“That’s brilliant, Anna!” said Ellie. “It’s the best one on the wall, for sure.”
I hadn’t noticed, but maybe she was right: it actually looked quite good.
I turned away from the display. I wasn’t sure what else to show her. I think Ellie could tell I was struggling, as she started talking.
“What kind of things do you like doing out of school, Anna?” said Ellie.
My mind was blank.
I sat down in Nia’s seat, which was at the back of the class, and placed Ellie-bot on her desk.
“I watch TV,” I said. It sounded stupid, but I couldn’t think of anything else. The only thing we did as a family was to go on picnics. That didn’t cost anything.
“I like TV too,” said Ellie.
I thought I should ask Ellie what she liked doing, but I was a bit worried that she might be too poorly to do anything. I didn’t want to upset her. I smiled awkwardly at the robot.
“Is there anything else you like?” I said. “Apart from watching TV?”
Ellie-bot’s eyes danced again.
“Oh, yes!” Ellie said. “I like baking. Shortbread, muffins and cupcakes are my favourites. I’m also learning lots about the Titanic at the moment. I love history so much. I’d like to be a historian one day.”
I wondered if Ellie was smiling. Her voice sounded bright and happy.
“That sounds great,” I said.
“I also like birdwatching,” said Ellie. “We’ve got lots of bird feeders in our garden, so sometimes I sit and write down all the birds that I see. Oh, and I like making jewellery. I’m making some bracelets at the moment and—”
“Oh. Hi, Anna,” said a voice.
I looked up. It was Nia. She came over and picked up her water bottle. She must have forgotten it.
“I’m just showing Ellie around the classroom,” I said.
Nia crouched down beside me.
“We were just talking about our hobbies,” said Ellie.
Nia grinned. “Great!” she said. “You should see our ‘Interests Board’! Have you shown her, Anna?” Nia looked at me.
I shook my head. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
Nia grabbed the robot and walked off to the corner of the classroom. Miss Burnell had created a space for us to share the activities that we did out of school.
“This is me at ballet,” said Nia. She held the robot in front of a photo of her in a white leotard. The picture next to it was another one of Nia. This time she was sitting on a chestnut-coloured horse. “And here I am with Pumpkin,” she said.
“Oh, wow! Have you got your own horse?” said Ellie.
“Yes!” Nia said. “He’s such a soppy thing. You’d love him! I’m going to the stables after school today.”
Ellie giggled. Nia made it look so easy. They sounded like best friends already.
The robot’s head slowly moved up and down as Ellie looked around the board.
“There’s Anthony playing football,” Nia said. “His team won the league and he got a cup. And there’s Beatrice doing trampolining. Oh, and there’s another one of me, playing the piano.”
I hovered by the board feeling more and more awkward.
“Wow,” said Ellie. “You sure are busy, Nia. Are you on there, Anna?”
I swallowed. I had one photograph on the “Interests Board”.
“Yep. I’m in the top corner,” I said.
Nia lifted Ellie-bot up to the picture of me, Dad, Mum and Henry having a picnic.
“Oh, that’s lovely,” said Ellie. “I love being outdoors and watching nature.”
It felt a bit like she was just trying to be polite.
“Oh look, there’s Erin at her street-dance club,” said Nia. She stopped by a photograph of Erin wearing a black hoodie and grey sweatpants. “Are you coming to the school fete on Saturday, Ellie? Erin’s club are performing.”
Ellie-bot’s eyes drooped. “No. I won’t be able to,” she said quietly.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” said Nia. “Anna and I are running a stall. You could have helped too.”
None of us spoke for a moment. I was trying to think what I could say to make Ellie feel better for not coming to the fete.
“Hey, Ellie. Would you like to see the library now?” I said to the tiny round camera.
Nia scrunched up her nose.
“The library?” she said. “I’m sure you’d rather see something a bit more exciting, wouldn’t you, Ellie?” She turned Ellie-bot so that the camera faced her.
