No Rules by R. A. Spratt Page B

‘If they had stepped foot out into the rain, they would have ruined their self-consciously dishevelled hair. So, wherever they took the books, they got there by walking under-cover.’
    Friday reached the end of the corridor and walked down the large staircase to the ground floor. She looked about. They were standing with the downstairs corridor on one side, and the doorway to the quadrangle on the other. ‘Now, where could they go without getting wet?’
    â€˜Along the corridor,’ said Melanie.
    â€˜But then they’d be walking back towards their classroom,’ said Friday. ‘I think instinct would make them walk further away.’
    â€˜But it was raining outside,’ said Miss Franelli.
    â€˜There is one covered walkway,’ said Friday, as she stepped out into the quadrangle.
    â€˜The walkway to the library,’ said Melanie.
    â€˜Precisely,’ said Friday. ‘A library full of books.’
    â€˜You think the textbooks are there?’ asked Miss Franelli.
    â€˜I’m sure of it,’ said Friday. ‘What better place to hide twenty books than in a building full of tens of thousands of books.’
    â€˜We’ll never find them,’ said Miss Franelli.
    â€˜Don’t be so sure,’ said Friday. ‘Let’s go and see.’ She walked directly across the quadrangle to the library on the far side.
    Two minutes later they were standing in the romance section of the school library.
    â€˜These are all romance books,’ said Miss Franelli.
    â€˜No, they just look like romance books,’ said Friday. She took one down from the shelf and opened it up. ‘Okay, this one actually is a romance book, but the textbooks will be here somewhere.’
    Friday started taking stacks of romance novels down from the shelves.
    â€˜What are you doing?’ demanded the librarian, striding over to the section.
    Friday and the librarian did not get along. Given Friday’s love of books you would think she would be a librarian’s favourite. But the librarian at Highcrest Academy was a woman of strong views. She did not like children. She especially didn’t like children who touched her books. Most of all, she didn’t like impertinent children who criticised the purchases she made for the science section, which is exactly what Friday had done when they first met. Ever since, the librarian had hated Friday with the intense repressed rage only someone who works in an environment where yelling is forbidden can possess.
    â€˜We’re looking for maths textbooks,’ said Friday.
    â€˜You’re not going to find them here,’ said the librarian.
    â€˜I think I will,’ said Friday. ‘Miss Franelli’s class left the first half of their lesson with their textbooks. When they returned they had romance novels.’
    â€˜These are not maths textbooks,’ said the librarian, snatching the books away from Friday and stacking them back on the shelf. ‘They are not the right size.These are standard B4 hardbacks. Textbooks are quarto size.’
    â€˜Of course,’ said Friday. ‘You’re right. But I don’t understand. All the evidence leads to here. The textbooks must be here somewhere.’
    â€˜Do you have any quarto romance novels?’ asked Melanie.
    â€˜Romance novels aren’t printed in quarto,’ said Friday.
    â€˜Actually,’ said the librarian, ‘they are when they are published in large print for the visually challenged.’
    â€˜The what?’ asked Melanie.
    â€˜People with bad eyesight,’ said Friday. ‘But there aren’t any students here who are visually impaired.’
    â€˜No,’ said the librarian, ‘but we did get a large collection of books donated to us by Lady Cutler. She had an excellent ornithology collection and first edition travel memoirs. But her eyesight failed in her later years and she mainly read large-print