At Maple Street School, the first bell goes missing and 5b is thrown into confusion. Olive, Maks, and Tom follow the clues toward room 12, where something shiny waits beneath the stage.
On Maple Street, beneath the chestnut trees, stood a large yellow school that everyone called ordinary. That was only because nothing strange had happened there yet.
Olive, Maks, and Tom from class 5b noticed the change first on Tuesday morning. They were lined up by the stairwell, backpacks half-zipped, eyes on the clock above the office door. Usually, the first bell burst out across the corridors like a rusty alarm clock with a bad temper. This time, it never rang.
For a moment, nobody moved. Then the hallway filled with confused voices, shuffling feet, and teachers opening classroom doors to stare at the clock, as if it had personally offended them. A few younger pupils even asked whether it was still morning.
Maks leaned closer to Olive. "Maybe it broke?"
Olive shook her head. "It’s new. It can’t just stop working."
By the end of the first lesson, the whole school felt off-balance. No bell meant no one knew exactly when lessons were over. No bell meant teachers kept stepping into corridors to check watches and call for silence. At break time, the noise bounced off the walls so hard it almost sounded louder than the missing bell ever had.
At lunch, the three friends met behind the giant noticeboard near the gym. Tom arrived late, breathing hard, with a look that meant he had already decided on something dramatic.
"Listen," he said, lowering his voice. "Bells don’t vanish by themselves. Someone took it. Or hid it."
Olive frowned. "Who would hide a school bell?"
"That," Tom said, pointing a finger toward the corridor, "is what we’re going to find out."
They headed for room 12, where the assembly had been held the day before. The door was unlocked. Inside, the air smelled faintly of dust and something sweet, like cocoa left too long in a cup. The stage at the front looked empty, but not quite right.
Then Olive spotted it: a small flash of metal shining from beneath the platform.
Before any of them could move, footsteps sounded in the corridor.
The door began to open very slowly.