‘Okay, follow me.’ Bubba was in charge. We crept forward on what seemed to be a wooden floor to a flight of stairs. They were solid, like stone or concrete. No one spoke.

The stairs went down about three flights, with a turn after every ten steps or so. At the bottom a tunnel headed back under the library, or so I thought.

‘This is creepy,’ said Becky, who was out in front with Bubba.

Luci didn’t say a word, instead grabbing my hand in a vice-like grip.

‘I’m not going to be left alone down here,’ she whispered.

We set off, our bodies bent, even though there was enough space for us to stand up straight. Bubba’s torchlight occasionally revealed black marks on the walls. The air smelt damp and musty. I began to think about all the earth and the cement and the bricks crushing in . . .

I decided it was better to chat.

‘How much further, Bubba?’ I felt Luci squeeze my hand.

‘Not far, Mitch. Cool, hey?’ For someone freaked out by spiders, Bubba was handling the tunnel amazingly well.

‘Yeah, actually, it’s not so bad,’ I said quietly and squeezed Luci’s hand back.

About three or four minutes later, we came to another flight of stairs, this time heading up. We climbed to the last landing. There was nothing now, but a shorter flight of stone steps that went up to the roof.

‘Um, just had a bit of a thought, guys,’ Becky said. ‘What if Miss Javros saw us come into the library? What if she goes down to the sports section and finds one kid there instead of five?’

There was silence in the tunnel.

‘Good point, Beck,’ Luci said. ‘But there’s not much we can do about it now. Let’s get out of here. Bubba?’ Luci’s breath was coming in short, shallow gasps. Bubba shone his torch onto his watch.

‘Something on television you’re missing, Bubba?’ Becky asked.

‘Hang on about ten seconds, and –’

We heard a tapping noise above us. Luci jumped.

‘What’s that?’ she said.

‘That’d be Jack, I reckon,’ said Bubba, doing some tapping himself. There was a creak and then a shaft of light broke through, blinding us as it widened. We covered our eyes.

‘Mitchell? Bubba?’ It was Jack’s voice.

We scrambled up through the hole in the roof, which was actually a hole in the floor.

Jack grinned.

‘C’mon, we haven’t got much time.’

It was hard getting used to the light, but we struggled after Jack. It must have been the study room that he’d mentioned. We raced to the door, across a small courtyard and through another door.

‘Hey!’ a loud voice called. ‘Come back here at once!’ But we kept on running, charging through a room with beds in it. Obviously a dormitory.

‘Go through that door, quick!’ yelled Jack. ‘Hurry! It’s Mr Hastings. Just go!’

I could see the ovals through the windows ahead of me.

‘Jack, you okay?’ I asked.

‘I should be in the dining room,’ he panted. ‘Go!’

Luci and Becky were way out in front. I grabbed Bubba’s arm and together we raced across the ovals.

‘What the devil’s going on?’ a voice boomed behind me.

Poor Jack was in strife, that was for sure. Still running, I glanced behind me. A tall man wearing a dark suit stood next to Jack in the dormitory doorway.

We didn’t stop running till we got back to school. We took a few moments to catch our breath then, as calmly as we could, walked upstairs and into the library.

‘Hey, Jimmy!’ I called. Jimmy jumped. He looked at the spot where the sliding wooden panels were hidden, then back at us. Then did the same routine again.

‘It’s okay. I’ll explain,’ I said. ‘Thanks for putting all the stuff back.’

‘I got into trouble from Miss Javros. She thinks I made the mess,’ he whispered, looking around.

‘What did she say?’ Luci asked, looking back at Miss Javros who was piling up some books at the front desk.

‘She said, “Why is it that this part of the library is so messy?”’

‘So you told her about the tunnel, then?’ Becky said. For a moment I think Paisley felt guilty that he hadn’t.

‘Well, no. I thought that–’

‘Hey, you did well, Jimmy.’ Becky gave him a pat on the shoulder.

Jimmy looked pleased with himself. Maybe it was the first time anyone had said something nice to him at school. The smile was still on his face as we left.

