by Nova Weetman
I loved the adrenaline I felt right before a game. It was exactly like the feeling I used to get just before going on stage. It was such a rush!
‘Running passes,’ yelled Justine. Tess and I had done this so often we could almost do it with our eyes closed. We nailed ten perfect passes, back and forth. As we reached the bottom of the court, I heard my name being called. I looked around at the stand and saw Finn waving at me. It was the first time I’d seen him since I’d explained that I was going to focus on netball. He’d been really good about it, but warned me that if he came to watch a game, he’d expect a dance afterwards.
I was so busy waving at Finn that I missed Tess’s pass. I heard him laugh as Tess rolled her eyes.
‘He’d better not distract you,’ said Tess, running over to me.
I shot her a look and she smiled. ‘Nothing’s going to distract me today.’
Ever since I’d decided to concentrate on netball, my head had been completely in the game. Maybe over the holidays when we weren’t training I could hang out with Finn, but right now, it was game time!
Justine blew her whistle and we ran in for the huddle.
‘Okay girls, I want to see those passes we’ve been working on, and the play where Edie drops back to feed the ball to Tess. Got it?’ She didn’t wait for an answer before saying in her most serious voice,‘We can win this.’
‘Yeah!’ agreed Tess, totally pumped. The rest of us laughed as the first siren sounded.
‘Edie, can I have a word?’ asked Justine as I headed out onto the court. I turned to run back to her, but the other team was already lining up, and the siren was about to go. Justine seemed to change her mind.
‘Just play hard,’ she said.
Nodding, I hurried onto the court to get into position. Tess grinned at me from the goal circle. I grinned back. This was it.
Lining up next to the GD I was pleased to see she was about my height. As we jostled around each other, desperate to be first out when the whistle blew, she tried to block me with her elbow. Just as the umpire blew the whistle, I dodged around behind. The game was on.
I felt so charged as I ran out for the centre pass. The GD was rougher than me, but not as quick. I made a short pass to Maggie, dropped back, caught a perfect throw and found Tess ready in the ring. Goal. And we were away.
As each team scored, the crowd cheered. It was really weird having such a loud group of supporters. I was pretty sure I could actually hear my dad yelling over everyone else whenever Tess or I shot a goal. I tried not to look at the scoreboard or the time clock – Justine had lectured us about staying in the moment – but as the siren went for half-time, I snuck a peek. We were tied, eleven all.
‘Nice shooting,’ said Maggie grabbing Tess and I as we ran to get a drink. Most of half-time would be taken up with a speech from Justine, so if we wanted water, it had to be fast.
‘Their keeper’s elbowing me behind the play,’ complained Tess. ‘I’m going to be covered in bruises.’
‘Elbow her back,’ said Maggie, surprising me. But Tess shook her head. ‘I hate playing like that. We just need to beat them.’
‘Okay, girls,’ said Justine, ready to pump us up for the next half. ‘We need to break their centre pass. It’s goal for goal at the moment. Edie, I want you to come all the way out on their centre passes and defend their Wing Attack. Maggie, you take their Goal Attack, okay?’
We needed to do something. There was nothing worse than a draw.
‘You just need to turn the ball over,’ Justine told us as the siren went. I noticed Tess was still rubbing her arm. It must have really hurt – she usually never complained. ‘You okay?’ I asked her as we jogged back onto the court.
‘I’ll be fine, so long as we win!’
I smiled. It was just like her to be this competitive. And that Goal Keeper had really gotten under her skin. She was right, though. There was only one way to get back at someone who was playing rough, and that was to beat them.
As the crowd starting cheering as we returned to our positions, I realised that a big part of playing netball at this level was playing under pressure. Weirdly, it actually felt a bit like performing on stage.
The whistle went and I ran out fast, picking up the Wing Attack on the other team. Their Centre hesitated, and I knew she’d look to pass the ball back to one of their defenders. In the split second before she passed, I saw where she was going to throw. I leapt up and intercepted it. It was perfect. Three quick passes down the court and Tess had shot a goal. We were in front.
My heart was racing as I took off on our centre pass. Maggie caught it and passed it back to me. I lobbed it to Tess, she did a quick pass back to me and I shot a goal. Two in front.
Dad was going crazy in the stands. I couldn’t help but laugh as he jumped to his feet and yelled. I’d never seen him take a game so seriously. What would he be like if we actually made it into the finals?
The rest of the game passed in a blur. Goal for goal. Then they broke our centre pass and we were back to being tied. With only a minute left on the clock, they were desperate and threw a huge lob. I didn’t think I’d make it, but I jumped just at the right time, and managed to hit the ball into Maggie’s hands. She spun around, passed it to our Centre and I was off. Too fast for their GD, I got the ball down to Tess, just as my player stuck her leg out in front of me and sent me flying. I hit the ground hard.
Nothing was broken, but Justine asked if I wanted to come off.
‘Are you kidding?’ I shouted, trying not to show her how much my knee hurt. I didn’t think it was serious, but it would be sore tomorrow, and I probably shouldn’t try to run on it. But with only twenty seconds left, there was no way I was going off. Tess shot for goal, but the ball bounced off the ring and started to drop. It was going out of bounds. I couldn’t stand it if we drew. I shot my arm out and managed to whack the ball back in. Tess caught it. I heard Maggie cheer behind me as everyone waited to see if Tess could put it through.
She shot it up … and in. It was a goal! I couldn’t believe it. The siren went – we’d won!
