Secrets at St Jude's: New Girl (17 page)

‘Erm . . . it was . . .’ Amy racked her brain for any mention of any film that she’d heard recently . . . Hello

. . . just any film at all. Absolutely nothing came to mind. She could feel her face start to flush.

‘
Party Girl
,’ she decided on finally, pretty sure that this wasn’t a film – it was something she’d made up.

But Amy hated blushing and she hated being inter-rogated, so she’d decided to get out of there as quickly as possible. ‘Pretty good,’ she added. ‘Gina loved it.’

Then she picked up her mug and headed out of the room, completely forgetting about the cup she’d offered to make for the Neb.

Mrs Knebworth found a tea bag and poured boiling water into the mug Amy had set out for her. After swirling it about with a teaspoon, she fished the bag 187

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out and carried it over to the bin; next she poured in a drop of milk and stirred slowly.

Now she would take a few sips . . . take a moment.

Then she would head over to Daffodil dorm and listen to some more feeble excuses and fibs about what had gone on tonight.

By the time she opened the dorm door, Amy had an explanation at the ready: ‘It was
China Doll
. . . they just keep referring to her as the “party girl”, so I got confused . . .’

‘And I don’t know how I muddled Reese Witherspoon up with Scarlett Johansson,’ said Gina, but she didn’t sound nearly as convincing as Amy.

Mrs Knebworth’s eyes narrowed dangerously. ‘Are you girls under the impression that I am stupid?’ she asked slowly and icily, clearly in no mood to have the wool pulled over her eyes.

‘No!’ Amy was the first to answer. ‘Of course not.’

‘Well then, don’t bother telling me any more fibs about the cinema.’ Then, in a low and commanding tone, she asked, ‘Just where exactly have the three of you been tonight?’

It was Gina who broke the silence. ‘Look, I’m sorry, we didn’t go to the cinema – but all we did was go to the Arts Café for coffee. I mean, it’s hardly breaking 188

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the law, is it? Why do we always have to say we’re going to the cinema?’

The sharp intakes of breath from Amy, Niffy and Mrs Knebworth let Gina know immediately that she had said the wrong thing.

‘
Always?
’ Mrs Knebworth repeated. ‘So you
always
say you’re going to the cinema, do you? When, in fact, you’re going out and hanging around in places like the Arts Café where they sell . . .
alcohol
!’ There was no mistaking the outrage heaped onto this last word.

‘We had coffee!’ Gina insisted, but Niffy and Amy already knew it was too late.

‘You are gated!’ came the Neb’s verdict.

‘For how long?’ There was a pleading tone to Amy’s question.

‘Until further notice! Now get to bed, all of you!’

With that Mrs Knebworth turned and left the dorm, slamming the door behind her.

‘Charlie’s party!’ Amy wailed.

‘She wouldn’t have let us go anyway,’ said Niffy.

‘We’d have thought of something!’ Amy insisted.

‘Not any more,’ Gina said.

As the light was clicked off in Daffodil dorm, Gina looked up at the ceiling and thought not of her mother, her brother and her home, five thousand 189

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miles away. She thought of Mrs Knebworth and infuriating school rules, and itched with injustice at the punishment that had just been issued. Yes, as every day passed, Gina was becoming more and more of a Daffodil.

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Chapter Fourteen

Miss Ballantyne was handing back essays. She was moving slowly round the classroom, dishing out comments along with the marked pages.

‘Quite nice, Willow, but a little short. I’d liked to have seen more.’

‘Suzie, your spelling is atrocious – if you can spell that.’

‘Penny . . . a lovely piece of work.’

As Gina’s essay flopped down onto her desk, she could already make out the bright red circled C on the top page. The only subject at St Jude’s in which Gina seemed to be making any progress was English.

‘Some effort is going to have to be made, Gina Peterson, or you will be seeing a list of exam results just like your mother’s,’ came the stern rebuke.

‘Like my
mother’s
?’ The disbelief in Gina’s voice was obvious.

