The Secret Journal

Calm down, I warned myself. The last thing I needed was to trip down the stairs in a secret passageway on my own. Imagine if I broke my leg and couldn’t get help. I’d be stuck down here! Forever! Maybe I’d get eaten by wombats. I shuddered.

I walked along the dark dusty passage, dragging my feet as I went. All I could think about was my so-called friends upstairs. They were probably talking about me again right now. About how I’m jealous and silly and just a big baby. Ugh!

I didn’t even want to get to the other end of the tunnel. I just wanted to hide out in here forever.

As I dragged my feet along the ground, my toe clipped something in the dirt. It felt hard, like a pebble, yet thin, like a piece of metal. I shone my phone torch down into the dirt and fossicked about like a bandicoot in the back garden at night.

My fingers brushed something cold. It was definitely man-made. I picked it up and wiped the dirt off, exposing gold metal underneath. I used the hem of my uniform to polish it under the torchlight.

As I cleaned it, a beautiful, little metal bird revealed itself. It looked handmade, with tiny delicate strokes for feathers. On the back was a pin with a small clasp. It was a brooch.

I opened Elena’s diary, which I was still carrying, and read back over the last entry. She had spoken about the gift her father had made her … a gold Italian sparrow brooch with a pin.

It must have been this brooch! My hands shook a little and I sat down heavily. It felt like I’d travelled back in time. I couldn’t believe I was sitting here, in the very spot Elena must have sat, holding her precious brooch. She must have lost it down here.

I leaned up against the wall and decided to read the next entry in Elena’s diary with the light on my phone. Maybe she would mention something else about the brooch.

8 March 1940

Oh, my diary,

Things are getting worse. As news of the war spreads, life at Eden is getting harder for me. Everyone now regards me with much suspicion. I see them whispering behind their hands. And the words ‘untrustworthy’ and ‘hidden motives’ pepper their conversations.

To make matters worse, I have lost my beloved Italian sparrow that Papa made for me. I wonder if it was stolen from me or if I was careless with the clasp. Either way, it is gone and I am inconsolable. There is only one other in existence—the one belonging to my dear sister.

My heart is heavy.

If only I had a true friend to share my sorrows with. But even the teachers regard me with watchful eyes.

Papa wrote to me and said things are equally fraught for him and my family in the city. Customers no longer come to his shop. I’m not sure I will be able to continue my education here if Papa is unable to sell his jewellery. What a tumultuous time we live in.

Elena

Poor Elena. I felt the heat of my anger at my friends start to ebb away. It was like watching glowing embers in the campfire as they slowly lose their heat and light.

But still, they did accuse me of being jealous. True friends didn’t accuse each other of jealousy, did they?

But at least I had friends, even if we were fighting. Poor Elena had no one. Only her diary …

That’s why I really wanted to solve the mystery of who Elena was and why her diary ended up in the bell tower. I felt like I knew Elena—like she had become a part of me. I couldn’t end things without knowing.

Plus, I wanted to know what secrets may have lived in the walls of Eden College. This could be an amazing thing to write about for my Eden Press article. But without any record of Elena in the school library, it seemed like she was some kind of ghost.

Uneasy now, I stood up and dusted the back of my dress to get rid of the dry dirt that was clinging to it from the floor of the tunnel. I gently tucked the sparrow brooch into my pocket.

Looking down at my phone, I noticed with alarm that the battery was running low. I suddenly felt a wave of panic wash over me—what if my phone ran out of battery and I was left down here in the dark? How would I find my way back?

I breathed in sharply and carefully picked up my pace. I didn’t want to run, because it was so dark and the ground was so uneven. I finally made it back to the rickety staircase and began to climb. When I got to the top, I placed my hands on the panel and tried to slide it to the right.

My heart started beating wildly—if this panel didn’t open, I didn’t think I had enough battery power to get back through the tunnel to the other end with my phone torch. I needed the panel to open now.

I banged on it, trying to loosen it a bit. Then I took a breath to calm myself, placed my palms flat against the panel and pushed.

Finally, the panel shunted across its skirting and flung open with a bang. I looked into the bathroom, hoping nobody was in there. If someone saw me peeking out of the wall, they would have had the fright of their lives! And my secret would have been revealed.

Luckily, nobody seemed to be around. I climbed out and gently slid the panel back into place. Then I crept out of the bathroom, back towards my dorm room.

That night, I lay in bed looking up at the ceiling. I couldn’t sleep. I hadn’t spoken to Zoe, Violet or Grace all night. By the time I had gotten back to the dorm after escaping the tunnel, they had already gone to dinner, and at dinner I refused to sit with them or make eye contact. I could see them whispering and looking at me in a weird way. I bet they were talking about how jealous I was of them. Even though I wasn’t. AT ALL.

It reminded me of the time that Olivia and I had a massive fight. Mum had given me a super special top with a unicorn on the front for my birthday. The horn had glittery crystals all over it and Olivia immediately said she wanted one of her own. I was going to wear it to the school disco that weekend, but when the weekend arrived, the top had disappeared. Where on earth does a t-shirt go? I asked Mum if she’d put it in the wash and she said no.

I was sure Olivia had taken it. She’d already asked to try it on and I’d said no, multiple times. I yelled at her and told her I was never going to talk to her again if she didn’t give it back. Olivia cried and said she didn’t take it. So I stopped talking to her.

Later that day, Max and I were playing in the garden when I saw something glistening in the bushes. I went over and there was my unicorn top, half buried in the dirt. Also in the hole were Max’s missing dinosaur toys, Olivia’s scrunchie and Bob’s bone.

Turned out the dog had taken my top and buried it in the garden. Mum and Dad said I was too quick to accuse Olivia and I’d ‘really gotten the wrong end of the stick’. I didn’t know what stick they were talking about at the time, but now I think they meant I’d made a big mistake.

When I went to say sorry to Olivia, I found her in her bedroom. She had a plain white t-shirt sitting on her desk, and she was carefully gluing sparkly crystals to it. She said even though she didn’t take it, she wanted me to have something sparkly to wear to the disco.

I thought about this as I lay in my dorm room, listening to the deep breathing and light snores of my friends.

I drifted off to sleep and dreamt about secret tunnels with magical sparkly unicorns and muddy dinosaurs.