Alice Henderson On Debut

Eleven

"Tell me what?" I ask.

Adam doesn't answer. He just stares at the bench, the muscles in his jaw clenching.

Mum lifts her hand from the pile of paper and even though she's talking to me, she glares at Adam, not even blinking. "A letter came for you, Alice," she says. "Adam obviously thought it was for him because he opened it, didn't you Adam?"

"It didn't have her name on it," Adam huffs.

"It didn't have yours on it either," Mum counters.

"It had A Henderson on it. What was I supposed to do? Not open it?" Adam throws his hands up in the air.

"What you were supposed to do, Adam, was to give it to your sister when you realised it was for her."

I'm even more curious than ever to know what the letter is. I take a step toward the bench and look down at the paper, seeing if I can make out anything from the pieces scattered on the bench. I move some of the paper around, smoothing it out. It's been wet by water or something and the writing on most of the pieces is smudged. I look up at Adam. "What did it say?"

Adam ignores me. I stand right in front of him, invading his personal space because he hates it, but he can't even look at me. "Hey, I'm talking to you."

Adam sniffs and takes a step back.

"Mum?" I look back to her for an explanation. It's like a Mexican stand-off, and I'm the piggy-in-the-middle who has no idea what's going on. "Will someone tell me what is going on?"

Adam looks down at the floor. "It's a letter from a cricket scout," he mumbles.

"Wait. What?"

Adam huffs. "It's the camp stuff, okay?"

I feel the blood drain from my hands and arms. "What camp stuff?"

"It's an offer to attend that cricket camp," Mum explains.

"You worked that out from all that paper?" I ask, nodding at the paper on the bench.

"Your father got a phone call from John Waverly asking whether you'd accepted the place or not. He had no idea what he was talking about so John emailed the offer through."

"I don't understand." I look over to Adam, who's leaning against the door frame with his head down, his arms crossed over his chest.

Mum looks at me intently. "You've been offered a place on a cricket camp, Alice."

I'm totally lost for words. "But, how?"

"Apparently, you impressed the scouts with your performance at the match and they pulled some strings to get you in."

I blow out a breath and then all-of-a-sudden it hits me and I can't help but grin. "I'm going to cricket camp?"

"It's really late notice, Alice, so I don't want you to get your hopes up."

"Yeah, but Adam gets to go on these things all the time, so—"

Mum places her hands on the bench. "Look, Alice, I need to talk to your father."

I look down at the crumpled pieces of paper in front of me. "So, why didn't I get this when it came then?"

Mum looks over to Adam. "I found it when I cleaned out Adam's kit bag."

"Adam's kit bag? But..." That means that Adam had this all along, and he had no intention of giving it to me. I turn on him, closing the space between us in two quick steps and punch him on the arm. Adam flinches and then steps forward, leaning over me. He knows better than to hit me back in front of Mum though. "You're an arsehole. You know that?" I yell at him.

"The match wasn't for you," Adam shoots back.

"This has got nothing to do with the match," I yell.

"It's got everything to do with it," Adam says. "You just walk into a cricket camp and I have to get there the hard way?" Adam flings his hands around as he's yelling at me and I step back out of his way.

"What do you care anyway? It's a camp for girls. You wouldn't want to play with a bunch of girls, would you?"

Adam steps forward and gets up into my face. "You deliberately made me look bad when I bowled. You wanted to make me look like an idiot."

"I did not. And it's not my fault you had a shocker."

Adam goes to push me but Mum jumps in finally. "Cut it out you two. That's enough."

"So you're taking her side?" Adam says, stepping away.

"There aren't any sides to take in this, Adam. You lied and you hid a letter that was for your sister. You could have caused her to miss out on the camp."

Adam turns back and he's livid. "She," he says, stabbing his finger in the air at me, "she sabotaged me."

"For the last time—"

"Enough!" Mum yells, making Adam and I both shut up. "Adam, go and get ready for work and we'll talk about this later when your father gets home."

Adam storms off in a huff.

Mum turns to me. "I don't want you taking this out on your brother."

"What? Why not? He almost made me miss out on a camp."

Mum takes a deep breath and calms herself down. "It's difficult for Adam, Alice. He's worked hard the last couple of years. How do you think he feels about you getting noticed by the scout instead of him? He thinks you've got things easy, that's all."

"Easy? He thinks I've got things easy?"

"Alice," Mum says, reaching out to me.

I step away. "No, Mum. It's always been about Adam. Ever since he started playing rep cricket, everything's been about him. But me? I said I wanted to do the same thing and everyone laughed. Now I've made a cricket camp and you still put Adam over me."

"It's not like that, Alice."

"Of course it is." I don't want to hear any more. I turn and run downstairs and jump on my bike. I have no idea where I'm heading but I need to clear my head.