First published in 2021 in Great Britain by
Barrington Stoke Ltd
18 Walker Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7LP
This ebook edition first published in 2021
www.barringtonstoke.co.uk
Text © 2021 Lisa Thompson
Illustration © 2021 Hannah Coulson
The moral right of Lisa Thompson and Hannah Coulson to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in any part in any form without the written permission of the publisher
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library upon request
ISBN: 978-1-80090-066-0
For Lily (and Lily-Bot)
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Author's Note
Chapter One
It was pouring with rain on the day Ellie joined our class. On our drive to school, Mum had to put the windscreen wipers on to their fastest setting. They whizzed back and forth, but the windscreen was still blurry as we looked out into the heavy shower.
Mum pulled into a parking space close to the school gates and kept the engine running.
I didn’t move.
“Come on, love, off you go,” Mum said. “I’ve got to get to work.”
I watched the streaks of rain run down my window.
“Can’t we wait a little longer?” I said. “There’s still ten minutes until the bell goes.”
Mum sighed. “I can’t, Anna,” she told me. “The traffic is always bad on Mondays. I need to get Henry to nursery and I can’t be late for work.”
I sighed. There were three reasons why I didn’t want to get out of the car.
Nia Gibson, Shavina Bates and Erin Smith.
They were all standing in the playground huddled under an umbrella.
Nia, Shavina and Erin were lovely. They weren’t nasty to me in any way and I guess I’d call them my friends – even if I was on the edge of the group.
Shavina and Erin were never far from Nia and hung on to her every word. Sometimes I thought Nia was like the sun and the rest of us were planets, orbiting around her. There was nothing wrong with Nia, Shavina or Erin at all. They just made me feel so small.
“Come on, Anna,” said Mum. “I’m going to be late.”
My little brother kicked the back of my seat as if I needed reminding that he was there. I picked up my school bag, which was down by my feet.
“There’s an umbrella in the boot,” said Mum. “Take it with you or you’ll get soaked. And remember we’re going to the supermarket after school.”
I groaned. My parents liked to go shopping later in the day when things were reduced and there were more bargains to be had. We went at least twice a week.
“Bye,” I said.
I got out of the car and shut the door as the rain hit me in the face. I put my head down and trudged towards the gates. Behind me, I heard Mum shout out of the car window.
“Anna! The umbrella!” she said. I ignored her and kept walking.
I got to the playground and headed over to where Nia, Shavina and Erin sheltered under their umbrella. I stood behind them.
“It was incredible!” said Nia. “The slope was so high and it was real snow!”
Shavina and Erin gasped.
“Real snow?” said Shavina. “How can they use real snow?”
I remembered then that Nia had gone to an indoor ski slope at the weekend.
“Morning!” I said brightly. I hoped when they saw me they’d let me squeeze in under the umbrella. But none of them turned round.
“I don’t know, but it was so cold!” Nia said. “It felt just like it did when we were in the Alps.” She turned her head and spotted me. “Oh, hi, Anna,” she said.
“Hi, Nia. That sounds amazing!” I said.
She smiled. No one moved to make space for me. I felt really awkward just standing there with rain dripping off my nose.
“Did you have a nice weekend, Shavina?” said Nia.
“Yeah, it was OK,” said Shavina. “I had a county competition. I won the freestyle, but we lost the relay.”
Shavina was a brilliant swimmer and spent so much time in water that I was surprised she hadn’t turned into a fish.
“I went to my street-dance club!” said Erin. “It was so cool. We’re doing a routine at the school fete next weekend!”
The three girls all smiled.
“Oh, that’s great, Erin!” said Shavina.
“How about you, Anna?” said Nia. “Did you do anything nice at the weekend?”
I opened my mouth. I had nothing to say. I didn’t do anything out of school and my mind was a total blank. Nia, Shavina and Erin all watched me, waiting for me to say something. Our teacher, Miss Burnell, suddenly called out across the playground.
“Come on in out of the rain, Badgers Class!” she said.
I closed my mouth. I was saved.
Chapter Two
We headed inside to our classroom. The windows began to steam up as we took off our wet coats and brushed the rainwater from our school uniforms.
Erin and I shared a desk with Anthony and Seb. I sat down next to her and she smiled at me. Erin’s hair was damp and frizzy, and she began to weave it into a braid. It looked lovely.
“Your street-dance club sounds great, Erin,” I said.
“You should come, Anna. You’d love it!” said Erin.
I smiled and nodded, but that was never going to happen. We’d all been given a flyer about the new club starting in the community centre a couple of months ago. Erin and a few of the boys had signed up right away. Those kinds of clubs were really expensive, so I hadn’t bothered to ask my parents.
Miss Burnell placed a cardboard box on top of her desk.
“What’s that, Miss?” said Erin. “Have you been shopping online?” Erin always talked to teachers like they were someone from her family or a friend.