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‘Indeed.’

Miss Ballantyne was already moving on, next essay in hand, next comment at the ready.

‘My mother was a straight-A student,’ Gina said defiantly. ‘You must be confused.’

She heard one of those disdainful ‘humph’ sounds that the St Jude’s staff seemed to specialize in. Miss Ballantyne raised her eyebrows, sniffed, then slowly, and for maximum effect, said witheringly, ‘I suppose that’s what she told you, is it?’

This produced a flurry of giggles around the class, and Gina, blushing furiously, decided to back off. What was going on? There were many things in her life she couldn’t be sure of, but the fact that her mother was brilliant and had done amazingly at school and university was
not
one of them.

That was a definite. Miss Ballantyne was wrong.

Miss Ballantyne was a bitter old cow. Miss Ballantyne . . .

Amy nudged her. ‘Don’t believe a word she says,’ she whispered. ‘She’s mental. A founder member of Morningside Ladies Say No To Homosexuals, apparently. They outed two vicars.’

The idea of the respectable ladies of Edinburgh’s Morningside ganging together against vicars with 192

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Miss Ballantyne at the fore was just enough to make Gina’s eyes stop swimming.

All at once the feeling she’d had for a little while now – the feeling that maybe she could fit in and get along here – was gone. Now, all she could think about was how much she missed home – and her family too.

When the history lesson was over, there would be no going home to hide in her room, stretch out across her bed or turn the music on loud. She wouldn’t be running a luxuriously deep bath, or trying on different outfits, calling her best friends or going over to one of their houses. No. When school ended today, she would hoist her school bag onto her back and trudge over to the boarding house, where she would be surrounded for the rest of the day with the chatter and babble of other girls she still didn’t know really well. If she wanted any peace and quiet in the boarding house, she would have to retreat to the large study room and do her homework.

‘Oh dear,’ Mrs Knebworth sighed as Amy, Gina, Niffy and Min came into the front hall. ‘Couldn’t help noticing that you’ve been invited to a party – such a shame you won’t be able to go.’ There wasn’t the slightest sympathy in her voice though.

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‘The cow has been reading our mail!’ Amy shouted in fury as soon as the Neb was out of earshot. She went over to the hall table where all the letters to the boarders were laid out, and spotted the postcard addressed to ‘Amy, Niffy and the Yank’. Turning it over, she read the elaborate copperplate writing out loud: ‘
Charlie
Fotheringham is at home from eight p.m. Please come –

it’ll be cool.
’

‘
The Yank?
’ Gina exclaimed. ‘God, he’s such a jerk!’

‘Penny’s already told me she’s going – along with just about everyone else in the entire year,’ Amy added.

She didn’t repeat the really annoying thing Penny had said to her: ‘Oh, you won’t be there? Shame . . . Maybe Jason will turn his attention to someone else then. Isn’t he quite the ladies’ man?’

Min saw the thin blue airmail envelope addressed to her lying on the table and snatched it up. Without saying anything, she rushed off to the dorm to read the contents in private.

As soon as Niffy opened the dorm door, she could see that all was not well with Min. Her friend was lying across her bed with the airmail letter scrunched up in her hand and tears running down her face.

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‘Min! What is it?’ Niffy demanded, rushing over, Gina and Amy hot on her heels.

Min wiped a hand across her face and just handed Niffy the page. Struggling with the cramped, squiggly handwriting, Niffy began to read aloud:

‘
Dearest Asimina, Your father and I were
. . .

shacked?
’

‘
Shocked
,’ Min corrected.

‘
Shocked to get your last letter. Not do biology A-level?

There is no question of this, Asimina. No question. Why
are you not working harder at your studies? We have
always planned for you to follow our family’s proud
medical tradition
. . .’ Niffy looked up from the page.

‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘I think we know where this is going.’

Min burst into a fresh bout of tears.

‘Don’t worry,’ Amy insisted, sitting down beside Min and patting her on the shoulder. ‘We’ll think of something. Honestly. My dad always says there’s no problem that can’t be solved. You’ve just got to step back and look at the bigger picture.’

