Hooked on Netball

by Lisa Gibbs

  ‘What’s up?’ Sienna said, bouncing over.

  ‘Nothing! I’m ready to play!’

  Then something occurred to Maddy that she hadn’t yet thought of. ‘I hope Janet doesn’t start me on the bench …’

  Chapter Four

  There were eight players in their team but only seven a side were allowed on the court for each game – which meant that someone from their team had to sit on the bench. Sienna and Maddy fixed their eyes on Janet as she moved through the group of girls, handing out position bibs according to her plan for the game against Sandy Bay.

  ‘Here you go, Maddy,’ Janet said, handing her the bibs for Wing Attack.

  ‘Thanks!’ exclaimed Maddy. She was so excited to be playing in the first quarter of the first game that she barely noticed what position she had been given.

  ‘Now remember, everyone,’ Janet said loudly, once she’d finished handing out the bibs, ‘you’re going to be playing different positions in each game, so think about where you can and can’t go on the court.’

  Maddy was too preoccupied to listen as she attached the bib to the four velcro squares on the front of her netball uniform. Next she tried to twist her arms behind her back to attach the other one.

  ‘Here, I’ll help.’ It was Sienna. She came up behind Maddy and patted her on the back to secure the bib in place.

  As Maddy turned around to say thanks, she realised that Sienna’s front ‘GS’ bib – Sienna was playing Goal Shooter for the first quarter – was on upside down.

  ‘Hey, your bib’s upside down!’ Maddy called out, as they walked onto the court.

  ‘Just matching the one I did for you!’ Sienna called back.

  ‘What?!’ Maddy shrieked, and she burst out laughing – just as the whistle blew and the game began. Maddy tried to concentrate but the giggles were still tumbling out and she couldn’t resist looking back to see if Sienna was laughing, too. She was so preoccupied that she didn’t notice Phoebe tap the ball away from the Sandy Bay Wing Attack towards her! It bounced off Maddy’s arm and was quickly snatched up by the opposing team’s Wing Defence.

  ‘Oh no!’ Maddy gasped in horror. She looked across at Janet and saw her frown of disapproval.

  Trying to make amends, Maddy raced after the Sandy Bay Wing Attack, who now had the ball. She ran around in front of her, took a step back and threw her arms up to block the pass. She remembered the defensive drills they’d done with Janet the previous week. She really hoped this worked.

  Brrrp! The whistle blew shrilly.

  ‘Offside,’ the umpire called out.

  Maddy looked about, wondering who was offside.

  ‘Wing Attack, you’re not allowed in this third,’ explained the umpire kindly.

  Maddy looked at the Sandy Bay Wing Attack and waited for her to move – but everyone was looking at her.

  ‘Marrang Wing Attack, you’re offside.’

  Finally it dawned on Maddy that she had run too far and had gone into the third of the court that was out of bounds for her! She had been so distracted that she had broken one of the most basic rules of the game, one that she’d learnt when she’d first done NetSetGO training! She felt her cheeks burning red as she walked back over the line, into the centre section of the court. She watched the ball being handed to the other team for a free throw and felt sure that everyone was still looking at her, blaming her for making such a silly mistake.

  Sandy Bay quickly fed the ball into the goal circle and as Maddy watched the Sandy Bay Goal Shooter score a goal, it occurred to her that Janet may take her off at half-time if she kept making mistakes like that. She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let that happen. She would show the coach that she could do better. And she would show Jade that having special shoes counted for nothing.

  ‘Don’t worry, Maddy, next one’s ours,’ said Lily, smiling at Maddy as she trotted back to the centre circle.

  Maddy smiled gratefully, then took up her position on the transverse line next to the Sandy Bay Wing Defence. The transverse line divided the goal third from the centre third. Maddy stood facing Lily, who was standing in the centre circle. Maddy bounced on her toes, ready for the centre pass. As soon as the whistle blew, she raced forward in front of the Sandy Bay Wing Defence, so that she could be clear for a pass from Lily. But Lily’s enthusiastic throw went way too high and threatened to soar over Maddy’s head! Maddy leapt up into the air, her arms and even her fingers outstretched, and just managed to snatch the ball down. She grinned in excitement as she felt the ball securely in her hands, and bent her knees to regain balance as she landed again.