“I’m going to show you in just a minute, Erin,” said Miss Burnell. Her eyes twinkled. Then the bell went, signalling that school had begun. She waited for everyone to settle down and then she stood up.
“OK, Badgers Class,” said Miss Burnell. “Before I take the register this morning I have some special news. I’m very excited to say that we have a new student joining our class today.”
We looked around the room, trying to spot where they were, but there were no new faces.
“This student is very special because they aren’t able to come to school in person,” said Miss Burnell. “They have an illness which means they need to stay at home so that they won’t come into contact with any germs.”
Anthony’s hand shot up. Miss Burnell ignored him.
“They attended another school but just moved to this area,” Miss Burnell went on. “I’m sure you can imagine how daunting it must be to join a new class. I hope you’ll make them feel very welcome.”
Anthony stretched his arm even higher. Miss Burnell nodded at him.
“How are they going to join our class if they can’t come to school?” Anthony said.
Miss Burnell smiled. “I’ll show you,” she said. She reached into the cardboard box and took out a large white object. There was a hushed gasp as she turned it around.
“It
’s a robot!” said Erin.
It had a big white cube for a body and a smaller cube for its head. On the small cube were two oval shapes that looked like eyes.
“This is how our new pupil attended her previous school,” Miss Burnell explained. “The robot is connected to her tablet at home, so she will be able to see and hear what we’re doing in class. It’ll be as if she were here with us. Isn’t that clever?”
Miss Burnell pressed something on the bottom of the robot and the top of the white cube head lit up blue and its eyes glowed white. On the bottom cube were a few holes close together that looked like some kind of speaker.
“Woah!” said Seb. “It’s waking up!”
There were two strips of lights on the sides of the robot which blinked steadily for a few moments, then went solid.
“I think we’ll position the robot here, next to Billy,” said Miss Burnell.
Billy stared at the robot and leaned away from it.
“Miss! You can put it next to me if you want to?” said Nia from the back of the class.
“Thank you, Nia, but it needs to be at the front so that the camera has a clear view of the lesson,” said Miss Burnell. She went back to her desk.
“OK. I’m going to take the register now,” she said.
We’d heard the register so many times we knew exactly when our names were. We all waited to see what would happen when a new name was called.
“Bea,” Miss Burnell began.
“Yes, Miss.”
“Katie.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Nia.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Anna.”
“Yes, Miss,” I said.
“David.”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Ellie.”
We all froze. There wasn’t an Ellie in our class. Well, not yet, anyway.
Everyone stared at the robot. The top of its head glowed blue and the white eyes wiggled up and down. And then a tiny voice came from inside the robot.
“Yes, Miss,” it said.
Chapter Three
After the register, Miss Burnell began our first lesson. Everyone in the class kept looking over at the robot to see what it was doing.
Miss Burnell was busy writing some fractions onto the whiteboard and Erin leaned towards me. “What do you think is wrong with her?” Erin whispered.
“Who?” I said.
“Ellie!” said Erin. “It must be serious if she’s too sick to be at school for so long.”
I just shrugged.
“I might ask my mum if I can have a robot,” said Seb, slumping back in his chair. “I can play on the Xbox and be at school at the same time.”
Erin and Anthony laughed.
“OK, Badgers,” said Miss Burnell. She turned to face us. “Who would like to solve the first equation on the board?”
Suddenly we heard a whirl and the robot’s head turned to the left. Everyone gasped.
“Miss! It moved!” yelled Billy.
“Yes,” said Miss Burnell. “Ellie can control the robot from her home so that she can see everything that’s going on in the classroom.”
The head of the robot slowly turned to the right and then back to the centre again.
“Ellie?” Miss Burnell said. “Would you like to show the class what else the robot can do?”
“Um, OK,” said Ellie, through the robot.
Miss Burnell turned the robot around so everyone could see. A light at the top of the head began to flash blue.
“This means I want to ask a question,” said Ellie.
“Oh, wow!” said Erin.
“And this is when I don’t understand something,” said Ellie. The eyes of the robot moved left and right, looking confused.
“This is when I’m happy,” said Ellie. The robot’s eyes looked like large letter As and wiggled.
“And this is when I’m sad,” said Ellie. The eyes on the robot drooped as if they were half closed.
“That robot is well cool,” said Seb.
“I was thinking we should come up with a better name than ‘robot’,” Miss Burnell said. “Don’t you, Badgers? Is that OK, Ellie?”
The eyes on the robot went back to normal.
“Sure!” said Ellie.
Anthony’s hand shot up. “How about Ellie-bot?” he said.
Miss Burnell laughed and the eyes on the robot began to wiggle, showing that Ellie was happy.
“It looks as if Ellie likes that,” said Miss Burnell. “Ellie-bot it is! Right. Back to Maths.”
