‘He just doesn’t know how to be part of a team,’ Leah seethed as she, George and Mimi walked towards their favourite spot under the old willow tree at the edge of the field. The practice match meant that they had been sent to lunch early and it wasn’t quite twelve o’clock yet. Most students were still in class, so the school grounds were almost empty.

Mimi sighed. ‘Stop thinking about it, L,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘You can’t do anything about it now, so there’s no point getting angry.’

But Leah was angry. A small flame of fury had grown in her stomach as she’d trudged across the pitch and into the changing room. It had burned hotter as she’d got changed, turning William’s words over in her mind. She gritted her teeth as they reached the willow tree and settled themselves behind the protective veil of its drooping branches.

‘He’s just so . . . so . . . selfish!’ Leah burst out as she scooped her ham sandwich out of her lunchbox, ripping back the foil and taking an aggressive bite. ‘He only ever thinks about himself.’

‘Why are you surprised?’ Mimi asked. ‘This is William we’re talking about.’

‘I know,’ said Leah, her shoulders slumping. ‘But I just thought that when it came to football . . .’

George shrugged. ‘Mimi’s right. William has always been like this. There’s nothing we can do about it.’

‘But we’ll never win anything if he carries on like this!’ Leah leaned forward, lowering her voice even though there was no one around them to hear her words. ‘The Crickle End Champions always worked together as a team.’

Mimi raised an eyebrow at the mention of the football team they’d gone back in time to help. ‘And what about Mary? She wasn’t interested in being part of a team.’

Leah opened her mouth to reply but then shut it. After a disastrous storm had hit the town of Crickle End earlier this year, Leah, Mimi and George had discovered an old watch buried beneath a fallen tree. It had sent them spinning back into the past to 1921, where they’d made friends with the Crickle End Champions, a women’s football team, and their kit girl, Dot. Leah, George and Mimi were shocked to find out that the government had just announced a ban on women playing football, and, what was more, someone had been trying to sabotage the team in order to stop them from winning the cup. Together with Dot, they’d discovered that Mary Matthews, the star player, was behind it all.

Abruptly, Leah realised that Mimi was right. Even with a team as good as the Crickle End Champions, it seemed like there was always someone putting themselves before everyone else.

‘What are you reading, George?’ Mimi suddenly asked. Leah could tell that she was deliberately changing the subject to try and distract Leah from her anger at William.

‘Oh,’ George said, a faint blush staining his cheeks. Whilst Leah and Mimi had been deep in discussion, he’d slipped a thick book from his bag and was thumbing through the pages. ‘It’s just something I got from the library.’

‘What’s it about?’ Leah asked, trying to shove William from her mind.

‘Ancient Egypt,’ George told her, holding the book up and showing her the front cover. It was gold with an image of three pyramids in the middle. ‘It’s really interesting! Did you know that when Ancient Egyptians died, the people who buried them used to pull their brains out of their noses?’

‘Eww!’ Mimi cried, scrunching up her nose.

George laughed. ‘They did things differently back then.’

‘Speaking of “back then”,’ Mimi said, sitting straighter. ‘Do you have the watch and the compass, L?’

It was handover day. The disastrous football match had almost made Leah forget, but now she fished around in her backpack until her hand found the familiar shape of a metal box. She pulled it out and set it on the grass next to her unfinished sandwich. A little dented, the box looked just the same as it had when they’d dug it up from beneath the fallen oak tree in the park last winter.

‘It’s your turn this week, right Mimi?’ said Leah and her friend nodded, reaching forward and flipping the lid open. All three of them leaned in to stare at the two objects nestled inside.

The first was a silver pocket watch, with delicate curling patterns etched into its side. Roman numerals were arranged in a ring around the outside of its white face, with two black hands standing still beneath the glass casing. Leah didn’t need to turn it over to read the inscription engraved on the back. She knew it by heart now: Two hands meet at noon or night, click once, click twice and set time right.

It was that very inscription that had sent them back to 1921 earlier that year.

But the second item was a mystery. The compass had appeared in the box once they’d returned from their adventure. Round and silver, it looked just like the watch, but instead of numbers circling the outside of the compass face, there were just four letters: N for north, E for east, S for south, and W for west. A single needle swung between the letters, zipping back and forth whenever the compass changed direction. Leah and her friends had spent days studying it, trying to work out whether it was magical like the watch, but they’d had no luck. It seemed like the compass was just a compass.

Sighing, Mimi scooped it up. She brought it close to her face, her tongue stuck out in concentration as she studied it. ‘I wish we knew what this was for,’ she grumbled.

Leah pulled the watch up by its chain. ‘Me too,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t even come with any inscriptions or clues, like the watch did. What do you think, George?’

But George wasn’t listening. He’d drawn his knees up to his chest, his library book balanced on his legs. With one hand, he absently chewed his sandwich, whilst the other turned the book’s pages.

‘Earth to George!’ Leah shouted, laughing.

George jumped, his head jerking up as he looked around in bewilderment.

‘Sorry,’ he said with an embarrassed smile. ‘I’m just getting to the good bit. Howard Carter is about to discover Tutankhamun’s tomb.’

Mimi rolled her eyes. ‘Boring!’ she said in a sing-song voice.

‘No, it’s not!’ George argued with a frown.

‘What’s interesting about a load of stuffy men poking through dusty graves?’ Mimi said. ‘Now, if you want to talk about Egyptian history, let’s get to the good stuff. Cleopatra, for example. The most famous Egyptian queen there ever was! I’d love to play her in a film.’ Mimi sighed with longing.

‘You would make a great Cleopatra, Meems,’ Leah agreed.

Mimi grinned. ‘Thanks, L!’

‘We’re getting distracted, though,’ Leah said. She lifted the watch up so that it dangled in front of her face, spinning aimlessly. ‘We don’t know what the compass is for, but we do know what the watch does. So why can’t we make that work at least?’

They had tried. A few weeks after they’d returned from 1921, the three of them had gathered in Leah’s bedroom, clustered around the watch. They’d set the hands in the right position and each of them had touched the cool metal sides. When the clock had struck noon, Leah had clicked the watch’s crown twice. But nothing had happened. They’d remained in the present.

‘Maybe it only has enough magic for one journey,’ Mimi suggested.

‘Or it could be waiting for a specific time?’ George said. ‘Remember that note we found in the box with it? “For those who need it most”. Maybe the watch doesn’t think we need it right now.’

Leah bit her lip as she considered George’s words. She hadn’t thought of that.

Before she could reply, the pocket watch was wrenched from her grip. She gasped, leaping to her feet. Leah’s stomach sank as she saw who had snatched the watch.

William loomed over her, his mouth curved into a cruel leer. Dangling from his fist was the pocket watch.