  ‘Throw it to me! Throw it to me!’

  Maddy only had three seconds to pass the ball. She looked towards the shouts coming from the outer ring of the goal circle. It was Jade, who was playing Goal Attack. A satisfying thought flashed through Maddy’s mind – Jade didn’t seem to care about Maddy’s shoes now! Her hands were stretched forward, demanding the ball after Maddy’s perfect catch. But Maddy could see two Sandy Bay defenders rushing forward to cover Jade. She looked for another teammate who was free and saw that Sienna, who was playing Goal Shooter, was standing alone right under the goal ring. Maddy passed the ball long, then watched with her eyes lit up as Sienna turned and smoothly popped the ball up through the goal ring.

  Skipping back to her starting position, Maddy ignored a huffy glare from Jade. With a thrill, she heard Janet’s voice call loudly from the sideline, ‘Well done, Maddy. Keep it up!’

  This was fun!

  For the rest of the first quarter and the second, too, Maddy concentrated on playing Wing Attack as best as she could. She remembered that she was only allowed in the centre third and all of her team’s goal third except for the goal circle – which wasn’t actually a circle at all, but a half-moon shape encircling the goal post, where only the goalers and goal defenders could go.

  One time, though, she was running so fast when she got to the edge of the goal circle that she lost her balance and fell in!

  Brrrp! The umpire’s whistle went again for offside and the ball went to the other team for a free throw. This time, though, Maddy didn’t feel silly. She had been trying really hard and had just lost her balance.

  ‘Bad luck, Maddy,’ she heard Janet say from the sidelines. ‘Next time.’

  Maddy also worked hard at centre passes. She knew it was her job to try to get out in front of the other team’s Wing Defence to take the centre pass from Lily, and then to help Lily get the ball to Jade or Sienna so that they could do their job and score goals for the team.

  It was difficult to remember all of the rules but Maddy didn’t let it bother her. Running down the court, she felt like she was flying.

  Chapter Five

  At half-time, Maddy ran straight to the oranges on the bench. She peeled the lid off the plastic container and offered an orange quarter to each of the girls in her team. Sienna immediately put one in her mouth, gripped it with her teeth and gave a wide orange smile. The other girls giggled and followed suit.

  ‘Okay, everyone, over here, please,’ Janet called.

  The girls hurried over.

  ‘Great teamwork, Gems,’ she said, once every one had settled down. ‘For the next half, I want you to focus on coming out in front of your player before you call for the ball. I’ve seen a few of you calling for the ball when you’re actually being blocked – and I know you’re just caught up in the excitement of the game, but we don’t want to accidentally pass the ball to Sandy Bay! I’m also going to change your positions to give you a chance to try something else.’

  Isabella leapt forward, eager to take to the court after sitting on the bench for the first half of the game. Maddy pulled her bibs off and waited for Janet to say where she’d be playing for the second half of the game.

  ‘Sorry Maddy, could you sit the second half out, please?’ asked Janet as she handed the Wing Attack bibs to Isabella.

  Maddy stared at Janet in dismay. Hadn’t she played well enough?

/>   As the girls filed onto court, Janet turned and saw Maddy’s face.

  ‘Maddy, don’t worry. Everyone will get some time off court this season, it’s just the way it goes. Besides, now that you’re here, I can tell you how well you played! You know, there were a couple of times there when you reminded me of the other Madison Browne.’

  Maddy looked at Janet, confused.

  ‘Didn’t you know?’ Janet asked. ‘One of the players for the Melbourne Vixens is also called “Madison Browne”. She plays for the Australian Diamonds as well. Although,’ added Janet, ‘she’s married now so she’s Madison Robinson, not Browne. She looks a bit like you, too.’ Janet smiled.

  Maddy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Her mind started racing and she barely watched the rest of the game. All she could think about was what Janet had told her.

