Chapter Seven

At school on Thursday morning, everyone in the girls’ junior team was wandering about looking like cats that had got the cream. Although, as Becky whispered quietly to Fran as they perched on the chestnut tree in the playground (Becky and Bel had managed to explain their worries about Katie and the whole Dad situation to Megan as well, though they’d carefully not mentioned that it was her dad that had set the whole thing off), Katie seemed to be alternating between cream-stuffed cat and cat that had just fallen in the pond while trying to catch the goldfish…

At registration, the triplets’ table was positively glowing with pride, and it didn’t go unnoticed. David came up to them to get the details on the match, and Megan and Katie tried to look fairly modest about the whole thing, but didn’t manage all that well. As Megan had pointed out to Max the other day, the boys’ team had lost their league quarter-final match, and now the Manor Hill girls were in the final. It was hard not to gloat a bit, but they tried not to because David was nice.

“Well done.” He grinned at Megan and Katie. “How did you manage that then, did they have their feet tied together?”

Katie grinned back. “Ha ha – jealous are we?”

He made a face. “Yeah, a bit – even if you don’t win, it’ll be really cool to be in the final. You’ll all get those medals.”

“You’ll probably get in the final next year,” put in Becky generously, smiling at David, which made him blush, and mutter something along the lines of “maybe”. He was still grinning in a tongue-tied way when someone came up behind him.

“Hey, David! What are you talking to that lot for? Watch it, you might catch something.”

It was Max, of course, and the triplets and the other girls groaned. Katie beamed at him. “Yeah, why don’t you hang around too, Max? You never know, you might catch our winning streak – you sad loser.”

Max took a step forward looking furious, and Katie stood up, so they were right in each other’s faces. Max was practically spitting. “I told you before, you play in a stupid girls’ league, and you are nothing – we’re going to slaughter you next week, and the whole school is going to be watching.”

“Yeah, watching us run circles round you, Maxie.”

Becky and Annabel had stood up too by now – Katie was in the thick of an argument, and she was enjoying teasing Max, but she hadn’t realized quite how angry he was getting. It really looked as if he would totally lose his temper if the argument carried on much longer, and they were worried.

David put a hand on Max’s shoulder, and jerked his head at Max’s mate Ben, who’d been watching and smirking a bit. “Leave it, Max. Come on, Miss Fraser’ll be here in a minute, you’ll get in trouble.”

“Yeah, come on, Max. It’s not worth it, mate,” added Ben, and together they steered him away, still glaring at Katie, who was watching him go with a pitying smile on her face.

“Katie!” said Becky crossly. “You shouldn’t do that, you know what Max is like! One of these days you’ll make him really mad at you, and then who knows what he might do!”

Katie sat down and tossed her ponytail irritatingly. “Oh, don’t be a wuss, Becky. He wouldn’t dare do anything.” She looked round at the others, who were all giving her “Yeah, right!” looks, and frowned. “Oh, come on! He’s an idiot, that’s all, he’s not even worth thinking about.” And she smiled sunnily at them, and went back to checking she’d got all her books.

 

After the semi-final, the girls’ team had spent the minibus-trip home celebrating, and making plans for the fund-raising match. Katie had happily volunteered Annabel (and her and Becky and all their friends) to make posters and tickets. Annabel was brilliant at art, and so was Fran, so it seemed like the obvious answer – as Katie’d explained to a secretly flattered but pretend-annoyed Annabel that night. Everyone else in the team seemed happy to let them get on with it – it was loads of work! Katie really hadn’t wanted the other major job that had to be done – luckily, Sarah, as captain, had been “volunteered”.

In assembly on Friday morning Mr Brownfield, the head, had gone through all the usual boring stuff about litter, and the Manor Hill uniform being a badge that people recognized and how this somehow meant you had to behave well in the chip shop, and, as usual, everyone dozed with their eyes just open enough not to get told off. On their first day at Manor Hill the triplets had been really panicked by assembly – there were so many rules at this new school! Now they were much more relaxed.

