Making the Team (3 page)

He opens his desk and you wouldn't believe it. There's a bundle of rugby league trading cards in his tray! They're good ones too. Like a Johnathan Thurston signature gold card and a Jarryd Hayne phenomenon diamond card. They must be worth heaps. Next to them is a chocolate bar
with a bite out of it. It has pink marshmallow on the inside and chocolate on the outside. It says “Pinky” on the wrapper.

He sees me looking at the Johnathan Thurston card, pulls it out of the pack and slaps it on my desk. It covers “skool sux'” Well, not completely but most of it. I look at the picture of JT, throwing a tricky little flick pass. “It's yours,” he says. “Thanks for yesterday, bro. You were mean as!”

My eyes pop out of my head. JT is the deadliest player! This card is so rare. I've never seen it before.

Before I can say thanks, he sticks out his hand.

“I'm Justice. Justice Jones.”

“Dylan Conlan,” I say, shaking his hand.

“You were awesome yesterday,” says Justice. “You looked like some type of monster or something, bro!”

“Ssssh!” I say. “We can talk about it, but not here.”

“OK, whatever you say, bro,” Justice shrugs and starts eating his Pinky.

Chapter 12

Top of the Class

Mr Barwick comes in wearing another Broncos shirt. Yesterday it was mainly maroon, today it's mainly yellow. He must
really
love the Broncos eh. We start the day with ten maths mentals. There is a fast finisher activity at the bottom of the whiteboard. The question says, “I am playing New Super Mario Brothers. If I am on level 1-3 and I want to get to World 5, how many more levels do I need to complete?”

Justice is deadly at maths. He finishes the maths mentals first and raises his hand.

“Yes Justice, what's the matter?” asks Mr Barwick.

“Is this a trick question?” asks Justice.

“No,” says Mr Barwick.

“There is a cheat in that level,” explains Justice. “If you get on Yoshi's back and find the entrance to the hidden pipe, a cannon will shoot you straight across to World 5.”

Mr Barwick slips a DS out of his back pocket and starts playing it while walking around pretending to check out our work. But we all know he's gammin'. Mr Barwick loves his games.

“Cool trick, thanks Justice! You and someone of your choice can have an early mark today,” he says.

“Sweet as! I choose Dylan,” says Justice, drumming his pencil on the desk. We high-five each other. Good win today.

Chapter 13

Best Mates

As soon as the bell goes, Justice and I are out the gate. The wind is howling. My hair is blowing in my face. Justice's hair is still spiky from all his hair wax. It's too windy for fishing, so we go down to the park and kick the footy instead.

“So where you from?” asks Justice in between kicks.

“The bush,” I say. “It's a long drive from here.” That's what Mum says anyway. We kick the ball for a while without saying anything.

“What about you?” I finally ask.

“Wellington.” Justice has to shout over the wind. “That's
the capital of New Zealand you know.”

“Yeah I know,” I say.

“I'm Maori,” says Justice.

“Yeah I know.”

“You're black too,” says Justice.

“Yeah I know,” I say. Justice looks confused.

“Well, what are you then?” he asks.

“I'm Australian. I'm the first Australian. I'm Aboriginal,”

I explain.

“Oh, you're a Murri then, bro?” he grins.

“Yeah,” I say.

“Then why didn't you say so?” asks Justice.

I don't feel like explaining so I put the bomb up. Justice starts yelling like a commentator on the TV: “The ball's gone high in the air. Kevin Locke is under it, Matty Bowen is chasing down the kick, but Locke catches it. He steps, he swerves! He swivels! No one can catch this handsome man! He goes all the waaaay! Warriors win the grand final!” He slaps his knees and his tongue is hanging out like a thirsty dog, doing the haka. He's carrying on like a dill, blowing pretend kisses to the crowd.

Exhausted, we drop to the ground.

When I look over at Justice, I can see he looks a bit like me. We're both skinny fellas, same height, but from different people. He's proud to be Maori and I'm proud to be Aboriginal.

The day has been a good one and I'm hanging out with a new friend. We have a special connection now. It feels right to trust him with my secret. But only if he promises to keep his gob shut.

Chapter 14

Roast Pork and Fluffy

Justice's house is on the way back to my house. He wants me to come in and meet his mum and dad. As he opens the door, a big black dog called Fluffy jumps on us and nearly knocks us over. Justice gives Fluffy a cuddle and sends him outside. A voice comes from the kitchen. It's Justice's mum.

“Where have you been, son? It was your turn to bring in the washing!”

Justice leads me into the kitchen and puts his hand in a box of choc-chip cookies. He gives me a couple. “Sorry Mum, I was kicking the footy with my new friend. His
name is Johnathan Thurston, he plays for the Cowboys.” Justice gives me a wink.

“Don't you tell silly tales, son,” says his mum. She looks over at me. “What's your name then?”

“Dylan,” I say.

“You got a surname?” she says.

“Conlan,” I say.

“Well Dylan Conlan, if you can help my boy bring the washing in, you can stay for dinner. We're having roast pork,” she says.

“Deadly”, I think.

I help Justice with the washing and then ring Mum and tell her I'm staying for dinner.

I sit down with Justice's family. There is me, Justice, his mum, dad, two little sisters, and his nanna. Justice's dad is a builder and he tells us about the high-rise he's working on. Justice takes the sweet potato off his plate on the sly and passes it under the table to Fluffy.

“
Aue!
Justice Jones did you just give your kumara to the dog?”

