I stared out the window, thinking of Finn. He’d sounded really disappointed when I’d called to explain I couldn’t go to the disco with him. He said he understood about training, but I still felt bad. I probably wouldn’t get to hang out with him anymore, unless I ran into him at Maggie’s. And that made me a bit sad, because he was cute and funny and I really liked him. But I’d decided that for now, I had to give state netball a proper chance.

‘I know it’s not all about winning, but I really love it when we do!’ said Tess, leaning against my shoulder. We were in the back row of the minibus, coming home after our practice game, and we were pretty knackered.

‘Plus, it means Justine’s in a good mood, and she won’t call any extra training sessions,’ said Maggie.

As pumped as I was about the amazing game we’d just played, I was distracted by the row of new blisters that had sprung up on my feet.

‘I might need some more of that udder cream, Mags.’

Tess laughed. ‘You and your blisters.’

‘I think it’s because I never stop moving. Unlike you, down in goal, slacking off and waiting for us to feed you the ball …’ I was deliberately winding Tess up. Sometimes I played Goal Shooter, but since joining this team, Justine had kept me in Goal Attack and I loved it. I’d always hated being stuck in the goal ring, waiting for the game to come to me. Now I was much more active in getting the ball down. It was just my feet that didn’t like it. The rest of me was fine.

Tess leant across, making sure Maggie couldn’t hear, and whispered to me, ‘Are you still happy to be in the team?’

Since I’d confessed that Finn had asked me out and I’d really wanted to go, Tess kept checking in to make sure I was happy with my decision. I was. Mostly. I knew that the next time I saw him, I would probably regret not going to the disco. But for the moment, at least, netball was taking up all my spare time.

‘Yeah, I am. Means I get to ride on a minibus with you every second Saturday,’ I said, smiling at her.

‘And if we keep winning like we did today, we’re going to blitz the finals,’ said Tess.

‘It wasn’t a real game today, Tess. I don’t think practice games count,’ I said.

Maggie frowned. ‘And first up, we have to beat the Warriors.’

I groaned. ‘Talk about a rough draw!’

Just about everyone in our team had a story about the Warriors. They were legendary. The club had been premiers for years now, and nobody had even come close to beating them. As if reading my mind, Tess shook her head. ‘They haven’t played us yet,’ she said, sounding determined.

‘True,’ I agreed. ‘But I’ve heard their defenders are ruthless.’

‘So am I!’ said Tess in her most ferocious voice, making both Maggie and I laugh.

After Sapphires games Tess and I usually went to each other’s houses to hang out and relive every second. We’d decided to keep the tradition alive, and it was Maggie’s turn today. I was trying to come up with an excuse, because of the whole Finn thing, which Maggie knew nothing about. As the bus pulled up outside the stadium, and we said goodbye to the rest of our team, I blurted out, ‘Um, I told Dad I’d help him clean out the study.’ I knew as soon as I’d said it that it probably wouldn’t fly.

Tess raised an eyebrow and gave me her special yeah, right look.

‘Just for a bit, Edie?’ pleaded Maggie, not knowing the real reason I was trying to get out it.

Tess came to my rescue. ‘Actually, I just remembered the boys are at a party this afternoon, so maybe we could go to my place instead? Avoid brothers,’ she said, winking at Maggie. I silently thanked her, hoping Maggie would agree, but she just laughed. ‘My brother is out too!’

‘Oh, well then, let’s just go to your house, Mags. It’s much closer. Edie?’ said Tess, raising her eyebrows at me.

I nodded. ‘Okay, just for a bit, then I really have to help Dad with that thingy …’

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Finn. I did. But I still felt bad for ditching him. And besides, I didn’t want to be reminded of how cute he was when I couldn’t do anything about it.

But as we rode up to Maggie’s house, chattering on about the game, someone rode up the path in front of us. As he jumped off his bike and took off his helmet, I saw that it was Finn. My stomach sank. He was wearing his footy shorts and club top, and he was all splattered with mud.

‘What are you doing home?’ asked Maggie, sounding cross.

‘Nice to see you too, Mags. Hi, netty girls,’ he said, not looking at me. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t be in your way. I just came home for a shower, then I’m heading out.’

Clearly he didn’t want to see me at all. I tried to focus on the conversation about how we were going to beat the Warriors, but Finn kept dashing back and forth past the lounge room, making it a bit hard to pretend he didn’t exist. Suddenly, to my horror, I realised Tess and Maggie were staring at me.

