Play the Game Read online

  ‘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.

  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!’

&nbs
p; 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.

  ‘Edie, what’s going on? You’re a million miles away,’ said Justine.

  ‘Sorry, I’m just tired,’ I said.

  ‘The only way to get through tiredness is to train harder, okay?’

  I nodded. What I really needed was to train without Finn watching, and to rest my feet long enough for my blisters to heal. But I knew there was no point telling Justine that.

  As we finished training, Tess gave me a hug.

  ‘Are you okay? You’re really flat tonight. Your passes are off, and you haven’t even been shooting very well,’ she said, concerned.

  I shrugged, glad she hadn’t connected it to Finn’s presence. ‘I’m just sore. My legs hurt and I need a few days off.’

  Tess laughed. ‘We’re playing state now, Edie. You don’t get days off!’

  ‘Don’t remind me!’ I said, groaning.

  ‘Maybe we could skip shooting for a few hours and go to a movie on Sunday afternoon?’ suggested Tess with a grin. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I think you’re brilliant!’ I said, smiling. I looked up into the stand and saw that Finn had gone. Maybe he’d just come to pick up Maggie, but I felt a bit strange that he hadn’t at least come and said hello.

  ‘Nice lip gloss,’ I said to Tess, noticing how sparkly her lips looked.

  ‘Thanks. Maggie gave it to me.’

  I frowned, then
tried to look normal. ‘Really? Why?’

  Tess shrugged. ‘I went to her house for dinner last night and I told her I liked the colour, so she gave it to me,’ said Tess, a bit defensively.

  ‘That’s weird. Isn’t it?’ I didn’t ask her the questions I wanted to ask. Why were you at her house for dinner? Why is this the first time I’m hearing about it? But she must have heard the tone in my voice, because she looked at me and said,‘Don’t be jealous, Edie.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  And I wasn’t. Not really. Was I? It’s just that I’d noticed how much time Maggie and Tess seemed to be spending together. They were always the first to training sessions and practically the last to leave. I was starting to feel a bit on the outer. But I knew Tess and I would always be besties – so why was I being so weird about it?

  ‘Edie,’ said Tess again, linking her arm through mine. ‘You can share the lip gloss, okay? And next time I go there for dinner, I’ll tell you.’

  Next time? Was this a regular thing?

  ‘Come on, let’s get our tickets,’ said Tess.

  We were going to a film we’d been dying to see. It was pretty cool being out, doing something other than training. I really wanted to spend some time with Tess away from a netball court. But as we lined up to get our tickets, I saw something that made me want to run. It was Freddy and Belle, holding hands over by the candy bar. If they turned around at that moment, they’d see me, and I’d have to talk to them. And that was something I really didn’t think I could do.

  ‘Tess, we have to go. Now!’

  ‘What? Why?’ she said.

  I nodded in Freddy’s direction. Tess’s eyes grew wide. ‘Is that …?’

  ‘Yep.’

  Tess grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the queue. We kept walking, as fast as we could, until we were outside. I tried not to cry.