Children are often embarrassed or even afraid of visiting places which, as they think, "belong only to adults". In Tardis Boarding School there was such place. It was the library. And one of the reasons was the school librarian Miss Noble - most of the older group students called her "walking explosive", because her mood could switch from one to another in a mere second. But not only that: no one, including students and teachers (and perhaps even Headmaster Smith), dared to enrage her. Perhaps only vice-headmaster Lethbridge-Stuart could tame her... Anyway, visiting the library was always preluded by an eager discussion and recalling whose turn it was (this was borrowed from the older students), though it was necessary. The school library held many rare books in lots of languages, and there was a gossip that there even was a universal translating device there, though hardly anyone - except, maybe, Yanek Magister, the only one clever and sane enough of his family - had used it.
This time it revealed that the "library gang" would consist of Ace, Vislor and Clara.
"Thank goodness that Johnny Magister isn't with us", the first one informed, while they were making their way to the place. Clara nodded - though she was a newbie in Tardis Boarding School, she already knew what was whose trick.
"Hope you left your home-made Molotov cocktails under your bed". And that was all of Vislor - he would always find an alternative to a suggestion, and it would be evil-like. Ace thumbed her nose at him. "Or bet your Doctor Seven is full of it".
Ace glared daggers at him - this was a bit too much. Her "Doctor Seven" wooden puppet was her most favourite property, and she wouldn't let anyone damage it.
When they reached the library, the atmosphere there appeared to be peaceful. Miss Noble was concentrated on typing something - all school knew that this was her cup of tea. One hundred words a minute.
"Hello, Miss Noble", Vislor began. She stopped typing and turned to him. "Are there any Greek mythology books left? We need to prepare reports for Miss Wright".
"Hold on... There are, you can look yourself there". Miss Noble switched her attention to Clara. "And who are you?"
"This is Clara Oswald, she's new", Ace hurried to inform.
"I hope you know the rules", Miss Noble noticed. "No food or drinks, no book vandalism, no phones ringing". Clara nodded. "All right, off you go. Ask if you need any help".
"You'd better not ask her for help", Ace whispered when they three were gone among the bookshelves. "She's the one of those who will bite your arm off is you give them your finger".
After a brief search it revealed that there were too many books to choose, so the kids collected as many as they could and brought them to their desk to sort them. But after two or three more walks along the shelves Clara noticed something odd. All the books were standing in particular order, but there was one of them which was plainly laid over all of them. It was quite old, had deep blue cover in square patterns (Clara thought about the school's emblem upon having seen this) and no name. And no text as well - Clara looked through it, but its pages were blank. In fact, it was more like an old notebook.
"Do you think it got here by mistake?" she asked, showing it to her pals. She thought that it was just a lost notebook, but no. When Vislor took it to examine, his expression changed to worried - and he could sense anything potentially dangerous better than most of the group. Sixth sense, was it called this way?..
"There's something wrong with it", he informed, opening it and glancing around for Miss Noble not to interfere. "Something weird, I'd say..."
"You sure?" Ace asked.
Vislor nodded.
"Remember, when there was a strange case with Jamie? Benton and Yates suggested investigating if something like this happens... or can happen", Clara recalled. "Why can't we?"
"Shhh!" Vislor hushed. "We will, but not here, okay?"
Despite all the worries, the empty notebook was successfully brought out of the library together with a bagful of Greek mythology books. But the three decided to show it only after all the home tasks were done.
"For me, it's just an old diary", Rose said, twirling the notebook in her hands. "Nothing special".
"Maybe it's not empty?" Martha suggested. "I've heard that sometimes secret codes are written with milk or lemon juice, which then becomes visible if there's warmth".
But the trial of warming the pages up with the hairdryer (borrowed before from someone of the older group... perhaps Nyssa) gave no result.
"And if we try to write? Notebooks are made for writing in them", Adric suggested.
"Then you do it, Adric Potter", Johnny Magister snapped.
"And I will".
All group gathered around the desk at which he was sitting. Feeling everybody's looks drilling him, Adric sighed and wrote on the front page: "ADRIC ALZAR". And then the strange things began.
The written letters exploded into thinner lines, which began crawling all over the page, forming pictures - at first it was a crashed spaceship on a river bank, then a flock of bats, then a railway station. Finally they described a huge explosion, and the page was blank again.
"Wow", Rory only managed to say.
"Hey, let me, Alzar!" Johnny almost pushed Adric off his chair and wrote his name on the front page. This time the picture was single - a blurry figure floating through some kind of vortex. "And what does it suppose to mean?.."
"Preferably nothing... Let me, I was among those who found it!" Vislor was the next. Unexpectedly, his name at first changed into a simple pattern - two triangles into each other. And, judging by Vislor's widened eyes, he knew what that meant... Then the lines formed an exact human figure - a shape of a young man in business suit, holding a hat stand like a spear.
"Hey, that's you!" Tegan was the first to see the similarity of the one who wrote and the one who appeared. "That's you, Vislor, but... grown-up you..."
The next pictures were not too optimistic - car crash, then something like a pirate ship soaring in the sky, then horsemen in medieval clothing. When the page went blank again, the ginger-top frowned.