‘Sorry, what were you saying?’ I said, pretending to yawn like I was just so tired I couldn’t keep up.

‘Maggie was asking how we could beat the Warriors. And I said we could shut down their centre passes,’ said Tess.

I nodded. ‘Hmm. It could work, but it probably won’t be enough. I think we’ll need more than one trick up our sleeves.’

Tess shrugged. ‘Okay, shut down their attackers?’

Maggie laughed. ‘Justine’s been trying to get her teams to beat the Warriors for ages. I’m sure she’ll have some secret weapon to roll out!’

‘Ooh, I like the sound of a secret weapon!’ I said with a smile.

Finn peeped around the corner and said, ‘I’m off. Don’t have too much fun without me.’

I laughed without thinking. Finn looked straight at me and smiled. ‘Glad someone appreciates my jokes. Thanks, Edie.’

I know I was blushing a bit – I was really pleased that things weren’t too weird between us. But I was also a bit relieved that he was leaving, because it meant I could concentrate totally on our game plan.

When Tess and I first started playing netball, we couldn’t practice shooting on the school courts, because the goal rings were too high. We could barely even throw the ball that high, let alone get it through a ring. But now we spent most of our lunchtimes shooting goals. Nobody else ever bothered trying to use the court, because we were always there.

‘Thirty-nine,’ I said, counting Tess’s goal. ‘Forty …’

‘Do you think I can make it to a hundred?’

‘I hope not, otherwise I’ll never get a go!’

‘You still haven’t told me all the goss about Finn,’ said Tess, shooting another goal.

‘Forty-one, and there’s nothing to tell. He asked me out. I said no.’

She shot three more goals, then I added, ‘But I still think he’s cute. And it was pretty weird seeing him the other day. He is cute, isn’t he?’

My question obviously threw Tess, because she missed goal number forty-five.

‘Finally,’ I said, grabbing the ball.

‘That’s cheating,’ said Tess. I smiled and shot my first goal.

‘He is pretty cute, those big eyes and that smile. Even the way he’s always joking,’ said Tess. ‘He’s kind of dreamy.’

‘I know what you’re doing. But it won’t work. I’m going to beat you,’ I said, shooting goal number two.

We’d been practicing like crazy ever since we found out we were playing the Warriors on Saturday. Whenever we weren’t training or sleeping, we were shooting. I practically started dreaming about netball manoeuvres. I could tell Tess was pleased that I’d started taking netball more seriously. And actually, I’d noticed a huge change in my game.

‘Nine,’ said Tess.

As I ran off to grab the ball, which had rolled under the trees, I saw Freddy and Zoe from drama, in full costume, doing a photo shoot in the playground. It must have been for the poster or something. It looked like Zoe was dressed as Juliet – I wondered what had happened there.

Tess obviously noticed them too. I heard her say ‘Wow!’ behind me.

Wow all right. They looked amazing. Zoe made a stunning Juliet, and Freddy looked perfect as Romeo. Freddy saw me watching and waved.

‘You okay?’ said Tess, grabbing my arm.

I looked back over as they moved into another position and tried to imagine what it would have been like to be in the play. ‘I’m okay,’ I said, surprising myself. It was true. There was a little twinge of regret, of wishing I was the one getting photographed in that dress, with Freddy holding my arm. But then, here I was, out in the sun, shooting goals with Tess and preparing to play the biggest game of our lives.

‘Ten!’ I said, as I got another goal.

‘I want you to go hard on Saturday. I want you to be tough and I want you to be ruthless,’ said Justine, looking even more intense than normal.

‘Um, isn’t that what we always do?’ asked Tess from where we were standing at the back of the group.

Justine fixed her with a stare. ‘I want more. We’re going to beat the Warriors. I don’t care how.’

I nudged Tess and pulled a face, making sure Justine couldn’t see. She made it sound like we were going to war, not playing a netball game.

‘Righto, I’ll see you on Saturday. Early,’ said Justine, dismissing us.

Justine had trained us so hard that even Tess looked exhausted. She was the colour of a beetroot, and I looked like a rosy red apple. We grabbed our stuff and headed for the door.

‘I never thought I’d say this, but it is just a netball game,’ Tess said softly to me as we walked outside.

I nodded, totally agreeing. ‘I know. It was pretty strange. She must really want to beat them.’

‘Yeah, but it’s not like any of us slack off. We play our best, every single week. I hate being made to feel like I could play harder than I do,’ complained Tess. It was the first time I’d ever heard her criticise Justine. Normally she just went along with everything she said.

