination. I hardly know these two. Honestly, what are they
going to think of me?’ said Finn, mock-outraged.

Maggie’s mum left us to eat and watch the game. Tess wasn’t kidding about the extra
salami. I was so happy. Even my blister stopped hurting.

Maggie pressed play on the game, and I realised how pleased I was to be here instead
of at home on my bed counting my sore muscles. And now that I wasn’t sitting next
to Finn anymore, I could actually concentrate on the game, and the pizza, and pretend
that I didn’t find him super cute and wasn’t sneakily stealing looks in his direction.

Each time the Vixens scored a goal, Tess and Maggie would cheer, and sometimes Finn,
if he remembered. I was pleased my best friend had found someone as obsessed about
netball as she was. Because as much as I loved it, I was beginning to wonder if I
could commit to it in quite the same way that Tess had.

It was dark by the time we rode home. I hadn’t said much since we’d left Maggie’s.
Tess was raving about the Vixens game, and how keen she was to try out one of their
plays at our next training session. But I was still thinking about Finn. Now that
I knew I probably wouldn’t see Freddy much anymore, I’d just assumed I wouldn’t like
another boy for a while. I’d sort of thought netball would take over my life and
wouldn’t leave room for anything else. But Finn was cute. And funny. And easy to
talk to, once I got over how embarrassed I was.

But he was also Maggie’s brother. Maybe Tess was right. I had to put him out of my
head.

‘See you in the morning, Edie,’ said Tess, giving me a hug.

‘Don’t forget that essay for English,’ I reminded her.

She groaned as she rode off. English had never been her favourite subject. ‘I might
be sick tomorrow!’ she called back.

When I walked into the house, Jean was lying on the couch, watching TV and laughing
hysterically.

‘Hi,’ I said.

‘You have to watch this. It’s hilarious!’

Jean never asked me to watch anything with her, so I was a bit surprised. She moved
her legs to make room for me on the couch. It was a prank show, and she was right,
it was pretty funny. Within minutes I was laughing my head off, too. Then her phone
rang. She flicked off the TV and said, ‘I think Dad wanted you,’ which was her code
for telling me to disappear. I went to find Dad. His study door was shut, but the
light was on.

‘Hey, Dad,’ I called through the door, not wanting to disturb him if he was working.
He often worked late. He wrote for heaps of online publications, based in all different
time zones, so if he wanted to Skype or chat, he’d often have to do it at some crazy
hour. But tonight he surprised me and opened the door, popping his head out. ‘Hey,
kiddo. How was training?’

‘Good. Except I have a bad blister. But I also have udder cream,’ I said, holding
up the small jar of grey-looking cream.

‘As in,“udderly disgusting”?’

‘No, as in a cream designed to stop the chafing on a cow’s udders.’

‘Ew. You’re not really going to put that on your foot, are you?’

‘You know what, Dad? I think I am.’

‘Well then, let’s hope it’s “udderly fantastic”.’

I managed a groan and an eye roll, which Dad was pretty used to by now. He was known
for his bad puns and jokes.

‘There are some leftovers in the fridge if you’re still hungry.’

‘Thanks, Dad,’ I said,‘but I just want a bath and bed.’

‘You must be “udderly exhausted”!’

Fearing the jokes would never end, I shuffled off to my room to check my emails while
the bath filled. There was a whole bunch of emails about some netball dinner, but
the one I opened first was from Kerry. It was a group email with the dates for
Romeo
and Juliet
, and a photo of the cast. I stared at the photo for exactly ten seconds,
honing in on Freddy and Belle at the front of the group, until I couldn’t stand it
anymore.

Now I’d probably never discover what it felt like to play Juliet – and to make it
worse, I’d have to sit in the audience and watch Freddy and Belle kiss. I’d tried
not to think about Freddy too much since deciding to drop out of the play, but seeing
his photo just brought it all back. Now he and Belle would spend all their spare
time together, and I’d barely get to see him at all. As happy as I was to be playing
state netball, Kerry’s email just reminded me of all the things I’d had to put on
hold.

I tried not to think about boys while I waited for the bath to fill, but I kept seeing
Freddy’s face, and then, even more confusingly, Finn’s. What was happening to me?
I was becoming obsessed. It wasn’t like I had much experience with boys. Other than
kissing that one at a party during a game of truth, dare and torture, the only boys
I ever spent much time with were Tess’s twin brothers. If I wanted to play amazing
netball, I had to focus. I had to forget about boys completely.

Forgetting about boys turned out to be harder than I’d expected. Finn actually turned
up to our next training session, and sat in the stands with a big grin on his face.
I was so rattled that I trained really badly – so badly that Justine pulled me from
the court to give me a pep talk.