‘Whoa!’ I whispered to Tess as we stepped inside the stadium. There were just so many people. And they’d all come to watch us! Okay, not just us, but still. I’d never played netball in front of a crowd of more than about forty. The practice game we’d played was nothing compared to this. I suddenly felt really excited.

‘Tess, I can’t believe we’re here. It’s not like a Sapphires game, is it?’ I said, grabbing my bestie’s hand and squeezing it. I was so glad I’d decided to stay on the team.

Tess shook her head, looking a bit dazed. Suddenly she started waving madly. ‘Look, there are our folks.’ Her parents were sitting in the front row, next to my parents. I was amazed to see that even my sister had turned up, and Tess’s brothers. ‘We’d better play well today,’ said Tess nervously, grabbing my hand.

I laughed. ‘You always play well.’

Tess shot me a worried look. ‘You think?’

I raised an eyebrow. She totally knew how good she was. ‘Yeah, for sure. You’re a machine! Sometimes it pays to practice. It’s only thanks to you that I finally get how important it is to train!’

‘Thanks, Edie,’ she said. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’

In all our excitement, Tess and I hadn’t even realised that the rest of our team were already warming up. Suddenly we heard Justine yell,‘Tess! Edie! You joining us?’

We raced out onto the court, apologising madly. Ever since I’d made the decision to fully commit to netball, I’d been training super hard. And now that we were here, about to go up against the Warriors in our first proper state game, I was so glad I had been. I couldn’t wait to get out on the court and show my team how I could play when I was totally committed.

Even the blisters seemed to have stopped forming – though that might have had something to do Maggie’s mum’s miracle udder cream, which, amazingly, actually seemed to work.

As Tess and I ran through our drill passes, I tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach. This was my chance to see if all those hours of training had paid off. To see if I’d improved as much as Justine said I had. I still didn’t love training as much as Tess or Maggie, and I still sometimes wished that it didn’t have to take over all of my spare time. But I also knew that I’d never felt stronger, or more in control of my game. I’d never pushed my natural skills as far as they could go and that was pretty exciting.

I loved the adrenaline I felt right before a game. It was exactly like the feeling I used to get just before going on stage. It was such a rush!

‘Running passes,’ yelled Justine. Tess and I had done this so often we could almost do it with our eyes closed. We nailed ten perfect passes, back and forth. As we reached the bottom of the court, I heard my name being called. I looked around at the stand and saw Finn waving at me. It was the first time I’d seen him since I’d explained that I was going to focus on netball. He’d been really good about it, but warned me that if he came to watch a game, he’d expect a dance afterwards.

I was so busy waving at Finn that I missed Tess’s pass. I heard him laugh as Tess rolled her eyes.

‘He’d better not distract you,’ said Tess, running over to me.

I shot her a look and she smiled. ‘Nothing’s going to distract me today.’

Ever since I’d decided to concentrate on netball, my head had been completely in the game. Maybe over the holidays when we weren’t training I could hang out with Finn, but right now, it was game time!

Justine blew her whistle and we ran in for the huddle.

‘Okay girls, I want to see those passes we’ve been working on, and the play where Edie drops back to feed the ball to Tess. Got it?’ She didn’t wait for an answer before saying in her most serious voice,‘We can win this.’

‘Yeah!’ agreed Tess, totally pumped. The rest of us laughed as the first siren sounded.

‘Edie, can I have a word?’ asked Justine as I headed out onto the court. I turned to run back to her, but the other team was already lining up, and the siren was about to go. Justine seemed to change her mind.

‘Just play hard,’ she said.

Nodding, I hurried onto the court to get into position. Tess grinned at me from the goal circle. I grinned back. This was it.

Lining up next to the GD I was pleased to see she was about my height. As we jostled around each other, desperate to be first out when the whistle blew, she tried to block me with her elbow. Just as the umpire blew the whistle, I dodged around behind. The game was on.

I felt so charged as I ran out for the centre pass. The GD was rougher than me, but not as quick. I made a short pass to Maggie, dropped back, caught a perfect throw and found Tess ready in the ring. Goal. And we were away.

As each team scored, the crowd cheered. It was really weird having such a loud group of supporters. I was pretty sure I could actually hear my dad yelling over everyone else whenever Tess or I shot a goal. I tried not to look at the scoreboard or the time clock – Justine had lectured us about staying in the moment – but as the siren went for half-time, I snuck a peek. We were tied, eleven all.