‘Well, I plan on slacking off when I get home. I’m exhausted!’

We rode home slowly and quietly. Neither of us could even be bothered saying goodbye properly. We just grunted tired farewells and rode off in the directions of our houses.

I couldn’t even be bothered rummaging around in my bag for my key, so I just rang the doorbell and hoped someone would answer.

After what seemed like ages, Jean opened the door with a face covered in pink goo.

‘Ergh, what happened to you?’ I said, pulling a face.

‘Face mask,’ she said, through narrow lips, and I realised she couldn’t open her mouth properly because the goo had dried. If I’d had more energy I would have tormented her about that, but tonight I just wanted to lie down.

I could smell something yummy in the kitchen. ‘Hey, honey,’ called Mum. ‘Dinner will be ready soon.’

‘Okay! I’m just going to have a bath, Mum,’ I called back. Normally I’d have gone and said a proper hello, but tonight there was no room for manners. I doubted I could even make it up the stairs.

‘Have you got any of that salt stuff for the bath, Jean?’ I asked. ‘I’m aching in every muscle!’

She mumbled something through her half-closed mouth, and I thought I heard the words ‘upstairs’ and ‘cupboard’.

I ran the bath and hunted around in the cupboard for the bath salts, but before I could find them, Jean barged in, pushing me out of the way.

‘Jean,’ I whined, sounding about five.

She was washing her face madly, trying to get the goo off. I just wanted to have my bath in peace! Finally, she looked up at me, her face all red and blotchy. ‘Ew, is it meant to look like that?’ I asked, wondering why she did these things to herself.

‘It’ll settle down,’ she said, sounding like she did this every day. Then she opened the top cupboard and pulled out a small bottle of green liquid.

‘Two drops in your bath and you’ll feel like a million dollars,’ she said in a silly voice.

I laughed. ‘Thanks. You really should go into advertising!’

I opened the bottle and smelt it. It was sort of minty – much better than sports rub and sweat, which is what I currently smelled like. I put two drops into the bath and ushered my sister out.

‘I’ll be a while,’ I said, locking the door behind her.

‘Mum’s cooking lasagne,’ she said through the door, knowing that would get me out in a hurry.

The bath was hot and full and I could have almost fallen asleep in it, but I was starving, so I didn’t last as long as I’d have liked. The green stuff must have done something, though, because by the time I dried off and put on my old track pants and hoodie, I felt, and smelt, well, probably more like a hundred dollars than a million, but certainly better than I had before.

‘She’s alive!’ said Jean as I walked into the kitchen. The rest of my family was sitting at the table, obviously waiting for me. That was the problem with training nights. Either everybody else ate before me, and I’d have to heat something up when I got home, or, like tonight, they were all sitting around waiting for me, probably as hungry as I was. Actually, nobody could be as hungry as I was.

‘A huge serve for me, thanks, Mum,’ I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. I hadn’t seen her for a few days.

‘Do I look peachy?’ asked Jean as I sat down next to her.

‘Yeah, like one that’s been left on the tree for too long,’ I said, making Dad laugh.

Jean rolled her eyes. ‘You wait. By tomorrow, my skin will be radiant.’

‘It was radiant before you put the mask on,’ said Mum, joining in the argument.

‘How was training?’ Dad asked me, keeping Jean’s goo from derailing our nice family dinner.

With a mouthful of lasagne, I nodded, and gave him the thumbs up.

‘Game of chess after dinner?’

I swallowed. ‘I think I’ll be in bed. Sorry, Dad. Big game Saturday, and I’m exhausted.’

Poor Dad. We used to play chess all the time, before netball took over my life. Then Jean piped up, ‘I’ll play Monopoly with you.’

Dad laughed. ‘Only if I can be the car.’

‘I’m in too,’ said Mum.

Normally I loved an all-in family game of Monopoly. We were ruthless, and shamelessly tried to bankrupt each other. But that night, I barely made it through dinner.

‘I can’t practice anymore,’ I moaned as Tess met me after our last class. We’d been planning on shooting goals for a couple of hours, just like we had every other night this week, but I was exhausted. I expected Tess to be snippy with me, but she surprised me. ‘Yay, me neither! Let’s go get ice-cream instead.’

‘Really? I thought you’d be mad,’ I said.

She shook her head. ‘I’m not that horrible. I don’t want to train every minute of my life, Edie.’

