Penguin Books Australia

Chapter One

There was a Gorgon in the gully at Danny Griggs's school. Not that Danny Griggs had ever seen it, but everyone at St Raph's knew the Gorgon had lived at the bottom of the gully for years and years and years.

Some said the Gorgon was ten feet tall with a wolf as a companion, one that frothed at the jaws with white suds and blew bubbles when he growled. With five teeth, another said. Danny wasn't sure whether his source was talking about the Gorgon or the wolf, but he had a feeling that every one of those teeth would be sharpened to deliver maximum pain to its next victim.

Most days, Danny and his companions were safe from the Gorgon because they stuck to playing on the grass area of the playground where they could kick a ball around.

Usually Danny spent recess and lunch hour practising his soccer skills. The grand final was coming up in weeks and he knew his team-mates were faster and better with the ball. More skilled, the coach said. It was as if they were born knowing what to do. Danny knew he'd never be as good as the others, but if he tried his hardest, there was a chance that the coach would put him on the field, even if was only for a couple of minutes.

These days Danny hung out with Bella and Jackson because they were on the soccer team. His best friend Maisie Thurlow had moved to the country because the Thurlows couldn't afford to live in the city anymore. Danny missed her most days. He worried that she'd forget him and that he'd never have proper friends. The trouble with Danny's school was that everyone kept to their own area of the playground based on what they liked doing. Those who played handball kept completely away from those who played netball. Completely. The netball players wouldn't be seen dead near the So You Think You Can Dance? girls, who were constantly practising dance moves near the flower garden. Then there were the cricket players. At least three times a week every single person at St Raph's would hit the ground with hands to their heads as a cricket ball whizzed low across the space, especially when Akbar the fast bowler, had control of the ball.

It didn't end there. Those who did their homework in the quadrangle were left alone, as were the marble players, the card players and the hopscotch girls.

The only thing the kids from St Raph's had in common was that all of them knew that way, way, way beyond the basketball courts, the classrooms, the tuckshop, the bubblers, the toilets and the school hall, there was a patch of grass and then a dip and everything that rolled beyond the patch of grass and the dip disappeared. Every single time. One minute the whole school would be doing their usual thing in the playground and the next, they'd be lined up across the top of the gully, talking options.

Usually the discussion of options took a few minutes.

Usually the discussion would include a call for volunteers to venture down below.

Usually someone would pretend to put up their hand and then end up scratching their head.

Every single time they would all walk away disappointed.

The problem was this. The Gorgon was a hoarder. It kept every basketball, soccer ball, handball, football, tennis ball, netball, golf ball, even those elastic balls you make in class when you're bored. You name it, the Gorgon kept it. Once, Bella, who came from the Cadigal people, even suggested they throw a boomerang, convinced it would come back. It didn't.

Five weeks before grand-final day everything changed. Firstly, Danny had an argument with Bella while they were playing soccer at recess.

'It's football!' she said.

'It's soccer!'

'It's played with the foot, fool!' she shouted.

'My brother says it's been soccer forever.'

'Not in England and Europe.'

'But we're not in England! We're in Australia.'

Danny stood eye to eye with Bella. Actually he didn't, because Bella was taller so it was more like his eye, her chin. He was happy to be reaching her chin because when they began fourth grade at the beginning of the year he was speaking to her chest . . .

'They're bosoms.'

. . . And Danny didn't want to get into conver­sations about what Bella's chest was called.

These days he never complained about reaching her chin.

'Football,' Jackson, their friend explained, 'originated in England. So we should honour that country's label for the game.'

They only had a moment to argue because then someone called out to Danny and the ball was coming his way. His way? The ball never came his way unless someone tripped over their shoelaces and accidentally kicked it in his direction. But that's all it took that day. The ball bounced off Danny's knees, up onto his forehead and for a moment, or perhaps two, everyone stood around him to watch. As if for a moment, or perhaps two, Danny Griggs was king of the playground. But then the ball went flying, hitting the basketball post, hitting the teacher on playground duty, hitting the bubblers and zigzagging across to hit the enormous oak tree at the top of the gully.

Eyes swung.

Heads turned.

Mouths gaped.

But just like Bella's boomerang, the ball did not come back. It dunk dunk dunked down the steep gully. And it was not just any ball, but one that belonged to Billy, whose uncle knew the brother of the friend of the sister of the nephew of the cousin of Harry Kewell. Who had signed it. It was the good-luck charm that had helped them win most of their games and got them to the grand final.

Yes. That ball.

It just disappeared.

Down the gully.

Where the Gorgon lived.