They scrambled over. There it was—the worn, black-and-white marbled cover. But as Misha reached for it, a shadow fell over them. "Looking for something?"

"Ten minutes, Grade 9," she called out, walking into the room. "I hope you brought your own thoughts today. They’re much harder to lose than a notebook."

The hallway went silent. The "Black Notebook" suddenly felt very heavy and very useless.

In the quiet corridors of School No. 12, the air usually smelled of floor wax and old textbooks. But today, for the students of Grade 9B, it smelled of panic. The final exam for "Artistic Culture" ( Mirovaya Khudozhestvennaya Kultura ) was only twenty minutes away, and the legendary "Black Notebook" was missing.

The notebook wasn't just a collection of notes. It was the holy grail of Grade 9: "Khudo-Kult Otvety" (Art Culture Answers). It contained every possible response to the teacher’s cryptic questions about the difference between Baroque and Rococo, and the exact year Perov finished The Hunters at Rest .