A small crowd had gathered around the Legend noticeboard next morning. The squads for basketball were up, but only the firsts and seconds. Yesterday’s note had been torn off – a sliver of paper stuck under the drawing pin was all that was left.

‘Geez, will you look at that?’ said someone in front of me. He was pointing to another note near the bottom of the board.

Basketball Quiz

for Legend participants only — at lunchtime

Library

Friday (boys)

Monday (girls)

I couldn’t believe it. Normally the quiz was held in the last week of the competition after we’d had time to research the sport. Normally you were told what you had to study.

‘How long do you reckon before someone gets rid of Cartwright?’ another person asked.

‘And what if your name’s not up? What do you do?’

It was Nick again, the kid who had nearly missed out on being a Legend contestant.

‘Well it looks like you missed out, after all,’ Mazis laughed at him. ‘Hey, did four-eyes get in?’ He was referring to Bryce. He had got in, on the bench in the seconds. I was in the starting line-up for the firsts, but there was a name there I didn’t recognise.

‘So, who’s Daryl Ratzasis?’ I asked.

‘Beats me. Probably Mrs Can’t-be-right’s kid,’ someone else joked. For a moment I thought that Bubba hadn’t made it. I just wasn’t used to seeing his real name. I don’t think I’d ever called him Liam, all the time I’d known him. But I remembered his surname – Diapolous. He’d be rapt to have made the seconds.

BOYS		GIRLS
Firsts	Seconds	Firsts	Seconds
Grady M	Monotti J	Chan K	Watson P
Fisk T	Voh L	Rankin L	Smith A
Ratzasis D	Mazis R	Tompkins M	Westman D
Green C	Westman M	Tan R	Dawson B
Belugo W	King A	Stanton C	Kelly T
Rutovski A	Flavel B	Thornton C	Wu L
Stokes J	Diapolous L	Petroni T	Timms F

‘Ready for another game of twenty-one, Grady?’ Fisk hissed in my ear. I pulled away. ‘Lunchtime today. Same place as before, when you fluked all those three-pointers, remember?’

‘Nah, maybe I’ll go and do a bit of study instead,’ I said.

‘Like hell you will. You’re playing me one-on-one, Grady.’

‘Travis, when are you going to realise–’

‘And I’ll tell you a little secret, after I’ve cleaned you up.’

He walked off before I had a chance to reply.

‘So, what’s your little secret, Travis?’ I asked. I’d decided to meet Fisk on the outside basketball courts, after all.

‘After I beat you, Grady, remember? Here, you go first.’ He threw the ball at me.

‘Same rules as last time?’ I asked, taking my place at the free-throw line.

‘Yep.’

I looked hard at the ring, took a few bounces, then tossed the ball up. It caught the front edge of the ring, teetered a moment, then dropped in for three points.

A little kid grabbed the ball and tossed it to Fisk. Like last time, a crowd had gathered to watch. It was like a shootout in one of Dad’s classic westerns. Fisk stood a moment, then threw the ball in a high lob. It hit the backboard and rebounded through the ring.

‘Oh yeah, that’s right, five points if you score without hitting anything but net,’ he said to me.

‘Well, it’s three all then, ’cos yours hit the backboard,’ I said. Fisk looked confused and was about to argue, but then obviously realised that was an argument he couldn’t win.

Something caught my eye as I took my second shot, and the ball missed the ring. Fisk hit another three-pointer. Mazis was fiddling with something under a tree nearby.

‘Got a problem, Grady?’ Fisk asked.

Again as I was about to throw, a tiny red light hit my eye, and again the ball went wide. This time I scrambled in and managed to grab the ball before it bounced a second time. I nailed the shot, but only scored one point for it.

The red lights didn’t flash again. But Fisk had enough of a lead to go on and win.

21 – 19

‘I think you peaked too early, Grady,’ Fisk sneered. ‘Like about seven months too early.’

‘The only way you can win is by cheating,’ I said. ‘Like scoring twenty out of twenty in the soccer quiz.’

He stopped laughing and walked towards me. The moment had arrived. I knew eventually that it would come to this. The circle of spectators edged closer.