‘Nice shooting,’ said Maggie grabbing Tess and I as we ran to get a drink. Most of half-time would be taken up with a speech from Justine, so if we wanted water, it had to be fast.

‘Their keeper’s elbowing me behind the play,’ complained Tess. ‘I’m going to be covered in bruises.’

‘Elbow her back,’ said Maggie, surprising me. But Tess shook her head. ‘I hate playing like that. We just need to beat them.’

‘Okay, girls,’ said Justine, ready to pump us up for the next half. ‘We need to break their centre pass. It’s goal for goal at the moment. Edie, I want you to come all the way out on their centre passes and defend their Wing Attack. Maggie, you take their Goal Attack, okay?’

We needed to do something. There was nothing worse than a draw.

‘You just need to turn the ball over,’ Justine told us as the siren went. I noticed Tess was still rubbing her arm. It must have really hurt – she usually never complained. ‘You okay?’ I asked her as we jogged back onto the court.

‘I’ll be fine, so long as we win!’

I smiled. It was just like her to be this competitive. And that Goal Keeper had really gotten under her skin. She was right, though. There was only one way to get back at someone who was playing rough, and that was to beat them.

As the crowd starting cheering as we returned to our positions, I realised that a big part of playing netball at this level was playing under pressure. Weirdly, it actually felt a bit like performing on stage.

The whistle went and I ran out fast, picking up the Wing Attack on the other team. Their Centre hesitated, and I knew she’d look to pass the ball back to one of their defenders. In the split second before she passed, I saw where she was going to throw. I leapt up and intercepted it. It was perfect. Three quick passes down the court and Tess had shot a goal. We were in front.

My heart was racing as I took off on our centre pass. Maggie caught it and passed it back to me. I lobbed it to Tess, she did a quick pass back to me and I shot a goal. Two in front.

Dad was going crazy in the stands. I couldn’t help but laugh as he jumped to his feet and yelled. I’d never seen him take a game so seriously. What would he be like if we actually made it into the finals?

The rest of the game passed in a blur. Goal for goal. Then they broke our centre pass and we were back to being tied. With only a minute left on the clock, they were desperate and threw a huge lob. I didn’t think I’d make it, but I jumped just at the right time, and managed to hit the ball into Maggie’s hands. She spun around, passed it to our Centre and I was off. Too fast for their GD, I got the ball down to Tess, just as my player stuck her leg out in front of me and sent me flying. I hit the ground hard.

Nothing was broken, but Justine asked if I wanted to come off.

‘Are you kidding?’ I shouted, trying not to show her how much my knee hurt. I didn’t think it was serious, but it would be sore tomorrow, and I probably shouldn’t try to run on it. But with only twenty seconds left, there was no way I was going off. Tess shot for goal, but the ball bounced off the ring and started to drop. It was going out of bounds. I couldn’t stand it if we drew. I shot my arm out and managed to whack the ball back in. Tess caught it. I heard Maggie cheer behind me as everyone waited to see if Tess could put it through.

She shot it up … and in. It was a goal! I couldn’t believe it. The siren went – we’d won!

Grinning madly, we shook hands quickly with the other team, and then grouped together, laughing. Even Justine looked happy, which didn’t happen very often. ‘Great work, girls!’ she said. ‘That was a great win.’

The umpire walked over to our huddle. ‘Great game, girls.’ She looked at me. ‘Edie Thomas?’

I nodded. ‘Yeah.’

‘Best on court,’ she said, handing me a medal.

‘Me?’ I sounded surprised.

‘Yeah!’ said Tess. ‘You were everywhere!’

As the umpire placed the medal around my neck, I was grinning even harder than when Finn had kissed me on the cheek. This was incredible. I couldn’t believe I’d considered giving up netball.

‘Thanks!’ I said, staring at the medal. I’d never had a best on court medal before. In our old comp they only gave one out per season, so this was new to me.

‘See you all at training on Monday,’ said Justine, bringing us crashing back down to earth. There were a few groans, but for once, I was happy to train. In fact, I would have trained right away, if Justine had asked us to.

Tess tucked her arm through mine as we headed over to our parents.

‘We’re going to go all the way, Edie. Under-15s today, the national team tomorrow!’

I saw Finn waving at me. I stopped on the court and did a silly little dance. He laughed, and I grinned back. The end of the season wasn’t that far away.

‘Edie? You okay?’ said Tess, looking surprised.

I smiled. It had taken me a while to work out how much I loved playing netball, but now that I had, I couldn’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.

‘I’m great, Tess. Let’s go celebrate!’