Grace on the Court

by Maddy Proud

  The Broadview Stars had finished fourth the previous season and had a reputation for being a solid team. The game would be a good test to see how strong the Lions’ potential was this season. Every game would be tough, especially since there were opponents the Lions didn’t know much about. This was hard for Grace, as she always liked to know her opponents’ strengths and weaknesses before she played them. There was added pressure on the Lions to uphold their reputation as a specialist netball school. All eyes would be on them to see if they could live up to the hype and perform on the court.

  “I wonder who will start, and if Mrs Peters will make many changes,” Stella wondered aloud.

  “I think everyone’ll get a go today, just to test combinations and see how everyone plays together,” Grace replied, hoping it would be the case.

  They found Mrs Peters already at the courts, along with Emily and Nadia, who were playing a shooting game of H-O-R-S-E, where if you missed a goal, you gained a letter and the first to get all five letters lost. Grace, Mia and Stella joined in, until gradually the rest of the team arrived. Then Amber and Grace led the skills work and ball drills that loosened their muscles and prepared their bodies and minds for the contest to come.

  At precisely nine o’clock Mrs Peters called the group together.

  “Well, I don’t know about all of you but I couldn’t sleep last night,” she said. “I am just so excited to see you put all your hard work into action today. I want you all to go out there and give it your best. We’ve had six weeks of training but not much match play, so don’t be too hard on yourselves. Stick to the basics and don’t worry about the fancy stuff – that will come as the weeks progress. I want you to have each other’s backs out there, chase down the loose balls and talk to each other the whole time. But most importantly, enjoy yourselves!”

  Grace smiled around at her teammates, who were all smiling back: Mrs Peters’ positivity was contagious.

  “Now,” Mrs Peters’ tone changed. Here it comes, Grace thought. “We’re going to try a few different things today in regard to combinations. We’ll start with Sophie at goal shooter, Stella at goal attack, Jordan wing attack, Emily at centre, Nadia wing defence, Grace at goal defence and Amber goal keeper. Mia and Ashley, be ready to go on. I want you to pay attention to the game and focus on the players you could be standing later. Let’s go, girls, hands in!”

  The nine girls and their coach formed a close circle. Grace thrust her right arm into the centre first, and as the others added their hands to hers started the team chant.

  “One, two, three!” she shouted, and everyone joined in with “LIONS!”

  The team made their way to the court to take their positions, the seven on-court players aligning themselves with their Broadview opponents. The Lions had won the coin toss for the first centre pass, and Emily stood in the centre circle while the umpires confirmed all players were in their correct positions. Grace held her breath. The whistle blew. The match started, and the Lions’ season begun.

  Emily passed the ball to Jordan, who connected with Sophie as she led strongly from the goal circle. Stella predicted Sophie’s move and took her opponent wide and then accelerated back along the baseline to receive Sophie’s pass under the ring. It was a great play to start the game and Stella completed it by guiding the ball through the ring for a goal.

  At the Stars’ centre pass, the Broadview goal attack dodged to Grace’s right. Grace anticipated this and covered her opponent, but then the goal attack turned back in the other direction and called for the ball. Grace lunged forward but only managed to get the tips of her fingers to the ball, sending it out of court. The crowd cheered at the deflection, but Grace was annoyed at herself for not getting two hands to the ball. Her frustration intensified when Broadview capitalised on the pass and scored. She heard cheers from the Broadview supporters among the parents and families gathered to watch the first game of the season. Grace felt her determination increase as she fed from the energy of the crowd.

  The quarter progressed well, with Stella shooting superbly and Grace and Amber successfully intercepting the ball several times in the Broadview goal circle. In the few seconds she had to think, Grace recognised that they had the potential to become a powerful defensive combination. At quarter-time the Lions were leading 12 goals to 7. Mrs Peters told the girls that the lead provided an opportunity to test other combinations: Mia took the centre bib from Emily, Stella moved to goal shooter and Ashley took her spot at goal attack.

  The Stars had the first centre pass of the second quarter. The Lions stood glued to their opponents and with both Grace and Nadia covering their players the Broadview centre was forced to look back at her defenders for a lead. Grace could see the wing defence racing along the side of the court. Taking a risk to leave her player, Grace took three powerful steps forward and reached for and grasped the ball just before the wing defence went to catch it. The crowd erupted and cheered as Grace passed the ball off to Nadia, who drove the ball down the court. A slight smile crept onto Grace’s face as she appreciated the way she had been able to anticipate the centre’s move. All of the netball she had been watching and analysing was starting to pay off. Her play set up the Lions for the rest of the quarter, as well as the third, with Grace noticing the energy within the team lifting, with all players motivated to give their all. By the end of the third quarter the Lions had managed to stretch their advantage even further and led 38 to 19.

