‘Bye, Delphie, have an awesome time. And be good!’ Dad said in a warning tone.

‘What do you mean? I’m always good!’ I laughed as I slung my sleeping bag over my shoulder.

‘You know exactly what I mean, young lady. No mischief. And think before you act!’

I winked at him as I slammed the car door and waved. ‘Bye, Dad!’

I dropped my bag to the ground as Dad drove away, and pulled my jumper on over my head. It was a cold, clear morning and Dad had offered to drive me to school since we had to be there at seven o’clock ready for the camp bus. Butterflies fluttered about in my stomach in excitement.

I walked up the path towards the front gate, where a long bus was parked. Its undercarriage storage door was open and bags were piled in mounds around the wheels. A portly driver wiped his reddened face with the back of his hand as he carelessly hauled the bags into the bowels of the bus, one by one.

‘Delphie!’

I turned and saw Melissa running towards me, arms outstretched. I gave her a quick hug and walked over to the rest of the gang.

‘We are seriously going to freeze on this camp,’ Ava wailed. ‘My brother went there for rugby training a few weeks ago and he said the cabins were unbearably cold!’ For such a tall, strong-looking girl, Ava could be a real softie sometimes.

Ava’s brother was a rugby player at the boy version of the Academy. It was called the Royal Academy of Sport for Boys and was our ‘brother school’.

‘I’m sure you’ll be fine, princess,’ Bec teased.

We bundled ourselves onto the bus and raced for the back seat. The four of us stretched out along the long bench at the back window. The cool kids at the back. Yes, I’ll admit it, the four relay girls were the cool kids.

The journey began with the usual bus antics – trying to get passing trucks to blast their horns, playing spot the beetle-car, hair braiding and singing 100 renditions of ‘The Ants Go Marching’. But after an hour or so the bus quietened. Some people fell asleep and others put on their headphones to listen to their own music. I gazed out the window in boredom at the passing cows – we were deep into farmland now.

I startled as another big bus drove up beside us. On board, there was a group of girls, waving and taunting through the windows. Up the back of the bus, right in line with me, were two matching faces with long, dark hair. They both glared at me. One raised an eyebrow in a light smirk. The Ogilvy twins.

I took in a sharp breath as their bus overtook us, much to the delight of all the Swim School girls. They waved out the back windows with their fingers raised in a ‘number one’ sign, as if their bus was beating ours in a race to the camp site. So much for ‘nice’.

We followed the National Swim School’s bus into a driveway with a sign marked ‘Camp Birubi’. This was no ordinary school camp site. It was a training facility used by some of the top sporting teams in the country. It had topnotch facilities, including an Olympic-sized pool. Even some of the National Olympic teams had come to this site for team bonding and training sessions.

We trundled off the bus, stretching out our cramped limbs, and gathered in an outdoor undercover area. Slowly, the other swim schools arrived and more nervous girls sat down quietly. There was an air of awkwardness as we sat side by side with those we usually swam against. Some offered friendly smiles and others avoided eye contact altogether.

‘Welcome!’ a voice boomed from up the front. It was Coach Stuart. He stood before us, flanked by the coaching staff from the other swim schools. It was a pretty impressive line-up of coaches. A lot of them had swum in National teams themselves and others had coached girls who had gone on to Olympic glory.

I smiled in nervous excitement.

‘This week is going to be fun but also hard work for you girls,’ said Coach Stuart. ‘We’ll be starting training at 6.30 am each morning.’

There were a lot of muffled groans from the crowd.

‘This means breakfast is at 5.30 am. Yes, you heard me, 5.30 sharp! The coaching staff are going to be pretty strict about you girls getting proper rest. We want you to eat properly – no skipping breakfast – and getting to bed on time. We will have lights out at eight o’clock.’

There were gasps from the girls. Eight o’clock? That’s a kiddy bedtime!

The National Swim School coach, Vanessa Hartwell, stepped forwards. ‘This means there will be NO shenanigans in the night. No getting up. No midnight feasts. No sneaking around. If we catch anyone out of their cabins after lights out, you will be banned from the final carnival on day five.’

‘Speaking of the final carnival,’ Coach Stuart added, ‘I want you all to train hard so we can have some really good races on the day. The winners will not only get bragging rights, but they will also receive one of these beautiful medals.’

The coaches stepped aside to reveal a large table with an array of gold, silver and bronze medals. Everyone knelt up, craning to see the sparkling medals attached to long, smooth ribbons.

‘I want gold’, I breathed.

