by Israel Folau
‘You all right?’ Sione asked.
Adam looked up at him, his eyes red. ‘I’m okay to go on it.’
‘The signs say you can’t go on the rides if you are sick or injured. We can’t have your foot getting worse as you thrash around on a roller-coaster.’
Adam grunted. ‘I don’t even know why I came.’
‘To stick together, remember? We’re a team.’
The two boys sat in silence for what seemed like forever as they waited for their teammates to return. When they did, there was no missing them. Now, everyone was jumping around, giddy with excitement.
‘That was so awesome!’ they yelled over and over again, to no one in particular.
Adam and Sione looked up at them and said nothing.
‘It really was great,’ Izzy agreed. ‘Sione, do you want a turn? I’m sure the others won’t mind going again.’
‘Are you kidding?’ Daniel said. ‘There’s so much more to do – come on!’
He, TJ and Jake raced away, leaving Sione, Adam and Izzy in their dust.
Sione and Adam sat together as the others tried a flume water ride, a crazy octopus contraption that threw its passengers all over the place, another roller-coaster and a ride that was clearly designed just to spin people until they were sick. Izzy came over to chat to the boys between rides and to make sure they were all right, but Daniel and the others were having too much fun to slow down – even for a minute. Sione didn’t get it. Why was he the only one who remembered the pact with Adam? He felt so sorry for him and wanted to keep him company, but none of the other boys seemed to care at all.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Adam said finally, standing up and hobbling towards a food stand.
Sione hesitated, unsure of whether he should join him or wait for the others. ‘Hey, where are you going?’ he called. When Adam didn’t respond, Sione decided to run after him. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Relax,’ Adam replied. ‘I feel like an idiot sitting around doing nothing. People keep looking at me and wondering why I’m even here. I’m getting a drink.’
The boys both bought a milkshake and Sione helped Adam by carrying his cup back to the bench for him. ‘I’m sorry the others haven’t been spending time with you,’ Sione said.
Adam shrugged, looking at the ground. ‘I can’t ask them not to have fun.’
They sat silently for a while, sucking on their straws. ‘The milkshake is nice,’ Sione said. He cringed inwardly; he never knew what to say in these situations.
‘Yeah, almost as good as The Viper, I’m sure,’ Adam answered sarcastically.
Sione wanted to tell the other boys off, but he didn’t have the guts. He could sense Izzy understood Adam’s pain but he was sort of stuck, needing to look after the majority of the group. Soon enough, however, the others returned and Sione was glad to discover he didn’t have to be the one to lay down the hard word.
‘I’m sitting here bored to death with Sione,’ Adam announced. ‘You guys said we were a team. Can we do something together now?’
‘Well, I need to go to the toilet,’ Jake said. ‘We could all go do that.’
Adam narrowed his eyes at him. ‘Not funny.’
‘Look, it’s almost three o’clock,’ Izzy said, stepping between them. ‘That’s when the Wild West show is on. Judging from the map, it’s not far from here. Why don’t we go and see that?’
The boys agreed reluctantly.
‘Do we have time for one more ride first?’ Daniel asked.
Izzy shook his head and laughed. ‘No, mate. I think you’ve had enough rides to last a lifetime, anyway.’
They got to the arena earlier than most spectators, so the group chose to sit right at the front. They found themselves at the bottom of an amphitheatre, in front of a Wild West scene. The seats for the audience were actually stone steps that went down towards a cluster of wagons and a saloon. ‘If we sit at the front,’ Daniel had suggested, ‘then we won’t see the crowd and it will feel more like we are there.’
The rest agreed, but for Adam, hobbling down to the front was a nightmare on his crutches. Izzy and Sione helped him down, walking on either side of him.
‘I’m very proud of you both,’ Izzy said as they walked. ‘You’re showing strength during adversity. You’ve both missed out today but you’ve done it with a smile.’
Sione saw Adam look down guiltily.
‘I’m serious,’ Izzy said. ‘Other people would have had a tantrum about this but you boys have shown the others what being a team is all about.’
