‘Break’s over, girls,’ yelled Coach Justine. ‘Back on the court.’

Everyone else jumped up, raring to go, but I still had to put my sneakers back on. I was stalling because my foot was aching. In fact, my whole body ached. I didn’t know muscles could hurt so much.

‘Come on, Edie,’ said Tess impatiently. She was sipping from her drink bottle, her face red and sweaty.

‘Ergh,’ I said as I examined the blister on my heel. It was a gruesome, bloody mess.

‘Yuck!’ said Tess.

I ripped open a new band-aid, but it only covered half the blister.

‘I don’t think that’s going to hold it, Edie,’ said Tess with a smile. She started ripping open band-aid after band-aid until my foot looked like it had been mummified.

‘That should do it,’ she said hopefully. ‘Actually, it’ll have to – you’ve used them all.’ She shook the empty box.

‘Lucky they supply us with band-aids, or I’d be using up all my babysitting money,’ I joked. I winced as I pulled my sock back on.

‘I think we’re supposed to be doing drills,’ said Tess. Everyone else was already hard at it.

‘Coming,’ I said, sounding cranky. I didn’t mean to. I loved training, but we’d been at it for nearly two hours and I was ready for a real break. And maybe dinner. And a footbath. And about ten hours of sleep.

I managed to get my sneaker on, ignoring the pain as it rubbed against the blister. Then I hobbled down from the stand and followed Tess back onto the court. We’d only been training for a week, but already I was beginning to understand what Kathryn Fraser had meant when she’d said that state netball would become my whole life. She wasn’t kidding. Netball had even taken over my dreams.

We trained at least twice a week for two hours, and once the season actually started we’d be playing games all over the place. Some weekends we’d be driving for hours just to get to the game. Tess and I were excited about that idea – we loved the thought of sitting in a minivan together for a whole day, just chatting.

The rest of the team seemed really nice. Most of them already knew each other from netball camps and other teams, but they’d made us feel really welcome. The only downside to choosing netball (apart from not seeing Freddy at rehearsals twice a week) had been breaking it to Kerry. She made me promise I wouldn’t give up acting forever, and that I’d come back to classes soon. But even though I’d promised, I wasn’t sure when it would happen. As long as I was playing state netball there wouldn’t be time for anything else – just homework, school and training.

‘Think quick,’ called Tess as she shot me the ball. I didn’t, and it hit me in the face.

‘Ow!’ I yelped, feeling my eyes water.

‘Sorry, Edie,’ said Tess, jogging over to check my nose. ‘Don’t think it’s broken.’ She smiled and scooped up the ball. ‘Try it again?’

‘Sure.’ I groaned, wondering what sort of state I’d be in by the end of the training session. I felt totally broken.

As we practiced our passes, our coach Justine moved from pair to pair, checking our technique. She was tough, but I liked her.

‘Tess, I want to see you throwing more one-handed passes. From the shoulder, remember. You’ll get more power behind you, and more power means more distance.’

Tess threw me the ball from her shoulder, but it went off track. I jumped for it half-heartedly – I didn’t want to land too heavily on my blister. I missed, and had to hobble over and pick it up. I heard Justine call after me. ‘Faster, Edie. We haven’t got all day.’

‘Sorry, I have a bad blister. My foot’s killing me.’

Justine nodded. ‘Salt water. Best thing for it. But you’ll have to learn to play on it. It won’t be the only blister you’ll get this season.’

Without meaning to, I sighed. Justine raised an eyebrow at me. ‘Hope you’re not questioning your commitment already? The season hasn’t even started yet.’

I could feel Tess glaring at me, wanting me to say the right thing. I nodded. ‘I know. Sorry. I’m totally up for playing, I just have a sore foot. Salt water, right. I’ll do it tonight.’

‘Okay. Keep passing,’ Justine said, and walked off to grill someone else.

She wasn’t like our old coach Lisa, who made practice fun. Training with Justine was like boot camp. But I guess that’s how she built such strong teams.

‘Girls, I’m calling an extra training session next week. Our first game is coming up soon and it’s going to be a big one. I want you ready,’ yelled Justine.

‘Which night?’ I asked, biting back a groan at the thought of extra training. As if my feet didn’t hurt enough already.

‘I’ll let you know,’ she said.

