Double Time

by Ellyse Perry

  A man standing on a podium with a loudhailer shouted at them all to gather around. Ellyse and Hu squeezed in closer.

  Hu’s right – there are hundreds here! Ellyse thought with dismay. And I haven’t seen Jamie yet.

  ‘Listen closely,’ the man said. ‘We’re going to warm up and do some passing drills, and then divide you all into teams and play short practice games.’ He pointed at a group of men and women wearing the bright green-and-red Aztecs shirts and caps. ‘These coaches will be telling you what to do and where to go. Stay focused, listen, go where you’re told, okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ everyone chorused.

  Some of the boys near Ellyse poked each other in the ribs and snickered. She turned away from them. I need to stay focused, like the man said.

  In a few minutes, she and Hu were at opposite ends of the field in different groups, going through a series of warm-up exercises. Ellyse was paired with a boy for the first passing drill, another boy for the second, then a girl for the third. The boys never said a word, their faces serious, but she and the girl grinned at one another and said hello. For each drill, the coach in their section watched and took notes, which made Ellyse more nervous than ever. She put her head down and tried to pretend she was training with the Hawks.

  Half an hour later, the drills were over and she stood in a group on the sideline, waiting to play a game. The games were twenty minutes long, then the next teams went on and played. She spotted Jamie in another team, his face grim as he dribbled up the sideline. The short games felt fast and furious, and nobody was scoring goals.

  How can they possibly see if we’re any good? Ellyse wondered.

  When the games were over, the loudhailer man told them to grab a snack and a drink of water. Dad came over to Ellyse’s group as she sat, frowning down at her boots.

  ‘Are your laces loose?’ Dad asked, crouching on the grass.

  ‘No, it’s not that. It’s …’ Ellyse pulled her hair out of its band and retied it. ‘It just seems like a weird way to choose. How can they tell who’s the better player?’

  ‘You’d be surprised,’ Dad said. ‘I think this is a weeding-out process.’

  Sure enough, a few minutes later, the loudhailer man announced that he was about to read out a short list. ‘Sixty-six of you have made it to the next round and will play at least one more game today. Those of you whose names are not called out, thank you for coming along. You did a great job making it this far and we look forward to you trying again next year.’

  As the man started reading out the names, Dad patted her on the shoulder and moved away. Ellyse stared down at her boots. I couldn’t bear it if I don’t even make the short list. She counted silently as each name was announced.

  At number twenty, Hu’s name was read out. At forty-nine, Jamie’s name was read out. It got closer and closer to number sixty-six, and Ellyse still hadn’t heard her name.

  I think I’m going to die.

  Then, at number sixty-four: ‘Ellyse Perry.’

  YES! I am going to die – of happiness!

  Ellyse was put in a team to play first, as a defender, and Hu was on the opposite side as a striker. She flashed a quick smile and a thumbs up before Ellyse’s team kicked off.

  Ellyse moved up the field, hoping her team regained possession quickly. There were two other girls playing, one as goalkeeper, one in midfield, and she wondered where they came from. They hadn’t been in any of the club teams the Hawks had played.

  The whistle blew for offside and a long kick came down the field towards Ellyse. She stopped it, moved forward and kicked to her striker. In no time he’d lost the ball and it was heading back to her again. This game wasn’t quite as chaotic as the first one, but Ellyse still felt as though she’d hardly been able to do more than kick and tackle a few times before it was all over.

  She walked to the seating area and slumped down next to Dad and Mum. ‘You did well,’ Mum said. ‘Good ball control and some nice kicks.’

  Ellyse shook her head. ‘I hardly got to do anything.’

  ‘I was talking to one of the coaches earlier,’ Dad said. ‘They’ve been watching club games for several months, you know. It’s not just these trials.’

  Ellyse sat up again as she saw Jamie run onto the field. Maybe Dad’s right. It’s easier to see how people play when you’re not right in the middle of it. Jamie looked calm and played like the ball was made just for him. Did I look like that? Or did I look like that boy over there who just tripped over?

  At the end of the day, they gathered around the loudhailer man again. ‘Fantastic playing,’ the man said. ‘You were all terrific, and it’ll be a very hard decision for us. We’ll contact everyone in two weeks to let you know the results.’

