‘You do?’ I say, forgetting for a moment that he absolutely should not believe in me.

‘Course,’ he says with a smile that fully turns me into a puddle.

‘O-OK,’ I stammer. All thoughts have left my brain now. I’ll do whatever he says.

‘Are you sure about this, Zach?’ Bec drags me back to reality. She doesn’t look at all convinced. I’d be offended by her lack of faith in me if it wasn’t absolutely justified.

‘Yeah, Zach isn’t exactly … excellent.’ Chase tries to put it gently.

‘He’s terrible,’ Bec says, less gently.

‘I’m sure he’s not that bad.’ Cameron defends my honour. My hero!

‘No, he really is,’ Bec says.

‘OK, fine, maybe he’s terrible!’ Cameron laughs. Not exactly the words I was hoping would come out of my crush’s mouth today. ‘But it doesn’t matter. Zach, we just need you to stand here. Pin yourself to that flagpole and don’t move. If they know you’re terrible, it might even work in our favour. They’ll think it’s a trap. There’s no way they’d believe we’d leave our flag with only our worst player standing guard.’

‘I don’t think anyone’s saying I’m the worst player –’

‘I am definitely saying that,’ Bec says.

‘What about Kellen?’ I say defensively.

‘What about me?’ Kellen raises an eyebrow. ‘I’m not as bad as you, Zach.’

‘You’re so much worse than me!’

Bec laughs. ‘OK, so why don’t you both stay back? Work as a team? And then the rest of us can go on offence.’

‘That works for me,’ Cameron says. ‘As long as you guys are happy?’

He looks directly at me as he says it. If I can pull this off, successfully defend our flag, maybe he’ll see me differently. Maybe that’s all I need to do to finally get him to notice me.

‘We’ll do it,’ I say. ‘Right, Kellen?’

‘Fine.’ Kellen shrugs. ‘But I’m not taking any responsibility if this goes wrong …’

‘It won’t,’ Cameron says confidently just as Madzikanda’s whistle shrieks in the distance, signalling the start of the final round.

‘We’ve got this!’ Bec says. ‘Everyone with me. Good luck, boys!’

And, before I can even really process what we’ve agreed to, they all disappear into the surrounding woodland, leaving me and Kellen alone.

‘So you still have a thing for Cameron then?’ Kellen says as the sound of footsteps and breaking branches grows quieter and quieter.

‘Huh?’ I say, feeling myself instantly turning red. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘Because you practically fainted when he spoke to you,’ Kellen says with a laugh. ‘It was quite entertaining to watch. All this time and you’ve still never made a move?’

‘I’m working up to it,’ I mutter. I don’t want to have this conversation again today.

‘Doesn’t look like it.’

‘Why are you interested all of a sudden?’

‘I’m just saying … You’ll never know if you don’t go for it. What could be more romantic than a prom-night dalliance?’