Play the Game

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Book: Read Play the Game for Free Online
Authors: Nova Weetman
Tags: Ebook
sure if she’d forgive
me. I followed her down the hall to the front door.
    ‘Pick me up in the morning?’ I said hopefully. We always rode to school together.
    But she shrugged. ‘Think I’m going in early.’
    ‘Okay,’ I said, defeated. Usually we would hug each other goodbye, but today I just
grabbed my bike and left. By the time I reached the road, she’d already gone back
inside.
    I rode home feeling sick. It had been hard enough making the choice between netball
and acting. Now Tess was making me feel like it was somehow about her.

    Jean was waiting for me as I walked in. ‘Bad?’ she asked.
    I just nodded.
    ‘Come on. I’ll do your nails.’
    ‘No thanks,’ I said, dreading the idea. I couldn’t work out why my sister thought
a manicure would solve anything.
    But Jean ignored me. ‘I have chocolate. I have those horrible red jelly snakes you
like, and I have twelve different colours of nail polish to choose from. What else
are you going to do? Go upstairs and sulk?’
    That had totally been my plan. To lie on my bed, staring at my phone and hoping for
a text from Tess. I could see Jean’s point. It was kind of pathetic. Besides, red
snakes. And chocolate.
    Jean must have seen that I was wavering. She held up a bottle of lime green nail
polish. ‘Bet the part would rock this colour,’ she said.
    ‘Nail polish didn’t exist back then.’
    Jean shrugged. ‘Well, if Juliet was around now, she’d be totally into it.’
    I rolled my eyes and reached for the enormous block of chocolate on the table, but
Jean snatched it away before I could grab it.
    ‘No manicure, no chocolate,’ she said, holding it high above her head. ‘Come on.
Green is definitely your colour.’
    I sighed, giving in. ‘Alright, alright.’
    Looking triumphant, she handed me the chocolate and manoeuvred me into a chair. She
took hold of my right hand and eyed my stubby little chewed-off fingernails, looking
horrified. ‘Gross. You don’t have any nails!’
    ‘I can’t. Because of netball.’
    Jean rolled her eyes. ‘Bo-ring,’ she said, dunking my hand into a bowl of goopy water. ‘I’m
glad you’re doing the play. You’ll be much more fun now. Besides, I heard you were
pretty good.’
    Despite how bad I felt about Tess, I smiled. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Jean never said nice things to me.
    ‘Who told you that?’ I asked.
    ‘I have contacts,’ she said mysteriously.
    While Jean painted and filed and polished my nails, I ate half a block of chocolate
and about a gazillion red snakes. But I still felt awful. Even though I’d known Tess
would react the way she did, I was hurt that she wouldn’t even try to understand
why I was doing the play. I reminded myself that soon I’d be onstage, and it would
all be worth it. At least, I hoped so.

‘O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?’ I said theatrically into the tiny mirror
near my bed.
    ‘Juliet had better hurry or she’s going to be late for school!’ yelled Jean through
the door.
    ‘Juliet doesn’t go to school!’ I yelled back.
    ‘I think her mum might have something to say about that,’ called Jean.
    I looked at my phone. Argh! She was right. I’d have to ride like the wind if I was
going to make English. It was all Tess’s fault for going in early. She’d usually
come by in the morning and hurry me up. I wondered if she’d sit next to me in class,
or if that was off limits now, too. I grabbed my bag, then ducked back to check my
hair before racing down the stairs. My bright green nails flashed at me as I ran.
Jean was right, they did sort of cheer me up.
    ‘Want to ride together?’ called Jean as I hit the bottom step and almost went flying.
    ‘Ah, sure.’ I was still a bit suspicious about why Jean was being so nice to me,
but I was glad to have the company.
    ‘What’s with your hair?’ she said, staring at the flicked bits at the side. I’d tried
to do something new – obviously it hadn’t worked.
    ‘Bad?’ I

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