‘Now, logistics,’ Coach Vanessa said, flipping open her clipboard. ‘I’ll leave the list of cabin numbers here on the front table. Come up and find your name and cabin number and take a printed map of the camp site. The cabins are located in the southern area of the camp site, not too far from the aquatic centre, which is right next to the dining hall. We’ll also be using the gym labelled ‘Gymnasium Four’. We’ll have fitness training sessions as well as our group meetings in there. You’ll see on the map that behind the southern cabins there is a lake. That area is out of bounds. Understand?’

‘Yes, Coach Vanessa,’ we chorused.

Another coach from one of the other swim clubs stepped forwards. ‘I’m Coach Matt, for those of you who don’t know me yet. I just wanted to add that if you are all very well behaved, we have a fun surprise planned for you on Wednesday night!’

An excited chatter rose among the girls. Whispers of disco or night swimming flittered about in the air.

‘Okay, find your bags and get settled into your cabins!’ Coach Stuart beamed. ‘We’ll meet in the dining hall for lunch in one hour. And then training begins!’

We jumped to our feet and crowded around the list of cabins. My eyes scanned down the page until my name jumped out at me.

Cabin Two:

Delphine Attkinson

Melissa Wong

Rebecca Tonelli

Ava Cooper

I turned to my friends and squealed. ‘We’re together!’ But then my eyes scanned back up the list, where two names jumped off the page.

Cabin One:

Ashley Ogilvy

Annabel Ogilvy

Rachel Peterson

Amanda Leong

‘Oh, great,’ I moaned as I walked with my friends to get our bags. ‘The Ogilvy twins are right next door!’

We made our way down to our cabin and opened the door. Inside, there were two sets of unmade bunk beds. The room had a clean, cream carpet and crisp white walls. Adjoining the room was a small bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet.

‘Hey, this is actually really nice!’ Melissa said in surprise.

‘Yeah, nothing like the cabins we had at my old school’s camp.’ Ava said, scrunching up her nose. ‘Man, they were gross. The mattresses were dusty and brown and there were boogers stuck to the wall.’

‘Eeeeeew!’ we all screamed in unison.

‘Bags the top bunk!’ Melissa yelled as she threw her sleeping bag onto one of the higher bunks. I put my bag on the bed below hers and Ava also put her bag on a lower bunk.

‘There’s no way I’m going top bunk.’ Ava laughed. ‘I’ll smack my head on the roof every time I sit up since I’m so tall!’

Bec happily threw her bag on the bed above Ava’s.

We all looked up when we heard giggling from someone passing our open door. It was the Ogilvy twins, walking along with linked arms. One of them glanced into our room. ‘Isn’t it funny how you are cabin number two?’ she asked, smiling at us through the doorway. ‘And we are cabin number ONE. It’s just like the last swimming meet, isn’t it?’

The other twin laughed loudly at her sister’s joke. I frowned. Melissa mouthed silently ‘be nice’.

‘Looking forward to training with you guys,’ I offered.

The twins glanced at each other. ‘If you can keep up,’ one of them retorted. The second twin laughed loudly again as they walked into their cabin and slammed the door.

‘They are so arrogant!’ Bec scoffed.

‘Well, wouldn’t you be if you were an Ogilvy?’ Melissa laughed. ‘I mean, their mum won Olympic gold for Australia and their dad swam in the gold medal relay team for the USA. They have some serious champion heritage going on there.’

‘Who cares who their parents are?’ Ava said, shaking her head. ‘We’ll beat them where it matters – in the pool. Nobody cares who your parents are at the end of the race, when you are standing on that first-place podium.’

We unpacked our gear and chatted in excitement about the days ahead. When we noticed it was almost time for lunch, we put our shoes back on and started for the door. Much to our surprise, one of the twins was in the doorway.

‘Are you guys heading up to lunch?’ she asked.

‘Sorry, are you Ashley or Annabel?’ Bec asked. The Ogilvy girls were identical and there was no way of telling them apart without their help.

The twin paused, as if thinking about it. Melissa and I exchanged confused glances.

‘Annabel,’ she said coolly. ‘I’ve forgotten where they said the dining room is – do you mind if I walk with you?’

‘Sure,’ Melissa said, shrugging. ‘Where’s Ashley?’

‘Oh, she’s gone ahead, I think,’ Annabel answered quickly.

We exited the cabin in single file with Annabel at the back. My friends walked ahead, forming a group, and Annabel joined them, making polite small talk.

As I walked behind them, I heard the door of the twins’ cabin quietly close behind us.

Strange, if Ashley had gone ahead, who was that? Maybe it’s one of their other cabin buddies.

I shrugged and jogged to catch up with my group. But a peculiar feeling in my chest told me that something fishy was going on.