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After our team meetings in the afternoon, Charlie and I get to have dinner at my place. We sit on the lounge eating tacos and watching TV, chatting about the championships so far. I’m glad to get a few hours away from my team, and to spend some time with Charlie.
Warren Simmons just wanted to talk about my growing rivalry with Paris, which I did not want to talk about. Mostly because I don’t think we have a rivalry, even though everyone else seems to think we do. But also because I played a great innings today, and I single-handedly won the game for my team when we thought we’d lose it.
When I told Charlie about Warren, she just shrugged and told me that was his job. I guess she’d know more than me, since she’s been studying to become a sports reporter. She’s already got a tonne of notes for her tournament wrap-up for her blog article, and in between bites of her tacos, she’s listing the names of players she’s going to interview.
“Shh,” Mum says, turning up the TV.
The sports segment on the local news bulletin has just come on. The sports reporter reads the football and soccer results before he comes to the State Championships. They have some footage of the matches so far, and it looks like they’ve chosen a bit from each of the games and then the reporter gives me a shout-out as the local player, showing some footage of my innings against Central.
Charlie shoves my shoulder and gives me a ribbing and I almost spill my dinner. “Hey, watch it!”
“They didn’t even get your best shots,” Charlie says. “Or that look of disappointment when you missed your century.”
“Looks like you played well,” Dad says.
“Thanks, Dad.”
Then they show a shot of Troy and Trent and the rest of my friends in the stands wearing their shirts, dancing around like idiots and thankfully this time they’ve found enough people to spell out my full name.
I shake my head. “So embarrassing.”
“I think it’s great,”Mum says.
“Are you coming to watch, Mrs H?” Charlie asks.
“I’m hoping to,” Mum replies. “I’m trying to talk Nan into coming too.”
“Really?” I ask. “That would be great.”
Nan doesn’t get out too much from the nursing home anymore. It would be great to have her in the stands to watch a game, and I know she’d get a kick out of meeting Charlie.
After the news is finished, Mum gives me a kiss on the top of my head. “I have to get to work. Good luck tomorrow, girls.”
“Hug Nan for me,” I say, as Mum disappears into the kitchen.
***
When we get back to our motel, Charlie and I run into Ashley in the hallway as we’re heading to my room.
“I was thinking of getting some ice-cream at that place you told me about,” Ashley says.
Charlie and I look at each other and shrug. “Sure, why not?”
As we head down the hallway to the stairs, we run into Karen. We all stop dead in our tracks. We don’t officially have a curfew but I know our coaches don’t want us staying up too late every night. And as for spending time with players from other teams, well, that depends on the coach. Karen’s pretty chilled about it, but we play Charlie’s team in two days, so she might send Charlie on her way and send Ashley and I back to our room.
“Shouldn’t you be with your team, Charlie?” Karen asks.
“Just going to get some ice-cream,” Charlie replies.
“Right, off you go, then,” Karen says, and waits until Charlie has disappeared around the corner. She turns to me. “I’ve had an interview request for you, Alice. It’s a bit last minute but I thought I’d ask.”
Charlie pokes her head around the corner behind Karen’s back and points downstairs and then mimes eating. I think she’s trying to get us to meet her downstairs. I give her a little nod and then focus back on Karen. She doesn’t seem to have noticed.
“I’ve just had Mary from the Ladies Who Legspin podcast email a request through,“ Karen continues. “She wants to talk to you about your innings today and the tournament. I know you’ve been talking to that local reporter a few times, so I just wanted to make sure you’re up for another interview.”
“Sure, I guess. When?”
“Tomorrow,” Karen says. “The podcast goes out on Friday and they want to add your interview to it so it goes out while the tournament is still on.”
“Wow,” Ashley says. “You can’t say no to that, Alice. That’s huge.”
Ashley’s right. I can also hear Charlie’s voice in my head telling me I’d be an idiot to say no. “I guess so, sure. I mean, I’ve never done one before.”
“You’ll be fine. It’s just like talking to the local reporter except they record you. They’ve sent some questions through to prep you. Do you want to go over them now?”
“I guess so,” I reply.
As I follow Karen down the hallway, she says, “And Ashley?
“Yes, Coach?”
“You can go for ice-cream but don’t be too long.”
“Got it,” Ashley says. She jogs to catch up to us and as we walk down the stairs, all I can think about is how bananas Charlie’s going to go when she hears about this interview. I grin at the thought and make a mental note to tell her first thing tomorrow.