How Alexia Walker Almost Saved the World

Chapter 1

Lexi thought her home town was boring, dull as a brown puddle on a grey pavement on a cloudy day, but she couldn't have been more wrong. Unfortunately for Lexi, the truth was about to explode into her life. Literally!

"Excuse me, coming through. Can I just... squeeze past? Thanks."

Say what you like about Rosewell, it was twelve-year-old Lexi's home town and she loved it. It might be ordinary, utterly normal and hum-drum, but Lexi wouldn't live anywhere else. She'd grown up there, her best friend Tim lived just down the street from her and it was where she went to school.

The only trouble was, Rosewell was packed full of tourists. Some of them were extremely peculiar, dressed in strange clothes and taking photos of lamp posts, but all of them walked agonisingly, mind numbingly slow, especially when Lexi was in a rush. She was in a rush now. She was late, as usual. It was a trait.

If you asked, Lexi probably wouldn't describe herself as late. She'd say she was fierce. She liked the sound of that. Other people might describe her as loud, rude and reckless but Lexi never listened to other people. Tim always thought of Lexi as brave and kind. TIm was Lexi's best friend and knew her best of all. Lexi thought Tim was clever, determined but always, agonisingly cautious. It was an odd sort of friendship, like opposite sides of a magnet or different pieces of a puzzle that slotted together to make one, perfect picture. They'd been friends for almost exactly twelve years, ever since Tim's mum and Lexi's dad had become friends at a baby group.

Lexi ducked between two tourists who had stopped to take a photo of a post box. She gave them a quizzical look as she slid by. Lexi couldn't understand why Rosewell was so popular with tourists. It didn't have a castle or a seaside or anything amazing. It was just plain, ordinary, quirky Rosewell. Lexi wondered if they were tourists of boring places. Like those people who went on city break holidays knowing full well they wouldn't have trees to climb or or caves to explore or sandcastles to build.

The first thing you'd notice about Lexi was that she never stopped moving. She was always on the go, always doing something she hoped would be exciting. The next thing you'd notice is that Lexi had the most wonderful curly, dark brown hair which she kept as long as it would grow. Most of the time Lexi could be found dressed in dungarees and her favourite, bright red trainers, although today she also wore a plaster cast on her broken wrist. The cast was bright orange.

The reason for Lexi's broken arm was quite a complicated but it involved Tim, an incredibly tall tree and Tim's brand new drone.

Lexi checked the time on her phone as she tried to slip past two dawdling tourists who were particularly slow.

Tim would never wear bright colours like Lexi. His green trainers were usually hidden under baggy jeans and the rest of him under long T-shirts. He had straight, black hair that he liked to keep short, so it always looked like he had millions of black spikes sticking up from his head. Tim almost always wore a hat.

Lexi was racing towards their weekly meeting of the Mystery Hunters in the shed at the bottom of Tim's garden. It was just the two of them, for now, and that was exactly how Lexi liked it.

Lexi waved to Tim's mums as she flew through their kitchen to the back garden.

"Hi, Mrs Chen! Hi, Mrs Chandler!" she called.

Mrs Chen called after her, "Good afternoon Alexia!" as she disappeared through the doorway.

Although the shed was snug for the two of them, they'd managed to brighten it up with a clear out of all the cobwebs and special, mysterious posters of their favourite spooky TV shows all over the walls.

"Late again," Tim grumbled but Lexi flashed him a winning smile as she got herself settled. She knew he didn't really mind.

The meeting began in the usual way. Lexi explained everything she'd investigated that week. Of course, Tim already knew all about it, they spent every day together at school but saying at the meeting made it Offical. Then, Tim revealed what he'd learnt that week. But this time, Tim had an actual, real life mystery to share. This was a first for the Mystery Hunters.