She turned back to the whiteboard and we carried on with our lesson.
*
It was surprising how quickly we got used to having Ellie-bot in the classroom. We all stared at it the first couple of times the top of its head flashed blue and Ellie asked a question. But after that it became normal. It felt like Ellie was really there with us.
At break-time Miss Burnell asked if she could have a chat with me.
“Anna,” she said. “I’d like you to partner up with Ellie-bot.”
I was confused. How could I partner up with a robot?
“Me? But how?” I asked.
“I want you to be Ellie’s go-to person for any questions she might have about school life,” said Miss Burnell. “I’m sure she’d like to hear from a student. You can tell her all about yourself and what you like doing in and out of school.”
I stared at Miss Burnell’s desk. I didn’t do anything out of school. Nia would have been a far better person to do it. Nia was super-confident and her life was so busy with all her hobbies. What would I have to talk about?
I looked over at the desk where Ellie-bot was still sitting.
“Can you ask someone else, Miss?” I whispered. I didn’t want Ellie to hear me.
Miss Burnell shook her head. “I would really like it to be you, Anna. OK?”
I knew that she’d made her mind up and I didn’t have a choice. Teachers are good at that: making it sound as if you’ve agreed to do something you don’t want to do.
“All right,” I said. “What do I have to do?”
I could hear everyone laughing and running outside. It wasn’t raining now and the sun was shining. Nia, Shavina and Erin would be in the top playground talking. I’d normally be there too, even if I did more listening than chatting.
“Just start by introducing yourself,” Miss Burnell said. “How does that sound?”
I sighed. I didn’t know Ellie and I was expected to chat with her through a robot. And she was really ill. What was I supposed to say? This would be so easy for Nia. I was about to try to get out of it again when Miss Burnell went over to the robot.
“Ellie? Are you there?” she said.
There was a pause and then a small voice replied, “Yes, Miss, I’m here.”
Miss Burnell beckoned for me to come over. She pulled out the seat where Ellie would have sat if she was actually in class.
“I want to introduce you to one of the pupils in my class,” said Miss Burnell. She turned the robot around so it was staring right at me. “This is Anna and she’s going to tell you a little bit about herself and our school.”
Miss Burnell gave me a smile.
“I’ll leave you two to it,” she said. She picked up our English books and headed out of the classroom.
Chapter Four
I stared at the robot and felt my face go pink. It seemed like the robot was staring at me.
“Um. I guess I’ll just start with … hello,” I said. “I’m Anna.” I felt so awkward it was unreal.
Nothing happened for a moment and then the robot’s white eyes began to wiggle up and down. She was saying she was happy.
“Hello, Anna,” said Ellie. “Sorry you’ve got stuck inside with me at break-time.”
I smiled. “Oh, that’s fine,” I said. “I don’t do much at break-time anyway.” I wasn’t sure if that sounded a bit rude, but the robot’s eyes did another wiggle. I laughed.
“Do you like school?” said Elli
e.
“It’s all right,” I said. “Miss Burnell is really nice.”
The robot hummed on the desk. Its eyes stayed in the happy setting. I sat there silent, trying to think of what I could say.
“Did you go to school before … um … before you got … ill?” I said. I instantly wished I hadn’t mentioned Ellie’s illness. That was probably the last thing she wanted to talk about! But Ellie didn’t seem to mind.
“Yes, but I haven’t been to school in person for about a year now,” she said.
I nodded. We sat in silence for a bit. I didn’t know what else to say.
“Where do you sit, Anna? Do you want to show me?” said Ellie.
“Sure!” I said. I carefully twisted the robot round so that it faced my empty desk. “I sit over there on the left with Erin, Seb and Anthony.”
I turned the robot back to face me again.
“I could show you around the rest of the classroom if you want?” I said.
The eyes on the robot wiggled again.
“Yes, please!” said Ellie. “You can tell me where everyone sits and what they’re like!”
I grinned, then carefully picked up the robot. I turned it round so that I was holding it against my chest, its eyes facing outwards.
“OK, so let’s start with Miss Burnell’s desk,” I said. I pointed the robot at the shelf behind her chair. “She keeps all of our workbooks here and she puts the book she’s currently reading on this stand so that we can see what it is.”
“Oh, I love reading. Don’t you?” said Ellie.
I thought about it. Did I like reading? I hadn’t read a book in ages.
“It’s OK, I guess,” I said.
I walked slowly around the class, showing Ellie where everyone sat. Then I went to the back wall where there was a big display of our latest art work. We had used pastels and chalks to draw Bronze Age tools.
“They look amazing!” said Ellie. “Which one is yours?”
I had to search for it. I’d never looked for my picture, but it had to be somewhere on the wall.
“There it is,” I said. It was right in the centre. It had been pretty hard to do because you couldn’t rub the pastel out if you went wrong.
The Small Things Page 1
