Alice Henderson On Debut

Sixteen

We wander down one side of the centre and then Charlie takes me up the other side.

"How big is this place?" I ask, tucking into my second donut.

"This is the last floor. The next one up is the car park. And there's a cinema too."

"Hey, we could go and watch a movie," I suggest. "That would kill some time."

Charlie looks at me and smiles. "That's actually not a bad idea. We'll go check out what's on once I've shown you around."

As we wander back around to the other side of the donut shop, we're both drawn to the people standing around the hole in the floor where you can see right down to the next one. "Wonder what's going on?" Charlie says as she pushes her way to the front. I follow behind her and lean up on my tiptoes to see. We look down to the floor below where a long table has been set up on a stage along with a row of chairs. As we watch, some girls wearing the same uniforms as the girls from camp walk onto the stage to cheers from the crowd.

"Hey," Charlie says. "There's the Brisbane squad."

"Which one?"

Charlie elbows my arm. "The ones we're training with, dummy."

"Oh." I lean over a little so I can see better and watch as almost a full team of girls sit down at a long table.

Charlie whistles. "Holy crap."

"What?"

"Do you see who that is?"

"Who?" I crane my neck expecting to see someone famous.

"Third from the right," Charlie says. "Blonde hair."

I lean over Charlie's shoulder to see who she's referring to.

"I don't know who that is."

Charlie looks at me like I've just admitted I'm stupid. "You don't know Jules Livingstone?"

I shake my head.

"Have you been living under a rock?"

"By the sounds of it, I have."

We start getting jostled by the people behind us and Charlie grabs my arm and pulls me away until we're standing in front of a phone shop. "Jules Livingstone was going to be the next big thing in women's cricket," Charlie says. "Do you remember when Warner came on the scene, smashing balls all over the place? People couldn't stop talking about him for months?"

I nod. He's been one of Adam's heroes since he saw him in that T20 match when he smashed 89 against South Africa.

"Well, that was Jules Livingstone, except the female version of him."

"Wow, she must be really good."

"Was," Charlie says. She looks around like she's afraid people will hear. "She went to England to try out for county cricket in the off-season two years ago and she had a car accident on the way from the airport. Didn't even get to her hotel."

"Wow, that's bad."

Charlie nods. "I know, right? And she hasn't been seen since. It's taken her that long to recover."

"How do you even know all this?" I ask.

"The Girls in Cricket blog." When I look at her blankly, Charlie shakes her head and says, "Do you even have internet?"

"Of course I do. I've just never heard of the site."

Charlie lets out a breath. "Remind me to show you when we get back to camp. Oh!" she says like she's just made a huge discovery. "If Jules is part of the Brisbane team, I wonder if that means she'll be on the camp with us?"

"I have no idea."

Charlie grabs me by both arms. "How cool would that be?"

"Really cool I'm guessing?"

Charlie nods and grins. "We might even get to train with her. Oh my God that would be awesome!"

I guess it would be, especially if she's as good as Charlie says she is.

"Come on," Charlie says, seemingly calm after her fan-girling moment. "Let's get out of here."

"Why?" I ask. "Don't you want to stick around and get their autographs?"

Charlie grabs my hand and pulls me back through the crowd. "We can get one at camp. Besides, while everyone's busy here, there'll be hardly anyone in the shops."

She's got a point. I let her pull me away from the crowds trying to get a look at the newest cricket stars and into the crowds doing their Christmas shopping.