A whistle blew. Everyone started back for shore. I caught up with Bubba, who was looking pleased to be heading back to land.

‘I swallowed some water. It sort of put me off,’ he said.

‘You don’t want to be swallowing anything you don’t have to, Fatboy,’ scoffed Fisk as he jogged past with his board.

A group of girls came up next to us and one of them spoke to me.

‘Where did you learn to surf like that?’

‘Oh, down at our holiday place. Well, like in the water, I mean, not actually in the house.’ I was stumbling over my words.

‘You and Travis were way out the back. Do you know him from before?’

‘No, and he seems pretty mad at me for some reason,’ I said. This was about the most I’d ever spoken to a girl since school started. Actually, forget school starting. This was the most I’d spoken to a girl, ever.

‘Yeah, he’s mad all right,’ she said. She raced off, before I had the chance to ask why he was so mad at me.

Later that night, we were lying in our cabin. ‘I think Fisk has got it in for you, Mitchell,’ Jack said.

‘Yeah, you’re a threat to him,’ added Bubba. ‘He’s not used to anyone being better than him at anything. Last year, a kid called Callan Foley beat him in the basketball. Fisk made him leave Sandhurst. Callan couldn’t hack Fisk and what he did to him.’

‘What was that, Bubba?’ I asked. ‘What did Fisk do to him?’

Bubba looked at Jack, then at Bryce. Bryce put down his book and looked hard at Bubba.

‘Bubba, let it be. Last year, we weren’t there for Callan. This year, well, we’ll be ready.’

‘Hey, what are you guys talking about? What did he do to this Callan kid?’

Finally Jack spoke up.

‘A week or so after the basketball comp, we were all in the pool mucking around. Fisk dragged Callan under the water and just held him down. He kept holding him under until he almost passed out and drowned.’

Jack shrugged.

‘Callan told the teachers,’ he said, ‘but Fisk reckoned it was the other way round and that Fisk nearly drowned. Callan’s parents complained and made a pretty big fuss. In the end, he just left. We really don’t know what happened about the complaint.’

‘We think that justice wasn’t served. We think that Mr Fisk may have “influenced” the school,’ said Bryce.

‘Meaning?’ I asked, looking at Bryce. He had a way with tricky words.

‘Meaning,’ explained Bubba, looking important, ‘that Mr Fisk has a fair bit of power at this school and he’ll do anything to make sure Travis gets his own way.’

‘Well, let’s hope that surfing is going to be part of the whole Legend of Sport competition,’ said Jack. ‘I mean, it might be, but we don’t know yet. Mitch, you’re easily better than Travis Fisk on a surfboard.’

‘Oh, but surfing’s the first event, isn’t it?’ Bryce was smiling now and looking a little evil, especially by torchlight.

‘Nope, the first is cricket; I love cricket. It–’

‘Bubba, I think Bryce has got a little plan,’ said Jack.

Just then, the door opened. A torch beam flashed around the room. Someone was whispering urgently, not to us, but to someone else at the door. We couldn’t tell who it was. There was scuffling and the sound of something being dragged. None of us moved as the beam of light disappeared.

We didn’t think that much about it. Maybe we should have.