They finally got to the bottom and Izzy helped Adam sit next to Jake. There was no more room on that side, so Izzy and Sione went to sit at the other end of the row, next to Daniel. As they did, the music started, announcing the beginning of the show.
‘This had better be good,’ Daniel muttered under his breath.
‘Sione,’ Izzy whispered into his ear, as the first cowboy came out to loud applause, ‘I want you to remember what today was like.’
Sione turned to him, confused. ‘Huh?’
‘Tomorrow afternoon. Remember what it’s like to be doing something different, to be out of place, to miss out on what you would rather do.’
‘I don’t get it. Why?’ Sione asked, but his words were drowned out by the noise of guns, horses and cowboys falling from roofs and into hay bales.
Sione hurried onto the bus and chose the seat in the back corner. To his surprise, Daniel, possibly out of habit more than choice, decided to collapse in the seat next to him. They rode together in silence, Sione deep in thought and Daniel busy flicking through all the photos on his phone.
Seeing images of Daniel’s family and friends made Sione think of home. He was surprised at how little he had actually thought about his family. He messaged them every day but the conversations weren’t very long. He smiled, thinking about his little sister, Mele, who was probably in the bath at that moment, crying as their aunty washed her hair. His dad would be dozing on the lounge, watching something rugby-related.
Sione turned away from the brightly lit streets outside his window to peek at Daniel’s phone. He had been looking at that one photo for a long time. Sione recognised the boy in the picture as a younger version of Daniel. He was in the lap of a woman with very long hair. She was laughing at the camera.
‘Is that your mum?’ he asked.
‘Yep.’
Sione felt awkward pursuing the conversation but knew it would be just as awkward for it to end there. ‘Do you see her much?’
‘No, she lives in Perth.’
‘Why?’
Daniel sighed. ‘She works there. She came from there. She met dad and they got married and moved to where we live. Dad stayed, Mum went back.’
‘Oh.’ Sione nodded. ‘Why?’ he wondered aloud.
Daniel put his phone away. ‘They got a divorce two years ago.’
Sione rested his head on the back of the seat and looked up at the ceiling. He hated that word. He didn’t understand why people would decide to live apart when they had a family together. It felt like the opposite of being on a team.
‘Your parents are divorced, too, right?’ Daniel asked.
Sione paused before nodding. He looked out the window, blinking back tears. Images of cowboys getting shot and falling from windows cluttered his mind.
The next morning was all sunscreen and board shorts. After breakfast, the boys walked to the local beach for their morning training session. Sione couldn’t get over how the beach was just a few blocks down the road. Back home, the closest beach was two train rides and a bus trip away. Kids here seemed to have everything – sunshine, beaches and theme parks. What an awesome life!
While walking to the beach, the boys passed Sunshine High. Sione couldn’t help but smile as wide, jealous eyes watched him and the rest of the team walk past with their beach towels and goggles.
When they got to the beach, Mary announced that they would have a bit of free time before Izzy ran them through some drills.
‘What? Here on the beach?’ Daniel said.
‘Yes,’ Izzy answered with a grin. ‘Here on the beach. You’ll see.’
Adam had come too. Tom was going to give him some simple exercises to do in the water as the others trained. His ankle was already looking better than it did yesterday. He still needed the help of the crutches to get to the beach but was able to limp around and wade in the water with the others.
Mary’s voice was a constant presence as they goofed around in the surf. ‘Stay between the flags!’ she yelled at every opportunity. It soon became a joke as other boys began mimicking her voice whenever someone ventured more than a millimetre from the flags’ safety zone.
‘Stay between the flags! Stay between the flags!’ Daniel squealed when Mary went for a short walk along the beach.
‘You’ll be the death of me, Daniel Masters!’ she laughed, and altered the route of her walk, making quick laps between the flags instead of following her original path to the rock pools.
Izzy then organised the team into a game of touch footy.
‘I thought you said we would be training,’ Jake said, ‘not playing.’