  When the Marrang Gems won, Maddy got up from the bench, hurriedly shook the hands of the Sandy Bay players, and raced to the carpark to find her mum.

  ‘Mum! Guess what?’ she blurted out as soon as she jumped into the car.

  ‘You won!’

  ‘Yes,’ said Maddy impatiently, ‘but there’s something else, too!’

  ‘What? Something more important than you winning your game?’ She gasped in mock horror.

  ‘Janet told me there’s a Diamonds player with the same name as me! She said that I even look like her!’ Maddy added proudly.

  ‘Oh, that’s right,’ said Mum. ‘She plays for the Vixens too, doesn’t she?’

  ‘Yes, that’s her! Do you think we could go and watch her play sometime?’

  ‘We’ll see,’ said Mum.

  Maddy grinned and settled back in her seat, thinking about how envious Jade would be if she knew Maddy had a double on the Australian side.

  Chapter Six

  It was a week later and the Marrang Gems had just finished playing their second game of the season. All throughout the game, the wind had gusted around the exposed courts, making it difficult for the players to be accurate with passes and shots for goal. Maddy hadn’t really noticed the wind so much, as she was playing Goal Defence and was busy chasing the Barton Goal Attack around. But when the ball had been up the other end of the court and she wasn’t concentrating on moving about, she had been aware of the wind blowing her ponytail madly about her head. She’d been thankful that she didn’t have to try to shoot goals in this weather. She watched helplessly as Charlotte and Isabella tried to get the ball through the goal ring. The Barton goalers had also struggled but had been just that little bit better at getting the ball through the ring.

  Lily’s 13-year-old brother, Steven, had watched the game. He couldn’t stop laughing at Lily as she came off court with her curly hair looking wild and woolly.

  ‘Hey look, it’s Krusty the Clown!’ he chortled.

  Lily threw the ball at him, aiming for his head.

  ‘He’s so mean,’ Maddy said sympathetically.

  ‘Oh, I don’t care. We are so going to get him back tonight!’ she said with a wicked grin.

  Even though they’d lost the game and felt a little disappointed by it, all Maddy, Prani, Sienna and Lily could think about was the sleepover they were going to have that night at Lily’s house. Her home had a carpeted area in the garage, with piles of spare mattresses and even a fridge. For the first time, the four friends were allowed to sleep out there, away from the rest of Lily’s family.

  ‘We’re not going to sleep at all!’

  ‘We can go on the trampoline in the dark!’

  ‘We can play loud music and no one will tell us to turn it down!’

  ‘It’s going to be so cool!’

  That night, they ate as much junk food and drank as much soft drink as they could. They played all the songs on Sienna’s iPod and danced on the trampoline for hours in the dark. Finally, Lily and her friends hatched their plan of revenge against Steven and at midnight, they put their plan into action.

  ‘Sh,’ whispered Lily, when Prani and Sienna started to laugh. ‘If he hears us, he’ll know.’

  They crept up the side of the house in the dark, feeling their way with one hand on the wall. Sienna and Maddy each held a branch they’d pulled off the old wattle tree behind the garage.

  Once in position, they all held their breath as Sienna and Maddy scraped the branches across Steven’s bedroom window. Lily started making a spooky ‘oooh’ sound and Prani had to press her hand against her mouth in an attempt to hold in her laughter.

  Sienna stubbed her toe on the side of the fence. ‘Ow!’

  ‘Shhh!’

  They stumbled back down the side of the house and fell in through the garage door, bursting with laughter.

  ‘Oh my God!’ Maddy managed to say breathlessly. ‘Do you think he heard us?’

  ‘I bet we really scared him!’ Lily answered with a grin.

  They collapsed onto the mattresses and crawled into their sleeping bags, but even though they were exhausted, they couldn’t help reliving, over and over, the trick they had played on Steven.

  It was very, very late when they finally got to sleep.

  Chapter Seven

  Maddy was completely worn out the next morning when her dad picked her up.

  ‘Got everything?’ he asked, backing the car out, carefully avoiding the large bottlebrush trees that lined the driveway. The red brush flowers hung heavily on the branches.