Then, suddenly Mr Brownfield got interesting. “Now, I have a special announcement.” He beamed round at everybody, and most people opened one eye to check whether this was an exciting new litter initiative, or something really interesting, “Could Sarah Barker from Year Eight come up on stage, please?”

Katie and Megan were bouncing with excitement – the match was official! Mr Brownfield got Sarah to explain what they were raising money for (and she told the whole school it was Katie’s idea to get their new strip!) and then he announced that the match would be next Friday after school, and the teams would get out of last lesson to have time to warm up. It was excellent, and Mr Brownfield plugged the final as well, and said he was sure everyone would agree that such a successful team deserved a proper kit. Katie looked round and saw that the boys’ team were looking green. There was a noticeable lack of admiring announcements about them in assembly at the moment. Katie, nudging Megan to point out the positively evil expression on Max’s face, felt a nervous shiver wriggle down her spine. Obviously she wasn’t scared (of that lot?!) but she had a feeling that the boys were going to be doing whatever it took to win…

 

The triplets’ bedroom was very full of people and bits of paper that evening, as Katie had rounded everybody up for a poster-making session. She and Megan were trying to work out exactly what the tickets should say on them before they went and printed them off on the computer, while the other four decorated huge sheets of paper for posters. It was annoying, Annabel pointed out, that because they were organizing the match they couldn’t put what they really felt on the posters, like “Come and watch the fab girls’ team show everyone what a load of two-left-footed eejits those boys are”. Katie pointed out that they did want some boys to come and watch the match as well, though.

“In fact, as long as they pay for a ticket I don’t care who comes. Does Feathers want to come, Fran?”

Feathers was Fran’s gorgeous Golden Retriever. Fran giggled. “He’d love it, but he’d want to join in, and he’s so dopey I wouldn’t swear to it that he’d be playing for your lot. But you’re practising in the park tomorrow, aren’t you? I’ll come and watch you, and I’ll bring him then.”

“Cool.” Katie nodded. “Tomorrow afternoon we’re meeting in the park just up the road. There isn’t a proper pitch, but we can still practise.”

By the time Fran, Megan and Saima had to go home they’d printed off (and Becky had cut up) 250 tickets, and made six huge posters. Fran and Annabel, who were both brilliant at art, had drawn the outlines and everybody else had coloured them in. In fact, they’d been so efficient they had time left over for lounging around on the triplets’ beds eating jellybeans and listening to some music. Annabel managed to lounge, eat and draw at the same time, and after about quarter of an hour’s furious scribbling she waved her sketchpad triumphantly at Katie and Megan.

“Look!”

Everyone obligingly peered over, craning their necks to see what she’d drawn – a couple of girls in smart purple shorts and lilac shirts with some kind of badge on.

“Cute!” said Megan, grinning.

“Mmmm,” agreed Katie. “What’s it for?”

“Duh! It’s a design for your kit, dimwit! I think it’s really cool.”

“Mmmm,” said Katie again, more doubtfully this time, and darting a “help me!” look at Megan and the others. Saima didn’t seem to see any problem, and Becky and Fran were just giggling, very unhelpfully.

“What?” Annabel demanded, sounding cross. “Don’t you like it?”

Megan smiled in a peacemaking kind of way. “We do like it, lots. It’s just … not very practical,” she finished in an inspired rush, looking relieved.

“Exactly!” Katie nodded furiously. “Lilac would get really dirty, Bel. After ten minutes on our field we’d just be brown. And it’s a bit, um, girly?”

“But that’s the point! It’s kind of like saying, ‘Yeah, we’re girls, and we’re still way better than you!’ See?” Annabel looked disappointed with her sister, and Katie pulled out her last card.

“We do see what you mean, Bel, and it would be cool, but I think we’re going to have to use Manor Hill colours anyway – green and red. Maybe you could do us some green and red ones?”

“Green and red?” Annabel put more disgust into the words than Katie would have believed possible. “Oh, I suppose so. But honestly, how boring?”