"Hello, Kate," Mrs Arnott greeted her son's friend at the start of a new school year. "He's running late as per usual,".

"Already?" Kate asked as she rolled her eyes at her best friend's mother due to his tardiness. It wasn't going to be the best start to the term if they were late to registration.

Mrs Arnott watched as Kate made herself at home. Gone was the little girl she had known the previous year. Kate had had a growth spurt over the summer, Mrs Arnott realised. She was probably taller than her son at the moment which wasn't going to go down well with Steve. He was already a little touchy about his height.

That wasn't the only change that had happened to the girl over the summer. She had a more feminine figure Mrs Arnott noted as she saw the imprint of a bra underneath Kate's school shirt. Puberty had obviously hit over the summer holidays.

"Looking forward to the new year?" Mrs Arnott asked as she engaged Kate in conversation.

"Yes thanks, Mrs Arnott," Kate replied. She had had a boring summer spending most days by herself as her mother worked. She was going to enjoy mixing with her friends again.

Steve appeared in the kitchen and hurriedly shovelled food into his mouth before the pair of them departed for school. They made it to their form class with two minutes to spare.


"Miss?" Said Kate as she raised her hand later that week in the first PE lesson of the year.

"Yes, Kate," the teacher said.

"I don't want to play netball," Kate informed her teacher. "Why can't I play football?".

The teacher didn't know how to answer Kate's question. "Because girls play netball in this school,".

"But why?" Kate persisted. She glanced jealously at Steve and the other boys in the class as they set about playing the game she wanted to play on the playing field. "It's not fair," she argued. Kate hated inequality. She had only just joined the school last year so hadn't felt able to speak up. But now she was in her second year she felt able to voice her complaint.

"Girls have never shown much interest in playing football," the teacher pointed out.

"I want to," Kate retorted and was pleased when a few of her friends agreed.

"But you need a whole team," the teacher argued back. "You couldn't play with the boys,".

"I could get a team together," Kate said.

"You manage to do that and I suppose we'll have to think about it,".

Kate kept that promise in her head and vowed to make it happen. Reaching home later that day an idea took hold and soon she was scribbling away on her notepad.


"Mrs Arnott," said Kate the next morning as they waited for Steve to join them yet again, "can you sign my petition please?" she asked as she searched in her bag for what she had been working on the previous evening:

"What petition is that?" Mrs Arnott asked as she stopped what she was doing and looked at Kate.

"Allowing girls to play football at school," Kate replied. "It's not fair that just because I'm a girl I'm not allowed to play. I don't want to play netball,".

Mrs Arnott looked at the fairly empty piece of paper Kate had put in front of her. There was a big title requesting that girls be allowed to play football with only Kate's signature underneath. "Of course I can," Mrs Arnott replied before signing underneath Kate's name. She felt the girl had a point.

Mr Arnott's signature swiftly followed as he made a fleeting appearance in the kitchen on his way to work. It was long enough however for Kate to swoop in and convince the man to sign up under his wife's signature.

"Sign this," Kate ordered as she shoved the paper under Steve's nose once he eventually joined her in the kitchen.

"What's this for?" Steve asked as he munched on his cereal spraying milk on to the paper.

"A petition to allow girls to play football at school ," Kate explained as she moved the paper out of the firing line and wiped it dry.

"This ain't gonna work, mate," Steve argued.

"How do you know?" Kate challenged. Failure was not an option for Kate. She was going to persevere until she succeeded in getting a girl's football team for the school. "Just sign the petition,". Steve did as asked.

"If this works I'll run naked around the school,".

"Can't wait to see that," Kate replied.


All of Kate's time at school for the rest of the week was spent lobbying the other pupils on her petition. By Friday she had secured nearly every pupil's signature and had enough girls interested in football to have a team for each year. "I think we better see the headmaster," the PE teacher suggested when she saw the amount of people that supported Kate.

Mr Hastings was the school headmaster. He was a Northern Irishman liked by all of his staff and most of his pupils. Kate really hadn't had much to do with him until now. She was now sat outside his office, legs swinging freely as she went through in her mind what she was going to tell him. She was not going to show him how nervous she was.

"OK Kate, in you come," he said warmly as he opened the door to his office and let the twelve year old in. Her PE teacher had just been telling him all about the petition and the support it had. The teacher had also contacted a few other schools in the area who were starting up girls football teams. It seemed possible that a little league could be formed and Kate's dream be made possible. "So I gather you want to play football," Mr Hastings said as he took a seat at his desk. Kate saw her petition was already on it.

"Yes please, Sir," she replied bravely.

"You've got a lot of support for this idea," he said as he thumbed through the petition.

"Lots of girls like football," Kate said. "We just want to be able to play it,".

Mr Hastings sat back in his chair and thought about the idea. Should he ok this proposition? This was a topic that the girl in front of him was very passionate about and he admired her tenacity. He would be keeping an eye on this pupil as she progressed through the school.


"Well?" Said Steve as Kate took her seat beside him after her meeting had finished. "How did it go?" he asked, fairly sure he knew the answer.

"Better get ready to strip your clothes off and run around the school," Kate replied gleefully.

Steve looked shocked. Mr Hastings had obviously done the unthinkable.