The day after the Legend of Soccer presentations, a Friday, was cold and wet. I slept in. Mum had gone to work, but she and Dad must have decided that a day away from school would be good for me. He had a rostered day off so that worked too.

I kept looking at my watch and wondering what all the kids at Sandhurst were up to.

At lunchtime I grabbed Dad’s phone and sent a text message to Bryce. I wanted him to know that I could still come round to his place for the Legends party. He and his dad had come up with the idea of having a party after each Legend sport. A few moments later, Dad’s mobile beeped.

Good to hear from you Mitch. Plenty to talk about, see you after school. Bryce. (Bubba says hello, so do Luci & Becky. I won’t ask Travis!)

Dad dropped me off at Bryce’s house at around five o’clock. All the others were there already. Luci, Becky, Bubba and, obviously, Bryce.

‘So, did I miss out on anything at school today?’ I asked.

‘Well, have a read of this for starters.’ Bryce handed me a piece of paper.

‘It’s an email from Jack,’ Bubba added.

Subject: Hi

Email from: Jack Crossly

“mail to: bryce.flavel@sandhurst.edu.au”

Hi Bryce

Thanks for your email. That’s so amazing about the tunnels. I did as you said and haven’t told anyone, but there’s this nosy as kid here who seems to know a bit about me. Don’t ask me how. I reckon that room where the trapdoor is would be one of the study rooms. I’ll check it out. And yeah, we do have dinner at 5:30. I’ll keep an eye out for the trophy, but I don’t reckon anyone from here would do it. I don’t think they even know about the tunnel, anyway.

Well, maybe I’ll pay you a visit one day – I can still remember when library is, or I could sneak up one Wednesday afternoon. I wish I had a mobile phone so I could tell you.

Say hi to everyone. Hopefully I’ll get an invite out of here soon!

Jack

For a while nobody spoke.

‘You don’t think Jack would have nicked the trophy, do you?’ I asked, hardly believing I had to ask the question.

‘If that trophy left through the tunnel, then who else could it have been? I mean, who else knows about the tunnel?’ Becky asked.

For some reason, we all looked at Bubba.

‘Hey! What? I haven’t told anyone.’

‘Anyone?’ Luci asked.

‘No way!’ Bubba looked annoyed at the suggestion.

‘What about Fisk?’ Bryce asked. ‘He might have overheard us talking about the secret room.’

‘I reckon Fisk doesn’t know as much as he makes out,’ I said. ‘When he turned up at the library yesterday, he was as shocked as I was to see the trophy gone. I reckon he thought I was dobbing him in for cheating in the soccer quiz.’

‘Yeah, we checked the noticeboard today. He got a perfect score. Twenty out of twenty. But how do you know he cheated?’ Luci asked.

‘Well, Paisley as good as told me at the presentations last night.’

‘But the scores weren’t even up, then,’ Bryce said. ‘How did Paisley know?’

‘Beats me. He just said, “I could’ve, too”.’

This got everyone thinking, especially Bryce. Another little problem for him to solve.

‘It’s a bit fishy,’ Bubba said, shaking his head.

‘Well, the big question is, do we tell the teachers about the secret tunnel?’ I asked.

‘Well, it wouldn’t be a secret tunnel anymore, would it?’ Bubba said, as if he was thinking aloud.

‘Bubbaman, sometimes you come up with the best answers,’ said Bryce.

‘I do?’

‘Mmmhmm. I’m going to have a go at basketball and try to solve the mystery,’ said Bryce.

‘I think there’s one more thing I need to tell you,’ I said to Bryce.

‘Well, tell it quick, Mitchell. Dinner awaits!’ Bryce’s dad had walked in, wearing a blue apron and holding a plate of nachos.

‘Yeah, real quick,’ Bubba added, already out of his chair.

‘It’s just that they found my soccer ball where the trophy should have been. And the last people to have my soccer ball were some Hoods kids that Fisk and I met up with on the Kent Street ovals about three weeks ago.’

‘What were you doing with Hoods at the Kent Street ovals?’ asked Luci.

‘More to the point, what were you doing with Fisk?’ Becky added.

Over dinner I described the encounter with the Hoods in the toilet block, our stupid little game of soccer, and how Fisk and I had ran before taking a beating from them. We’d escaped, but left my soccer ball behind.

‘Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?’ said Bubba. ‘If the Hoods had your ball, they must have returned it.’ He nodded, impressed at his own genius.

We got talking about other things. I think Bryce would have loved to talk all night about tunnels and trophies, but Luci had brought a DVD. Bubba did his traditional dive from afar into the beanbags, then the rest of us settled in, surrounding ourselves with snacks and drinks.