“Let’s go! Ameet – you’re on first, OK?” Luke’s voice rings across the playground.
Layla grabs hold of Tally’s hand and pulls her forward. “Just one game,” she pleads with her. “One game of Infection, that’s all. It’ll be fun!”
Tally glances around. The yard is filled with kids, most of who seem to be shrieking or running or chasing after a football. It’s noisy and chaotic, and the last thing she wants to do is join in.
“If we stick together, we can beat the boys,” says Lucy, sprinting up to where they’re standing, with Ayesha close behind her. “Ayesha and I will guard each other and you two can do the same.”
Tally doesn’t want to guard anyone, not even Layla. What she really wants is to find a quiet place where she can give her brain a break, just for one minute. Miss Balogun has had them doing practice test papers all morning, and there’s been no time to do anything except think, think, think. Right now, she needs a moment to remember how to breathe properly.
“I think I might go—” she starts.
“—Just play the game, won’t you?” snaps Lucy, slightly impatiently. “We’re all playing, so why won’t you? Why do you always have to be different?”
Tally swallows hard and looks down at the ground. Her school shoes are all scuffed up around the toes from where she spent yesterday break-time kneeling down to rescue the woodlice that appeared at the start of the play trail and that could have easily been trampled on by the little kids’ feet. She had intended on going back there today, just to check that they were still safely in the pile of leaves where she put them.
But Lucy is right. If she wants to be like them then she has to join in.
She has to play the game.
Taking a deep breath, a bit like she does when she’s about to dive into the swimming pool, Tally nods at Lucy.
“Here we go!” yells Ameet. “If I catch you then you’re one of the Infected and you have to hunt the others.”
“Run, Tally!” screeches Layla, letting go of her hand and dashing away.
Tally hesitates for a second and then sees Ameet heading straight towards her. She doesn’t have a choice and Layla said it would be fun.
She can do this.
Layla lied.
Tally runs, but no matter where she turns, there is always someone close behind her, chasing her down. She twists around corners and ducks behind other kids, but they’re relentless in their pursuit, and the longer she runs, the more of them seem to be chasing her. She can’t see Layla anywhere – all she can see is the blurred shapes of people either hunting her or hindering her escape.
And the noise. The sound of people howling her name like a pack of wolves makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She wants to stop and hide, but she can’t because they’re snapping at her heels and she mustn’t let them catch her. She can’t become infected, she just can’t. That isn’t OK, even if it is only pretend.
And so she keeps on running.
“Tally!”
She can hear the voice over the pounding of her feet, but she keeps going.
It’s louder now, and a second later a hand grabs her arm and pulls her to a halt. She twists in their grip, ready to lurch away, and then sees Layla grinning at her.
“You can stop running now!” Layla tells her. “It’s time to go in.”
Tally blinks and looks around. The rest of the school are starting to line up, ready to go back into the building while most of year six are standing behind Layla and staring at her.
Tally braces herself for the inevitable taunts and horrid comments and jibes, but they don’t appear. Instead, people are smiling and nodding, and at the back of the crowd, Lucy and Ayesha are laughing and giving each other high-fives.
“Line up please, year six!” calls Mrs Bernard, the new lunchtime supervisor.
“You’re so fast,” says Ameet as everyone starts to walk towards the school. “I didn’t know you could run.”
Tally shrugs. “I can run if I have to.”
“How come you never win on sports day, then?” asks someone else.
Tally shrugs. “I guess it’s different if you’re being chased,” she mumbles.
She doesn’t know what just happened, but she does know that she wasn’t running for fun – she was running to escape.
“You won the game!” says Lucy as they make their way up the stairs and into class. “That’s totally going to stop Luke from saying that girls can’t win Infection.”
“Yeah, you’re super fast!” adds Ayesha. “You’re our secret weapon!”
Tally walks towards her desk, the smiles and praise from the rest of the class washing over her like a huge wave.
She did it.
She did what everyone else was doing and it actually worked.
And if the happy feeling isn’t quite enough to silence the unwelcome voice in her head, the one that is whispering that they only like her because she did what they wanted her to do, then she’s just going to have to do her best to ignore it.
Even when it repeats Ayesha’s words in a hissing, sneaky kind of way.
You’re our secret weapon.
She isn’t a weapon and she isn’t a secret. She’s just her – the same her that she’s always been. Although it’s definitely true that everyone prefers her when she’s being a slightly different version of her.
A better version of her.
“Let’s play again tomorrow,” calls Ameet as Miss Balogun walks into the classroom. “You have to play too, Tally!”
Tally nods and pulls out her newest pencil case, smiling to herself. What’s happened in the past doesn’t matter. It’s the present that counts, and right now she’s part of something good.
She can be this Tally.
This Tally does what everyone else does, because if she’s learnt one thing since she started in year six, it’s that nobody likes it when you’re different. Different people don’t get the main part in the production and they don’t get lots of friends.
Being different never brings anything but trouble and bad luck.
It’s time to fit in and show everyone just how much like them she can be.