Grinning madly, we shook hands quickly with the other team, and then grouped together, laughing. Even Justine looked happy, which didn’t happen very often. ‘Great work, girls!’ she said. ‘That was a great win.’
The umpire walked over to our huddle. ‘Great game, girls.’ She looked at me. ‘Edie Thomas?’
I nodded. ‘Yeah.’
‘Best on court,’ she said, handing me a medal.
‘Me?’ I sounded surprised.
‘Yeah!’ said Tess. ‘You were everywhere!’
As the umpire placed the medal around my neck, I was grinning even harder than when Finn had kissed me on the cheek. This was incredible. I couldn’t believe I’d considered giving up netball.
‘Thanks!’ I said, staring at the medal. I’d never had a best on court medal before. In our old comp they only gave one out per season, so this was new to me.
‘See you all at training on Monday,’ said Justine, bringing us crashing back down to earth. There were a few groans, but for once, I was happy to train. In fact, I would have trained right away, if Justine had asked us to.
Tess tucked her arm through mine as we headed over to our parents.
‘We’re going to go all the way, Edie. Under-15s today, the national team tomorrow!’
I saw Finn waving at me. I stopped on the court and did a silly little dance. He laughed, and I grinned back. The end of the season wasn’t that far away.
‘Edie? You okay?’ said Tess, looking surprised.
I smiled. It had taken me a while to work out how much I loved playing netball, but now that I had, I couldn’t think of anyw
here I’d rather be.
‘I’m great, Tess. Let’s go celebrate!’
‘I’m sorry Tess,’ I said. The look on her face told me I didn’t need to say anything else. She knew I was dropping out.
‘Won’t you at least think about it?’ she asked sadly.
‘I don’t think I’ve stopped thinking about it since I joined. That’s why I whinge all the time about having blisters, and training too much. It’s just not for me, Tess.’
‘Yes it is. You’re a natural. You’re an amazing netballer. I’d do anything to be able to play like you,’ she said quietly.
I suddenly felt guilty. Tess worked so hard at being a good netballer – I wondered if she thought I had a duty to use my natural abilities.
This was probably the hardest conversation we’d ever had, but I wanted to be honest, even if it upset her.
‘I can’t play just because you would if you were me. I have to do what I really want to do. And that’s not playing state netball,’ I said, feeling sad as I said it, but also kind of relieved.
‘Are you choosing Finn over netball?’ asked Tess.
I shook my head. ‘No. I’m not. It’s got nothing to do with Finn. I just don’t want to give up everything else for netball. I’m sorry.’
Tess started crying. I tried to give her a hug, but she moved away from me. I sighed, wondering if I was making the right decision. It wasn’t that I didn’t love playing netball – I just didn’t love it enough. But no matter how much I tried to explain that to Tess, she just couldn’t seem to accept it. I knew it might be a while before we were really okay again. If we were ever really okay again.
Tess hadn’t spoken to me since then. It had been almost a month. I missed her like crazy but I did like having my Saturdays to myself again. If I’d stayed in the team, every Saturday would have been about netball, but now, instead of nursing sore legs and aching muscles, I was going to the movies with Finn.
‘Okay, what’s it going to be? Heads, horror, tails, comedy,’ said Finn as he flipped a coin high into the air.
It was heads. Finn pumped the air dramatically with his fist. ‘Horror! Awesome!’
I groaned. ‘Best of three?’
‘No way. You have to sit through the horror film,’ he said, smiling at me.
‘Fine, I’ll just cover my eyes the whole time,’ I said, grinning back.
‘Bet you don’t. Bet you love it. All that gore!’
I pulled a face, but I didn’t actually care what film we were going to see. I was just excited to be seeing it with Finn, and about to eat the biggest box of popcorn I’d ever seen.
After the movie we were planning on surprising Tess and Maggie at their game, and cheering louder than anyone. I just had to hope Tess wanted me there.
‘Front or back?’ asked Finn as we walked into the cinema.
‘Back,’ I said, heading up the stairs.
The last time I’d been at this cinema was when I’d seen Freddy and Belle together. That seemed like ages ago now. A lot had changed since then. Belle wasn’t even in the play anymore – she’d had to move suddenly when her mum got some big new job overseas.
When Tess stopped hanging out with me, I didn’t really have anyone to sit with in class. Luckily, Mel from drama class had included me in her group of friends. And they were really nice. They were all working backstage on the play, and Mel had talked me into joining them. She even bought me my own hammer, and found me a pair of her brother’s overalls that fitted almost perfectly.
So Mel and I ended up on the set-building team together. I discovered that I was pretty good with a hammer. And I really loved doing the design stuff. It felt like I was getting a chance to be part of the school play but from a distance, which suited me right now.
Finn and I raced to get the aisle seat. I won, so he sat down on my lap, laughing at me.
‘Get off,’ I said, pushing him. I didn’t actually want him to move, but he did, his long legs crashing against mine. I smiled to myself in the dark.
The movie started, and within seconds I was glued to the screen. I’d never seen a horror film before. It was hilarious. I think they were zombies or something. They wandered about a lot, looking dead, but it so wasn’t scary. I couldn’t believe I’d avoided horror movies for so long. I did scream at one point, when a character’s head fell off, and Finn grabbed my hand. It was pretty cute because he didn’t take it away again, even though it was really hard for him to reach the popcorn with his left hand. As the credits rolled, Finn left his hand where it was for a few seconds, and then let go. I realised he was grinning at me. ‘You loved that, didn’t you?’
‘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.
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.