Izzy smiled at him. ‘Can’t they be the same thing?’
But what everyone thought would be a quick, easy game turned into a whole lot of hard work. Running barefoot on the sand was a totally different challenge to playing on grass. Each step was an effort, and Sione found it near impossible to stay at pace. Everyone was moving as if in slow motion.
‘It’s great exercise for your legs,’ Izzy said, after one boy sank into the sand in exasperation. ‘If you can run here, imagine how well you’ll run on the field!’
Sione watched as Daniel rose to the occasion, darting between players and pulling off fancy passes. Some of the others groaned in annoyance but Sione admitted to himself that he was more than a little jealous. Daniel was someone who played rugby full-on, no matter the situation.
The team also did some running drills but were soon too exhausted to go on. Izzy then led them down the beach for a swim to cool off before heading back to the motel for lunch.
On the way, Daniel pointed to some Sunshine High boys training on the field at the school.
‘Look, they’re getting ready for us,’ he said. ‘Fat lot of good that will do.’
Izzy shook his head. The kid sure was competitive. ‘Daniel, that’s not very polite,’ he said.
Daniel shrugged. ‘They can’t hear. Besides, it’s true. We’re a rep team!’
The Valley boys stopped to watch Sunshine High play. Sione couldn’t help but admit that he didn’t see anything extra-special about them, except for the size of some of their forwards. They looked huge, even from a distance.
Sione watched as the goal kicker slotted the ball home from what must have been forty metres out. The boy then went for a run to the opposite tryline and back before setting up his next goal attempt. Now they looked slick. They did the little things, like connecting passes and picking up the ball cleanly.
Daniel continued to rave about how great Valley were all the way to lunch, but Sione wasn’t so sure anymore. There was no knowing how good they were until they were tested on the field, and Sunshine High looked like they were going to be Valley’s first challenge.
The entire team seemed nervous as they warmed up for the practice match. The Valley boys were keeping one eye on the grass below their feet as they ran through their drills, and one eye on the opposition doing likewise on the other side of the field. Daniel was sure he was the only one fully focused and that bothered him.
‘Come on, guys, concentrate!’ he cried, after their scrum-half tripped over during the dynamic stretching. ‘It isn’t that hard to stretch your quads as you move, you know,’ he said, earning a dirty look from Harrison in return.
‘Okay, Valley, we’re about to start,’ Izzy called. ‘Get your water in.’
Everyone gulped from their water bottles. The day had turned hot, much hotter for a game of rugby than most of them were used to.
‘You all look great in your Valley green,’ Izzy said approvingly. ‘I want you to play your best and make us proud, but –’
‘But?!’ Daniel baulked. Pep talks should never contain the word ‘but’, he thought.
‘But,’ Izzy repeated, ‘remember that this is still a practice match. We are here to improve our skills and the way we work as a team. I’m going to be mixing some things up today, partly to work around Adam’s injury and partly to see how we go.
‘It’s our first game against a real team, and I’m really excited. I still remember the great feeling I got when I first stepped onto the field as a Wallaby. I hope you have a lot of fun out there. If you’re on the bench for part of this, don’t take that as a knock against your talent. Remember, there are twenty of us and only fifteen spots on the field.’
Daniel listened intently, knowing his position was safe at fly-half.
Izzy went on to announce a few changes to the forward line, which was to be expected with Adam out, but on top of this, Sione was moved to start off the field while TJ was given Sione’s position at wing. Daniel thought this was strange as TJ had been looking great as fullback.
The starting fifteen for Valley lined up on the halfway line and shook hands with the Sunshine squad. Each of their players looked at Daniel square in the eyes. Their voices wished him good luck, but their eyes said, ‘Because you’ll need it’.
It was an intensity that Daniel had rarely seen in a team, but his courage didn’t falter. After the toss it was determined that Valley would receive the kick-off and Daniel gathered the team around him for another pep talk.
‘This is bad,’ said Tezza, one of the flankers. ‘We hardly know each other, they’ve got everything to play for. How good would they feel to take down a rep team!’