  Ellyse was silent the whole way home, feeling as though her energy had drained down out of her toes. After dinner, she checked her weekly schedule and groaned. She had a maths test on Monday and an English assignment due on Wednesday. Dad helped her revise for the test after dinner and then she crawled into bed, wanting to forget about the disastrous trials.

  But in the morning she felt much more cheerful, and it was even better when she saw Hu at school. They spent all of recess and most of lunchtime analysing every single thing about the trials until Charlie cried, ‘No more! You two are driving me insane.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ Ellyse said. ‘We don’t find out for two whole weeks. I’ll go nuts myself if I keep worrying about it. I’m just going to focus on cricket now.’

  ‘Good,’ Charlie said.

  But Ellyse found it was impossible not to think about the Aztecs, especially when she went to Hoppers training the next night and Jamie was talking about it.

  ‘How’d you go?’ he asked her. ‘I thought I did pretty good.’

  How come boys never worry about sounding big-headed? Ellyse summoned a smile. ‘Okay, I guess.’

  ‘I saw you play – you looked so relaxed and cool about it all.’

  Did I? ‘I was really nervous,’ she confessed. ‘Weren’t you?’

  Jamie shrugged. ‘A bit.’

  Ellyse could see he wasn’t going to admit if he had been!

  Bob called them over and started the training session. As Ellyse stood in the nets, she remembered the question Hu had asked before the trials had started.

  Were the Aztecs planning on having a girls-only team soon? Or were she and Hu competing with Jamie and all the other confident boys for a place in the academy? The man had never actually said how many players would be in the final squad.

  Ellyse checked her grip on the bat and readied herself to play Mitch’s spinners. Ever since the final last season, he’d improved out of sight, and she’d even seen him practising in the nets at the park in the off-season. That’s what I have to do, she thought to herself, or it’ll be a duck for me first and every game!

  Over the next two weeks, whenever Ellyse caught herself getting gloomy over the Aztecs trials, she made herself stop. There were plenty of other things to fill her head, like lots of schoolwork, and Callinan and Hoppers cricket training and games. She was overjoyed when Bob made her the captain of the Hoppers again, and it was even better that everyone in the team cheered.

  One Friday night she had a ping-pong sleepover with Jazz and Charlie. They played each other, with Damien as the fourth, and then Mum and Dad played too. Damien wouldn’t give an inch and was finally crowned Ping-pong King after beating Dad 21–19. ‘Too bad, old man,’ he said, laughing.

  ‘I’ll get you next time,’ Dad teased, and faked a swipe at Damien’s head.

  When the three girls laid out their sleeping bags and pillows, they were still hyped up from ping-pong and took ages to settle down. Jazz told them all about her rehearsals. ‘I am so sick of the songs already,’ she said. ‘I hear them in my sleep. I’m probably singing them in my sleep.’

  ‘Not tonight, please,’ Charlie said.

  ‘I won’t sing if you promise not to snore,’ Jazz said.

  ‘I do not snore!’ Char
lie protested.

  ‘Um, actually, you do,’ Ellyse said, giggling. ‘But Jazz talks in her sleep, so it’s even.’

  However, it was Ellyse who woke them up that night. She’d been dreaming she was playing for the Aztecs when her foot got stuck in a hole in the ground and the whole team started falling on top of her. She woke to someone shaking her.

  Ellyse groaned. ‘Sorry. I had a horrible nightmare.’

  ‘It’s okay, Ellyse,’ said Charlie. ‘It’s just a dream.’

  Ellyse lay awake for hours afterwards, unable to get it out of her head.

  Ellyse woke the next morning feeling too tired to move. She dragged herself out of bed and to the kitchen table, where Charlie and Jazz were already eating cornflakes and bananas. At least breakfast made her feel more energetic, which was good news because she had the Hoppers friendly game in two hours.

  ‘Maybe a sleepover on a Friday night isn’t such a good idea, hey?’ Dad said, noticing the shadows under her eyes.

  Ellyse shook her head. ‘I had a bad dream and couldn’t sleep afterwards. It wasn’t Charlie and Jazz’s fault.’