‘Oh, thank god. Come on, I can already taste the lemon gelati.’

‘Should I text Maggie? See if she wants to join us?’ said Tess.

Without thinking, I pulled a face. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Maggie. I did. But I wanted to hang out with my friend. Alone. Tess saw my face and laughed.

‘You’re not still funny about Maggie, are you?’ said Tess.

‘No. But I kind of just want to eat ice-cream with you,’ I said, feeling a bit embarrassed. But Tess just smiled.

‘Sounds perfect.’

As we rode down to the ice-cream shop near school, we started yelling out all the flavour combinations we wanted.

Tess started. ‘I’m going to have chocolate, mango and peach.’

‘What about blueberry?’ I asked.

‘Oh, I love blueberry. Okay, so mango, peach and blueberry.’

‘I’m having banana. And cookies and cream.’

‘Gross! That doesn’t go together,’ said Tess, locking up her bike to mine.

‘It might.’

We were kidding ourselves, of course. We always got exactly the same things.

We queued up with the other ten or so school kids waiting in line. Tess went first. ‘Can I please have a triple of nougat, strawberry and vanilla?’

I looked at her. ‘What?’

‘I’m trying something new!’

But I didn’t want new. I wanted the flavours I always got. ‘A triple with mint, orange, and cookies and cream please.’

Tess groaned. ‘Predictable!’

We handed over our money and grabbed our cones. ‘I just know what I like.’

‘But you’ll never know what else you like if you don’t try something new,’ argued Tess.

‘I can just try yours!’ I said, leaning over and licking her ice-cream before she had the chance to stop me. Tasting the nougat, I pulled a face. ‘Yuck. See, I’d be really unhappy if I was stuck with that.’

We sat down outside under a huge umbrella.

‘What if we lose tomorrow, Edie? I’m worried that Justine will be furious with us.’

‘She can’t be. Not if we all try our best.’

But Tess still looked worried. ‘I’ve never heard her so determined. I hate it. I mean, I’m competitive. I like to win. Right?’

I grinned. Tess hated losing. ‘Right,’ I agreed.

‘So I really don’t like it when our coach makes it sound like if we don’t win, it means we didn’t try hard enough. If the other team is better, then they’re better. We can’t control that.’

‘I’m sure Justine will be cool if we lose. She’s probably just trying to get us psyched up for the game, that’s all,’ I said, hoping that was true.

Tess licked her ice-cream then screwed up her face. ‘I hate admitting that you’re right, but … nougat’s horrible! Next time, can you remind me that I don’t like trying new flavours?’

‘Sure, if you tell me more about Finn’s big eyes and his cute smile,’ I said, teasing Tess.

She punched me on the arm. ‘He’s not my type. I was just trying to get you to miss a goal, that’s all.’

‘I would have won if the bell hadn’t gone,’ I said.

She raised an eyebrow. ‘Maybe. Maybe not. Come on, I’m ready for bad TV and the couch,’ said Tess, tossing the last of her ice-cream into the bin.

I woke up so early it was still dark outside. I knew I should have gone back to sleep. Today’s game was a home game, and it wasn’t until ten. But I’d just lie awake anyway, so I got up and went downstairs.

When Mum and Dad had finally agreed to get me a mobile phone this year, the deal had been that I couldn’t have it in my room overnight. They knew if I did, I’d probably just text Tess all night. This meant that when I woke up super early, and figured Tess would also be up super early, I couldn’t just lay in bed and text her. I had to go downstairs to get my phone.

Nervous? I texted.

Terrified! she sent back.

I smiled. I knew she’d be up. At least she’d still be in her warm bed. I flicked on the lights and grabbed a glass of water. I’d have my first breakfast while we texted back and forth – and then maybe even my second. I always ate two breakfasts before a game because I burned so much energy. There was nothing worse than having to play sport when you were starving.

Making toast, I texted.

Jam?

I smiled. How did u know?

She sent back a smiley face. I always had jam. Dad made this huge batch over summer and it was delicious.

Porridge 4 me.

So she wasn’t still in bed. Yuck! I replied.

Brown sugar AND maple, she told me.

We texted back and forth for a bit, killing time until we had to get ready: strap our ankles, check our nails were short enough, tie back our hair and take off our jewellery. We had to get to the court early, because Justine liked running us through moves before the game started.

I’ll swing by soon, texted Tess.

OK.

By the time I’d showered and dressed, and was making sure my laces were as tight as humanly possible, Mum wandered out in her dressing gown. She went straight to the coffee machine.

