“Girls, I need you to set the table for supper, please!”
Mum’s voice floats through from the room next door. It used to be the dining room, but once she started painting full-time, it was decided that they could eat in the kitchen and that the dining room could be turned into her art studio. Well, Mum and Dad decided. They didn’t ask Tally what she thought of their plan, but if they had she’d have told them that it was a terrible idea. The dining room looks out on to the garden and it’s peaceful. It’s a nice, relaxing place to eat, unlike the kitchen with all the food smells and constant noise.
“I’m busy,” mumbles Nell, not looking up from her phone. “You can do it.”
Tally stares at her sister through the eyes of the tiger mask that Dad brought home for her from his last work trip away. She’s got several masks, but even though she hasn’t had this one long, it’s quickly become her favourite. Whenever she wears it, she feels safe.
“You’re not busy,” she points out. “You’re just messing about on your phone. How is that any busier than me listening to music?”
Nell sighs. “I’m working,” she huffs, rolling her eyes. “For your information, I’m asking Rosa about the homework assignment that we got today, so be a good little girl and set the table. And it’s not music, it’s Taylor Swift, and if I have to listen to that terrible song one more time, I’m going to go mad.”
Tally isn’t sure if it’s the eye-roll, the good little girl comment or the rude comment about Taylor’s music, but she’s aware that her good mood has completely disappeared.
“No.”
She reaches for the iPad and turns up the volume.
Nell glances up and scowls at her. “Yes. I’ve got stuff to do and you don’t. Just do what Mum wants, OK?”
Taylor Swift’s voice fills the room as the iPad is increased to maximum volume.
Tally’s voice, on the other hand, is very, very quiet. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
She thinks that she’s maybe a little bit like an iceberg. Nell can only see the tiniest tip of how she’s feeling, and maybe it doesn’t look like much, but she should watch out because beneath the surface there is a whole lot more going on.
“Well, I can actually.” Nell sounds cold but she’s not a match for Tally’s icy depths. “I’m fourteen years old and you’re only ten, so you have to do as I say. And I say to stop being difficult and set the table.”
Tally always thought that fire melted ice, but she must be wrong because the intense burning sensation in her head only makes the block of ice in her chest feel even bigger. She launches off the sofa and flings herself at Nell, grabbing her phone and throwing it as hard as she can across the room.
“I am not difficult!” she screams. “Take that back!”
“Get off me!” yelps Nell, struggling to keep Tally’s hands away from her face. “Mum!”
She tries to shake Tally off, but Tally reaches out and grips hold of whatever she can, determined not to let go. Footsteps pound down the hallway and then Mum bursts into the room.
“Girls! What on earth is going on?”
“Get her off me!” screeches Nell. “She’s gone crazy!”
“Don’t call me that word!” snarls Tally, tightening her grip, like a tiger grasping on to an antelope.
Mum strides across the living room and yanks Tally backwards. Unfortunately, Tally is not prepared for this movement, and the scream of pain from Nell as a chunk of her hair is pulled away in her sister’s hand is so loud that it makes Tally’s ears hurt.
“What was that all about?” asks Mum, reaching out for Nell. “Are you all right?”
“No! I am not all right!” howls Nell, clutching her head. “She ripped out my hair, Mum! You’ve got to do something about her – she’s completely wild. It’s not normal.”
“I’m not all right either,” murmurs Tally. “If anyone is interested.”
Mum turns off the iPad and turns to face her. “No, Tally. I’m afraid that I’m not particularly interested in how you’re feeling right now. We told you after the last time you hurt your sister that this has to stop, and yet here we are again. Now take off that mask and look at me properly.”
“She attacked me,” sniffs Nell. “I’m not safe in my own home.”
Mum breathes out a very long, slow breath. “There’s no need to bring the full dramatics, thank you, Nell. What Tally did was wrong, and she’s going to make it better.”
Tally steps closer to Mum, the tiger mask still firmly on her head.
“Aren’t you going to ask me what she did to deserve it? You always say that there are two sides to every story, and you haven’t even heard mine yet.”
Mum doesn’t speak for a moment and instead stares at the window, almost as if she’d rather be outside in the rain than in the room with them. Then she gives herself a little shake and looks at Tally.
“I’m going to ask you one question, Tally, and I want you to tell me the truth. Did Nell hurt you first?”
Tally nods enthusiastically. “Yes! She totally did!”
Nell stands up and glowers at her sister. “That’s a lie and you know it. I didn’t touch you. I’d never hit you or treat you the way that you treat me.”
Mum stares at her youngest daughter. “Is that true?”
Tally scowls at Nell. “She did hurt me first. She said really unkind things and she hurt my feelings.”
“I asked her to set the table because I was doing homework,” Nell informs Mum.
“Liar! You told me,” retorts Tally. “You didn’t ask me.”
Mum’s shoulders slump. “Oh, Tally,” she says quietly. “Go to your room, please. And while you’re sitting up there on your own, I want you to think about what you’ve done wrong and how this whole thing could have been avoided.”
Nell gives Tally a death stare behind Mum’s back. It’s OK for her. Nell was born with all the luck in the world, and some days Tally is convinced that this is part of the problem. Mum always says that Nell was born under a lucky star, which makes Tally suspect that it must have been particularly cloudy on the night of her birth. Then again, Nell is so horrible that it wouldn’t surprise Tally if she’d just taken more than her share and there was no luck left by the time Tally was born.
Mum gestures towards the doorway. “Go on. And when you come down for supper I expect you to apologize to your sister.”
Tally doesn’t care. They can’t make her say sorry, and she’d rather be in her bedroom listening to Taylor Swift than down here with her uncaring family. The tiger slinks towards the door, keen to retreat to its den. Nell can get as much attention and sympathy from Mum as she wants – what she’s failing to understand is that Tally can’t possibly set the kitchen table if she’s been sent to her room, and so Nell is going to have to do it after all. Which is completely fair considering that this was all her fault in the first place.