‘I need to be a doctor!’ Min wailed. ‘I need a really good biology A-level to be a doctor and I know I’m not going to get that.’

‘Do you want to be a doctor, Min?’ Gina asked.

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‘Of course!’ Min hissed.

‘But the sight of blood makes you either puke or faint,’ Niffy reminded her.

‘That’s just . . . that’s just . . . a minor detail!’ Min spluttered, but then dissolved into another flood of tears.

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Chapter Fifteen

Although it was close to 10 p.m., late June in Edinburgh meant there was no sign of the daylight fading yet, so Amy and Niffy sat out on the fire escape, still moaning about having to spend Saturday night in the boarding house while everyone else they knew was at Charlie’s house party. They were each holding a tooth mug containing the remains of a half-bottle of M&S dessert wine, bought from Sideshow Mel at an inflated price.

‘This is just so mince!’ Amy complained. ‘Jason is going!’

‘How do you know?’ Niffy asked. ‘Do you think this wine is meant to taste slightly minty? Or did I not rinse the mugs out enough?’

‘He emailed,’ Amy said, turning to Niffy with a secretive little smile.

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love,’ Niffy exclaimed. ‘What did he say this time?
Hi,
Whatsyourname, could you be at Charlie’s party in case
I decide to drop by and need someone to ignore?
’

‘Shut up, Nif! Why do you always have to put him down like this?’

‘Dunno, Amy! Why do you always have to build him up to god-like status? He’s just another dorky sixteen-year-old who just happens to have won the lottery in the looks department. Doesn’t make him any better than the rest of them.’

‘Oh, listen to you, Miss Mature.’

‘Neb alert.’ Niffy pointed down to the housemistress’s bedroom window, where a curtain was being drawn.

‘Thought you said she couldn’t see us?’

‘Don’t think she can,’ Niffy replied. ‘But it’s much lighter now.’

‘Well, she can’t tonight, believe me.’ Amy’s secretive smile crossed her face again. ‘I’ve taken all her spectacles.’

‘All of them?’ Niffy stared at her incredulously. ‘
All?
’

‘Oh yes, every single one of her four pairs,’ Amy said triumphantly.

‘Even the pair she was wearing? When and how did you do that?’

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‘Well’ – Amy leaned back, enjoying the confession –

‘I rounded up the three spares in the course of the afternoon.’

‘You went into her rooms?’ Even Niffy sounded shocked.

‘Uh-huh – then, tonight, when she had her little evening snooze in front of the telly, I got hold of the last pair.’

‘And where are they all now?’

‘In the one place she won’t look.’

‘Which is?’

‘Min’s chest of drawers.’

‘Does Min know this?’

‘Actually, she does. She said I could use it for one night only but I had to give them back tomorrow. That was my plan anyway: sneak them all back into strange places. Make the Neb think she’s losing her marbles.’

‘Shhh, I can hear music,’ Niffy said.

‘Maybe it’s coming all the way from Charlie’s house,’ Amy sighed. ‘Maybe Jason finally found a CD

to put on.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Niffy’s sarcasm was obvious. ‘No, I think there’s a concert on at Murrayfield. Listen . . .’

‘A house party! A concert! It’s all happening out there! And where are we? We’re stuck up a fire escape!

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It’s so unfair,’ Amy wailed. ‘We’re prisoners. In our teenage prime!’

It was after midnight and much darker outside when Niffy stirred in her sleep. She’d dreamed of a tapping sound:
Tap tap tappity-tap
.

There it was again.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Niffy sat up in bed. It was coming from the window leading to the fire escape. She tried to consider a possible explanation. Branch tapping against the glass?

No, too high up. Window rattling in its frame? Don’t think so.

The tapping began again, and this time it was accompanied by several giggles.

‘Amy!’ Niffy hissed and reached over to give her friend a shake. ‘Amy! There’s someone at the window!’