Boring.

That's what they call me.

Dill-brain.

Thick.

Nerd.

They did it again today. I tried to answer a question but I couldn't say it. My mouth was too slow. I tried and tried but I couldn't say it. I heard them sniggering behind me.

"Hey dopey!"

"Wakey wakey"

"Come on, stupid!"

The teacher is annoyed with them, and tells them so, but they never stop. Every time I make a mistake they get at me. They don't care what the teacher says.

After school I walk home by myself. Alone. I hear the birds in the trees, and I look into every garden. I know all the names of all the flowers. And all the trees.

I stop to pick up a snail off the footpath. It has its shell cracked. Water is seeping out on to the pavement. I try to make my fingers work properly. They curl round the snail, carefully, gently. I lift it up and place it back in a garden. I think it will live.

Then I see a bee. It is too weak to fly so I spit beside it. I have a lolly in my mouth so my spit is full of sugar. The bee drinks gratefully and tries its wings. It bee takes off and flies away.

I cannot walk very fast so I see everything as I go home. I see a spider spinning a web under the eaves of a house. I see a dragonfly hovering over a pond. I see a starling with some dry grass in its beak. None of my friends notice these things.

I am nearly home now. My gate is in sight. I wish my legs would work like other people's legs. In my mind I am running down the street, but my legs are walking. Slowly.

"Gidday dull-brain!"

It is one of the boys from my class. He pedals by on his racing bike. He is past my gate before I can take two more steps. I see him turning at the end of the road. He is swooping like a bird, coming back towards me. He is on the