“OK, year six.” Miss Balogun puts her book down on her desk and looks at the class. “You’ve done really well this morning and you’ve all earned yourselves a nice lunch break.”
She walks across the room to peer out of the window, and Tally puts her hand in her pocket to rub the ladybird necklace between her fingers. But not even the lucky charm can stop Miss Balogun’s next words – words that Tally dreads to hear.
“It’s still raining so it’ll be wet play,” she announces. “Once you’ve had your lunch, you can come back up here and get the wet play boxes from the cupboard.” She picks up her bag and gives them all a stern look. “And if I hear any reports of people being daft, then it’ll be five minutes removed from Friday afternoon’s Golden Time – is that understood?”
The class murmur their assent and everyone packs away their pencil cases and books before heading off to the hall, eagerly discussing what games they can play once they’ve finished eating. Tally dawdles behind, and, once she’s sitting at the year six lunch table, eats her cheese sandwich as slowly as possible. Wet lunchtime is the absolute worst thing that can happen at school, and she’s in no hurry to get back to the classroom.
But she can’t hide out in the hall for ever. The sound hits her ears when she’s only halfway up the stairs, and by the time she steps inside the classroom it’s almost unbearable. She doesn’t know how everyone else can just sit there while the noise crashes and roils all around them like furious waves breaking on the shore, but nobody seems to mind. She picks her way between the desks to where Layla is playing a frantic card game with Lucy and Ayesha, and sits down beside them, trying to breathe deeply in an effort to stop them from seeing how much she hates this.
“Snap!” screeches Lucy, slamming her hand on to the table.
Tally flinches but nobody notices.
“Deal Tally into the next round,” demands Layla, pushing all the cards towards Lucy. “Let’s play again.”
Lucy starts to shuffle the deck and Tally glances around the room. Over in the corner, Luke and Ameet are playing a very loud game of table football, and next to them a group of kids are stacking wooden blocks into a tall tower. As Tally watches, the blocks wobble and teeter and then crash to the ground.
Everyone laughs.
Tally wraps her arms around her stomach and tries to breathe slowly.
“I’ll go first because I won the last round,” announces Lucy, slapping a card down in front of them. “Your turn, Ayesha.”
A movement by the door gets Tally’s attention. She looks over and sees Miles standing very still, as if he’s debating whether to enter the room or not. A sudden shout from the direction of the table football makes him frown, and then suddenly Mrs Bernard is there, bending down to say something into Miles’s ear. He nods and smiles and then he’s gone, away from the chaos and heading down the stairs.
Mrs Bernard looks like she’s about to follow him, but at the last minute she pauses and looks right at Tally.
“Koala Club?” she mouths, giving Tally a thumbs-up sign before turning and walking after Miles.
And Tally wants nothing more than to get up and leave the room. The idea of spending the rest of lunchtime in the library, snuggled up into a chair and reading a book in the peace and quiet, makes her whole body feel warm. She’s finished the world records book that Miles lent her, but he’s told her that there’s an entire shelf of them in the library and promised to find her a good one to read next. She could go down there and hang out with him and Mrs Bernard and escape the bedlam of the classroom. She pushes back her chair and starts to rise, but then a voice booms out above all the other noise.
“Where did Weirdo Edwards go?” Luke looms over their table, his eyes glinting the way they always do when he’s about to say something awful. “Did you see his face when he was standing in the doorway? I thought he was about to cry!”
“Go away, Luke,” says Ayesha. “And don’t be mean about Miles. You know he’s a bit different.”
“You can say that again.” Luke smirks at Ameet, who has come to stand beside him. “Although isn’t Miss Balogun always telling us to mix up our vocabulary? I think we should use some better words to describe him. Like peculiar.”
“Or odd,” adds Ameet. “Or strange.”
“He is a bit strange,” agrees Luke. “You know he’s not got any friends? He spends all his time in the library.”
“I’m sure he’s got friends.” Layla sounds cross. “Don’t be so unkind.”
“Oh yeah, sure.” Luke looks at her. “I forgot about all his pretend friends. He’s got the World’s Strongest Man and the World’s Fastest Woman and the World’s Oldest Person. And don’t forget the World’s Smallest Dog and the World’s Biggest Teddy Bear. He loves hanging out with that teddy bear – they’re best mates.” He sighs deeply, as if Miles’s behaviour causes him pain. “I know the best way to describe him. He’s the World’s Freakiest Kid.”
Lucy giggles, and when Tally looks around, even Layla has a slight smile pulling at the edges of her mouth. She sinks back into her seat and clenches her fists under the table. This isn’t fair. She should tell Luke that he’s wrong and that Miles does have a friend.