‘Yeah, look at them,’ Jake said. He was one of the few forwards to keep his usual spot at prop. ‘You can see steam coming from their nostrils.’
‘Hey,’ Daniel said, ‘let’s focus here! They may look intimidating and think they’re great, but we’ll show them. Remember that you’ve been chosen for this team for a reason. You’re good! We can do this and show them who’s on top.’
‘Maybe they’re just better at rugby here,’ Tezza said. ‘We’re rep players at home, but would we be up here?’
‘I think you’ve been hanging around Sione too much,’ Daniel snapped. ‘Stop acting defeated before we’ve played. We can win this, I know it!’
But it soon became very apparent that they couldn’t. Within five minutes, Sunshine had forced a turnover, won a scrum and scored a try. Waiting for the conversion kick, Daniel unclipped his headgear in disgust.
‘Jeremy, what was that?’ he shouted. ‘A knock-on? You weren’t under any pressure. What a waste!’
When Valley finally did get the ball, Daniel passed it to Tezza expertly, only to have him fumble it a couple of times before getting crushed by a thumping tackle that caused them to lose ground and forced Daniel to kick the ball upfield. There were dropped passes, more knock-ons and missed tackles. Soon, the score was five tries to nothing.
‘Valley! Get the little things right – we’re making too many mistakes. We’re better than this,’ Daniel yelled.
In one ruck, a Sunshine forward looked straight at Daniel and grunted, ‘And you guys are a rep team?’
By the half-time whistle, Daniel was fuming. ‘Basics, basics, basics!’ he yelled as the teams walked off, partly so the opposition would hear him and know that at least he wasn’t to blame for their poor showing. ‘Catch passes! Make your tackles!’
‘Shut up!’ Jake shouted. ‘Who do you think you are, anyway? Who said you were the captain?’
Daniel stood there, speechless. Why was he the only one trying to take some responsibility and leadership of the group? Didn’t anyone care how well they played?
Izzy ran onto the field. ‘Daniel!’ he called.
Daniel threw up his arms. He couldn’t believe Izzy was
going to side with the other boys again.
‘Listen, you’re right,’ Izzy said. ‘We do need to concentrate on the basics, but yelling at people doesn’t help them to listen to the message any better.’
The other boys walked off the field, casting glances their way.
‘But how can you make them listen if you don’t tell them?’ Daniel asked.
‘Show them! Remember that this is just a practice match to get us ready for the Championships. We are here to push ourselves and practise our plays. It’s about getting used to playing against strangers.’
Daniel didn’t agree but he had no other option than to do as he was told. He joined up with his team as they gobbled orange quarters on the touchline. No one said anything, except for Izzy.
‘I’m making a change – Sione is coming on now but not as wing. Kane, you come off for a spell. Sione will be in Adam’s place at hooker for the second half.’
‘What?!’ Daniel shrieked. Sione was a back, not a forward. He had probably never been in a scrum in his life. This was crazy talk!
Daniel ran up to Izzy to complain, only to find that Sione had beaten him to it.
Jake and Benny, the two prop-forwards, stood on either side of Sione and put their arms around his shoulders. Then Sione did the same to them. He jiggled his arms a bit to ensure they were firmly linked together.
The first few minutes of the second half had passed easily enough. Sione had helped to make a few tackles and, thankfully, the opposition hadn’t scored. But now things had taken a dramatic turn for Sione. He had watched enough scrums in his life to have the basic idea of what to do, but it felt strange to be so close to his teammates. As a winger, he’d never done anything like this. The scrum always looked weird from out near the sideline. It’s like a gigantic tarantula, Sione thought. Who invented doing this crazy thing, anyway?
The teacher who was acting as referee looked them over as the second row grabbed Sione’s shorts. They were getting ready to push from behind.
‘Set!’ bellowed the ref, and the opposing team’s front row lunged forward, hurtling themselves into Sione and his team like a thunderclap.