We threw the ball back and forth for what felt like another hour, but was probably only ten minutes. By the time Justine told us to stop, I could barely shuffle over to the stands. My foot was killing me and I just wanted to go home. But Tess had a different idea.

‘Maggie’s invited us to her house to watch the Vixens game. Her mum recorded it so we could all watch it together. Cool, huh?’ said Tess.

We’d been spending quite a bit of time with Maggie. She was great, but I sometimes missed hanging out with just Tess. It seemed like overnight we’d gone from being a duo to a trio, and I wasn’t sure that was quite what I wanted. I also had a big blister, aching legs and a burning desire to watch hours of bad TV while eating ice-cream from the tub.

‘Now?’ I asked, shocked that they could think of doing anything other than lying down.

‘Yeah, now,’ said Tess, smiling at my reaction.

I started to say no, but Tess gave me her best pleading look, then said the words she knew I could never refuse. ‘Her mum’s buying pizza for dinner. With extra salami!’

Tess always knew exactly how to win me over. I never got pizza at home because Mum was on this constant health thing. Salami was also off the shopping list, despite being just about my favourite food in the whole world. Except maybe chocolate cake. Besides, Tess and I hadn’t spent much time together lately outside of training. It would be nice to just hang out.

‘Extra salami, you say?’

She grinned. ‘I’ll go tell her we’re coming,’ said Tess, disappearing before I could change my mind.

I’d always been a bit envious of Tess’s endless energy, but never more than then. She never seemed to get tired. Then again, she didn’t have a blister the size of a tennis ball on her heel. I packed my things, moving carefully, and waved to the other girls as they left. Tess ran back.

‘Come on, Edie,’ she said.

I limped towards her and she pulled a face. ‘Salt water is what you need, young lady.’

‘Thanks, coach.’

By the time we’d made it to our bikes, my foot was killing me and I was glad to be able to sit down. We rode next to each other so we could talk.

‘Did you see that pass Brigid made today? It was perfect. She knew exactly where Eleanor would be,’ Tess said excitedly.

‘Well, it helps that they’ve played together for ages,’ I said.

‘I know. I can’t wait for the season to start,’ said Tess, ‘so we can see how we play as a team. Training’s great, but it’s weird starting again, don’t you think?’

I knew exactly what she meant. We’d played with the Sapphires for so long, we understood everything about each other’s games. But on this team, we were all still testing each other out.

‘Mum’s worried about me getting behind with my homework,’ Tess continued. ‘She says she understands that I want to play state netball, but it shouldn’t be the only thing I do. It’s the only thing I’ve ever done – I can’t believe she hasn’t realised!’

I laughed. ‘Yeah, it’s not like homework has ever really featured in your life.’

‘I just don’t get the point of it. Don’t we do enough learning at school?’ Tess complained as we coasted down the big hill near my house.

‘Maybe your mum’s right, though. Netball shouldn’t be the only thing we think about.’

Tess shot me a horrified look. ‘Why not?’

I tried to think of an answer, then smiled. Maybe Tess was right. Why not?

We pulled up outside Maggie’s house. Tess knew where to go – she’d obviously been here before. She hadn’t mentioned it, though, which made me feel a bit weird.

Maggie opened the front gate. ‘Hi! You can bring your bikes in if you like,’ she said with a smile.

I followed Tess into the front yard and we locked our bikes up together.

‘My brother’s home, so I’ll just apologise now,’ said Maggie, pulling a face.

‘Ergh, brothers. At least yours isn’t nine-year-old twins!’ said Tess dramatically. It was always funny hearing Tess whinge about her brothers. She actually adored them, and they worshipped her. She was the reason they could shoot a perfect goal from three metres out.

‘Maggie would love it if I was a twin!’ came a voice from inside the house.

Maggie groaned loudly. ‘Finn, you promised!’

A boy popped his head around the doorway, grinning at me. ‘Hi, I’m Finn. You must be the other netty girl.’

I couldn’t help but stare. He wasn’t a younger brother. He was older. And he was gorgeous. He had really dark brown eyes and scruffy hair, and he was even taller than Maggie – and she was super tall.

Rolling her eyes, Maggie introduced us. ‘This is Edie, and you already know Tess.’

