Tally Tuttle Turns into a Turtle

by Kathryn Holmes

  She missed the wad of paper. The ball hit something else, instead. Tally slowly made her way toward the whatever-it-was and was delighted when it turned out to be a dusty fidget spinner. She decided to award herself one point for each time the ball hit the toy, and five points if she actually got the spinner to spin. She imagined she was on a game show, competing to win all the Starbursts she could eat.

  She was up to seventeen points (seven hits and two spins) when someone spoke: “What are you doing?”

  Tally jumped. “Who, me?”

  “Yes, you. The turtle. What are you doing?”

  “It’s a game I made up,” Tally said.

  “How does it work?”

  Tally explained the rules and then asked, “Where are you?” She turned in a circle. “Who are you?”

  She looked up to see a spider’s web running between two legs of the bookshelf. The web was long and skinny, delicately suspended about two inches above the floor. In the corner of the web, tucked into a nook where a wooden leg screwed into the bottom shelf, sat a small, black spider.

  “Hello,” the spider said. “I’m Clementine.”

  “Hi.” Tally crawled closer. “I’m Tally.”

  The spider shrank back into her corner. “Are you going to squash me?”

  Tally froze. “No. Why would I do that?”

  “Lots of people try.” Clementine shuddered and her web vibrated in response.

  “Well, I won’t.” Tally had never been a big fan of spiders, but now that she was actually talking to one, she could see that there was no reason to be afraid.

  “Glad to hear it.” Clementine cocked her head at Tally. “So, tell me: how did you turn into a turtle?”

  6

  Some Kind of Magic

  Tally gasped. “You saw me change?”

  “Clear as day. You were sitting in your chair, as a human.” Clementine pointed one of her eight feet in the general direction of Tally’s desk. “Then, poof! You were on the floor, and you were a turtle! It was extraordinary. How did you do it? Is turning into an animal something people do often?”

  Tally had been so busy exploring and playing that she’d almost forgotten she wasn’t supposed to be hiding under the bookshelf. She was supposed to be Tally the person, not Tally the turtle. Remembering the truth sent a whisper of worry slithering under her shell.

  “I have no idea how I turned into a turtle,” she murmured. “I think it was some kind of magic. How come you saw it happen, but my teacher and classmates didn’t?”

  “They didn’t see you?” The spider’s eyes widened with surprise. “I don’t know why not. It was quite a spectacle.”

  “They think I’m visiting the nurse.”

  “Ah.” Clementine moved from one end of her web to the other, looking at Tally from all sides. “Are you planning to change back?”

  Tally gulped. She’d been so excited about her transformation—and so relieved not to be the center of her classmates’ attention anymore—that she hadn’t thought that far ahead. “I don’t know how. I—”

  “Madison, can you fill Tallulah in when she returns?” Mrs. Norrell sounded close by. Tally crawled nearer to listen.

  “Absolutely!”

  Tally recognized the confident voice. This was the girl who’d said she’d told the kids who were making fun of Tally’s name to stop. Madison, she recalled, was the Black girl with the cool braids, who sat two desks in front of Nate. Tally was pleased with herself for remembering.

  “My dad works with her mom,” Madison said, “so I’m supposed to introduce myself anyway. Ooh, can I be in charge of showing her around?”

  “Thank you, and yes, of course you can be Tallulah’s guide,” Mrs. Norrell said. “We want to make our new friend feel welcome. Lydia, do you want to help?”

  “Definitely!” Lydia—the girl in the pineapple dress who sat beside Madison—had a cheerful voice. She sounded like she was the kind of person who wasn’t bothered by anything. Tally was jealous of people like that, the ones her dad said let troubles roll off them “like water off a duck’s back.” Maybe that’s why Tally had turned into a turtle, instead of a duck. When troubles came, she couldn’t help splashing around in them.

  But maybe hanging out with Madison and Lydia would be like carrying an umbrella and wearing galoshes. Maybe she’d get less wet.

