The next day, Gavin and Jupiter drew Jud and Harriet aside and filled them in on what they'd found within the hedge maze. Their two friends were equally confused.
"Maybe that's what the Lord Thumbledown students are after," suggested Harriet.
"You mean like it's the sacred treasure horde of Lord Thumbledown himself?" asked Jud. "Great, now they'll never stop attacking us. Gold makes people obsessive."
Gavin shook his head. "No, that's not it. At least, I don't think so."
"I agree with Gavin," said Jupiter. "You guys weren't there. This treasure was... there was something different about it. It's not just a pile of trinkets."
"Right," said Jud. "It's a pile of golden trinkets. Much more enticing."
"Come on," argued Gavin. "I can't believe the folks over there would go to all-out war over something as mundane as this. If they really wanted gold, I'm sure they have someone over there who can create it out of thin air or turn something else into it. Like iron or bananas or something. I mean what do they need with wealth? They already get everything they could possibly want because they're superheroes."
"Well if Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics doesn't want that treasure, then what's it doing hiding away in the hedge maze?" asked Harriet.
Nobody had an answer.
***
Life returned to normal, or, at least, as normal as life could be when all of the classrooms had been scorched in the inferno and made unusable. Classes were held out on the lawn or, if it rained, in the corridors of the surviving wing. It was at times hard to concentrate on lessons over the sound of the crew clearing away the debris or tearing down unsafe walls. Every student found their gaze and attention drawn to the wreckage of their school multiple times during each class. It was a reminder that things were not alright. That they were in danger.
Outside of class, that ominous sensation of imminent danger hung over everyone's head. Everyone was subdued. Even Mitchell, once he returned from the hospital with a patch over one eye and his left hand wrapped in bandages, was altered by the circumstances. He avoided people, even his friends Flynn and Jason, and didn't bully anyone.
Gavin almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
But the biggest change for Gavin wasn't external, but internal. And he didn't even realize it until Harriet pointed it out at lunch a couple of days later.
"What's with the coin?" she asked.
"Hmmm?" Gavin looked up, momentarily confused.
Harriet pointed at his hands. "You've been rolling that coin across your knuckles for the last two days."
He looked down. There it was. That strange, golden 10J coin. He hadn't even noticed he had it out. It had become something of a constant companion, but he never paid it any attention.
And yet.
"It's nothing," he said, stuffing the coin back into his pocket. "It's just a coin."
"Where'd you get it?" she asked. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"You've never seen a coin?"
"Not a golden coin that is so obviously ancient and valuable."
"You think it's valuable?" Gavin perked up.
She shrugged. "Aren't all gold coins?"
The bell rang, ending lunch. They said their goodbyes and headed off to class. Gavin was out the door and half-way down the corridor when he realized he had the coin out and was fiddling with it again. This seemed strange to him, as he didn't recall taking it out of his pocket. It was almost as if rather than Gavin playing with the coin, the coin was playing with him.
***
As the day progressed, Gavin found himself playing with the coin more and more. It was a little scary. There didn't seem to be anything special about it.other than it being a strange golden coin of undetermined value. But his hands couldn't leave it alone.
He was in Mrs. Ackachack's class when the thought first hit him.
He wanted another coin.
He wasn't sure why he wanted it, but he knew he had to have it. Two coins were better than one. And he knew where he could get another one. The hedge maze. There were plenty of coins in the center of the hedge maze. And now that he knew the secret of the maze and how to get to the center it would be a simple matter of increasing his collection.
The only problem was Mrs. Gruber. He knew she'd stop him if she caught him, so he at first waited for her to leave the school again, but she never did. Luckily, with the classrooms gone, she spent more and more time inside her office, which had survived the fire. He kept a watch on her activities when he thought he could get away with it, and finally he saw her head into her office with a student. There had been an accident in Mr. Choi's class that day, and Janet Topski had ended up temporarily blind from the flash. Jason Cottle had been responsible for the adding flash powder to her experiment and was about to get a serious dressing down.
It was the chance Gavin had been waiting for.
He quickly snuck out and raced across the field to the grove of trees. From there, it was a simple matter of hurrying around the maze to the back side and finding, after some difficulty, the hidden entrance. He squeezed himself through the path until he reached the center.
There it was, the pile of treasure. Exactly as they'd left it. The pieces glittered and shone in the sunlight, with the rays reflecting off the water tumbling out of the fountain. He stepped forward until he was at the edge of the horde and just marvelled at this unexpected discovery. It was beautiful. More than that, it was wonderful. There was something very special about all this treasure sitting here unused, unspent, unloved. It seemed a shame to keep it all here, hidden away from mankind and the rest of the world. It didn't do anyone any good here, sitting alone forgotten.
He wondered, and not for the first time, why it was here. Was this the fortune on which the original Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics had been forged? Except if that were the case, wouldn't that mean it would have been spent and therefore no longer here? So many questions.
Gavin walked around the fountain, taking in everything, his eyes wide. He paused for a moment in front of each of the three paintings, finding them to be slightly out of place amongst all the gold and jewels. He'd never been much of an art lover, but he heard that certain paintings could be worth millions. He didn't see anything special about these three, but he assumed they were among those ultra-valuable paintings he'd heard about. Maybe done by some famous artist or something.
Eventually, he took a deep breath, turned, and walked away, his spirits soaring from the visit. He would have to come back again soon. It was just so wonderful to be around all this beauty. He didn't need to take anything with him, he could just come and visit.
He was almost back in his room before he thought to reach into his pocket.
Sure enough, now he had two coins.
He had no idea how the second one had gotten in there.
***
The pattern continued sporadically over the next two weeks. Any time he saw that Mrs. Gruber would be occupied for a while, he'd sneak away to the hedge maze and visit what he was more and more considering his treasure trove. And even though he never consciously took anything, he always had a new golden trinket in his pocket when he returned.
The original coin he kept with him at all times, but the others he lined up on his headboard. Sometimes he'd sit on his bed and just stare at his growing collection, marvelling at its beauty, yet always noticing how it ought to include one more piece. One more trinket. One more.
It got to the point that Stanford even took notice.
"You know," he said. "I'm the one who's supposed to be a hoarder." He gestured to his trash-strew side of the room.
"What do you mean?" asked Gavin from his bed.
"I mean where are you getting all these golden things from?"
"What golden things?" Gavin played dumb. He hadn't opened up to Stanford about his find and didn't plan to start now.
"Oh, come on! Those golden things!" He pointed at the line of golden trinkets on Gavin's headboard.
Gavin turned as if seeing them for the first time. "Oh! These are just... some stuff from home. I'm starting to feel comfortable enough here to bring them out." He thought it was a pretty good lie, and hoped it would satisfy his roommate.
No such luck.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," replied Stanford. "But if one of the teachers comes in here for some reason, you're going to have some explaining to do."
And now Gavin had something else to worry about.
It's not like the staff of St. Hibbard's made a habit of barging unannounced into a student's dorm room, but messages were sent, people stopped by. Maybe not a teacher, but another student who would also ask questions about all of Gavin's gold. Questions that would become rumors which would eventually reach Mrs. Gruber's ears. She'd know where he was getting everything, of course, and then he'd be in huge trouble. That was to be avoided at all costs. So he took his collection down and hid it under the bed. This way he was still close to it and he could pull it out and admire it whenever he wanted but not have it just sitting out where anyone could see.
His trips to the center of the hedge maze grew more frequent, and the risks he took in getting there became greater and greater. It was his happy place, the place where he went to relax, to just stand there and breathe it all in.
Until the day came that he made one more trip into the center of the maze.
Only to find he wasn't alone.