“Hey Fluffy you stinker, step away from the kumara!”
Justice says, trying to pull the wool over his mum's eyes.

“I didn't come down in the last shower, boy. You can wash up all by yourself while I take Dylan home,” she says.

“Oh, not even Mum!” he says, shamed out.

“Don't you talk back to your mother, son or you'll be washing up for a month!” says his dad. Justice keeps his mouth shut and then gives me another wink. A weird noise comes from under the table, followed by a rotten smell.

Now I know how Fluffy got his name. Wow.

Chapter 15

Bus Ride from Hell

When I'm doing my homework one night I remember a note that Mr Barwick handed out to the class. I pull it out of my Cowboys schoolbag and give it to Mum.

“Sorry Mum, I forgot to give you this,” I say. It's a permission form for an excursion.

“What? Tomorrow?” she asks. “Good on ya, Dylan!” I try not to look at her and she gives me the evil eye. Tomorrow Mr Barwick is taking us to the Brisbane Broncos Training Day. There are other classes going as well, but we're the only one from grade six. I can't wait; I've only ever seen the stadium on the TV. Mum signs the form
and gives me a talk about behaviour.

“You stay out of trouble and keep your nose clean. Don't go carrying on like a halfwit.” I know she means the curse when she talks like this.

The next morning Mum takes me to school. Justice is waiting for me at the gate. When we get to class, Mr Barwick is getting ready for the excursion. He's wearing his Broncos jersey today. It has been autographed by all the players. I wonder if he's wearing Broncos undies as well.

He spots us. “Can you boys take the lunch boxes and first-aid kit down to the bus?” He looks busy so we help. At the bus stop, we look for the minibus with our name in the window. We load the lunches and first-aid kit on board.

Mr Barwick meets us at the minibus with the rest of the class. Everyone takes a seat and then Mr Barwick blows his whistle. He waits until we're quiet, “Boys and girls, the
good news
is that we are seeing the Broncos at Broncos Stadium today!” The kids go nuts. With all the excitement, a few lunch sandwiches go flying through the air. “The
bad news
is that the bus driver is sick and
I
will be driving the bus!” Everyone looks around in panic. The smiles on their faces are quickly replaced with looks of fear and dread. I hope he knows he's not driving Mario Kart.

Mr Barwick starts the engine and the bus jolts out of the bus stop and heads for the traffic island knocking down a KEEP LEFT sign. The students are swaying from side to side as the bus swerves across the road. Mr Barwick runs red lights and takes up two lanes on the highway. One of the girls gets sick and turns purple in the face and spews
into her schoolbag. Angry truck drivers wave their fists at Mr Barwick for cutting them off. When we arrive at Broncos Stadium, the class cheers. I cheer the loudest. Not because we're at the Broncos but because soon we'll get off the bus.

As Mr Barwick tries to reverse park, a loud crunching noise comes from the rear. We all run over to the window and see a shiny black 4WD being squashed by the bus. Scott Prince is watching as the front bumper of his car is dragged along and sparks are coming out. He bangs on the back of the bus, trying to get it to stop, but Mr Barwick can't hear him. He's singing along to Katy Perry's “Fireworks” on the wireless … shame job!

Chapter 16

The Return of the Bully

All the school kids are sitting in the grandstand watching their heroes practise tackling. Mr Barwick is down the front getting photos with him and the players before training begins. Scott Prince is missing. He's talking to the tow-truck driver.

A young lady wearing a Broncos jacket is at the front of the grandstand with a microphone. She's pretty. Justice spots her before I do. He's already fixing up his hair. He's big-noting himself in front of the girls, thinking he's the man. The lady starts to talk into the microphone. “Good morning students and teachers, welcome to the home of
the Broncos.”

“Good morning Miss …” everyone mumbles. We don't know her name.

“My name is Chloe, you can just call me Chloe,” she smiles.

“Good morning Chloe,” we all say together.

Justice stands up and sings it. He sounds something like, “Gooood Morniiiing Chloeee.” He's trying to sound like Jay-Z. She hears him, but is not impressed.

“Very shortly you will get to train with the Broncos,” says Chloe.

“Can we get autographs?” Mr Barwick interrupts. Chloe ignores him and moves on. She asks us all to line up near the gate. Everyone is excited. We sound like a mob of noisy galahs as we push to get to the front of the line. Before we walk down the steps, Justice starts doing leg stretches. He's bending down and touching his toes with his bottom in the air.

“What are you doing, man?” I ask him.

“Stretching my legs, mate,” he says. “I'm gonna beat Josh Hoffman in a race!”

“Pull your head in,” I laugh.

As we move down the steps, we see a group of boys looking at us. It's Jared Knutz and his gang.

“Oi, look! There's Jared the dirty, stinky bully!” Justice says, pointing at them.

“Don't point! Just ignore them!” I say. But it's too late. Jared walks towards us and stops. He smiles at me. It's not a nice smile, it's an evil smile. I'm dead meat.

“Well, if it isn't the new kid and Justice Jock-Strap,” he mocks. All the other boys laugh. “I don't know what kind of trick you played on me down by the jetty, but you got lucky!” he snarls.

“Look, just leave us alone. We don't want any trouble today,” I say.

Jared laughs and shakes his head. “Oh, OK then. We don't want to give you any trouble, do we, boys?” he says, looking over at his mates. Before I know it, Jared shoves me. I trip over his outstretched leg and go rolling down the steps of the grandstand. I can't stop. I crash and smash my way down to the bottom of the stairs.