Finn smiled at both of us. Tess clearly wasn’t interested – she just barged past him into the house. Maggie went after her, clearly relieved that her big brother wasn’t going to spoil the netball game. I moved to follow, but Finn was leaning in the doorway, and I’d have had to squeeze past him.

‘I guess I should say thanks,’ he said. ‘If you girls weren’t here then there definitely wouldn’t be pizza for dinner.’

‘That’s the reason I came,’ I said, only half joking.

Finn pulled a shocked face. ‘Surely not. Aren’t you excited about watching, then rewatching and maybe even re-rewatching, a game of netball on our rather small television?’

‘Um, yeah, totally,’ I said, sounding unconvincing, even to myself.

‘Don’t tell me there’s a less-than-committed netballer in the house?’

‘No. That’s not what I meant. I love netball.’

He shrugged. ‘What a shame. Thought I could challenge you to a computer game marathon.’

Just then Maggie called out from inside the house, ‘Edie!’

Finn took that as his cue to step back and wave me inside. ‘Better not keep you!’

I walked down the hall, my heart racing. Maggie didn’t go to our school, so I didn’t know much about her, other than how she played netball. The fact that she had a totally cute brother was a big surprise. I couldn’t believe Tess hadn’t mentioned him. Trying to shake off the thought, I found Tess and Maggie curled up on the couch in the lounge room, a big bowl of popcorn sitting in front of them. They were clearly waiting for me.

‘What took you so long?’ asked Tess.

‘Sorry. Just checking out your house,’ I said to Maggie. ‘It’s a lot like mine.’

‘Hope Finn wasn’t hassling you. He likes giving my friends a hard time. He thinks being a year older means he can tease everyone.’

I’m pretty sure I was blushing as I stammered, ‘No, no. He was fine.’

I could feel Tess giving me one of her looks. She knows me so well, she can totally tell when I’m not quite telling the truth. I pretended to be ridiculously interested in the shelves of books lining the walls.

‘Wow, Maggie! And I thought we had lots of books.’

‘Yeah, my dad owns a second-hand bookshop – we’ve got more books than furniture. And he actually expects Finn and I to read them all.’

‘I do read them all,’ said Finn. I jumped. What was it with this guy? Did he just think he could keep creeping into rooms and making me nervous?

‘Really?’ said Tess, obviously not believing him. ‘I don’t read books unless I have to. Edie does. She even reads plays.’

‘Cool,’ said Finn, walking up behind me.

I started examining the books, hoping he’d be gone by the time I turned around again. No such luck. I could sense that he was right next to me. Not knowing what to do, I spotted a book I’d been dying to read and reached for it, just as Finn did the same thing. Our hands sort of touched and I pulled away quickly.

‘Were you going to grab this one?’ he asked, holding up the book. ‘It’s awesome. You can borrow it,’ said Finn, handing it to me.

‘Okay, thanks,’ I said.

I realised Tess and Maggie were both watching us. I felt a bit embarrassed.

‘Test me,’ said Finn, running his finger along the spines of all the books.

‘Finn! Get out. This is not about you,’ said Maggie, fuming. I was relieved that she sounded so annoyed. It gave me the perfect excuse to move away from Finn and join Tess on the couch.

‘Can’t I stay and watch it with you? I promise to cheer for the right team this time,’ he said with those twinkling, laughing eyes.

I really hoped Maggie would say no. I wasn’t quite up to being around a boy as cute as Finn. Not today, especially, with my sweaty training clothes, dirty hair and blistered foot. But she surprised me by sighing loudly, rolling her eyes, and then nodding.

Finn grinned. There were heaps of empty chairs for him to sit on, but instead he plonked himself right down between Tess and I. Now how was I supposed to concentrate on the game? I could barely think!

Tess leant around Finn and gave me that look that said she wanted to talk to me in private. ‘Didn’t you want a drink, Edie?’

I nodded furiously. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I do.’

‘Is that two drinks or one?’ said Finn with a smile.

‘I’ll get you a water,’ said Maggie, jumping up.

But Tess shook her head. ‘No, it’s okay. You put the game on. We’ll go.’ I followed Tess out of the lounge and limped my way down the hall. She waited until we were in the kitchen before turning to me and whispering, ‘Are you okay?’

I nodded. ‘Yeah. Except for the fact that I have a blister the size of a golf ball on my heel.’

