32

The next morning, my alarm clock betrayed me. It didn't ring. Adam didn't wake me up calling me puckerface, ever since Mary had stepped into his life. Or he has, literally, stepped into her life.

My eyes flickered open as I had this feeling it was 12 in the noon. Frantically searching for the alarm clock, I dropped a glass of water and it crashed on the floor. "Ohhhh mii gosh." I started to grab the pieces, and whilst doing it, my head turned left and right to continue the clock search. I spotted it right under my bed, and pulled it in front of my eyes. It was 10. The next thing I did was run for the tickets placed on the dressing table, and the alien language yesterday wrote 11. Then I remembered that I didn't even know what the tickets were about. Running my eyes through the words, I read N and E and T and B and A and double Ls.

Netball.

"Awesome," I murmered sarcastically. "Just what I love to waking up for."

*

Mum brought me to school, much to my surprise, as the venue took place there. What did Mary have to do with this? I closed the door behind me and stared ahead. "Love you." I said, but realized that Mum had already driven off.

Opening that small crammy door, I took a deep breath in and choked. It smelled like dirty socks and sweat altogether. Why was I even here for? I didn't know where to turn, what to do, and where to go. I just walked blindly as I punched in Mary's number and held it against my ear.

"Hey, I'm here already."

"Okay, be there in 5." She replied and hung up. I opened the gym's door and the first thing I saw were 7 girls from our school and another 7 girls from another school were lined up, looking buffed and ready. Each little group of netballers had a leader standing in front, and I'm thinking that they were possibly motivating them. It was all they could do now. The next thing I notice was a big banner across the room, in bright red. The words read, 'Play Your Best No Time For Rest, We'll Win!' Corny, I laughed as I grab a seat on a bleacher. The place was so tensed up I was guessing this means a big deal. The girls down now were stretching among themselves, none of them smiling. My face automatically turned grim, suiting the atmosphere. It wasn't like I pulled my smile upside down, but it was more of a strong magnetic force from everyone. I knew it was wrong to be so stressed about a game, but if it were me, I would be in no place to say this.

Mary climbed up and sat beside me, waking me from my reverie. "Hey babe," she greeted with a smile that wouldn't wear off, I could tell, "How you hanging?"

"Oh you mean from yesterday?" I asked, making a thinking face, "well, still a little weird."

She nodded her head and sat straighter. I looked at her for a moment and digested everything from what she was wearing to what she was momentarily doing. Mary was wearing the Abercrombie sort of track pants and Varsity shirts. She let her hair down today, but her hairband was still around her wrist. Mary looked beautiful all the time, with her face glowing, her lashes so naturally curled and her figure so generous to cause a guy hyperventilation, no wonder my ever-wuss-life-changed brother Adam fell for her.

She was toiling that little hairband on her wrist, her smile still on her face, not disturbed. "So, why are we here for?" I asked her, taking my eyes off her to stay focus for a minute. She was dazzling, every aspect of her personality. And I'm not completely sure if it was a good thing. I looked at the players again, now arranging themselves on their positions.

"Watching a netball game?" she answered me dumbly, as if a ticket to a netball game meant a ticket to the NBAs. I wish, anyway. I smiled sheepishly, feeling stupid, "What I meant to ask is, why."

She looked at me, finding zero words. I read her face, and her eyes shifted uncomfortably around my face, then around the place, and back to me again. "Why." She said, "Well, because I like."

I nodded. "Wait, what about, 'tomorrow's gonna be a big day'? You meant this?" I asked, pointing to the court. This doesn't apply as 'BIG' in my vocab. This was small, irrevocably tiny. Something...zilchy.

"Can we just watch this?" she asked, sounding annoyed. I didn't respond and I stared at the players, not conscious of what they were doing. I was thinking of yesterday, where I stood and sang, with Dame's so concerned look that I might embarrass myself, yet so reassuring that I wouldn't. No, he believed that I couldn't, having no ability to.

That's stupid.

I've embarrassed myself countless times. Like when chilli fries dropping down from the skies to slipping on slime, to singing in the showers not knowing some of my friends have arrived and eavesdropped - not to mention,recording it-, had been played as a BET on Ian and Lynette's behalf. I lost track.

The whistle of the game made me jump, I jumped, too, out of my thoughts. The centre was throwing the ball to the WA, and I wondered which was our school's team. About to ask Mary, I stopped. Lynette was there, so was Gillian and everyone I saw yesterday that came with Mary, maybe a few additional ones. The emerald green beeps were our team.

