On Friday night, after forcing down some weird chicken dinner that Dad had read about in a magazine, I was lying on my bed reading over Romeo and Juliet when my phone rang. Of course it was Tess.

‘Hey, did you get a text message?’ asked Tess, sounding like she was bursting with excitement.

‘Huh?’ I had no idea what she was talking about.

‘Check your phone,’ she said, and hung up on me.

As soon as she hung up, I noticed that I had a new message. Actually, two messages. One was from Tess, asking if I’d heard anything about netball tryouts. The other was a message telling me to be at the State Netball Centre at 10 am on Saturday.

My phone rang. ‘Well?’ demanded Tess, before I could say anything.

‘Tomorrow morning?’

Tess’s squeal almost blew out my eardrum. ‘Yes! Oh, thank god you got one too! I reckon we’re in!’

‘You don’t know that. It might just be a callback. Or they might want to tell us in person that we didn’t make it.’

‘I have a good feeling. Wow, you’re going to be super busy with the play and playing state! And I’m not going to sleep at all tonight,’ said Tess dramatically. I’d had enough sleepovers with her to know it was probably true. Once she got excited about something, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

‘So Juliet, see you in the morning. I’ll swing past and pick you up?’

I couldn’t believe how good it sounded to be called Juliet.

‘Sure. See you then. Get some sleep!’

As I hung up, I kept picturing Freddy’s face, and that gorgeous grin. Tess wouldn’t be the only one not getting any sleep tonight.

By the time we got to the netball centre, I was starving. Neither of us had managed to eat breakfast – we were too nervous.

‘Wish I’d brought some toast with me,’ I said.

‘I can’t even think about food. What if …’

I didn’t want to have another ‘what if ’ conversation, so I started running towards the stairs. ‘Last one to the top buys the hot chocolates on the way home,’ I yelled, trying to distract Tess.

Tess followed half-heartedly, but it was clear she wasn’t trying. ‘Edie, you still haven’t promised me that you’ll play even if I don’t get picked,’ said Tess.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to play without Tess. But now didn’t seem the right time to bring that up.

‘Come on, doors are open.’

I held out my hand and she grabbed it, squeezing hard.

‘Hey, what did your mum say about Juliet?’ Tess asked.

‘Shh,’ I said, suddenly feeling a bit funny that I’d told Tess when I didn’t really mean to. ‘You can’t mention it to anyone.’

She laughed. ‘I haven’t. I won’t, I promise!’

She took a huge breath, smiled, then reached out to open the door. ‘Let’s do this.’

There weren’t that many girls walking into the stadium, which made me wonder if they were staggering the announcements. ‘Where is everyone?’

Tess looked around, frowning. ‘I don’t know. It’s weird, isn’t it?’

‘Girls? Here for the state team announcement?’ called a woman from behind a desk.

‘Yes,’ we said in unison, then started giggling. Talk about nervous!

‘Names?’We told her and she crossed lines through both our names.

‘Just through those doors,’ she said, pointing at a room behind her.

Tess was still giggling as we walked in. I nudged her to be quiet – everyone else was looking deadly serious. A few more girls filed in behind us, and Tess leant over and whispered,‘Is it good or bad that there are only this many people?’

I shrugged. I had no idea what it meant.

‘Okay girls, let’s get started,’ said a woman at the front of the room. ‘I’m Kathryn Fraser, the convener of the junior state teams. As you may have guessed, you are the girls who have made it through. Congratulations.’

There was a long silence in the room. Then a few people started squealing and talking and laughing.

Tess called out,‘Really? We’re in?’

Kathryn Fraser smiled and nodded. ‘Yes, you’re really in.’

It took a second for us to process what she’d said, then suddenly Tess and I started jumping around like we were five. ‘We’re in! We’re in!’

As I hugged my best friend, I couldn’t believe my luck. First Juliet, now state netball. What a week!

‘I know you’re keen to celebrate but I just need to tell you about training and give you an information pack to take home to your parents,’ said Kathryn. ‘We train twice a week and games are played across the state. Playing netball at this level is a big commitment, so you need to understand what it will mean for you.’

‘It will mean extreme happiness,’ called Tess, making everyone laugh.

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Kathryn warmly.

My bestie squeezed my hand. She looked like she was about to burst with excitement.

‘We start training properly next week but you’ll meet your coach and the rest of your team Monday night, here at the centre. At six on the dot!’

Wait, Monday night? I put my hand up. ‘Um, excuse me, but what nights do we train?’

‘Mondays and Wednesdays.’

‘Every week?’ I asked. I could feel Tess staring at me, no doubt wondering what the problem was.

Kathryn nodded. ‘Every week.’

I felt sick. This couldn’t be happening. There were seven days in a week – how could training fall on exactly the same two nights as rehearsals? It wasn’t fair. I couldn’t possibly do both. But how could I choose which one to give up? I was so busy trying to work out how I could do both of the things I loved that I didn’t hear the rest of Kathryn’s speech. Suddenly everyone was leaving, and Tess had me locked in another bear hug.

‘Can you believe it? State netball!’

‘Yeah,’ I said, not really listening.

Tess pulled away to look at me. ‘Edie? What’s up?’

I sighed. ‘Training is on exactly the same nights as rehearsals.’

Tess sagged. She totally understood – I knew she would.

‘Oh, Edie, I’m really sorry. I know what playing Juliet meant to you. But Kerry will understand. I’m sure they can cast someone else.’

‘Cast someone else?’ I repeated, confused.

‘Well, yeah. They can’t do Romeo and Juliet with no Juliet,’ she said, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

I stared at her, shocked. She didn’t understand. Not at all. She expected me to pull out of the play, assuming I would want to play netball as badly as she did. And I did. But I also really wanted to play Juliet.

‘It’s not that simple, Tess. I love acting, and I’ll probably never get another chance to play Juliet.’

Now it was Tess’s turn to look shocked. ‘Wait, you’d choose the play over playing state? You can’t be serious!’

I lowered my voice. There were still a few girls talking to Kathryn and I didn’t want them to overhear our conversation. ‘I don’t know. I love netball. And I love drama. How am I supposed to choose?’ I whispered.

Before Tess could answer, Maggie raced up and hugged Tess. ‘We made it! We’re going to play state netball together. This is so cool!’

Tess smiled back at her, but I could tell she was still processing what I’d just said. ‘Isn’t it great? I’m so glad you’re in, too, Maggie. Let’s go celebrate! Hot chocolate?’

‘Sounds good!’ Maggie turned to me and smiled. ‘Coming, Edie?’

Before I could answer, Tess jumped in. ‘Edie has other things to celebrate.’

I felt horrible as Tess and Maggie walked off together, chattering excitedly. Why couldn’t Tess understand how hard this was for me?

Normally we made all our decisions together. We did everything together. The chance to play state netball alongside my best friend was a dream come true. How could I even think about passing that up?

But playing Juliet was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, too. I’d worked so hard to nail the audition, and I still couldn’t quite believe I’d landed the lead role. The thought of turning it down made my stomach twist – but could I risk losing my best friend in the whole world, just so I could play Juliet?