At lunchtime Charlie and Ellyse managed to persuade Jazz to come and play soccer. A game would take her mind off her parents and maybe cheer her up a bit. They linked arms and took Jazz to the field. The ground squelched under their feet as they walked over to the goal. Their coach, Ms Beattie, was talking to Hu and some of the other girls on the Callinan soccer team.

‘Wednesday’s game was going to be postponed but now they think the ground will be dry enough.’ She looked around them. ‘You can see that ours is saturated, so I hope you’ve brought a change of clothes.’

After warming up, the team soon had a lively game going with much sliding and slipping.

‘Careful,’ Ms Beattie called. ‘You can’t play at your usual speed. This is a good opportunity to slow down and think about what your feet are doing and where your balance and control really lies.’

Every now and then Ellyse glanced over to see Jazz standing in the goal with her arms hanging limply by her sides, staring off into space. When the ball came her way, she’d stir and make a half-hearted attempt to reach for it. Most of the shots whizzed past her into the net. A couple of times Ms Beattie opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again.

What would it be like if my mum and dad split up? Ellyse wondered. Ugh, I can’t even bear to think about that. Her parents hardly ever argued. Besides, when would her dad ever have time for a girlfriend? She snorted. He spent most of his time driving her to all her sports training and games!

Training finished a little earlier than usual so everyone had time to clean up and change before class.

‘What are you doing tonight?’ Charlie whispered to Ellyse. ‘Maybe we could go over to Jazz’s house and try to cheer her up.’

‘I can’t.’ Ellyse shrugged. ‘I mean, I want to, but it’s the first night of touch footy training …’ She paused and looked at Jazz, who was pulling on her school socks at the speed of a glacier, her head down. ‘No, you’re right. I can miss it once in a while.’ Even though I hate missing any training, let alone the first session.

Charlie sat next to Jazz and nudged her. ‘Hey, how about we come over and hang out with you after school?’

Jazz picked at a loose thread in her sock. ‘Can’t. Won’t be home.’ She sighed and pulled up the sock. ‘We’re going to family counselling. Like that’ll help. Not.’

‘Oh. Okay.’ Charlie gave her a hug. ‘Maybe tomorrow, then?’

‘Yeah.’ Jazz put on her shoes and stood. ‘See you later.’

As she watched Jazz trudge out of the changing room, tears filled Ellyse’s eyes. Jazz looks so sad. This is horrible!

Ellyse and Charlie walked to class in silence. ‘So you can go to touch footy after all,’ Charlie finally said.

‘Yeah, I guess. Want to come?’ Ellyse asked. Charlie had played with her in primary school and Ellyse always hoped she’d pick it up again.

‘Um … Okay. I’ll have to check with Mum first.’ She poked Ellyse in the arm. ‘I’ll be getting as bad as you soon – playing twenty different sports.’

‘I don’t play twenty!’ Ellyse said.

‘You would if you could, though.’ Charlie looked at her and laughed. ‘See? I’m right, aren’t I?’

‘Ha-ha, very funny.’ Ellyse grinned. ‘I’ll call you later.’

Charlie was allowed to go to touch footy training and Ellyse met her at the field, where the grown-ups were checking how wet it was. When the team was gathered, their coach, Ben, told them to expect an easy training session.

Ben was brand new as a coach, and this was his first team. He was still at uni, studying to be a PE teacher. Ellyse’s dad had agreed to help him out and they started training with a warm-up and some jogging around the field.

‘No sprints or fast turns,’ Ben called. ‘It’s slippery out there, and we don’t need any sprained ankles.’

Afterwards, they moved on to passing drills. In touch, it was all about moving the ball around and running. No tackling or scrums!

At least there aren’t any light shades to wreck here, Ellyse thought.

She and Charlie weren’t the only girls, for a change – their touch team had two others and they were both called Emma. Ellyse privately named them Emma 1 and Emma 2, and nearly burst out laughing when Ben told them he’d have to call them Emma 1 and Emma 2 too.

When they played a game, it was hard not to slip and slide a bit, and it seemed as if the one big muddy patch on the field was a magnet. Half of the kids fell over in it, and Charlie landed face first. The front of her shirt was wet and muddy and she had a blob of mud on her nose. By the end of training, Ellyse was splattered from head to foot in mud and even her face was freckled with it.

‘That was fun!’ Charlie said. ‘I wish Jazz would join us.’

‘Let’s ask her tomorrow,’ Ellyse said. ‘We’ll get her to come to training on Thursday.’

‘Don’t you have soccer training then?’

‘That’s later,’ she replied.

‘You’re going to do both in one night?’ Charlie said. ‘You’re crazy!’

Ellyse made a face. ‘The training is the best part. Not getting my homework done is the worst.’

‘Yeah,’ Charlie agreed. ‘I have tonnes too. Mr Waugh loves maths tests and I hate them.’

Dad took one look at Ellyse and said, ‘I’d better put an old towel down on the car seat for you, Princess Mud.’

As soon as Ellyse got home, she raced to have a hot shower and jumped in with her training clothes on! The water turned brown then slowly cleared, and afterwards she put her clothes straight into the wash.

Over dinner Ellyse kept thinking about Jazz.

‘Ellyse,’ Mum finally said, ‘you look like you’ve lost a dollar and found five cents. What’s wrong?’

Ellyse put down her fork and explained what had happened. ‘Jazz is so miserable that I don’t think even ping-pong would cheer her up.’

‘It’s not your night to have the table, anyway,’ Damien said.

‘Hang on,’ Dad said, ‘we don’t even have the table yet!’

Damien grinned. ‘Just saying.’

Mum squeezed Ellyse’s hand. ‘It must be devastating for Jazz. Just be the best friend you can be, and listen when she needs someone to talk to.’

That doesn’t seem like nearly enough. But Ellyse just nodded and ate more chicken, then asked for seconds.

‘Have you got hollow legs?’ Mum said, smiling.

Dad gave Ellyse a long look. ‘Come over here for a second.’ He pointed to the kitchen doorway, where Damien and Ellyse had had all their birthday heights marked since they were two years old.

‘It’s not my birthday,’ she said.

‘Never mind that,’ Dad said. ‘Stand up straight.’ He laid a handy breadknife across the top of her head. ‘Hmm, you’ve grown.’

‘I have?’ Ellyse spun around and checked the mark. ‘Wow, that’s more than two centimetres. I can’t believe it.’ She jumped up and down. ‘At last!’

It seemed like she’d been waiting forever to grow, always being the smallest, the shortest, the one everybody thought was two years younger than her actual age. Ellyse skipped back to the table and ate more chicken, then had an apple.

I’m going to keep growing, she thought excitedly. Watch out on that footy field, everyone!