With that, Jen motions us towards the changing rooms and we all shuffle forwards.
‘I’m so glad that all of us made it,’ Nadine says in a relieved voice. There are a couple of dejected girls who walk with us. I’m definitely glad that I’m not one of them.
‘Me too,’ Gwen says. ‘For a moment there, I thought maybe Maya wouldn’t …’ She drifts off, giving me a nervous glance.
‘I knew I would.’ My voice is a lot more confident thanI feel. Iwasthe last person called and I couldn’t help but wonder if that meant I was Jen’s last pick. ‘I mean, I was the one who scored that final goal. Did you see me? How could I not make the team after that?’
‘Yeah, but … Dina almost blocked you,’ Gwen points out unhelpfully.
I frown, glad that once we get to the changing rooms, her bag and locker are on the other side, so we don’t have to talk about Dina and her goalkeeping.
Gwen parts ways with us, while Nadine and I get our stuff from the benches.
I sit down, starting to peel off my boots, but Nadine is giving me a weird look.
‘What?’ I ask, wondering if maybe my socks are smelly after all that running around.
‘Dina made the team too. You’re going to have to get along with her,’ she says.
Dina and I have only known each other for a week, but it feels like everybody already knows just how much we don’t get along. It’s notmyfault that Dina seems determined to show me up at every opportunity.
‘Yes, I know.’ I sigh, looking over her shoulder to where Dina is standing, rooting around in her bag. She pulls out her worn uniform – the one that is the wrong shade for the actual school uniform and doesn’t even have the school logo. I don’t understand why the teachers haven’t made her change out of it, and into the proper uniform. Only Dina would get away with something like that. ‘I just don’t get her,’ I say, lowering my voice. ‘She’s such a phony, and she’s so … ugh. I mean, did you see how she pretended to be shocked when Jen called her name out? Like, of course she knew she was on the team, Jen couldn’t stop praising hergoalkeeping.’ Once I get started, I can’t stop, even though I know she’s only a few paces away from me. ‘And did you see how she was late for classagain? Is it that difficult to set an alarm? I just don’t get it. I don’t get her.’
It would be one thing if Dina didn’t act like she was better than everyone while being decidedlynotbetter than everyone. But she walks around school like it doesn’t matter that she has the wrong uniform or the fact that she’s already had detention despite it only being the first week. And then there’s the showing off – the always trying to one-up me. It started that first day and has persisted into every single class we’ve shared together. She even tried to one-up my lunch the other day. It’s like she’s determined to prove she’s better than me in every possible way.
Nadine shakes her head, like she doesn’t get her either. ‘I’m just saying, we’re all going to be on the same team. We’ll probably have to see a lot of each other. I mean, practice every week, and then matches too. Plus, it probably helps when people on the same team don’t hate each other’s guts.’
‘I don’t hate her guts,’ I say. I’m not sure if I sound particularly convincing. There is something about Dina that just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it’s the fact that, despite her many clear flaws, she seems to have the disarming ability to charm anyone. Like how quickly Ms Nichols seemed to forget that Dina missed half of our first English class, and how Jen was practically singing her praises just now.
And now I’m going to be stuck on a football team with her.
Chapter 9
Dina
‘Wow, you really look the part of a coach,’ Jen says when she meets me at the park on Monday morning. I’ve dug out one of my old tracksuits – black with a green stripe down the sides. Deen has even bought me one of those whistles that coaches wear around their neck. I tried to decline it, thinking it made me look a little too dorky and overenthusiastic, but he insisted.
Now, I feel a blush creep up my face at Jen’s appraisal.
‘My brother gave this to me. He insisted.’ I hold out the whistle for her to see.
‘Well, you’ll need it, so it was good thinking on his part. Come on, I think the girls should be here already.’
She leads me through the wrought-iron gates and along a weaving dirt path to an open space, but there’s no sign of the group of girls that were in the restaurant last week.
Jen frowns, checking the time on her phone. ‘They’re not always good at being on time. Don’t worry, they’ll be here soon.’ She says it to reassure me, but she seems more worried than I am.
‘It’s fine. I mean, it’s the summer, I guess,’ I say. They didn’t actually look like the most enthusiastic football players the last time I saw them, but I decide to keep that thought to myself.
Finally, after a few more minutes, I spot a few girls shuffling over, looking tired and uninterested, though they do pass me cursory curious glances.
‘Good morning,’ Jen says, in her stern teacher voice. ‘You’re late.’
‘Sorry,’ one of the girls says – she has long blonde hair and is, for some reason, wearing a full face of make-up. Never a good idea when playing football.
‘Jade, you can’t come to practice wearing that much make-up. And tie up your hair, for God’s sake.’ Jen tosses her a hair tie, almost as if she expected this.
‘Will do, coach,’ Jade says with a sickly-sweet smile. She catches the hair tie but doesn’t seem to be in haste to tie up her hair. Instead, she takes out her phone and starts taking some selfies.