“I don’t mind,” said Ellie softly.
“Great!” said Nia. “We’ll go on a tour! You’re going to love it. Let me take you to find Shavina and Erin. You don’t mind, do you, Anna?”
I shook my head and Nia skipped off across the classroom and the door closed behind her.
I went over to my desk and sat down.
It was probably for the best. Miss Burnell should have chosen Nia to look after Ellie in the first place. But thinking that didn’t stop the feeling I had inside. I felt like I was deflating, just like a burst balloon. All of the air seeped out until I was very, very small indeed.
Chapter Five
At exactly three o’clock I looked out of the window and saw that it had begun to rain again. Sometimes I thought the weather knew just when school started and finished. Twenty minutes later we were packing our things away, getting ready to go home.
“Before you go, Badgers Class, I want to tell you something,” Miss Burnell said. “I’m going to change the seating around tomorrow.”
A few people groaned and a few more said “Yes!” under their breath.
“When you come in tomorrow morning,” Miss Burnell said, “please look for where I’ve placed your English books. That will be your new seat until the end of term.”
Miss Burnell was one of those teachers who liked to “mix it up a bit” and move the classroom around. I’d been sitting at the same desk for the past month and I liked it there. I didn’t like it when we changed around. I worried about who I’d end up next to.
*
When I got out of school, I headed up the hill to where Mum normally parked. Henry was asleep in the back of the car. Nursery always wore him out.
“Hey, Anna,” said Mum. “All ready for the supermarket?”
I huffed. I’d forgotten about that. “I guess,” I said.
We drove down the road, passing Shavina and Erin and some others from my class. They were probably all going off to do their exciting clubs or hobbies. A knot of envy twisted deep inside my stomach.
“How was school, Anna?” said Mum.
“Fine. We had a new girl start today,” I said.
“Ah. Is she nice?” said Mum.
“Yes, I think so,” I said. “She’s not very well, so she has to stay at home and watch the lessons through this cool robot. She’s called Ellie.”
“Oh, yes, I’ve heard about Ellie,” said Mum. “The school sent out an email explaining how it’s all going to work. It sounds so clever.”
Mum checked her mirror before she turned a corner.
“Do you know what is wrong with her?” I said. “What I mean is … is it serious?”
We pulled up to a roundabout and stopped to let a bus go past. We followed the bus, then turned off down the road where the supermarket was.
“I don’t know exactly,” Mum said, “but the email mentioned that she’s finished her treatment. I think the important thing has been to keep her away from any risk of catching germs, in case they make her really poorly.”
I hoped Ellie was going to be OK.
“Miss Burnell asked me to look after her at break-time,” I said. “But I don’t think I did it very well.”
“What do you mean?” said Mum.
I couldn’t say that it was because everyone else was far more interesting than me as they actually did things out of school. If I said that, Mum might feel bad.
“Oh, you know, it’s just awkward talking to a robot,” I said.
&nb
sp; Mum was frowning as she looked left and right for a parking space. It was hard to get parked at the supermarket sometimes.
“Ha! Look,” Mum said. “There’s a space! Excellent!” She put the indicator on and pulled into a gap between two white cars.
Mum turned to face me.
“Just be yourself, Anna,” she said. “That’s always good enough. OK?”
I nodded. It didn’t sound good enough to me.
“Come on,” Mum said. “Let’s wake your brother up and get shopping, shall we?” She had a huge smile on her face. I sighed and climbed out of the car into the pouring rain. I couldn’t see much to be so cheerful about.
Chapter Six
The supermarket was fine until Henry got his finger trapped in the bars of the trolley. His cries were so loud you’d have thought he was having his arm sawn off. Everyone was staring at us. Mum took him out of the seat and carried him around, blowing raspberries on his cheek. Before long, Henry had forgotten all about his finger and was in fits of laughter. Mum was good at distractions.
