Ellyse felt much better about the coming week. She’d worked on her schedule with Mum and she was sure she wouldn’t forget anything. The only problem was going to be the announcement of the cast for Cats.

Ellyse was beginning to wish the musical had never been written. She hoisted her schoolbag higher on her shoulders and headed for her locker. There was no sign of Charlie or Jazz, which was odd. She was sure neither of them would’ve slept in today of all days.

As Ellyse went to step into her homeroom, she heard her name being called. She turned to see Jazz’s face alight with happiness and excitement, and instantly knew she’d got a part in the musical.

‘I can’t believe it!’ Jazz squealed. ‘I’ll get to sing and dance and everything!’

Ellyse gave her a hug. ‘That’s brilliant, Jazz.’

Jazz spun around on her toes. ‘I might have to take dance lessons too. What do you think?’

‘Er, will your mum let you?’

Jazz’s face darkened. ‘Who cares what she thinks? I’ll ask Dad to pay for them.’

Ellyse glanced around. ‘Have you seen Charlie? Did she get in?’

‘No, she didn’t.’ Jazz frowned. ‘I feel really bad for her. I know she kind of wanted to be picked.’

Kind of? Charlie wanted it even more than you. ‘I might go and look for her,’ Ellyse said.

The first bell rang, and girls everywhere moved towards their homerooms.

‘You’ll see her at recess,’ Jazz said. ‘Don’t worry about Charlie. She can cope.’

I’m not so sure, thought Ellyse. But she smiled at Jazz and went to class.

At recess Ellyse looked everywhere for Charlie without success. Sheridan and Carla hadn’t seen her either. Jazz had gone to the auditorium to collect her script and performance notes. Ellyse was running out of places to look. She had to give up when the bell rang, but at lunchtime she went looking again and eventually found Charlie in the back of the library, reading.

‘There you are,’ Ellyse said.

‘Here I am,’ Charlie said, her eyes pink-rimmed.

‘I’m sorry you didn’t get in.’

‘Oh well,’ Charlie said. ‘I’ll live. Maybe.’ She banged the book shut. ‘I need to do something. Come on, let’s go and kick a soccer ball around.’

When they got to the field, Hu and several other girls in the team were already there, so they played a game of three on three, fast and hilarious. After twenty minutes they were all puffing and laughing too much to keep going.

‘We missed you last week,’ Hu told Ellyse. ‘You’d better not get detention again. Ms Beattie said this week’s team is top dog.’

‘I won’t,’ Ellyse said. ‘I hate not playing.’

As they walked to their fifth-period classes, Charlie said, ‘What if Jazz pulls out of the soccer team because of the musical?’

‘She can’t!’ Hu said, horrified. ‘She’s our goalie.’

Charlie shrugged. ‘She might not care about that. There’s a lot of things Jazz doesn’t seem to care about anymore.’

‘It’s this stuff with her mum and dad,’ Ellyse replied softly. ‘She’ll be the same old Jazz again soon, when things settle down.’

‘I hope so.’

I hope so too. ‘Let’s ask her if she wants to go out again Friday night.’

‘Okay.’ Charlie gave Ellyse a nudge. ‘One good thing about not being in Cats is that I can keep playing touch with you.’

Ellyse nudged her back. ‘That’s super-cool, for me anyway.’

And it was great to see Charlie smiling again.

The week flew by, and Ellyse was relieved that everything went well. She even got 82 per cent on her history essay, as well as a B+ for her geography project. Charlie and Jazz seemed to still be best friends; Ellyse knew Charlie never held a grudge.

Thursday night at touch training, Ben fronted up with a box of red and black players’ shirts that smelled mouldy even before they pulled them out to check sizes.

‘Ugh, do we have to wear these?’ Charlie asked.

Half of the shirts had numbers that were peeling off or were streaked with mould, and they were all faded and worn.

‘This is it, sorry,’ Ben said. ‘This is what the club gave me.’

Ellyse picked up a shirt with the number 99 on it. It wasn’t so big that it would look like a dress on her, and it was faded but not actually mouldy. She tried it on over her T-shirt and shorts. ‘This’ll do me.’

‘See?’ Ben said. ‘Just look through the box, kids, and find the least horrible shirt.’

Charlie found a shirt with no number at all. ‘At least it’s kind of clean.’

Finally, everyone in the team had found a shirt that more or less fit them. The boys weren’t worried about the mould; there had been a tussle over who would wear the number 1 shirt until Ben pointed out it was actually 11 with one of the numbers faded to nothing. Rocky said 11 was his lucky number and claimed it for himself.

‘Right,’ Ben said. ‘Game tactics. We’re new, so let’s not expect miracles.’

‘Do we have a name?’ Sam asked. ‘Can we be the Ravens?’

‘We’re in the competition just as Hornsby,’ Ben said. ‘I think someone else is called the Ravens.’ He consulted his sheet. ‘Yep, sorry.’

‘How about the Hornsby Devils, then?’ Rocky said.

‘Sure,’ Ben said. ‘Now, here’s what I want you to focus on today …’

After sprints and drills, they played a game. At the whistle, Ellyse tapped and then passed. Rocky took it and dodged, got touched, and the ball came back to Ellyse. She passed to Emma 1, and on it went. Some of the players were so keen that they were being penalised for being offside every few minutes and Ben had to have a word with them. At the next tap, Ellyse and Charlie passed and jinked several times when, suddenly, a gap opened up in front of her. She put on a burst of speed and got through to make a touchdown.

Yay! Touchdown without the mud.

Ben soon began rotating the players, and when it was Ellyse’s turn to sit out, she made sure to watch Charlie. It was like Charlie had eyes in the back of her head. She passed at just the right time to avoid being nabbed, and Emma 2 got a touchdown. She jumped around and shouted, ‘Yahoo!’ It was her first ever!

‘Excellent game,’ Ben said, when they’d gathered around him afterwards. Some of the boys had long faces and Ben patted one of them on the back. ‘You all played really well and your best will definitely get better. That’s what training is for.’ He went on to explain the mini tournament rules.

Charlie looked at Ellyse. ‘I don’t want selectors watching me. No regional team for me.’

‘Why not?’ Ellyse replied. ‘It’d be so awesome.’

Charlie kicked at a pebble on the ground. ‘I don’t know if I want to try out for something else. What if I miss out again?’

Ben and Dad were over by the car, collecting the mouldy shirts off everyone.

Dad would say you have to try anyway, but Charlie’s hurt right now. I’m not sure what to say. ‘Well … you can’t not try.’

‘It’d be safer,’ Charlie said stubbornly.

Ellyse threw her arm around Charlie. ‘Yeah, but think how boring that would be.’

Charlie laughed. ‘I guess you’re right.’ But she still sounded doubtful.

They pulled off their grubby, faded shirts and handed them back to Ben.

Oh please, Ellyse thought, whoever you people are at the tournament next week, please, please pick Charlie!