‘Morning, Mum,’ I said.

I got a grunt in reply. She must have worked late.

I felt all jittery – I kept sitting down and then standing up again. Tess was right. It was just a game. A season game too, not even a final. We’d play our best, and if we lost, we lost.

‘What time’s the game?’ asked Mum, sipping her coffee and opening her eyes properly.

‘Ten.’

‘I’m on call, but I’ll come down and watch. Let’s just hope no-one gets injured, so I get to watch the whole game!’

I smiled at her. I liked it when she came to my games. She always cheered really loud when Tess or I scored a goal, and afterwards, if she didn’t have to rush off, we’d go and celebrate – or commiserate.

I heard the doorbell and I knew it was Tess. She was really early, but I was glad. It was better being together when we felt this nervous.

‘See you there, Mum,’ I said, kissing her cheek.

‘Bye, honey. Good luck,’ she said sleepily.

I opened the door and Tess took one look at me. ‘Drink bottle?’

‘I’ll just go grab it.’

I filled up my sports bottle and ran back to Tess. ‘Bag?’ she asked.

‘Oops, hang on.’

My bag was in my room. I raced upstairs and grabbed it off my bed. If it wasn’t for Tess, I’d forget everything. That’s what nerves did to me.

‘Okay, good to go now,’ I said as I jumped on my bike and followed her down the driveway. She stopped and looked back at me, smirking. ‘Helmet?’

I started laughing as I dashed back to grab it.

Finally, we were on our way. We arrived at the stadium around the same time as the rest of the team. As we walked out onto the court, Justine pulled me aside.

‘Edie, can I’ve a word?’

I nodded and let the others go on ahead of me.

Justine leant down and spoke softly, so nobody else would hear. ‘Your GD has a weak ankle. I want you to target her.’

I wasn’t sure I’d understood. ‘What do you mean?’

She smiled at me. ‘You don’t have to look so worried, Edie. I’m not asking you to trip her over or anything, I just want you to bump her a bit. And stay on her left side. She’ll be protecting her ankle, so you need to make that a bit hard for her.’

I really didn’t like what Justine was asking me to do. I’d be exploiting an injury, something I’d been taught never to do. ‘Um, isn’t that playing kind of dirty?’ I said quietly.

Justine looked at me, surprised. I’d never questioned her before. ‘Do you want to win this game? They’d do it to you in a heartbeat.’

I must have looked concerned still, because Justine leaned in close. ‘I’m your coach, Edie. And what I say goes. Do you understand?’

Nodding, I felt sick. This felt really wrong.

As Justine jogged off to warm up the rest of the team, Tess dropped back to see if I was okay. I must have looked really shocked, because she slid her arm around my shoulders. ‘Edie?’

I didn’t want to tell Tess. It seemed like the less people who knew, the better. I decided I’d just ignore Justine and play normally. Hopefully we’d always be in the lead and I wouldn’t have to even think about her request again.

I smiled at Tess. ‘I’m okay. Just nervous, that’s all.’

She narrowed her eyes at me, trying to suss out if I was telling the truth. ‘You sure?’

I nodded. ‘Absolutely! Come on, let’s go warm up.’

The rest of the pre-game was a bit of a blur. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Justine had said. It wasn’t like netball didn’t get a bit rough sometimes, especially at this level, but I’d never been asked to go after someone just because they had an injury before. And besides, how did Justine even know about it?

As the siren went, we stripped off our tracksuits and took to the court. I saw my opponent before I saw anyone else – she had strapping halfway up her left leg. It must have been a bad injury, and they obviously weren’t taking any risks with it.

The whistle went and the game started. It was so fast. I still hadn’t got used to the speed of state netball, and we were down three goals before I’d even caught my breath. The first quarter passed in a blur. By the time the siren went and we could grab a drink, the Warriors were seven goals in front. Not a good start.

Before I could run back onto the court, Justine gave me a fierce look. ‘Edie, I asked you to do something and you’re not doing it. Now either you play the way I’ve asked you to play or I’m benching you. It’s your choice.’

I was shocked. I couldn’t believe she was going to bench me if I didn’t target the GD! I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t feel great about targeting my player like that, but I really didn’t want to miss the game. I still felt like we had a shot at beating the Warriors. Should I follow Justine’s order and bump my player, possibly making her injury even worse? Or should I let Justine bench me, and make my point? I didn’t have time to ask Tess – there were only seconds left before the next quarter started. I had to make a decision.