  “I’m down here!” Tally called out. “Let’s be friends!”

  “They won’t understand you,” Clementine said. “Humans don’t speak Animal. To them, you’ll sound like a turtle.”

  “I thought I wasn’t going to have any friends because everyone was laughing at me earlier,” Tally fretted, “but what if this is my chance to make friends? What if I miss it because I’m a turtle?”

  “Is that how human friendships work?” Clementine asked. “You only get one chance?”

  “I don’t know!” Tally let out a frustrated growl and pulled into her shell, where she felt comfortable, cozy, and safe.

  “The way I see it,” Clementine told her, “you have two options: you can accept that you’re a turtle and learn to live like one, or you can figure out how to turn back into a person.”

  From inside her shell, Tally said, “I don’t want to stay a turtle forever.”

  “Well, I know someone who’s been in this classroom a lot longer than I have,” the spider said. “He might have some answers for you.”

  Tally poked the tip of her nose out into the dusty air. “Really?”

  “Really. But to get to him, you’re going to have to come out of that shell.”

  7

  Crawling into the Light

  Clementine scuttled along the bottom of the bookshelf. “We have to cross to the other side of the classroom.”

  Tally hesitated. “Can’t we stay here a little longer?” She felt comfortable, cozy, and safe under the bookshelf. “We could play for a while, and then go talk to whoever it is?”

  “What if every minute you spend as a turtle means it will be harder to change back?”

  Tally let out a squeak of alarm. She hadn’t thought of that.

  “I can go first, if you’re scared,” Clementine offered.

  Tally was scared. But she looked into Clementine’s black eyes and saw that the spider was scared, too. Clementine knew people liked to squash spiders. She was afraid it was going to happen to her. As small as Tally was now, as a turtle, she was a lot bigger than Clementine. She was also much less creepy-crawly. Tally thought she had a better chance of making it across the floor in one piece than Clementine did. And yet, Clementine was being brave for Tally.

  Tally decided that she could be brave, too.

  “No!” she cried, moving as quickly as her squatty turtle legs would let her. “I’ll go first. I’ll make sure the coast is clear.”

  Clementine sighed with relief. “Thank you, Tally.”

  “You’re welcome.” Tally took a deep breath before crawling into the light. When her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she saw that her classmates were leaving for the cafeteria. Lunchtime, already! As if on cue, her stomach growled. Tally looked longingly over her shoulder at the red Starburst she’d set aside. It would probably take her an hour to unwrap it with her beak and her clumsy turtle toes. No, lunch would have to wait until after she met Clementine’s friend.

  The classroom door closed behind Mrs. Norrell.

  “It’s safe!” Tally said to Clementine. The two of them began their trek across the tile floor. Tally was bigger, but Clementine was faster, so they traveled at almost the same speed.

  They’d made it to the center of the room when the door swung open again. Two of Tally’s classmates ran in. “Grab your lunchbox before Mrs. Norrell notices we’re gone!” shouted one of the boys. He was skinny with light skin and dark hair.

  The other boy, blond with glasses, went to a desk in the back row by the windows. While he was rummaging in his backpack, the first boy opened his own lunchbox and pulled out a bag of chips. “Boom!” the dark-haired boy shou
ted, clapping his hands together to pop the bag, creating an explosion of chip fragments.

  “Ahh!” His friend staggered, pretending to be hit by the blast. Then he recovered and tackled his opponent. The two of them slammed into a desk, skidding it across the floor toward Tally and Clementine.

  “Quick!” Tally whispered to the spider. “Get inside my shell!”

  Clementine was too terrified to respond. The boys’ play-fight drew nearer.

  “Hurry!” Tally shouted, pulling her right front leg into her shell to give Clementine somewhere to go. This time, the spider jolted into motion. She climbed into the darkness by Tally’s shoulder. Her legs tickled Tally’s scaly skin, but Tally didn’t dare giggle. She pulled the rest of herself inside her shell and held her breath.