"Okay, it gave this out", he muttered and undid his shirt's left cuff, pulling the sleeve up. It revealed that he had a small tattoo on his left shoulder - the replica of that odd triangular symbol. "Family matters, and that's not just a mark".
"Come oooooon, VT, give me a try!" Jo interfered.
As soon as the last member of the younger group stopped tossing and turning, the plastic doll with a mop of brown curls, wrapped in the longest scarf, raised its head.
"Coast clear", Four informed. "Wake up everybody!"
All twelve dolls quickly gathered under the desk not to be spotted in case of something. Seven was the first to tell the background:
"Clara found this book in the library. It was just lying there undisturbed, until she brought it. And Vislor said there was something wrong with it".
"No wonder", Three muttered. "You saw what they all did".
He meant that the children - most of them - had been writing their names in the book and watching images appearing until Mr. Lethbridge-Stuart had come to tell them it had been too late.
"Yes, but I didn't mean only that. If it was there, someone must have left it", Seven continued.
"You suppose it's Headmaster Smith?" Ten wondered.
"No. Such things are not made just for fun... I know it".
"Seems like Ace's chemistry made our Seven suspicious about anything that smells wrong", Six whispered to Eleven and got a sharp punch with Seven's wooden elbow into his patchwork side. "Hey!"
"Smells wrong and goes BOOM", Five mused. "Hmm... Three, Four, can you help me get onto the table? I want to try and write something there too".
"What?!" Three exclaimed, having made someone - most probably, Jamie or Johnny - mutter without waking and roll around in the bed for a while.
"Whatever happens, there is a base of strange things", Five parried.
The next morning Susan was the first to wake up - a rare case, usually it was Martha. Maybe because she was worried. Her grandfather had told her about many weird, odd and eerie cases, so she had an additional reason to be anxious. And it approved.
The blue book was still on the table, but now it was open, and its pages weren't blank - they were covered with pictures, or, more exactly, portraits. Most of them were the portraits of strangers, and all different - this one with puffy white curls, that one with a shock of jet-black hair; this one dressed in a classical suit, that one in fancy clothes; this one looks like an old grumbler, that one like a lonely romantic soul. Susan, her fingers trembling, went on turning the yellowish pages over. And the very first female portrait made her drop the book. Why? Because she thought that the page was a mirror. The girl drawn on it was Susan's copy, though she looked older - about fifteen, perhaps, while Susan was still nine. Among the younger group Martha was the oldest - she was ten, while the youngest was Jo, still six.
This was not the only "coincidence". The next pages contained scenes of various - mostly strange - happenings including those very strangers, usually with someone else. And among those "someone else" Susan noticed - what the?.. - Miss Roman Senior and Miss Roman Junior, one after one. But no one more, and no pictures that had been seen yesterday shown themselves.
All in all, the book was full of untold stories.
"What is she doing?" Johnny Magister whispered loudly, watching Susan ask Miss Roman Junior about something not heard, but at least guessable. "There's no sense anyway".
"Sew lips, Magister", Ace interfered.
"You saw what happened. It's fine to ask", Vislor caught up.
When this talk was over, they found a free windowsill to sit on, and Susan told them what she had received:
"Miss Roman Junior thinks that it's about this house. I asked her about the history of our school, and..."
"Oh gods, why?.." Vislor groaned, but Susan continued without stopping:
"Because the cover of this book is... well, like the box on the school emblem, don't you think?" She pointed at the school emblem embroidered on her vest - the blue "police box" (no one quite knew what that meant) surrounded by circular patterns. "She said that our school was built on the place where there had been... emm... she called it a crack, but I think she meant lightning".
"Yeah, a typical scary movie scenario. Haunted mansion built on the place where lightning had struck", Ace put in.
"Wait! Doesn't it... I don't know... sound suspicious that she told you that?" Vislor asked all of a sudden. "Such things are not told randomly, or it was just a prank... and it doesn't sound like that..."
"It's not a prank".
The kids started, then slowly turned their heads just to see Headmaster Smith who was watching them.
"I just knew that it couldn't be kept a secret forever", Mr. Smith mused. "I will tell you".
"Why? I thought such things are usually kept in secret", Vislor repeated.
"Yes. And if it's about school, there are grand secrets which all school knows", Mr. Smith beamed. "Okay. This book holds the story of our school. Its past, its present, even perhaps the future, but it reveals it not to everyone and often shows the pictures that can have double or triple meaning, so it's no use trying to get it all at once. Each and every one who gets here leaves a track, and it's reflected there too".
"Like a journal, yes?" Susan asked.
"Mm-hmm. The Tardis Boarding School journal... but I don't think you should fool around with it any more. You'd better return it back to where you found it. Promise that you will do it as soon as possible?"
The children nodded. Not only because they were to nod in front of the adult, but because twinges of fear appeared in them. No, such things shouldn't be made toys.
"And one more thing. During my life I've never met anyone that wasn't important, so you can be sure that you leave tracks in this world even without looking into this book", Mr. Smith concluded.