Tess didn’t look convinced. ‘You don’t seem okay. You seem a bit …’

‘Tired. That’s all.’

‘Oh. Okay. Good,’ she said, opening a cupboard to find a glass. She filled it with water and handed it to me. I drank it, surprised at how thirsty I was.

‘You sure it’s not because of Finn?’ said Tess quietly. I should have known I couldn’t put one over her. She sees everything.

‘He’s a bit cute, isn’t he?’ I smiled at her, relieved to admit it. She smiled back.

‘Yeah. He is. And he clearly thinks you are, too.’

I blushed. ‘Does not.’

Tess shrugged. ‘Well it doesn’t matter, because he’s Maggie’s brother. And we’re here to watch netball. And we don’t have time to check out cute boys! Okay?’

She sounded so serious. I didn’t really get what the big deal was.

‘I just said he was cute, that’s all.’ I sounded more defensive than I meant to, but it irritated me. Why couldn’t I say a boy was cute? Tess had always been pretty hardcore about netball, but she’d never been this bad. Now that she was playing state, she acted like we couldn’t even think about anything else.

‘Tess?’ I elbowed her playfully, hoping she’d realise she was overreacting.

She shrugged and nudged me back, making me spill water everywhere. ‘Oops, sorry!’ she said, laughing. ‘All right, he is cute,’ she whispered, and chucked me a cloth. ‘About as cute as watching you mop up your T-shirt.’ Tess laughed and I threw the wet tea towel at her head.

To keep life simple, I’d decided to ignore Finn and concentrate on watching the Vixens thrash the Eagles. I was doing really well, until he started talking to me.

‘What do you play?’ he asked quietly.

‘Mostly Goal Attack,’ I managed to answer without sneaking a look at him.

‘You’re a shooter?’

‘Yep.’

‘Finn,’ Maggie said sharply. ‘No talking.’

‘I’m just finding out about your new friends,’ he said, sounding irritated.

Luckily, Maggie’s mum walked in at exactly that moment, carrying a big stack of pizza boxes. Finn leapt up to help her, and Tess seized the opportunity to wriggle along the couch into the spot where Finn had been sitting.

Maggie paused the game to introduce me to her mum.

‘Nice to see you, Tess. And Edie, it’s lovely to meet you finally. Maggie has told me a lot about you. I think your mum might have been the doctor who stitched up Finn’s eye in emergency last year.’

‘Really? What happened to your eye?’ I asked him, wishing I could take a closer look.

He shrugged. ‘Got into a fight.’

His mum laughed. ‘It’s called football.’

‘Mum, you’re destroying my image,’ joked Finn.

‘Image! Huh! Go and grab some plates from the kitchen, Finn. And napkins.’

‘Plates! Napkins! Now my image is totally shot. Thanks a lot,’ he said, pretending to be devastated. He wasn’t just cute, he was funny, too. I liked the way he mucked around with his mum.

‘So how was training?’ asked Maggie’s mum.

‘The best,’ said Tess.

Maggie’s mum laughed. ‘You sound just like Maggie. Nothing’s as great as netball!’

It felt strange hearing how similar Maggie and Tess were, but it was true. They lived and breathed netball. I wondered why I didn’t feel the same.

Then she smiled at me. ‘And you, Edie? Are you enjoying it?’

‘Yeah, it’s great. Except for the blisters.’

She gave me a big smile. ‘I’ve got just the thing for blisters,’ she said warmly.

Maggie looked panicked. ‘Not the cream, Mum!’

‘Why not? It worked for you. And your brother.’

I was intrigued. ‘What cream? I’ll try anything.’

Groaning, Maggie explained. ‘My grandparents have a farm. And Grandad makes this cream for the cows.’

‘For their udders,’ said Finn, walking back in with a stack of plates and napkins. He looked straight at me and smiled. ‘It works for blisters, too.’

Maggie pulled a face. ‘I was leaving the udder bit out, Finn.’

I couldn’t help but laugh. ‘That sounds great, thanks. I’ll definitely give it a go.’

‘I’ll get you some before you leave,’ promised Maggie’s mum. ‘Now, make sure Finn doesn’t eat all the salami. He has a bad habit of picking the bits off the top and adding them to his slices. You watch him, girls.’