When we got home, Dad was at the door to help with the shopping. Henry trotted up the path and Dad scooped him up under one arm.
“Ah, and where does this bag of shopping go, I wonder?” he said.
Henry started giggling and kicking his legs under Dad’s arm as Dad walked into the kitchen with him. I followed them and Dad gave Henry a big kiss on his cheek before putting him down. Dad began to butter a slice of toast. He worked nights as a security guard and so he had his breakfast when we were thinking about dinner. He slept during the daytime.
“Nice day, Anna?” Dad said.
“Yes, fine,” I said. “I’m going to go and do my homework.”
I went up to my room. On my desk was a collage that I’d started about a month ago. I’d seen a post online from a girl who had made one and put it on her wall. I thought it looked amazing, so I had a go at doing my own version.
I’d found a large piece of paper and drew the outline of a heart in pencil. I then cut out pieces of coloured paper from some old magazines that we had in the house into small petal shapes. Then I dabbed some glue at one end and layered the petals like feathers in the giant heart shape. I’d been trying to blend the colours so that it looked like the heart was fading around the edges, but I had only got about halfway.
I remembered the day when I’d stopped. During break-time the girls in class had been talking about going go-karting one Saturday. I hadn’t said anything, knowing it wasn’t something I’d be allowed to do. I’d got home that day and my picture had suddenly felt pointless. I’d just given up. I sighed and propped it against the wall so I had room to do my homework.
*
When I walked into class the next day, I heard a mixture of moans and cheers as everyone found out who they were sitting with for the next few weeks. Erin and Shavina were screeching and hugging each other as they’d discovered they were on the same desk.
Ellie-bot was sitting on a desk at the front. I looked at one of the English books beside the robot and read the name:
ANNA HIGSON
It was mine! I felt a fizz of happiness deep in my stomach when I sat down. The two strips of white lights on the robot’s sides were lit, so I knew it was turned on. The head of the robot slowly swivelled to face me.
“Hi, Anna!” said Ellie.
“Hi, Ellie,” I said. I gave her a smile and the robot’s head flashed and its eyes did a jiggle. I laughed, but then someone pushed the back of my seat and I was jolted forwards.
“Sorry, Anna. Can I get past?” said a voice.
I looked round. It was Nia. I edged my chair in and looked over at the English book on the other side of Ellie-bot. It was Nia’s. Yes, she was my friend, but my heart still sank a bit.
“Oh, hi, Ellie!” said Nia brightly.
“Hi, Nia,” said Ellie back, but the robot didn’t flash or wiggle its eyes. “How is Pumpkin?” said Ellie. “Did you ride him last night?”
“Yes!” said Nia. “I’ve been teaching him how to jump and he is just beginning to get the hang of it. He’s such a star.”
Fortunately, I didn’t have to listen to any more of Nia’s exciting life, as Miss Burnell began to take the register. When she’d finished, she asked Nia to go to the school office to collect some photocopying that she’d left behind. The rest of us were told to turn to a fresh page in our English books while Miss Burnell handed out copies of a poem.
“How was yesterday, Anna?” said Ellie. “Did you do anything nice after school?”
Ellie-bot turned its head to face me. I thought about last night. Of me, Mum and Henry going to the supermarket and then coming home to dinner. It wasn’t exactly exciting for her to hear about that. I blinked a few times, then smiled at the robot.
“My mum picked me up after school and we went to the new ice-cream parlour in town with my little brother,” I said. As soon as the words left my lips, I regretted it. What was I doing?!
“Oh, how lovely!” said Ellie. “I’ve heard it’s really nice there. What flavour ice cream did you have?” She sounded so interested, I had to carry on.
“I had a chocolate sundae,” I said. “With an extra flake and toffee sauce.” I had never been to the ice-cream parlour before, but as I spoke I could almost picture us there, sitting in one of the booths with the bright red padded seats.
