A week later, Oliver was standing outside the hall along with a small crowd of noisy students. Despite Janet’s warnings, it seemed that everyone in the class had entered.

Including, to Oliver’s surprise, Jacob.

‘What about Whitecliffes?’ he asked

‘Well, Mulberry sounds more fun’ Jacob shrugged

Oliver crossed his arms

‘You want to be wizard?’

‘They never said you had to. I convinced myself. I’m very persuasive’

‘Is that all?’

Jacob thought for a moment.

‘I suppose it’d be hard to find someone else who’s happy to just sit in a library for hours on end and let me draw. If I’m gonna suffer, I might as well be in good company’

‘Nice legs, Oliver!’ came a shout ‘You’d look good in a skirt!’

The one who shouted was a loutish looking boy, who was leaning against the wall. The other boys around him guffawed and glanced over at Hannah’s gang.

‘It’s in short supply’ muttered Jacob

Hannah was standing in the middle of her circle. Wrapped in a mink jacket, she seemed a picture of innocence.

‘Why she’s entering, I’ve no idea’ Jacob grumbled ‘Her dad could pay to send twenty of her’

Hannah’s father owned a company that sold medicine to hospitals. No one knew just how rich he was, but he had once bought up three farms to turn into his personal golf course.

He owned an estate at the edge of the village. The gates were always locked, but it was rumored the property was larger than the entire school.

Suddenly, everyone fell silent.

Oliver looked around in surprise, before he felt Jacob nudge him. He nodded in the direction of the stairs.

Standing at the head of the steps to the hall was a woman.

Oliver had been expecting Mrs. Kendall or Miss Wilson. But this woman was as far from them as Oliver thought possible.

Her hair was tied up tightly in a bun, giving her face a hard look. She was dressed in a gown that flowed in the wind. Vaguely, Oliver remembered going to an awards ceremony at Emily’s school. The Headmaster had worn a black gown which he no doubt hoped would give the occasion a solemn note. But the gown was too big for him and hadn’t been dusted, so he’d spent the night unsuccessfully stifling sneezes as he shook each student’s hand. The whole effect had been rather comical.

This woman’s gown was anything but. It seemed to shimmer a deep purple, a sky blue, and a shining silver all at once. It flowed in the wind, making it hard for Oliver to decide which one. Draped around her shoulders was a cowl of deep black fur. It was held together by a silver chain which glittered in the winter sun.

She appeared to be wearing a suit underneath, but all Oliver could see was polished business shoes and pressed grey trousers.

There was no question in Oliver’s mind what this woman was.

The whole class gaped at her while she, in turn, took them in. After casting her eye over the rugby jerseys and Hannah’s coat, the wizard spoke.

‘The exam will begin in five minutes’

She didn’t have to shout or make any other effort to be heard. The class was still trying to take in her outfit.

‘In a moment, I will let you into the hall. You will proceed in a straight line, and then take a seat and fill in the paper in front of you. You will not speak. You will not jostle. You will sit down and fill in only the page facing up on the desk. You will not do anything else unless I say so. Is that clear?’

The class mumbled, and some nodded their heads.

Apparently satisfied, the wizard stood aside.

‘You may enter’

Silently, they filed past her past her, Oliver behind Jacob. As he passed the wizard, he felt an inexplicable desire to comb his hair and tuck in his shirt.

The benches in the hall had been replaced with rows of single desks. These weren’t the school desks either. These desks were jet black and dotted with silver points. The chairs gleamed silver as well.

The wizard began directing them to their places. Oliver ended up in the back, behind Sophie, while Jacob was way off in the front left corner. He could see Hannah being seated directly in the front row.

In front of him were three bundles of paper, each stapled together. Resting on top was a separate sheet. The top read:

KING JAMES SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION

CANDIDATE INFORMATION

Oliver picked up the pen lying next to the paper. It was purple, embossed with a stylized M. He quickly filled out the form, which asked for his name, age, and school. He then waited expectantly.

Up the front, the wizard was consulting her watch. She looked over her audience.

‘The exam will start in two minutes. This exam consists of three papers. You must at least attempt all three to be considered. The exam is three hours in length. If you finish early and wish to leave, raise your hand and wait for me to come to you. Do nothing else until I release you. Any questions?’

No one put their hand up. Oliver noticed that along with the kids from his class, there were many others dotted throughout the hall he didn’t recognize. Other students in the area, no doubt.

‘Any attempt at cheating will be met with immediate disqualification’ the wizard warned ‘along with disciplinary action’

She looked at her watch.

‘It is now 9am. The King James Scholarship Examination has now begun. Good luck to you all’

There was a rustle as everyone turned over their papers and began turning pages.

Oliver examined his three papers. The first said MATHS.

He put that one aside for now.

The second said READING.

That sounded more promising, but there was still one left.