‘This is character assassination. I hardly know these two. Honestly, what are they going to think of me?’ said Finn, mock-outraged.

Maggie’s mum left us to eat and watch the game. Tess wasn’t kidding about the extra salami. I was so happy. Even my blister stopped hurting.

Maggie pressed play on the game, and I realised how pleased I was to be here instead of at home on my bed counting my sore muscles. And now that I wasn’t sitting next to Finn anymore, I could actually concentrate on the game, and the pizza, and pretend that I didn’t find him super cute and wasn’t sneakily stealing looks in his direction.

Each time the Vixens scored a goal, Tess and Maggie would cheer, and sometimes Finn, if he remembered. I was pleased my best friend had found someone as obsessed about netball as she was. Because as much as I loved it, I was beginning to wonder if I could commit to it in quite the same way that Tess had.

It was dark by the time we rode home. I hadn’t said much since we’d left Maggie’s. Tess was raving about the Vixens game, and how keen she was to try out one of their plays at our next training session. But I was still thinking about Finn. Now that I knew I probably wouldn’t see Freddy much anymore, I’d just assumed I wouldn’t like another boy for a while. I’d sort of thought netball would take over my life and wouldn’t leave room for anything else. But Finn was cute. And funny. And easy to talk to, once I got over how embarrassed I was.

But he was also Maggie’s brother. Maybe Tess was right. I had to put him out of my head.

‘See you in the morning, Edie,’ said Tess, giving me a hug.

‘Don’t forget that essay for English,’ I reminded her.

She groaned as she rode off. English had never been her favourite subject. ‘I might be sick tomorrow!’ she called back.

When I walked into the house, Jean was lying on the couch, watching TV and laughing hysterically.

‘Hi,’ I said.

‘You have to watch this. It’s hilarious!’

Jean never asked me to watch anything with her, so I was a bit surprised. She moved her legs to make room for me on the couch. It was a prank show, and she was right, it was pretty funny. Within minutes I was laughing my head off, too. Then her phone rang. She flicked off the TV and said, ‘I think Dad wanted you,’ which was her code for telling me to disappear. I went to find Dad. His study door was shut, but the light was on.

‘Hey, Dad,’ I called through the door, not wanting to disturb him if he was working. He often worked late. He wrote for heaps of online publications, based in all different time zones, so if he wanted to Skype or chat, he’d often have to do it at some crazy hour. But tonight he surprised me and opened the door, popping his head out. ‘Hey, kiddo. How was training?’

‘Good. Except I have a bad blister. But I also have udder cream,’ I said, holding up the small jar of grey-looking cream.

‘As in,“udderly disgusting”?’

‘No, as in a cream designed to stop the chafing on a cow’s udders.’

‘Ew. You’re not really going to put that on your foot, are you?’

‘You know what, Dad? I think I am.’

‘Well then, let’s hope it’s “udderly fantastic”.’

I managed a groan and an eye roll, which Dad was pretty used to by now. He was known for his bad puns and jokes.

‘There are some leftovers in the fridge if you’re still hungry.’

‘Thanks, Dad,’ I said,‘but I just want a bath and bed.’

‘You must be “udderly exhausted”!’

Fearing the jokes would never end, I shuffled off to my room to check my emails while the bath filled. There was a whole bunch of emails about some netball dinner, but the one I opened first was from Kerry. It was a group email with the dates for Romeo and Juliet, and a photo of the cast. I stared at the photo for exactly ten seconds, honing in on Freddy and Belle at the front of the group, until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

Now I’d probably never discover what it felt like to play Juliet – and to make it worse, I’d have to sit in the audience and watch Freddy and Belle kiss. I’d tried not to think about Freddy too much since deciding to drop out of the play, but seeing his photo just brought it all back. Now he and Belle would spend all their spare time together, and I’d barely get to see him at all. As happy as I was to be playing state netball, Kerry’s email just reminded me of all the things I’d had to put on hold.

I tried not to think about boys while I waited for the bath to fill, but I kept seeing Freddy’s face, and then, even more confusingly, Finn’s. What was happening to me? I was becoming obsessed. It wasn’t like I had much experience with boys. Other than kissing that one at a party during a game of truth, dare and torture, the only boys I ever spent much time with were Tess’s twin brothers. If I wanted to play amazing netball, I had to focus. I had to forget about boys completely.