  ‘Mmm, think so,’ Maddy murmured, pushing her long brown hair behind her ears.

  She opened her sports bag and lazily glanced inside. Then her eyes widened in alarm and she froze. Where were her netball uniform and her runners?

  I thought I’d put them in my bag! So where are they? Oh, where are they? she chanted feverishly in her head. Did I leave them at the netball clubrooms when we got changed after the game? What if they’ve been stolen?

  She knew her mum and dad would freak out if she’d lost her netball uniform and new runners … How had this happened?

  ‘You okay?’ Dad asked, glancing at her set face and her hands tightly clutching the handles of her bag.

  ‘Oh yeah, I’m fine.’ But her voice sounded fake even to her own ears, so she tried again. ‘I’m just tired. Didn’t get much sleep. You know how these sleepovers go!’

  She tried to sound bright, but it was such a false cheeriness that Maddy was sure her dad would guess something was wrong. Thankfully, he had tuned into the football commentary on the radio and didn’t ask anything else.

  The following morning, Maddy ran down the street towards school, her bag bumping against her hips in rhythm with her steps. She raced up the front steps. She was earlier than usual because she wanted to make sure she had a chance to speak to Lily before they went into class. Maddy knew she could have just called Lily yesterday to see if her things were at Lily’s place – but then Mum would find out that they were missing.

  Maddy stood waiting near Lily’s locker, shifting from foot to foot and scanning the hallway for any sign of her friend. Finally, she spotted Lily’s blonde hair in a cluster of students arriving by a side door.

  ‘Hey Maddy!’ called Lily. ‘How much fun was Saturday night? Steven reckons he knew it was us at his window, but he has to be lying – why else would he have gone to sleep in the lounge room?’

  Maddy interrupted Lily’s cheerful chatter. ‘Did I leave my netball gear at your place?’

  ‘Huh?’ Lily took a moment to adjust to Maddy’s curt tone. ‘Um … no. I know because Mum made me clean up all our mess in the garage!’

  Maddy groaned and looked away.

  Lily saw her friend’s worried frown and the problem dawned on her. ‘You’ve lost your netball uniform?’ she asked in a stunned whisper. ‘You are so dead. Your parents are going to kill you!’

  ‘Maybe it’s at the clubrooms,’ said Maddy hopefully, as they walked to class together. Sitting in class next to Prani, working on her maths, Maddy realised that she had no choice but to sweat over it for three whole days until training on Wednesday after school,
when the clubrooms would be reopened …

  After school that day, Maddy managed once again to evade her mum’s questions.

  ‘How did your runners feel during the game? Any blisters?’

  ‘They were fine,’ Maddy answered, as briefly as she dared, setting the table with great concentration.

  ‘You all looked great in your new netball uniforms,’ her mum continued.

  ‘Yeah.’ She attempted to change the subject. ‘Should I set a place for Dad? Will he be home in time?’

  Maddy was relieved when her mum answered without suspicion. She didn’t relax her guard, though. She knew that the moment was coming when her mum would tell her to put her uniform in the laundry for washing and, sure enough, after dinner …

  ‘What do you mean, you don’t have your uniform?’ Mum demanded.

  Maddy gulped. She was in for it now.

  ‘I … ah … well, I … I think I left it in the clubrooms,’ Maddy answered miserably.

  ‘You think? I take it that means you don’t know where you left it? Don’t tell me you’ve lost your runners as well …’

  Maddy nodded, looking at the tiles on the kitchen floor. She hated being in trouble.

  As soon as her mum stopped questioning her, she retreated to her room and went to bed early. But she couldn’t sleep; all she could do was lie there, staring at the ceiling. Where was her uniform?

  Chapter Eight

  By Wednesday, Maddy’s optimism had returned. She had convinced herself that her netball gear was in the clubrooms and that by the end of the day, the whole miserable episode would be over.

  So before training began, Maddy raced over to the clubrooms, wrenched open the door and stood in the entry, scanning the large room expectantly. She didn’t immediately spot her gear but, undeterred, she began a thorough search – under the chairs, on all the tables, in every corner …