Chapter 25: Bring a Friend Day - My Name Is Samim

This Tuesday, at chess club, it’s ‘bring a friend’ day. It’s meant to get more kids interested in chess. I invite Rita and Ayan to come along with me.

“Snacks there?” Ayan asks.

I shrug. “I think so.”

Ayan raises one eyebrow with distrust.

“Come on, it’s just one time, and we’re doing it for our friend,” Rita says.

I know she means well, but her words sound like I’m forcing them to do something really terrible.

“Chess club kind of is really terrible,” Zayn says, but I ignore him.

Ayan slumps his shoulders in defeat and follows us to room 6, where the chess club meets.

As we approach the door, a boy exits. Ayan blocks his way with his log-like arm. The boy gapes at him, puzzled.

“Snacks there?” Ayan asks in a stern tone.

Zayn giggles. “Legend!”

The boy shakes his head, his eyes wide.

“Okay, home time then,” Ayan says, turning back and walking away.

“Hey, come on!” Rita shouts after him.

“Please, Ayan?” I ask.

Ayan stops, looks at me for a second, then sighs and lumbers back.

“Your dessert is my dessert tonight,” he says casually, walking past me into the room.

Max and his gang jump off their seats as soon as we enter. My chest rises with a deep breath and I head towards Rence and a few other friends.

“Max will try to wind you up,” Rence warns me. “Just ignore him.”

I nod, and Max appears before me, like a demon summoned by the mention of his name. His friends grin from behind him, a pack of jackals ready to attack.

“Oh no,” he says. “Don’t tell me we’ll have more poor refugees in this club?”

I glance at Rita, worried Max has upset her, but she folds her arms and just looks annoyed.

“We came to support Samim,” she says.

“Of course, of course. You’re Rita, right? Samim’s girlfriend.”

“I’m not his girlfriend.”

“Whatever. And you, fatty? ‘I-speak-no-English-but-eat-like-pig.’” Max mimics Ayan’s accent, and his friends burst into cackles.

Ayan’s face shows no emotion, as if he has pressed a mute button on Max and can’t hear him at all. He puts his hands in his pockets and wanders away, scanning the room for a snack.

“He’s so stupid,” Max hisses, annoyed that Ayan didn’t care about his insults.

“He’s not stupid,” I say.

“You’re all stupid, and you’re all here because everyone feels sorry for you, so they will hand you trophies for nothing.”

Zayn folds his hands in a prayer. “Oh, merciful God, please show some pity and grant Max a trophy already… for being the sorest loser on the planet.”

I clench my fists. “I didn’t get that trophy for nothing. And I didn’t get it because someone felt sorry for me. I got it because I won.”

“Well, I won all six rounds, too, so how come I didn’t get one?”

“Mr Adams says after they applied the tiebreak rules, I had one more point than you.”

“Yeah, yeah. They’re just trying to make you feel better, don’t you get it?”

“Let it go, Max,” Rence says. “They had to break the tie somehow. It makes sense.”

“Oh, does it? Does it make sense to you?” Max says in a teasing tone, crossing his arms. “Well, you know what doesn’t make sense to me? The fact that you’re a girl called Florence, but you dress like a boy and call yourself Rence. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe because you’re an idiot!” Rence shouts.

Max steps forward, snarling through his teeth. “Watch your mouth, Florence.”

“Stop!” I yell, stepping between them, my arms outstretched. “Why are you always so mean to everyone, Max?”

“Mean? I’m not mean. I’m only telling the truth. It’s not my fault you don’t like the truth about your pity trophy, or that Florence doesn’t like being called a girl even though she is.”

Rence grabs a bunch of chess figures from the table and throws them at Max. Max ducks and the pieces fly over his head.

One of Max’s sidekicks leaps forward, grabbing Rence by his shirt.

“Stop!” I shout.

“I’ll tell you what,” Max says, stepping up to my face. “How about you and I have a chess match? And if you win, I’ll never bother any of your loser friends again.”

“And if you win?”

“And if I win, you drop out of the Junior Championship.”

“No!” Rita says.

“No way.” Rence shakes his head.

“Bad deal,” says Ayan, walking up to me, chewing on a biscuit he found somewhere.

“Of course, I get it.” Max smirks. “You know you’ll lose and prove that you didn’t deserve that trophy.”

“No, Samim!” Rita says. “Don’t! It’s not worth it!”

“It’s silly, Samim. He’s just winding you up. Don’t do it,” Rence tells me.

“Listen to your friends, Samim,” Zayn says.

I turn to Ayan, and he shakes his head in slow motion.

I know they are right. I know it, but I can’t be a coward.

Max is watching me, his eyes gleaming.

I grab two chess pieces from the table, hide them behind my back and stretch out my clasped fists to him.

“Very mistake, Samim,” Ayan says, and my stomach knots.

Max picks the left hand. A white pawn is inside it, so he gets the advantage of making the first move. His face beams with delight as we sit in front of each other and start sorting our board. By the time it’s ready, everyone in the club is surrounding us.

Mr Adams walks into the room. “Sorry I’m late. What’s going on here?” He frowns, making his way through the crowd.

“Nothing, we’re just having a friendly match.” Max grins.

“I see.” Mr Adams folds his arms. “Well, may the best player win.”

Max gives a lopsided smile. His eyes are jackal-hungry, and he is ready to gobble me up.

My palms sweat, and I wipe them against my trousers.

As always, I quickly greet my army by tapping their heads. But before I get to the queen and the king, Max makes his first move and I freeze…