Treasure Hunt (2 page)

The next day, the four members of the Secret Mystery Club meet at the school gate at ten.

Jack has brought the metal detector with him and he shows it to Mika and Alex proudly.

‘It’s so cool!’ Alex says. ‘I’ve always wanted one of these.’

Jack smiles. ‘Usually my uncle only lets me use it when he’s watching. But I guess he thinks I’m old enough to look after it now.’

They swing open the gate and walk into the school grounds. It feels strangely quiet and the playground looks
bigger
now that it’s not filled with kids.

The only people around are a grade one kid and his dad, bouncing a tennis ball, and a mum sitting next to a toddler in the sandpit.

Anyone is allowed to use the school grounds on weekends but not many people do because there is a big park nearby.

‘Where should we start?’ Billie asks, looking around.

‘I say we start on the oval and work our way across the whole playground,’ Alex says. ‘It could be buried anywhere!’

The others agree.

Jack switches on the metal detector and swings it in front of him as the four of them walk slowly across the grassy oval.

The detector makes a fuzzy crackling sound as it
beep, beep, beeps.

Every now and then the beeping gets louder and faster and the four of them crouch down excitedly to see what the metal detector has found.

After an hour they have found five bottle caps, three paperclips, an earring and four coins. But no time capsule. The metal detector was lots of fun at first, but now they are getting tired from walking so slowly. And they have barely done half the oval!

‘Let’s take a break,’ Billie suggests.

‘Good idea,’ says Jack. ‘My arms are getting tired.’

‘I can hold it for a bit if you want?’ Alex says.

Jack shakes his head. ‘I told my uncle I wouldn’t let anyone else touch it.’

‘Let’s sit under the peppercorn tree,’ Mika says. ‘Mum put some snacks in my bag.’

‘Yay!’ says Billie. She loves Mika’s mum’s snacks. ‘I’m going to get a drink at the fountain. I’ll meet you at the tree.’

She jogs to the fountain and leans over to take a big drink of water.

When she looks up again, someone is standing right beside her. She jumps in surprise.

Billie recognises the girl from another class but doesn’t know her name.

‘What are you doing with the metal detector?’ the girl asks. She twirls her messy blonde ponytail between her fingers.

Billie gulps her water down. Her mind spins. ‘Um, my friend lost her necklace,’ she says, remembering their cover story just in time.

The girl nods. ‘What does it look like?’

Billie shifts uncomfortably from one foot to another.

She glances over to the peppercorn tree and sees the others sitting in the shade, eating snacks.

‘It’s just…um, a bird on a silver chain,’ she says, remembering the necklace Mika was wearing the day before.

‘Are you sure it’s a necklace you’re looking for?’ the girl says.

‘Of course I am!’ Billie says, feeling
flustered.
The way this girl is staring at her is making her uncomfortable.

The girl nods slowly, not taking her eyes off Billie. ‘A bird on a silver chain. OK. If I see it I’ll let you know.’ She pauses. ‘You’re Billie, right? You’re in Rebecca’s class.’

Billie nods.

‘I’m Edwina,’ the girl says. ‘I live opposite the school. If I find the necklace, I’ll let you know.’

Billie nods again. ‘OK, thanks, Edwina. I’m going to go back to my friends now.’

‘Wait!’ Edwina calls.

Billie spins around. Edwina fixes Billie with her hazel-green eyes again. ‘If it’s something else you’re looking for, I might be able to help. I know a lot about this school,’ she says, smiling mysteriously.

Billie doesn’t even answer. She races back to the others, her heart beating loudly in her ears.

Billie arrives at the tree, out of breath. ‘Guys!’ she says, panting. ‘We’re being spied on!’

‘What?’ says Mika. ‘But we’re the spies!’

‘Detectives,’ Alex corrects.

Billie turns around to look at the drink taps. Edwina has disappeared.

‘Who’s spying on us?’ asks Jack.

Billie lowers her voice. ‘It’s Edwina from Olivia’s class. She lives across the road and has been watching us all this time!’

Mika gasps.

‘We have to be careful!’ Alex says. ‘What if she suspects what we’re doing?’

Billie draws her friends in closer.

‘I think she’s already
suspicious.
When I told her the story about Mika’s missing necklace, she didn’t seem like she believed me at all!’

‘You’d better teach us that language, Billie,’ Jack says. ‘So we can talk in front of other people without them understanding.’

‘What language?’ Mika asks.

‘Pig Latin,’ says Billie. ‘It’s a made-up language my dad taught me. He said he and his friends used to use it when they were our age.’

‘How do you speak it?’ asks Jack.

‘You take a word, then move the letters that come before the vowel to the end of the word and add ay,’ Billie explains. ‘So, for example, rock would become ock-ray. Tree would become ee-tray. Dirt would become irt-day. Do you get it?’

‘I think so…’ Alex says. ‘But what if a word starts with a vowel? Like my name.’

‘Then you just add ay to it,’ Billie explains. ‘So you would become Alex-ay!’

Mika grins. ‘Our-ay ew-nay op-tay ecret-say anguage-lay!’

‘You got it!’ Billie laughs.

‘What did she say?’ Jack frowns.

‘Our new top secret language!’ Billie and Mika say together, grinning.

Jack smiles. Then he sticks his hand out, palm facing down.

He scrunches up his face for a second, then crows slowly, ‘Ock-a-doodle-doo-cay!’

Billie slaps her hand on Jack’s. Then Mika and Alex
slap
their hands down too. ‘Ock-a-doodle-doo-cay!’ they crow together.

Billie laughs loudly, pleased her friends like their new secret language. But then she sees a funny look pass over Mika’s face.

‘Did you hear that?’ Mika says in a hushed voice.

‘Yes, I heard something, too!’ says Jack. ‘From behind the tree! A rustling sound.’

All four of them fall quiet as they hear the sound of
footsteps
running away.

Billie quickly peeks around the wide trunk of the old peppercorn tree. She is just in time to catch a blonde ponytail disappearing behind the school building. ‘Oh no!’ she gasps. ‘Edwina the spy!’

After a long day of metal detecting, the four members of the Secret Mystery Club go home with nothing but a handful of coins each. They are still no closer to finding the hidden time capsule.

Billie is of course disappointed about not finding it, but at the moment she is more worried about what to do about Edwina.

That night in the bath, Billie keeps thinking about the strange thing Edwina said to her by the drinking fountain.
Does she know more than she’s telling me?
Billie worries.
What if she’s hunting for the time capsule, too?

Billie
squeezes
her eyes shut, takes a deep breath and lies back under the water.

She can hear bubbles gurgling up to the surface of the water as she slowly lets her breath out.

If I were hiding a time capsule in a school, where would I put it?
she wonders.