  She could still hear the boys crashing around. If one gigantic sneaker landed in the wrong spot, or if a desk or chair flipped over, that would be it. Tally and Clementine would be toast.

  8

  Spinning, Spinning, Spinning

  Tally had never lived through an earthquake, but she could imagine it feeling something like this. The floor shook, rocking her from side to side. The desks and chairs roared like thunder as they scooted along the tile. The boys’ shouts echoed loudly in the empty room.

  “Gotcha!”

  “No fair! I wasn’t—”

  “Take that—”

  “Yowch!”

  They didn’t say anything about a turtle. Tally didn’t think they’d seen her yet. But it was only a matter of time.

  Clementine was quivering inside Tally’s shell, clutching her shoulder with all eight legs. Meanwhile, Tally’s tiny turtle heart hammered in her chest. Her breath came in short gasps and her head throbbed. She didn’t just have butterflies in her stomach. She was filled, tongue to tail, with angry, buzzing bees—

  Thwack!

  One of the boys accidentally kicked her. She flew across the floor, out of control. She shut her eyes tight. She was spinning, spinning, spinning, and she didn’t know how to stop.

  Bam!

  Tally ricocheted off something and went spiraling in a new direction. She felt the glittery bracelet slip from her shell. She heard its beads scatter.

  Ping!

  She tapped something metallic. A chair leg, maybe.

  She was slowing down, but still spinning. She could barely tell her head from her tail. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to walk in a straight line again.

  “David! Owen! What’s going on?”

  Mrs. Norrell was here! The teacher sounded angry.

  The commotion stopped immediately. “Owen forgot his lunchbox,” David said.

  “We were just playing around,” Owen added.

  “Put those chairs back,” Mrs. Norrell commanded. “Clean this mess up. We’ll be visiting Mr. Angelo’s office, and we’ll be calling your parents—”

  Thud.

  Tally hit a wall. The world spun one last time, but the spin felt more up and over than around and around. Then, finally, she was still.

  She felt Clementine leave her shell. When she was sure the spider was out of accidental squashing range, she poked out one leg, then another, and then a third and a fourth. Tally wiggled her feet, stretching her clawed toes toward the floor.

  Except . . . there was no floor. There was only air.

  “Clementine?” Tally stuck her head out of her shell to find that she was floating. The spider was clinging to the ceiling, right by her head. “How am I doing this?” she asked, still dizzy from her Tilt-a-Whirl trip across the floor. “Why are you upside-down?”

  “I hate to tell you this, Tally,” Clementine whispered, “but I’m not the one who’s upside-down—”

  “Oh! Where did you come from?”

  Tally shrieked in surprise as Mrs. Norrell crouched beside her. She waved her legs frantically, trying to flip over. All she did was shimmy from side to side on her shell.

  “Don’t be scared,” Mrs. Norrell said, giving Tally a warm smile. She looked at the two boys. “Owen, grab me a shoebox from the arts and crafts corner. A tissue as well, please.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Owen walked away and returned a moment later with an empty box and a Kleenex. “How’d that turtle get in here, anyway?”

  “I don’t know, but . . .” Mrs. Norrell tapped her chin. “Animals do seem to have a way of following me.” She reached toward Tally. “It’s okay, little one. I’ve got you. Let’s get you back outside, where you belong.”

  9

  The Forest of Grass

  Using the tissue to shield her fingers, Mrs. Norrell scooped Tally up and flipped her over. She carefully set her down inside the shoebox. Tally squealed and chirped and hissed. “It’s me, Tally Tuttle!” she cried. “Don’t take me outside, please! There’s someone in here I need to talk to!”

  Her protests didn’t help. The lid began to close over her head. The last thing Tally saw before the darkness was complete was Clementine scurrying up the classroom wall. “You’ll find your way back!” the spider called. “I believe in you!”