  By the time the cricket game started, she felt much better. Thank goodness it was only a friendly match. But as Ellyse looked around the field, she was astonished to find she was the only girl. Usually there were at least one or two other girls playing. After the game was over, she asked Bob about it.

  ‘That’s a very good question,’ Bob said. ‘I’ve been told that a lot of the other clubs have got enough girls now to have separate teams and competitions. They’re not having to play with the boys anymore.’ He scratched his head. ‘Do you want to go and play in a girls team?’

  ‘Hey, I’m the captain. I’m not going to ditch the team. Hoppers rule!’ Ellyse said, horrified at the idea. ‘But where can we get more girls from?’

  ‘I dunno,’ Bob said. He spotted Ellyse’s dad walking over to them and posed the question to him. ‘Mark, where could we drum up some more girl players for the club?’

  ‘Well, you were going to tell the kids about the fundraising day,’ Dad said. ‘You could make it a fundraiser and recruiting day.’

  ‘Yeah!’ Ellyse clapped her hands. ‘We can do posters and maybe put flyers in letterboxes.’

  Bob nodded. ‘That’s what I like to hear – a bit of gumption. The committee is meeting tonight, so I’ll put that to them and we’ll get moving on it.’

  On the way home, Ellyse thought about what Bob had said. ‘What’s gumption?’ she asked.

  Dad laughed uproariously. ‘Get up and go. Enthusiasm and ideas, little one. You’ve definitely got plenty of that.’

  Ellyse grinned. She liked that word – gumption. And she liked the job of recruiting girls for the Hoppers. If Maddy could create a second team at Callinan, surely the Hoppers could too. She’d start on some posters straight away. Besides, it would help to take her mind off the fact that it was almost two weeks since the Aztecs trials. Tomorrow was D-day for finding out if she’d got in, and she really needed a distraction!

  Sunday stretched out like no other day in Ellyse’s life. As afternoon neared dusk, Ellyse was checking her emails every five minutes. But nothing came. Nor was there a phone call.

  Dad found her sitting in the dark in her bedroom, staring out the window.

  ‘Are you coming down for dinner?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m not hungry.’ She fell back on her bed. ‘I’ll never be hungry again.’ As if to spite her, her tummy rumbled loudly.

  ‘Two weeks doesn’t necessarily mean today, little one,’ Dad said gently.

  ‘But the trials were on a Sunday …’ Ellyse heaved a sigh. ‘Maybe I’ll get in next year.’

  Dad laughed. ‘I think you’re being a tad impatient. If you haven’t heard anything by Wednesday, then you can worry.’

  ‘Wednesday?’ She gaped at him. ‘That’s years away.’

  He took her hand and pulled her up. ‘I know, it’s forever. Come on, Mum’s made your favourite – spag bog.’

  Ellyse grumbled all the way to the table, but the spaghetti was so delicious that she was halfway through hers before anyone else had barely started. I just hope I don’t get to school tomorrow and find out Hu heard from them today.

  However, the next morning, Hu’s long face confirmed she hadn’t heard either.

  ‘Dad said not to worry until Wednesday,’ Ellyse told her.

  ‘I sure hope it’s sooner,’ Hu replied glumly.

  At lunchtime, Ellyse went to the gym with Charlie and Jazz to hand in their permission forms.

  ‘Thanks, girls,’ Ms Beattie said. ‘You can come in on Wednesday at twelve-thirty for your first session.’

  Tuesday was cricket training with Maddy, and she ran catching and throwing drills, showing the new players various techniques before letting them go to the nets. Because Charlie had played before, Maddy asked her to help. The First XI, including Ellyse, batted and bowled on the pitch. Just as they were finishing, Maddy called them around her.

  ‘This Saturday afternoon is a special invitation game at my old club, involving past players mainly and some Under 18s. I know it’s short notice, but I wondered if any of you would like to play. We’re still looking for five players.’

  Ellyse’s hand shot up, then she blushed and looked around. Maybe I should have let the older girls go first. But most of the others were shaking their heads, saying they had club games on or family stuff. In the end, only Nicola, Emma and Ellyse volunteered.

  Maddy frowned at Ellyse. ‘Don’t you have a club game?’

