Alice Henderson On Debut

Eight

Adam throws his bag on the floor in the laundry when we get home and storms off into the kitchen. I drop my bag in the laundry on the way through and Mum chastises us for not cleaning them out. "I'll do it later," I tell her, and follow Adam into the kitchen. He's standing at the fridge drinking the juice from the bottle. Looks like I won't be having any of that for breakfast tomorrow.

"What is your problem?" I ask.

Adam spins around and wipes the juice from his chin. "Don't even start," he says, capping the juice bottle and shoving it back in the fridge. He slams the fridge door shut just as Dad comes in.

"Hey, don't take your anger out on the fridge," Dad says.

"It's her fault," Adam says, jabbing a finger in my direction.

"My fault? For what?"

Adam turns on me. "You just can't bloody help yourself, can you? You just have to show off."

"I wasn't showing off. I was just playing how I normally play."

"Today was about me," Adam shouts at me, slamming his fist into his chest. "Me! You can't let me have anything."

"You? How about me? You're the one who gets to play every week. I don't."

"That's because you're a girl, Alice," Adam fires at me.

"Hey!" Dad says but Adam ignores him.

"You knew this was my time to shine and you stuffed it up for me."

"What about my time to shine, Adam? I never get the time to shine."

"That's bull—"

"Is it?" I interrupt him. "I found out today that there's a camp for girls I could've gone to. It was in your cricket magazines, but did you tell me? No!"

Adam looks at the floor.

"Is that true, Adam?" Dad asks.

"Who cares?" Adam says. "We're not talking about that. We're talking about me here."

"It's always about you," I shout back. "Everything's always been about you."

Mum comes in and dumps her lunch dishes from work in the sink. "Will you two calm down? It was just a game."

"It wasn't just a game," Adam and I both say at the same time.

"There's no shouting in this house," Mum shouts at us.

The corner of Dad's mouth twitches but there's no way he'll laugh at Mum for being unintentionally funny. Instead he says, "I think you both need to go and calm down."

"I don't need to calm down," Adam yells. "I saw her talking to the scout. Probably bagging me out."

"I wasn't bagging you out," I yell back.

"Enough!" Mum snaps, making us all stop.

Adam glares at me and storms off to his room. I head for the back door.

"Where are you going?" Dad asks.

"For a ride."

As the back door slams behind me, I hear Mumyell, "For God's sake, can't anyone clean up their gear for once instead ofleaving it all over the laundry?" So much for no yelling in the house. I grabmy BMX from the back shed and start pedalling.