year sixes

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Like a live iphone pic, as the camera pans across the group, each child moves into stillness. Mei Mei is holding on to Tilly who is holding on to Clem who is tiny and groaning and pulling her friends then they freeze, Clem's left foot on the first step going up to class. Dilba and Sanaa have just clapped the backs of their hands together and Sanaa's eyes are closing in a smile, Dilba's too. Nilla is looking at a butterfly hovering gently towards a sprig of those tiny purple flowers then both freeze within touching distance of the now stilled butterfly bush that sprouted last summer in the corner of the playground where the doors empty out on to the bouncy yellow asphalt. Till is listening to something Gash is saying, his hands in his pockets, he looks confused. Gash is leaning forward, urgency in his shoulders. To the side by the green wheelie bins, Milo, Jus, Jaz, Jab, Ethan, Caleb, Noah, Mo, Jam, Benoit, Ax and Ruthie are playing football in a tight knot, each vying for the ball. Ailbhe, Anh and the Islas, they're besties Isla C and Isla F, are jumping up and down. It's hard to say why. When the movement stops, the Islas have their feet off the ground, Anh's left heel is slightly raised and she's leaning into Ailbhe whose knees are bent and they've grabbed each other's hands so they don't fall over but their stilled pose looks wonky. If someone pressed play and the movement started up again, they'd collide and tumble. They're laughing with every part of their faces. Henry and Ibra are walking towards the football huddle and butting shoulders, they settle mid-shove, Ibra mid-shout, Henry grinning with his eyes half closed. Claudie stands alone, in a daze, staring into the middle distance, balancing on one foot, twirling a braid in the opposite hand. Only her fingers move into stillness, the rest of her is already in perfect balance, seemingly unaware of the scrum behind her, Jon Jon, Billy, Bella, Gracey, Shontelle, Tash, Naimey, Moon, Clay, Skye, Bee, Thia, Theo, Piya, Francie, Suha, Afri, Aali, Ali and Abi all talking and yelling and screaming and clapping and patting and booming and bouncing and yeeting and shoving and flicking and kicking and strutting and hollering and doubling over and bubbling up and simmering down and lunging and flexing and getting sturdy, all freezing at different heights, like the jointed columns on the Giant's Causeway that Miss showed them all last week and I know it blew their minds cos they told me. Several of them. Came running up all talking at the same time on break. Francie kept saying it looked like a lego set designed by a nonhuman and then Theo kept going yeah, cos no instructions for these rocks. Heather is sticking her tongue out slightly like she always does when she's drawing and she's drawing now, her orange journal covered in tape and stickers glued to her right knee, her eyes darting from the page to the mad frenzy of year sixes and back again. She freezes midway through her gazing between them, her crayon in her left hand suspended in the air just above the page, her right hand also lifted like she's figuring out a shape from both sides at once. And then there's Teddy who's just being Teddy and reading his book, as oblivious as Claudie, but facing the other way, two oldies at the end of a pier looking out into private oceans.