“Henry had a strawberry sundae and it was so tall he had to kneel on his seat to eat it!” I said. I imagined me and Henry laughing and sharing a scoop of each other’s ice creams.
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” said Ellie. “Did you do anything else?”
I should have stopped right there, but it was too tempting to keep going. I was enjoying saying that I’d actually done something for once, even if it wasn’t true.
“After the ice creams, we met up with my dad and we all went ten-pin bowling,” I said. “Henry is only two, so he just watched and had a go at pushing the ball down the ramp now and then.”
This part of my story was true, but it had happened about ten months ago. Mum had won a family ticket to go bowling in a raffle in the office where she worked. I didn’t think there was any harm in adding the story in now.
“Great!” said Ellie. “I love ten-pin bowling.”
I grinned. “Me too!” I said. “And after that we went to the American diner and got hamburgers.”
Ellie was quiet for a moment.
“Wow, that’s a lot of things,” she said. “Was it someone’s birthday?”
I bit my bottom lip. She was right. It was a lot of things to do on a regular Monday afternoon. I’d definitely overdone it.
“No,” I said. “Dad got a pay rise at work and … um … he thought he’d treat us. We don’t normally have that much fun!” I did a little laugh.
“Well, it sounds like a wonderful evening,” said Ellie. The head of the robot turned and faced the front.
I swallowed. I felt awful for lying, but I also wanted Ellie to like me. My life was not interesting. If I didn’t make something up, then what would we have to talk about? Surely there wasn’t any harm in that?
Chapter Seven
Ellie was great to sit next to in class. At first, I wondered if she might have a hard time keeping up, as she’d missed so much school. But Ellie was really clever and the light on top of Ellie-bot often flashed blue, which meant she wanted to answer a question. She told me that her mum had picked up all the books and printouts that she would need for this week’s lessons. Ellie had already become just another pupil in Badgers Class.
The last lesson of the day was science. We’d been learning about the digestive system and Miss Burnell told us to work in groups of three and gave us a printed diagram of the insides of the abdomen. We had to label all the parts. Ellie, Nia and I set to work and we’d finished it within minutes.
Nia leaned on her elbow and smiled at Ellie-bot.
“It’s such a shame you can’t come to the school fete on Saturday, Ellie,” said Nia.
“Of course you can!” said Nia. “We’re in charge of the Hook-A-Duck game.”
“That’s great, Ellie!” I said.
*
At the end of the day we handed in our work and began to pack our things away.
“Are you riding your horse again tonight, Nia?” said Ellie.
“No,” said Nia. “I’ve got a French class straight after school and then a piano lesson.”
Nia zipped up her pencil case and threw it into her bag.
“My parents are keen for me to learn a second language and an instrument,” Nia said. “They think it’ll look good when I apply for university later on.” She pressed her lips together and smiled.
“OK, Badgers,” said Miss Burnell. “When you’ve cleared your desks, you’re free to go.”
“Bye, Anna. Bye, Ellie,” said Nia. “See you in the morning!”
She threw her bag over her shoulder and rushed off. I knew that on Tuesdays Nia’s mum would be waiting outside in the car with the engine running.
I put my books into my rucksack and Ellie-bot twisted round to face me.
“Thanks for working with me today, Anna,” said Ellie.
“That’s all right,” I said. “I’m glad you’re helping on the stall on Saturday. It should be fun!”
“Yes! I’m looking forward to it,” said Ellie. “And how about you? Are you doing anything nice tonight like Nia?”
I paused for a moment. I knew exactly what I would be doing tonight. Nothing.
I looked at Ellie-bot as she waited for me to answer.
“On Tuesdays I go … ice skating,” I said. It was the first thing that popped into my head.
“Oh, wow! Are you having lessons?” said Ellie.
I nodded. “Yep,” I said.
“You must be good!” Ellie said. “I went once and I couldn’t let go of the side!” She laughed.
The Small Things Page 2
