Baby of the team - WSL

part 47

sandy held tightly onto tally as she leant back into her. sandy wondered what had happened to the kid. she could tell how underweight she was when she helped her put the hoodie on. it was worrying especially given the bandages she had seen earlier. she had seen one of her friends in school in a similar way. it was worrying for sandy especially given how small she was. she was like the size of about a 12 year old. given she was 16 it was worrying. something was obviously going on and sandy suspected it had something to do with an eating disorder or some form of mental health problem. in her opinion, the signs were all there.

tally hadn't noticed that esme and lauren had been gone for about 10 minutes. esme had gone to the toilet with lauren when lauren had asked what had gone on with tally. esme had looked at her. lauren was her best friend in the whole world except for tally and henry. she couldn't lie to her. "she got suspended from school and just before that there was an incident, beth and viv had to take her to hospital... attempted suicide, she wears it was an accident but I don't know what to think!" esme explained feeling relieved having told her. she couldn't keep things from lauren very well. lauren gasped and brought her hand to her mouth in shock. the girl she had seen so far was a bit shy yeah but she she seemed upbeat and happy. she didn't seem like she had just been in hospital sure she had a black eye and cut cheek but she had covered them with a massive amount of concealer. given the amount of concealer the girls assumed that bringing it up was a good idea, they all thought better of it. lauren esme who had begun to tear up. they stayed like that for a few minutes as esme cried finally letting it hit her. she didn't want to go back to the group during that moment. it was obvious she had been crying. very obvious. and she couldn't explain why. it was as though lauren read her mind. "why don't you go home and I don't know have a bath me and lanz will make sure tally is ok!" she suggested to esme who was sniffing trying to stop crying. esme looked at her unsure about leaving the girl. she knew thattally would be fine she had alanna and steph who knew enough for her to be safe. she would be fine. esme nodded and went and grabbed her bag giving lauren one last hug and softly saying "keep a close eye on her please!" and then she left.

Sandy could feel the girl lean into her more and more. she looked at her and could see the girl was getting tired. they were still watching as the whole group went into the water in groups. sandy knew that tally was going to have to stay until alanna and lauren and esme were done so she looked over at Alex who had just gotten out with Ellie and Julie while 4 girls had gone in and a far few were in the changing rooms drying off. Alex looked at her and tilted her head slightly as if asking her what. Sandy gestured to tally with her eyes and mouthed tired to her making it obvious she was trying to be discreet. Alex smiled seeing the young kid bundled up in hoodies amd rubbing her eyes a bit yawning. She had had a full day of travelling according to esme who had told them a bit about her. Obviously they had played against her and alex was particularly interested in her. Given her age and her level of skill she was a really quite incredible player.

Alex went and grabbed a chair and put it where sandy was standing with tally as there was only 1. Sandy sat down and pulled tally onto her lap before she even knew what was going on. She smiled at sandy gratefully and snuggled into her a bit. Sandy had been worried before but now she had the girl on her lap she could feel how she basically weighed nothing. Alanna came out of the changing room and laughed when she saw where her hoodie had gone. She didn't mind tho she could see that the kid was tired and cold. She went over to tally. "Me and lauren are gonna take you home in like 40 minutes ish is that OK, esme had a really bad headache so went home a while ago to have a bath!" Alanna said softly stroking the girls head as she crouched down so she was at her level. Tally nodded sleepily. Alanna handed her her phone and gave tally a kiss on the top of the head. Her phone had been buzzing like crazy.

Shs opened her messages and smiled when she saw who it was from. Liam. He had sent her a photo from when they were probably 12ish maybe. They had just been arrested and not for the last time and had there pictures taken by their social worker at the time who was not happy. She smiled at the photo and sent back that it was a cute photo. He sent a few more pics of them together that he had dug out. She smiled thinking about all the fun times together. "Do u remember when we got arrested when we were what 14ish and you got that ankle thing!" Tally texted to him. That had been a particularly fun occurrence. It hadn't been their fault and yet they both got arrested but apparently having just had cancer got her a get out of jail free card almost quite literally. Liam had ended up with an ankle monitor. He was less than pleased about that. he sent her a picture of him with her nonna and she smiled and laughed at it sending him a few hearts.