Oliver turned it over. REASONING, it said.

He stared. He’d never heard of an exam paper like that. Curiously, he flicked through it. Shapes, colours, puzzles, mazes, and drawings all seemed to leap out at him. It looked like a child’s puzzle book. Oliver had no idea where to even start.

After a few moments, he shook his head. He didn’t have time to worry about that now. Putting the REASONING paper aside, he picked up the READING one.

He might as well start with his best subject.

Turning over the first page, he quickly read through the instructions:

King James Scholarship Reading Paper

Candidates: Read through each of the five stories in this paper, and then answer the accompanying questions. Each section should take you around 10 minutes. You must attempt at least one for this paper to be considered.

On the other page was the first story:

The Old Man and the Fish

It took Oliver less than a minute to read through the two-and-a-half-page story of an old fisherman attempting to catch a rainbow fish, only to catch the same ugly brown fish over and over.

He began scribbling in answers to questions about what the old man wanted, why he wanted it, and what purpose the fish served, among others.

The next was a newspaper report, full of grammar mistakes to find and fix. Oliver could almost feel Miss Wilson peering over his shoulder as he quickly corrected error after error.

On Oliver went, through another story about a boy playing soccer for the first time, to a poem on a returning soldier who came home to find his wife gone off with a tailor and his dog run away to become a butcher. He was able to answer all the questions without too much trouble.

When he turned to the final question, he was met with a surprise. The page was almost entirely blank except for a newspaper headline at the top of the page:

MYSTERIOUS FLYING OBJECT SEEN IN SKY OVER CAPITAL

And in smaller text underneath:

Write the story behind this headline

Oliver glanced up at the clock at the front of the room. Half an hour had passed since the start of the exam. He still had time.

One boy appeared to have given up entirely and was lying slumped forward on his desk, his pen abandoned.

Oliver thought for a moment and began writing.

‘At 9.30 am this morning, an unidentified flying object was seen in the sky above the capital. It first appeared above the Ministry for Education’s buildings, seen by...’

Oliver slowly put together a story on how the object was discovered by Ministry workers, how police tried to identify it through binoculars, then how firemen tried to catch it from their ladders. He finished it off stating the investigation was still ‘ongoing’

‘Two hours to go’ said the wizard.

The scribbling in the hall picked up with new intensity.

Putting the READING paper aside, Oliver picked up the MATHS one.

He grimaced. This was far from his best subject, but he had to at least try all three. He’d better start now while he still had time.

The first few pages seemed simple enough. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division were all things he’d learnt from Miss Wilson and his other teachers. He managed to solve them relatively quickly.

It was on the next page that he hit his first roadblock.

Shapes. Oliver groaned inwardly. He’d never been any good at these in class. No matter how many times Miss Wilson had tried to explain right angle triangles and circumferences on the board, he had never been able to wrap his head around them.

Don’t I need a calculator for these? he thought

No sooner than the thought had crossed his mind, he noticed a calculator next to his elbow. He definitely hadn’t seen it when he sat down, but Oliver had no time to worry about that. He seized it and quickly began entering numbers.

He eventually managed to recall the formula for circumference and filled in an answer for the first two questions.

But he was stuck at the next:

Find x for the side of the triangle

Oliver stared blankly. What did that mean? He couldn’t remember Miss Wilson teaching this.

Or could he? A memory stirred in the back of his head of a hot summer afternoon in class. Miss Wilson had drawn a triangle on the board and was tapping the long side with her marker. Oliver had struggled to stay awake at the time. He had stayed up until midnight the night before, reading under the covers, until his father caught him.

Now Oliver felt his mind drifting again. His gaze wandered across the hall. In front of him, Sophie was writing so furiously, her pen was a blur.

Lucas, the fastest runner in the class, looked as though he was doing better on the MATHS paper than him. He was already several pages ahead of Oliver.

Hannah was sitting with her chin in her hand, apparently deep in thought.

Jacob was in the middle of writing as well. Or, knowing him, he could very easily be doodling. Oliver wasn’t sure.

He noticed a movement in the corner of his eye. Mrs. Kendall was standing outside the slightly ajar door. She too was gazing at the rows of scribbling children.

Oliver heard the wizard cough and remembered what she had said about cheating. Not wanting her to think he was trying to see someone else’s paper, he quickly turned towards the front and caught a glimpse of the clock.

With a thrill of horror, he realized he’d been stuck at the same question for half an hour. More than half his time was gone, and he was nowhere near finished with his MATHS paper.

In a frenzy, he filled in answer after answer with the first solution that came to mind. He had no idea if they were right or not. In his mind, he was thinking Finish! Finish! FINISH!

‘One hour to go’ said the wizard.

Oliver made himself put down the MATHS paper. There was still one to go.

The REASONING paper had the shortest instructions of all:

Give your best answers