  Tally felt herself rising into the air. It was like being on a fast-moving elevator. Then the box began to bounce with Mrs. Norrell’s footsteps. A door squeaked open and slammed shut. Mrs. Norrell walked and walked. She shoved her weight into another door, and inside the box, Tally slid into a corner, claws scratching helplessly at the cardboard.

  Finally, the box descended, which made Tally feel like the floor was dropping out from under her. Tally wanted nothing more than to pull her legs and head into her shell, but she made herself stand firm. She would be brave and face whatever was about to happen head-on. Clementine believed in her.

  The box lid lifted. Sunlight and fresh air streamed in. Mrs. Norrell tilted the box and deposited Tally in a patch of tall grass. “There,” she said. “Isn’t that better?”

  “No!” Tally shouted. “It’s not better!”

  “Is the turtle safe out here?” David asked, peering down. “Are there predators?”

  “Yeah, what if it gets eaten?” Owen chimed in.

  “Eaten?!” Tally yelped.

  “A turtle’s hard shell protects it from most predators,” Mrs. Norrell said.

  Tally breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Where did it come from?” Owen asked. “Was it a pet?”

  “This little one probably belongs to the family of painted turtles that lives by the creek. The markings look the same. I bet someone found it and brought it inside to show their friends.” Mrs. Norrell frowned. “I do hope they washed their hands. Turtles can carry salmonella germs.”

  “Salmo-what?” David asked, freezing with his fingers extended to touch Tally’s shell.

  “Salmonella. It’s a type of bacteria that can make you sick to your stomach.” Mrs. Norrell got to her feet. “Come along, boys. We still have to visit Mr. Angelo’s office to discuss your behavior.” She began to walk away, and the boys followed.

  Tally was a little insulted that her teacher thought she was germy. Still, she crawled after Mrs. Norrell, David, and Owen as fast as she could, shouting, “Wait!” It was no use. Even if her tiny turtle legs could keep up, the humans wouldn’t be able to understand what she was saying.

  Tally was on her own.

  She had to get back inside the school. She had to talk to Clementine’s friend on the other side of her second-grade classroom. Before she could do that, she had to figure out exactly where Mrs. Norrell had released her. Tally craned her neck to look around. All she could see was green grass and brown dirt. She needed higher ground, so she could get her bearings and come up with a plan.

  She began to crawl through the forest of grass. The blades bent as she passed over them and snapped back up as soon as her weight had lifted. She couldn’t see farther than a few inches in front of her nose, but she trudged on.

  After a couple minutes, she bumped into something hard. Tally staggered back, beak stinging and eyes watering. When she looked at what she’d run into, she forgot about the
pain.

  The rock was tall, but not too tall for a tiny turtle to climb. It was also craggy, which meant her claws would have somewhere to dig in. Tally took a tentative step onto the warm gray surface, then another, and another. She didn’t stop until she reached the summit.

  10

  A Sense of Belonging

  Tally felt like she had scaled a mountain. She could see for miles and miles.

  Well, maybe not actual miles. Turtle-sized miles. She could see the school building and parking lot in one direction, and the playground, with the creek and woods beyond, in the other. Mrs. Norrell had released her on the lawn by the side entrance, a lot closer to the creek than to the school. That made sense, as she thought Tally was a real turtle with a turtle family.

  Between Tally and the side door, there was a stretch of overgrown green grass, followed by a long concrete sidewalk, followed by a set of stairs. There was no way Tally could climb those stairs in her turtle state. Not that it mattered whether she could handle the stairs by herself. She couldn’t turn the doorknob, either.

  Tally looked over to the playground, where the kindergarteners were having recess. Mrs. Norrell had guessed that someone had brought Tally inside the school building. The teacher was wrong, of course—but maybe the kindergarteners could be useful now. Tally could crawl to the blacktop and try to look irresistible. One of the kids might pocket her and take her to their classroom for show and tell. Kindergarten, first, and second grades were all on the ground floor. Tally could slip away to her own classroom and find Clementine.

  It was as good a plan as any.