Bryce had asked us to meet him in the library after training. Luci and Becky were already there when Bubba and I arrived.

‘Now tell me, where exactly did the noise come from?’ Bryce asked. We were vague, but agreed finally on a couple of metres of shelving where the sports books were.

‘Okay, let’s get going, people.’

Bryce started hauling books off the shelves. We had soon exposed the wood panelling behind the shelving.

‘Mitch, look at this!’

We all jumped at Bubba’s excited voice. ‘What?’

‘It says here that the Bulldogs –’

Bubba had his nose in a footy book.

‘Not now, Bubba,’ Becky said, rolling her eyes.

Bryce was studying the wooden panels, feeling them over with his fingers.

‘There’s got to be some catch – something.’ He sounded exasperated.

‘What? You reckon you’re going to discover some secret sliding door like in a film?’ scoffed Luci.

‘Yes,’ Bryce answered simply.

‘Here, in the library, in our school?’ she continued.

‘Yes.’ Bryce looked at her.

‘Why?’

‘Because that’s the only thing that makes sense,’ said Bryce.

‘It’s almost closing time,’ called Miss Javros, the librarian. ‘Isn’t the footy quiz over?’

She wandered down to where five kids sat with a pile of books around them. Miss Javros was pretty chilled in most situations. Not much seemed to faze her.

‘You kids want to check those books out at the front desk, then?’

‘Actually, we were just looking for something,’ said Bubba, cool in a crisis.

‘Really? Well, you’re not the first to be scrounging around this end of the library,’ said Miss Javros. ‘Come along.’

Bryce was staring at Miss Javros. And Miss Javros seemed to be making up her mind about something.

‘Well,’ she said at last, ‘I suppose if anyone can work it out, our friend Bryce Flavel can.’ She walked away.

‘Come on, let’s clean up these books,’ said Bryce. He was looking excited.

A moment later Miss Javros returned, holding a blue display folder. We watched her closely. She pulled out a plastic pocket from the folder and passed it over to Bryce.

‘I sensed that it was special,’ said Miss Javros, ‘but had no idea why. Actually, I had forgotten about it until I saw the back of those shelves again. That’s where I found it, when we were doing our annual stocktake last year. Anyway, let’s put these books back now, shall we?’

Inside the plastic pocket was a neat, yellow piece of paper with numbers on it. We pored over it. It didn’t look that special to me, but Bryce was handling it like it was some ancient Egyptian scroll.

‘These numbers have got to mean something,’ he said, shaking his head. I think he sensed my mind was elsewhere. It was, after all, the middle of the Legend of Football week.

‘Leave it with me, okay people?’