Free In the Deep End by Pam Harvey Page A

straight away (an invasion of bookworms?) but couldn’t think of anythingthat would send Mrs Kent packing. ‘If you just flick the lock at the back, the door pulls closed already locked. I can do that if you want and then you don’t have to stay.’
    Mrs Kent took the box back. ‘Oh no, I’ll wait. I don’t mind. I might do a quick sort of these books I’ve got. I think some of them belong in here.’ She walked into the room and put the box on the teacher’s table.
    Great, thought Hannah. I can’t put the card back now. She moved into the room and pretended to look in her locker for the missing Maths book.
    Mrs Kent was piling the books up on the table, looking at the spine of each one before stacking it on the others. Hannah slammed the door of her locker, sighing loudly.
    ‘Can’t find it?’ Mrs Kent paused and looked up at Hannah.
    ‘Maybe Mrs Stevens put it on her table.’ Hannah walked to the front of the room.
    ‘I didn’t see anything here.’ Mrs Kent frowned and glanced around the neat table top. Her books were the only items on it.
    ‘She might have put it in her drawer.’ Hannah moved closer to the table.
    ‘Let’s have a look.’ Mrs Kent pulled the drawer open. At the same time, Hannah turned slightly, her heavy school bag knocking into the pile of books and sending them sliding onto the floor.
    ‘Oh! I’m so sorry!’ Hannah put on a horrified expression and leapt around the table to pick the books up. She wedged herself between the drawer and Mrs Kent.
    ‘It’s okay, really. It was such a wobbly pile.’ Mrs Kent bent down and started gathering books in her arms. By the time all the books had been picked up, the drawer was safely closed, its treasure returned and Hannah had lifted the box off the table.
    ‘Did you find your book?’ asked Mrs Kent, locking the door as they left the room.
    ‘No,’ said Hannah. ‘But that’s alright. Someone else probably got it for me.’
    ‘I hope so,’ said Mrs Kent. ‘I hope it hasn’t been stolen.’
    ‘Someone might have borrowed it,’ said Hannah with a serious look on her face. ‘Borrowing’s alright.’
    ‘Only if it gets returned.’ Mrs Kent wriggled her fingers goodbye and made her way up the corridor again.
    Hannah smiled. Thanks to you, Mrs Kent, it is returned.
    The rest of the day at school seemed long. Hannah couldn’t concentrate and stared out of the window a lot. She’d been so keen to get the swipe card back into the drawer that she hadn’t thought a lot about what she’d actually seen at Explore! Now it was going around and around in her head. What was going on? It looked like Dave Kelly’s score had been changed. Who had changed it? And why? Why would anyone want Dave Kelly to represent the school in a competition like that? Maybe it was his parents or his brothers who’d changed the score?
    Hannah shook her head. There would be no way his hard-working parents and chook-loving brothers would bother setting Dave up in a competition like that. She glanced over at Dave, sitting up the back still looking pleased with himself. Or would they? The Whatever, Wherever prize money would help their farm.
    ‘Hannah Williams.’ Mr Gifford’s voice cut through her thoughts. ‘I’m having troublegetting you to concentrate today. Can you tell me the answer to the question I just asked?’
    Hannah felt her face redden. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Gifford. I didn’t hear your question.’
    ‘Probably doesn’t know the answer,’ someone muttered behind her. ‘Not as clever as we thought.’
    Hannah stared hard at the front of the room as Mr Gifford asked someone else for the answer. She was in two minds about telling the whole class that Dave Kelly’s test had been rigged and that she was the rightful winner of the competition. Hannah glanced behind and found herself looking at Andrea Simpson, sniggering with Darcy Lane.
    Angus didn’t wait for Hannah after school. She didn’t blame him. He’d had cricket training at lunchtime