The next morning, I went straight to the Legends’ noticeboard. Here we could catch up on all the latest news and results.

There were nine sections. The first three, (surfing, cricket and tennis) only showed the final placings for each sport. The next section, football, was full of colour. It stood out a mile. There were AFL borders and National Netball League team colours plus cool notices telling you everything you needed to know. The next four sections only had the headings of the Legends sports that were still to happen.

There was one more section – ‘The Sandhurst Legend’. This spot had the top five leaders for girls and boys in the overall Legends competition for the year so far.

As I got closer to the board a thought occurred to me. I had never seen a teacher putting up scores or sheets. Maybe there was this crazy school rule that you weren’t allowed to be seen by students sliding open the glass panels and putting up notices.

Or maybe not.

The points for the first footy and netball games were up. My score was pretty average. I thought I might have scored better than a ‘seven’. It looked like everyone automatically scored a ‘five’. Then the better players had points added on. Benny, a huge kid who played ruck, Fisk, and Mazis were the only players to score a ‘nine’. No one scored a ‘ten’.

I wondered if Mr T would ever give a ‘ten’.

A second later I saw one, not from Mr T but Miss Connelly. Corinne had scored a ‘ten’ in netball.

Wow! I thought of poor Luci. There always seemed to be a girl who was an absolute gun at one particular sport. How was she going to get past Corinne?

The lesson before lunch was Inquiry, in the library, which meant Internet surfing for some, email for others and assignment work for the rest. A message alert appeared on my screen. Checking that the teacher was well away, I clicked on the ‘open’ button.

It was Bryce. Who else? I looked up to see him in deep conversation with the teacher, down in the non-fiction section. His screen was covered in a map of Antarctica. Maybe it was some sort of time delay. I checked Jack’s screen next door. He was already reading his. I smiled.

‘When the obvious is not obvious, do something crazy. Here, in the library 1:15 pm. Today.’

‘Little secret messages from your special friend, eh Grady?’ Fisk had appeared from nowhere and was talking in a ‘listen-to-me-everyone’ voice. ‘Hey, Flavel, why won’t you send me a message?’ he whined.

‘That’s enough, Travis. Sit down please.’

The teacher told us to lower our laptop screens and started a lecture on trust and being responsible.

She was still going as we drifted to lunch.

Travis Fisk ‘accidentally’ bumped me as we headed for the stairs.

‘You up for a game of three-on-three, in the gym?’

‘Who else’ve you got?’ I knew the answer.

‘Four-thirty. This arvo. Bring two of your lap-dogs.’

He bounded down the last three steps, knocking a few more kids sideways.

I saw Luci near the canteen, talking to Fisk.

I wanted to tell her about the meeting that Bryce had arranged. I also wanted to ask her about last year, and her fainting episode on the tennis court. And about Fisk. I knew there was something weird going on, and the only way I was going to find out was by asking. Maybe it was none of my business. Fisk moved off and she came over to me.

‘I suppose you’ve been wondering about me and Travis?’

‘No,’ I said, way too quickly. Idiot, I thought to myself.

‘Oh, right,’ she replied.

‘I mean, well, yeah, it did cross my mind, you know, that–’

‘That I would actually talk to Fisk?’

‘Uh, huh –’

‘Well, there’s a reason, Mitch. Remember that doubles tennis match? You know, when I sort of collapsed on the court?’

‘It was hot.’

She smiled. ‘Yeah, it was hot. Very hot. I’ve got a serious allergy. Have you heard of anaphylaxis?’

I took a step back, half joking. I knew what she was talking about.

‘It’s not contagious, silly.’ She was smiling. ‘Last year, during the Legend of Cricket comp, I was stung by something, probably a bee. I must be a bee magnet. Same thing happened again at tennis this year. Anyway, I got this really bad reaction. My arm went red and swelled up like a sausage balloon. It came good slowly, but for a while Mum was pretty spooked and she didn’t let me do any of the summer Legend sports.’

As we headed toward the library, I glanced at her arms. They looked normal.

‘Anyway, it was Travis’s mum who finally organised these tests and now I wear this bracelet and carry an injection around with me. Everywhere. Travis reckons I owe him. Like, I’m in debt to him or something.’

‘What, because his mum is a nurse?’

‘He was hanging out for that to happen last month. Me getting stung like that. Probably had a bee in a bottle and let it go, without anyone noticing.’

I must have looked horrified.

‘Joking,’ she said, though in a tone that was only half convincing.

I was starting to understand the background to it all.

‘So you love sport, you’re good at sport, and now that you’re in control of this anaphylaxis thing, you’re right back into it.’

‘Yeah, exactly. I don’t think it’s an illness, just that I react pretty badly if I get stung. It won’t ever go away.’

‘Well, your mum and dad must be pretty rapt that you can play sport again.’

She shrugged then laughed. ‘Yeah, I guess.’

By then, we had reached the library door.

Bubba was outside, eating a sandwich. ‘They’re inside,’ he mumbled, his mouth full.

‘Does Becky know we’re meeting?’ Luci asked Bryce as we settled down at the far end.

‘Actually, no,’ Bryce replied. ‘Can you find her?’

Luci raced off.

Before long, she returned, Becky in tow. Bryce pulled the plans out of a round cylinder he had popped them into, like he was an architect or something.

‘Okay. See here?’

It just looked like a mass of straight lines to me. Soon, though, Bryce had us organised and we could finally see what we’d already guessed – something weird was going on.

The library plan matched exactly with the library’s outside appearance – five windows on the plan, five windows counted outside. However, inside the library only four windows could be counted. Bryce had calculated that the space between the last two windows was about four metres.

‘There is a secret room?’ whispered Jack. Bryce nodded.

‘So the next question is, how do we get in there?’ I asked.

‘No, that isn’t the next question. Why should we bother about a secret room?’ asked Luci.

‘There’s one other thing I haven’t told you,’ said Bryce. ‘The weird sound you heard behind the books there?’ Bryce glanced sideways. ‘I’ve heard it too.’

That changed things a bit.