  Grace and Stella came off at three-quarter time, giving Amber the opportunity to play goal defence and Nadia goal keeper. The friends high-fived as they sat down on the bench. They felt pretty pumped about their contributions to what seemed certain to be a first-game triumph. They watched and cheered from the sidelines, shouting words of encouragement to their teammates for the last fifteen minutes.

  When the final whistle blew, the Lions had won by 20 goals, 49 to 29.

  The group huddled around Mrs Peters, who couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. “Well done, girls, I’m so proud of each and every one of you,” she said, looking directly at each of the nine players in turn. “You all did just as I asked, played for each other and left everything you had on the court. You should leave today with big smiles on your faces, knowing you gave it your all.

  “But we mustn’t be complacent or get cocky. This is game one. We still have a lot to work on and a long season ahead. So – enjoy this win but come to training Wednesday night ready to work. Hands in, girls.”

  The girls gathered together, smiles on their faces and their cheeks red with exhaustion.

  This time Amber led the group in with “one, two, three” and the rest joined in: “LIONS!”

  Grace was pulling back her quilt and about to climb into bed the following night when she heard a ding from her computer. She went over to her desk and saw that she had received an email from Rory Sloane, the star midfielder for Angus’s favourite football team, the Adelaide Crows. She felt a thrill of anticipation as she opened the email.

  Dear Grace,

  Thank you for your email, it’s nice to know you care so much about your brother! He sounds like a great kid and I’m really sorry he didn’t make the A-grade school team. I’d love to have a chat to him some time. I’m pretty busy with training and games starting next week but if there’s a number I could call him on I’d be happy to have a chat.

  Cheers,

  Rory

  Grace almost screamed she was so happy. She tiptoed over to her door, closed it quietly, then jumped up and down, pumping her arms in the air excitement. She didn’t want her brother to know anything about this – not yet. She had sent Rory an email a few weeks ago and had almost forgotten about it, thinking he must have been too busy to reply. She propped herself on her desk chair and replied to the email, thanking Rory for his time and thoughtfulness and adding Angus’s phone number. She just hoped she was there to see the look on Angus’s face when he answered the phone and heard Rory Sloane’s voice on the other end of the line.

 
; . . . . .

  A few days passed and Grace started worrying that Rory would never call Angus. Watching her brother mope around the house and hang his head low at school made Grace feel sick to her stomach.

  On an unseasonally warm Wednesday night Grace staggered up the driveway to their house. Netball training had moved to mid-week after school now that the season had begun. Tonight’s session had been particularly intense, and her sports bag and school books felt unusually heavy. Her cheeks burned from running around in the afternoon heat and she was looking forward to falling into the pool – perhaps even before she stripped off her sports gear and put on her bathing suit. But before she could turn the handle to the front door, it swung open and Angus barged through. As Grace dumped her bags in surprise, he lifted his sister off the ground.

  “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You’re the best!” Angus screamed, half swinging Grace around in his arms.

  “What? Why?” Grace didn’t want to mention the email until she knew for sure that was the reason for Angus’s dramatic change in mood.

  “Rory Sloane! Are you kidding?” Angus shouted.

  “Did he call? What did he say?” Grace grinned with excitement and relief.

  “He just told me to keep positive and good things will come,” said Angus. “He said lots of the guys at the Crows didn’t make their school A-grade teams or state teams and look where they are now! He told me to just keep working and keep fit and really stay committed to playing at the best level I can. He was so nice – I feel so much better now!”

  Grace beamed with pride.

  “Aaaand,” Angus finally took a breath. He began strutting with mock arrogance. “Rory Sloane has given me tickets to the first home game against Carlton and I can go into the changerooms and meet the players after the game!”

  “Wow!” Grace replied. “That’s amazing! You should thank dad – I think he pulled a few strings to get me Sloane’s email.”

  “Yeah, I will. And Grace?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks again!” Angus wrapped his sister in a big bear hug again before sprinting into the kitchen to tell the rest of the family his news.

  . . . . .

  An hour later, Grace was sitting in her room mulling over her English homework when her mother knocked on her door.

  “You’re a great sister, you know that, Gracie?” Kathy said to her daughter with a proud grin on her face.

  “He would have done the same for me, Mum.”

  Kathy placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulders and kissed her cheek. Grace felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted. She knew the whole family had been affected by Angus’s unhappiness. Perhaps now the mood in their home would lift.

  “I was enjoying the peace and quiet when Angus was in a horrible mood, though,” Kathy joked.

  “Yeah, I think I might regret this,” Grace said. “We’re not going to hear the end of it.”

  Grace turned back to her homework, until she heard her father call them for dinner.

  “Hurry up! I didn’t go to all this effort to eat a cold meal,” he yelled.

  Kathy popped her head into Grace’s room again. “Your father cooks dinner one night a week and he thinks he’s Superman,” she said. “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to re-heat a meal because he was late from practice or because he and Angus couldn’t pull themselves away from the footy on TV, I’d be a very rich woman.”