  ‘Yes, but it’s in the morning,’ she replied. ‘I could get to your game – I’m sure Dad will drive me.’ I hope so, anyway!

  ‘All right.’ Maddy explained where the playing ground was. ‘If you could be there by one o’clock, that’d be great.’

  Hmm, that’ll be a bit of a rush, Ellyse thought, but she didn’t want to say anything just yet. To actually play with Maddy and other elite players would be so amazing! She just couldn’t pass up the chance.

  ‘Our Callinan friendly is right here after school tomorrow,’ Maddy added. ‘It’ll be good to put some of the newbies on the field and see how they go, but I expect everyone to be here.’

  The cricket season was starting, and Ellyse couldn’t wait. She’d ask Dad to train with her in the park across the street on Thursday night, before dinner. She needed more time in the nets to get her bowling arm working a hundred per cent. In between would be Hoppers training and school cricket. Oh, and homework!

  She decided to make sure her week was full of cricket – that way, she couldn’t possibly think about anything else. Like how there was still no word from the Aztecs.

  When Ellyse got home that afternoon, she rushed to get changed and eat something – anything! – before Hoppers training.

  ‘Are you nearly ready?’ Dad called from the lounge room.

  ‘Yep!’ she shouted back.

  ‘Have you checked your emails?’

  ‘No.’ And I don’t want to. I don’t want to get mega-depressed all over again.

  ‘I think you should,’ Dad said.

  Something in his voice made Ellyse stop still. Did he mean …? She ran to the computer and logged in, her heart pounding. And there it was:

  Congratulations on being selected for the Aztecs Youth Academy Program.

  She was so excited she could barely speak. ‘Dad,’ she squeaked. ‘Look!’

  Dad came and read the email over her shoulder. ‘I get the feeling you’re pretty happy about it,’ he teased.

  ‘Der. Of course!’ She hugged herself and read the first part of the email again.

  ‘Did you read it all the way through?’ Dad asked. ‘There’s a schedule of training sessions at the bottom.’

  ‘Oh.’ Ellyse quickly scrolled down the page and scanned the dates. ‘The first one is this Sunday. That’s great. It won’t clash. Oh, by the way, Maddy Dawson said I can play with her team this Saturday.’

  ‘Whoa, whoa, hold on a momen
t,’ Dad said. ‘You’ve just committed to the Aztecs and you’ve got a Hoppers game and now you –’

  ‘Yes, but Maddy’s game is in the afternoon, so … can you please drive me? Please?’

  Dad frowned. ‘Ellyse, read the email again.’ When she tried to speak, he held up his hands. ‘Just read it all.’

  ‘Okayyyyy.’ She read it from start to finish. This time she looked at the dates more carefully. ‘Oh no, some of these are Saturdays. For the whole day.’

  ‘Exactly. What’s Bob going to say when you tell him his captain can’t play at least three games?’

  Ellyse’s eyes filled with tears. Three minutes ago she’d been on top of the world and now it had all gone wrong.

  Ellyse blinked back her tears. It had never occurred to her that being in the Aztecs would mean missing several cricket matches. ‘I … I don’t know.’

  ‘I’m not growling at you, little one,’ Dad said. ‘I’m just saying you’re going to have some tough decisions to make.’

  ‘I guess I’ll have to talk to Bob at training, won’t I?’ she said.

  ‘That might be a good idea. Don’t worry, he’s not going to be mad at you. He just needs to know, that’s all.’

  Ellyse nodded and silently gathered her cricket gear, following Dad out to the car. She had so many feelings jumbling around inside her that she could hardly think straight. One thing at a time. Tell Bob the news and see what he says.

  At the ground, Dad came with her for support. ‘Er, Bob,’ Ellyse said. ‘I need to talk to you.’

  Bob’s bushy eyebrows waggled up and down. ‘This sounds serious. What’s the problem?’

  Ellyse tried not to look at Bob’s face as she explained her predicament. ‘So I’ll miss three games out of the first eight,’ she finished, only then daring to look up.

  ‘Hmmm.’ Bob scratched his head so hard she thought his hair might fall out. ‘It’s tricky. I’m not sure you can be captain if you’re going to miss so many games.’