She should stand up and defend him.
Luke makes a clicking sound with his tongue and shakes his head. “Let’s face it. He’s Weirdo Edwards, and nothing any of you can say will ever change that. He’s always clutching that weird old book like it’s the most important thing in the world to him. He’s odd and that’s a fact.”
He glances at Tally and jerks his head in a quick nod, as if daring her to speak out against him. And then he walks away. And Tally lets him. She picks up the cards in front of her, and she starts to play the game, letting the noise of the classroom drown out the screams in her head that are telling her she’s doing the wrong thing. She doesn’t get up and call out Luke for being an atrocious human being. She doesn’t let her feet do what they are begging her to do – take her out of here and straight to the sanctuary of the library.
Because for the first time in ages, Luke didn’t say anything horrible about her. Which means that she is winning. And it is an undisputable truth that when Luke is calling Miles Weirdo Edwards, he isn’t calling her Weirdo Adams. When Luke is being mean to Miles, the spotlight is off her and she can blend into the background, like the chameleon that it is safest for her to be.
And maybe she should have spoken up for Miles, but if she’d done that, then everyone would wonder why. Maybe they would think that she’s just like him, but she isn’t – not in any single way. There’s nothing wrong with her, no matter what Dr Zennor writes in her stupid report – not the way that there is with Miles. He doesn’t hide how he’s feeling and Tally doesn’t know if that’s because he can’t or he won’t but, either way, Miles doesn’t pretend. He is just him.
And people are just mean.
All Tally has to do is hide her differences. Otherwise it’ll be her being called peculiar and odd and strange.
It’ll be her being called the freak.
After lunch, Miss Balogun calls everyone to be quiet.
“I have some sad news,” she says, her face looking solemn. “You all know that Carrie wasn’t here yesterday, and today I’ve had a phone call from her mother. Carrie’s got a rather horrid virus and her mum is fairly sure that she won’t be back at school for the next few weeks.”
She pauses and as the news sinks in, the classroom erupts in a burst of chatter.
“But it’s the summer production in two weeks!” yells Lucy. “What are we going to do?”
Miss Balogun holds her hand up in the air and waits for the noise to die down.
“I’m not sure,” she tells them. “It’s very short notice to get someone else to learn the part of Little Red, but I suppose whoever does it could hold the script while they’re on stage.”
Tally pulls the necklace out of her pocket and keeps it hidden in her hand, pressing it tightly inside her clenched fist. She wants to stand up and tell Miss Balogun that she could do it. She wants to shout out that she’s here and she’s ready, but she’s learnt enough over the last few months to know that people don’t like it when you say you’re good at something. You get told that you’re bragging or up yourself, and it doesn’t even matter if you’re genuinely the best, you still have to pretend that you aren’t.
But if only she could raise her hand and tell everyone that—
“Tally knows all the words!” calls Layla, suddenly. She jumps to her feet and beams at Miss Balogun. “She’s been learning them for ages and she’d be amazing at playing Little Red!”
Miss Balogun stares at Tally, who feels her cheeks start to flush.
“Tally?” asks the teacher. “Is this true? Do you know Little Red’s lines?”
Tally gulps. “Yes,” she whispers.
“And she can sing too!” announces Layla. “I’ve heard her.”
“Me too!” declares Lucy.
“And me!” Ayesha raises her hand. “She’s brilliant!”
Tally isn’t sure why neither Lucy nor Ayesha have ever complimented her on her singing voice before if they think she’s that good, but now isn’t the time to question it. All around her, kids are nodding and grinning and saying how great she’ll be, and for a brief moment she wonders if she’s fallen asleep at her desk and is having the best dream she’s ever had in her life.
Miss Balogun claps her hands for order.
“Well then,” she says, smiling at Tally. “I think the show can still go on! If you’re happy to step in and save the day, Tally?”
On the outside, Tally is nodding and smiling and agreeing that she will play the part of Little Red, although it’s really very sad that Carrie won’t be here. On the inside she is bubbling over with excitement and delight. Now she won’t have to tell Mum and Dad that she’s only in charge of the lights. Now she’ll get to show everyone just what she is capable of doing. Now it’s finally going to be her time to shine and everyone can forget all about Dr Zennor and any thoughts that she might be different.
In her hand, the lucky charm feels hot. She slips it back into her pocket where it will be safe. It didn’t give much luck to Carrie, that’s for sure – but it’s certainly helping her catch a break.
Everything is going to be just perfect.