Toby moved through the playground carefully, following his friend Adam. Both were eight years old and had just made the move from infant school to junior. The playground seemed to be packed with older children, all of them running, shouting, playing complicated games. Adam and Toby hung around the edges, studying it all with wide-eyed wonder.
They moved past a cluster of children, boys and girls, all wrestling each other to try and reach a small floating ball. It seemed the wrestling was more interesting than actually grabbing it, the contests of strength and skill kept forming and dissolving without anyone making a serious attempt to reach the ball.
Toby turned as he heard shouting and laughter from behind him. Through a gap between two buildings he saw half a dozen children surrou
