Free Netball Dreams by Thalia Kalkipsakis Page B

‘But this way, you can work together so no-one is the boss!’
    Angie’s eyes shone. Callum was nodding, as if he liked the idea. I sneaked a glance at Becky. I wasn’t sure if she’d feel jealous of Angie being vice-captain, with Callum as captain.
    But Becky was beaming. She looked proud of my idea. Before long, Callum and Angie had decided all the positions together – without any fighting.
    They picked me for wing defence. That was fine with me. From what I could tell, playing wing defence meant I had to run after the wing attack from the other team. And when they caught the ball I had to flap my arms a lot and try to stop them throwing it where they wanted.

    Maybe all that flapping was why they called it wing defence? Well, the idea gave me a giggle.
    ‘OK, let’s get to work,’ said Callum.
    He pulled a netball from a sack at the edge of the netball courts. Then he started spinning it on his finger like a basketball.
    My heart sank. A ball. I always look like an idiot around balls. Am I about to look silly in front of my friends?

That first day of training, the netball really had a mind of it own. It was like a cheeky little gremlin.
    Each time I touched it, the ball would fly off the court, or go crazy and crooked. So annoying! But, to my relief, everyone was super nice to me.
    If I dropped the ball, someone would call out, ‘Never mind.’ And if I threw the ball crooked, someone else would call, ‘Good try, Alex.’ They didn’t make me feel bad at all.

    Once I even managed a solid catch, followed by a not-bad pass to Becky. When I did that, the whole gang clapped and cheered. Anyone watching would’ve thought I’d actually done something useful!
    It was brilliant seeing the sporty kids in action. The Basketball Girls were so cool to watch. One of them would throw the ball to no-one – just a gap. And I would think, hey, I’m not so bad. Other people throw the ball dumb places, too.
    But somehow the other one would charge into the gap. Like magic, she would always be there to catch the ball!
    The first time they did it, I thought it was just a fluke.
    But they kept doing it. Over and over. Even Callum and Mickey managed to do it sometimes.
    Those kids really know a lot about throwing and catching balls.
    By the time P.E. was over for the day, I realised something amazing. Even though I was still clumsy and awkward, it felt great to be part of a team. For the first time ever, I started to see what the sporty kids liked about sport.
    I even started looking forward to the tournament. It was going to be fun playing a real game with my team.

    Tooooot! Mr Dwyer blew the whistle and shook his head at Angie.
    She made a face and said ‘Drat!’ under her breath.
    ‘Never mind,’ Callum called to Angie. But he didn’t look happy.
    This was our first game for the tournament. And it wasn’t going well. Everything seemed to be going wrong. Angie and Claire had heaps of shots at the goal. But the ball hardly ever went in.
    Sometimes the ball would fly over the ring, as if aiming for a backboard that wasn’t there. Other times, one of us would break a rule, so the ball would be given to the other team.
    Not good at all.
    Of course, I was doing nothing special as I had expected.
    At first I thought that defence would be easy. Just a lot of arm-flapping and getting in the way. But good defenders actually stop the other team scoring. And really good defenders even steal the ball and get it to their own attackers.

    I knew all that by watching the other team. They were great. They kept stealing the ball from us and getting it to their shooter, super fast. Again and again.

    By half-time, we were ten goals behind. Our team stood in a huddle with red faces and drooping mouths. No-one was enjoying losing.
    ‘I wish we were playing basketball,’ said Claire, frowning.
    Callum nodded glumly.
    ‘Yeah, netball’s so – ’ Angie started to say.
    But she didn’t get any further, because I butted in. Claire had