Read Sammy for Free Online Page A

going to do? Sparkle fingers me to death?’ Ollie says.
    More laughing.
    â€˜It’s
spirit
fingers,’ says Sean.
    That doesn’t really help our masculine image. Jai incorporates spirit fingers into his dance.
    Ethan flicks a look at him and then back at his main competition, Ollie. ‘Your little buddy seems to like that dance. Girl parts suit him.’
    It’s wall-to-wall testosterone. We’re glowering at them. They’re practically forming a pack, or a scrum, or whatever it is that football players do, behind Ollie when Patrick enters.
    â€˜What’s the issue?’ he asks Ethan.
    â€˜What? Apart from football getting all the funding and all the press? They wouldn’t know real work if it smacked them in the face,’ Ethan answers.
    â€˜Mate, two minutes on a footy field and you’d be dead,’ Ollie counters.
    â€˜Yeah? Try dancing
Onegin
,’ Ethan fires back.
    â€˜Try dancing with a broken jaw.’
    Patrick isn’t standing for it. ‘These guys are our guests for the week – that’s not going to change. I don’t know how you’re all going to find a way to sort this out. But you will.’
    Ethan and Ollie come up with a challenge to see which is the toughest, ballet or football – a challenge that seems like a good idea, one that we couldn’t possibly lose.
    They have to make it all the way through the gypsy dance doing all the steps and finishing in unison. All we have to do is score one try against them in a touch footy match.
    â€˜Touch footy isn’t even their code,’ says Ethan.
    The night after the challenge has been set, Abigail and I are having our usual debate in her room. I think I’ve got more chance of crash tackling Jai than I do of shifting Abigail on our relationship. And she can cause more pain than any footballer could.
    â€˜You can’t kiss someone and pretend it’s irrelevant. It means something,’ I say.
    â€˜It’s just lips on other lips,’ she says, almost as if it’s something distasteful.
    I tell her I know she doesn’t believe that.
    Outside in the corridor is the unmistakable noise of Ollie, Jai and the footballers. They are incapable of taking a step without making a racket.
    â€˜Hey you. Sports person,’ Abigail shouts out at Jai. ‘Come here a second.’
    He walks into the room, she grabs him and kisses him full on the lips. I can’t believe it. His mates whoop and she walks out. Me and the footy player are both left there stunned, but he’s only had his lips assaulted. I’ve had my heart ripped from my chest and kicked into touch.
    The next morning at the café outside the Academy I’m trying to talk to Abigail and she’s trying to ignore me. The usual public routine.
    Jai walks up. He glances at me and then he stumbles out a question to Abigail. ‘What’s the coffee like here?’
    â€˜Brown and wet.’
    Good answer. It’s a relief when someone else is at the pointy end of her tongue. He looks at me again. Like I’m going to give him permission to chat up the girl I’m crazy about.
    â€˜Okay, well I should get going. My
rond de jambe
is crying out for attention.’
    He thinks he’s being funny, but at least he’s proved my point.
    â€˜See you kissed him and now he’s fallen for you,’ I say after he’s gone. ‘It means something. You might hide it but I know you actually have feelings for me.’
    â€˜Not for you, not for anyone. Haven’t you figured it out? I don’t do feelings.’
    Down at the park at lunchtime our footy training isn’t going well. Ethan is captaining, which means Christian is brooding. I think they’re still having a silent battle over Tara.
    â€˜You’re dancers,’ says Ethan. ‘You’ve learnt thousands of complicated steps. Touch football has three.’
    â€˜Run, dodge, catch,’ I repeat. I