Mmmm … crunchy, salty, munchy, yummy peanut butter.

The day after our first game, I sat on the office steps with the rest of the team, thinking about peanut butter.

I eat crunchy peanut butter sandwiches for lunch every day. The only thing I like to change is the bread – white, multigrain. My favourite is rye. That was what I was eating that day.

I was thinking a whole heap about peanut butter. But I wasn’t saying much. No-one was. Everyone was quiet and glum, disappointed about losing our first game of netball.

Even Angie and Claire were sitting with us instead of playing basketball. For once, there was another game that they cared about more.

I scrunched up the cling wrap from my sandwich and threw it down the office steps. I was aiming for a rubbish bin at the bottom. But just like a gremlin ball, the cling wrap didn’t do what I wanted.

It curved up, seemed to float in the air for a second, then fell silently onto the bottom step. Why did I even bother!

‘Good try, Alex,’ said Becky with a small smile.

Dunk … plop. Callum threw his empty drink box at the recycling bin. But it didn’t go in either. It bounced off the side and lay at the bottom of the steps. He sighed.

Callum was taking our loss yesterday pretty hard.

Normally I don’t care about losing at sport. I’m used to it! But I felt bad about losing the ball yesterday because I’d let the team down. I know how hard everyone had tried to win.

By now, Angie had finished her lunch. She threw her paper bag at the bin. It sailed in with perfect aim. ‘Woo hoo,’ said Angie. But her voice sounded flat.

I glanced past Claire at Angie’s sad face. Poor Angie. Poor team!

How could I cheer up my friends? I jumped down the steps and put my cling wrap and Callum’s drink box in the bin.

‘We need a name!’ I said from the bottom of the steps. I didn’t have to say for our netball team. Everyone knew straight away what I was talking about.

‘Yeah!’ said everyone. In a row, the team sat a little straighter.

‘The Cockatoos?’ asked Claire.

No-one liked that idea much. That name was already taken for their basketball team. But we had other ideas. Already the glum mood was gone.

‘The Kookaburras?’

‘The Rosellas?’

‘The Mean Team!’

That last idea came from Mickey. When he said it, he jumped up and did a face like an angry wrestler. He’s such a boy.

But I liked how his idea rhymed. And then I thought of it – the perfect name for our team.

‘The Dream Team!’ I cried. ‘Like … we’re all friends. So we really are the perfect team.’

Angie and Claire did a high five. Then Becky joined in. Even the boys seemed happy with our new name.

We started talking then, loud and excited, about what went wrong yesterday and how we could play better. We talked and planned right until the end of lunch.

Ding, ding, ding …

When the bell rang, we walked down the steps together and headed for class.

The other kids scattered, running in different directions and doing their own thing.

But we stayed together. We walked as a group, talking and laughing like a gang. The Dream Team, together.