BEEEEEP!

The whistle blew again, and the gym quitened down from their outbursts of cheers. Lynette had moved her legs when she was handed the ball. Wasn't that like, the basic basic? I screamed, "Stupid" a little too loud, and she stole a glance at me. How stupid was I? Initially she didn't even know I was here, and I had to just scream for attention. Really scream.

Mary signaled me to quit it, because honestly, I couldn't. The people around me didn't stop me, though. More or less, they agreed with me. The defender of Gillian defended her as the ball was going to land into Gillian's palms. Gillian didn't jump. If she had, she would have grabbed the ball long before her defender could make a move.

"Dang it, Gillian!"

After a few more shouts, Mary gave up trying to stop me. I continued on, going all cranky and coach-like on them. It was 3-2 now. 3 for the other school, and 2 for Home.

"Yes!" I cheered as Katy, the Goal Shooter, scored one, perfect. It went and looped around the hoop, and wham! It went in. The whole gym cheered, except for our opponents when the LED board blinked 2 to 3. I cheered too, and Mary pulled me down to sit. "Ohh man! It's getting tough, 3 to 3! Rise up to the occ, woman!" I was hyped up, jumping in my seat, Mary slurping her Coke through a flimsy blue straw. "Mhhm" she nodded. Nothing showed on her face.

"Why are you even here?" I asked, shotting her a quizical look. She shrugged, "To watch us win."

I giggled. "You wouldn't know if we do, it's 3 for two groups." She grabbed me up and then she pointed to a girl, Gessi. I saw her, as the defender for the other WA, rubbing her ankles together.

"Is she alright?"

"Nope," she continued slurping, "so...she's going to warm the bench for a moment."

I looked around the court, where were the replacements? "What about the Rs?"

"There aren't any." she said matter-of-factly. I turned my head immediately, in disbelief, "That's not what netball is!"

She stared back dully, "Gosh, it doesn't mean if you don't have replacements, you aren't playing netball."

"Then who's replacing her?" I asked, baffled. The gym had quietened down once again, everyone's faces lit with hope and also fear. All flashed in a second or two, and then disappeared. Now disappointment took over. I looked at the directions they were looking, and realized there wwre about 60 seconds left for the game. And they were still 3-3.

"I don't know."

"How could you be so calmed!" I snapped, still praying that either Katy scored another one, or the time slows down. Gessi was defending her opponent now, and her arms were spread wide. As she screeched the floor, her face twisted with a little pain. I saw her even mouth 'Ow' silently. My inside churned.

Her opponent was big and she always ran around Gessi and in turn, blocked her. I couldn't even see it. The other additional girl that didn't show up yesterday jumped to grab the ball from Gessi's opponent and tossed it to another of her netball teammates. "Yessss...." I whispered. "Please..."

The ball was passed until it reached Lauren, one of the players, the nearest to Gillian. And oh my gosh, Gillian was open. Her opponent was distracted by some boy in the doorway, oblivious that her opponent had a chance to grab and win. Like that.

I smiled a big smile, already foreseeing everything in my mind. If we won this, we didn't have to play the next game. And we win, like the slogan said. "Frann!" one of the girls shouted to our team's opponent player. The defender for Gillian shot her head back in place, her face showing no sign as if she had been as focused as she had before. She bent over, grabbing her waist, looking menacingly at Lauren, Gillian was smart, though. She moved silently away from Fran - I suppose her name was Fran, nice name, Gran, I mean! Fran. - and gave a sign for Lauren to throw high. Every heartbeat was clear as water now, all of them sounding liquid, but yet beating furiously. I blocked that from my head and continued on my game plan in my head. There were 5 more seconds left!

Lauren landed her left leg behind and tilted behind with her leg, trying to aim for a high throw. Gillian's eyes bulged as she anticipated for the ball. 4 seconds! Lauren threw the ball, and everything I saw suddenly changed its mode to slow motion. My heartbeat thumped like everyone else. Fran didn't budge, but now her eyes showed what she felt. Scared.

3 seconds.

The ball was mid-air, 2 seconds, Gillian jumped to grab it, and OH NO! Fran leaped up gracefully, knocking Gillian behind, and hit the ball out. 1 second, the ball bounced out.

Beeeepp.

Game over.

3-3.