“Shut up, Hannah, he’ll hear you!”

“No he won’t! And what would be so bad about that, anyway? I know he liiikes you.”

“Will you give it a rest? I’m not interested in boys. I’m going to wait till I’m older for all that.”

“You and I both know that’s not true, Chloe.”

Chloe and Hannah, identical twin sisters, were also on a school trip to Oxford, though not from London but from their hometown in Wales. It was that part of the school year in the Summer when the teachers run out of things to teach, you see, so lots of schools were going on trips to pass the time. And Oxford was a very popular destination, apparently, because it had so much History to it. Right now they were in the middle of somewhere called the ‘Radcliffe Camera’, though it wasn’t a camera at all but rather a massive, domed building, part of something called the ‘Bodleian Library’, and stuffed full of books. Chloe was actually finding it quite interesting. The only problem was, she was being distracted by her twin sister Hannah. Hannah, who was going on and on at her about Johnny, one of the boys in their class, trying to convince her to ask him out. Chloe did in fact have a secret crush on Johnny, which Hannah knew full well, but she was shy and she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. She would be mortified if Johnny found out.

“Look, not here, okay? I’m trying to enjoy the trip,” said Chloe.

“I don’t see what there is to enjoy—it’s just a stuffy old room full of a load of books,” said Hannah.

Chloe was about to reply that actually books could be very enjoyable things when their teacher, Mrs Jones (by pure coincidence, Mrs Jones was actually a distant cousin of Jake’s teacher, Mrs Fink, who had married a Welshman, but that is irrelevant to our story) said “Chloe and Hannah, for the last time, will you stop talking? You are being very rude! Please continue, sir.”

This last comment was addressed to their group’s own tour guide, this time a quite short, young man wearing a ridiculous 19th-century coat who spoke in what was probably the poshest accent that you have ever heard. He pronounced ‘Oxford’ as ‘Oggsfouwrd’. He had been telling them all the famous facts and figures about this odd circular room and now he was going to take them downstairs to another basement room underground. Chloe and Hannah kept quiet to avoid another telling off from Mrs Jones while they plodded down the steps with their class. They were usually kept apart in school they were making the most of this opportunity to be together while out on the trip. As they walked, Chloe looked over at Johnny, who was walking a few steps ahead of them. He seemed completely uninterested in her. She gave a little sigh under her breath.

The next underground room was, predictably, also stuffed full of books. Row upon row of books, stacked in strange wiry metal shelves that the tour guide explained had been designed by one of the former Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom. Chloe quite enjoyed reading, which was the only reason she was interested. Hannah didn’t so much, she was more into things like horse-riding and dancing, which is why her attention was currently elsewhere.

“Chloe, he’s looking at you!” said Hannah in a hushed voice.

Despite herself, Chloe looked round. There indeed was Johnny, she was surprised to see, now looking over at them. She caught his eye and he smiled at her. Chloe smiled back for a moment and then looked away. She felt her cheeks blushing. You might think that identical twins are alike in every way and so that people who are attracted to them will always be attracted to both of them, but that is not the case.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“See, what did I tell you?” said Hannah.

“He was just looking. It doesn’t mean anything,” said Chloe.

“My arse it doesn’t mean anything!”

“Chloe and Hannah!” said Mrs Jones. “This is your final warning! One more time and I’m sending you back to sit in the minibus!”

They zipped their lips. The tour guide was now explaining that he was going to take them through a tunnel called the ‘Gladstone Link’ that had only been built relatively recently and that connected this library to another one, like a kind of secret underground passageway. Their class followed obediently. The tunnel was very long and panelled all with the same two plain white and blue colours. It was like something out of a computer game or a badly drawn picture of a spaceship corridor in a comic book.

Chloe and Hannah marched along it, lingering right at the back of their group so that they could continue their conversation without being heard.

“I told you he liked you,” said Hannah.

“No he doesn’t,” said Chloe. “He was looking at you.”

“He was definitely looking at you.”

“Well so what if he does? What am I meant to do about it?”

“You should ask him out. Boys like it when you make the first move.”

“No they don’t.”

“How would you know?”

Chloe looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel, ignoring the question. She wondered what was immediately above it. Was it the ground? People’s feet? More books? Or just earth, a pile of soil and dirt?

That was when the tunnel started to tremble.

For some reason, everyone froze. This wasn’t a very sensible thing to do, given the circumstances.

“What’s happening?!” said Mrs Jones to the tour guide.

“I…I don’t know!”

“It seems to be some sort of earthquake!”

“But we don’t have earthquakes in Oggsfouwrd!”

“You do now! Everybody, run!”

With this instruction from Mrs Jones, the class rushed forwards to get to the end of the tunnel and up the stairs at the end. Bits of dust and pebbles started to drop from the ceiling as they did so. The trembling got more violent, and soon grew to a loud, rumbling shaking. Then part of the tunnel ceiling caved in. It turned out that what was immediately above it was, after all, soil and dirt. And rock.

The children who were in front of Chloe and Hannah just made it to the end of the tunnel in time. Once they had, a huge chunk of rock fell down behind them, blocking the exit completely.

“Help!” yelled Chloe.

“Wait for us!” yelled Hannah.

Beyond the fallen rock, they could hear shouts, but they couldn’t make out any of the words. Chloe got a quick glimpse of Mrs Jones’s terrified face calling out to them before the gap was plugged up completely by more falling earth. The shaking and rumbling grew louder. They darted back the way they came, trying to make it back to the entrance through which they had come into the tunnel, but the other side had caved in as well. They were trapped. They dropped to the floor and lifted up their hands to try to protect themselves from the earth and rock that continued to fall.

“What should we do?!” cried Chloe.

“I don’t know!” cried Hannah.

Everything went dark.