  They both laughed. Grace recalled one evening when Angus and her father had waited almost two hours to eat their dinner, unwilling to leave the television as the Crows battled to defeat Collingwood by a point.

  They were still laughing at the memory when they reached the kitchen – and Grace saw who was sitting next to Tyler at the dinner table.

  “We’ve missed having you around for family dinners, Seb. It’s so good to have you here!” Kathy said as she made her way to the dining table.

  “Not as much as I’ve missed your cooking!” Sebastian replied, smiling at Grace as she sat down.

  “Too bad you got stuck with Dad’s cooking then,” Tyler joked.

  “Hey, don’t knock it ’til you try it, kiddo – this is one of my best roasts yet! It’s not every night you guys get to experience my expert culinary skills!” David boasted.

  “It looks amazing – thanks again for having me!” Sebastian said with a grin.

  Grace was a little confused by Sebastian’s presence at the dinner table. While it used to be a common occurrence, he hadn’t been around for months. Grace noticed the way Sebastian’s chocolate brown hair sat perfectly tousled, even girls that used endless amounts of product couldn’t tame their hair like his did naturally. Despite this, she still hadn’t quite bought into the “supermodel good looks” that everyone described. She still noticed the scar above his eye from hitting his head on the pool floor as he attempted a dolphin dive back when he was ten. He was still the little boy who always just beat her in a game of Mario Kart … wasn’t he?

  Grace snapped back to reality when she noticed everyone’s eyes were on her.

  “Sorry, what?” she asked.

  “Sebastian just asked how netball is going,” Kathy prompted.

  “Oh, yeah, it’s good, thanks. We won our first game so we’ll see how the rest of the season goes,” Grace said, trying to act as if she was unaffected by the way Sebastian was looking at her.

  The conversation turned away from her and she exhaled a sigh of relief and annoyance at herself for being disturbed by him in this way.

  After everyone had finished eating, Grace mumbled an excuse about homework and left the table. But there was little point trying to concentrate on the misadventures of Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird tonight. She spent the rest of the night in her room trying to distract herself by watching Friday at Five videos on YouTube.

  Grace was about to turn in for the night when her phone buzzed. A glance at the screen showed it was a Facebook message and she nearly dropped her phone when she saw the name at the top of the screen.

  Sebastian: You seemed a little quiet tonight … everything okay?

  Why would it matter to him if she was quiet? And why would he care if she was okay? Grace was so confused by Sebastian’s sudden interest in her that she considered calling Mia for advice. That thought only lasted for a second as she realised Mia had just as little experience in the boy department as she did. Grace just needed to be herself. Mia would have her read magazine articles about how to flirt and talk to boys, which Grace knew was all rubbish. She would just see what happened and make it up as she went along.

  Grace: I’m fine, just tired from training. And living with Angus is exhausting haha

  Sebastian: I heard what you did for him, very cool of you

  Grace: I am pretty cool I guess

  Sebastian: The coolest

  Grace: lol

  Sebastian: Excited about the video?

  Grace: Sooo excited! Are you?

  Sebastian: Unbelievably, I can’t wait to sing a Friday at Five song

  Grace: You should feel privileged

  Sebastian: You do realise this is social suicide for me

  Grace: Sorry Mr Popular

  Sebastian: I think Tyler still hates me for dragging him into this

  As soon as Sebastian mentioned her brother’s name, a flood of weirdness spread through her veins. What was she doing talking to her brother’s best friend on Facebook? She should end the conversation and let everything return to normal.

  Grace: And here I was thinking you both just had a secret Friday at Five obsession …

  Sebastian: That too

  Grace: I better get some sleep, see you at school.

  Sebastian: I look forward to it

  Placing her phone on her bedside table, Grace tried to breathe evenly and calm herself after what seemed like a bizarre few hours. It had all happened so fast: Rory Sloane calling Angus, Sebastian’s unexpected presence at the dinner table and now Sebastian messaging her. What did this all
mean? Was Sebastian just messaging her because they were friends? Or was it something else? Right now all she wanted to do was go to school, play netball and hang out with her friends. The rest of this was too much for a thirteen-year-old girl to handle …

  On Saturday morning, the girls stood around in a huddle, waiting for their co-captain to arrive. Amber was never late, and she prided herself on that.

  The Linwood Lions had won their second netball game for the season, beating the Fernhill Flames by twelve goals. Today they were taking on the mighty Clarkson Clovers, the tallest, strongest and best team according to the previous year’s results, and this year was proving to be similar as Grace took in the size of her opposition.

  Grace was feeling really happy about how the team was going. Training that week had been their best yet, with everyone working hard. Amber and her posse had continued to get along with the rest of the team and not make too many rude remarks to anyone.

  But where was Amber now?

  After ten minutes, Amber scrambled from her parents’ car, slammed the door and raced towards them.

  “Sorry, I’m late – car troubles,” she said, hastily.

  Amber’s eyes were red: it looked as though she had been crying. When they began their warm up, Grace asked her if she was okay.