Secrets at St Jude's: New Girl (9 page)

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‘What about the trial size?’ Amy’s voice sounded a little less angry. ‘Why don’t you get the trial-size shampoo and conditioner for curly hair? Honestly, it’s really good. No! You know what?’ As Amy took Niffy by the arm and led her round the corner, Gina recognized the zeal of a true fellow shopper.

‘Ta-da! This is the shampoo for you,’ Amy announced in front of the display. ‘Barielle shampoos, conditioners and nail care made from’ – she flourished a bottle under Niffy’s nose – ‘hoof oil.’

‘Really?’ Niffy exclaimed with enthusiasm. ‘Does it smell the same?’ She began unscrewing the lid of the bottle.

‘Oh, no doubt!’ Amy rolled her eyes.

When Gina handed her credit card over to the woman behind the till, she hoped her mother wouldn’t mind too much.

‘You’ll have to get some warmer things,’ Lorelei had warned her, after all. ‘Even though it’s summer, summer in Scotland isn’t like anything you’re used to.

Let’s put it this way – you won’t be needing your bikini, or the factor forty.’

Gina’s purchase of two pairs of very expensive 92

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jeans, two DKNY tops and a cute red jacket from Whistles had impressed Amy.

‘I’m going to get one of those tops too,’ she decided.

‘You don’t mind, do you? We’ll just wear them on different days.’

‘Sure, no problem.’ Gina had smiled at her, and suddenly Amy was her new best friend because this was just like going to Nordstrom’s with Ria and arguing about who was going to buy the pink one and who’d have to get the blue because they both adored it so much.

When the shopping was over, it was time to ride the escalators up to the café on the top floor.

‘We’ll go to the toilets first,’ Amy instructed. ‘Check ourselves over. This café is really popular – everybody comes here . . . anybody could be here,’ and they knew exactly who she was thinking of.

In Amy’s mind, the scene was playing. She would emerge from the Harvey Nichols toilets, hair freshly brushed, lip gloss applied, looking as gorgeous as possible. She would round the corner into the café and there, bathed in the late afternoon sun streaming in through the huge windows, would be Jason, alone, sipping moodily at a cappuccino (or did he drink espresso?). Well . . . no matter. He would look over, see 93

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her, smile and say, ‘Amy’ – yes, he’d remember her name – ‘hello there! You’re looking great. Come over and join me.’

Instead, as Amy emerged from the toilet, all fragrant and fluffy, rounded the corner into the café and scanned the sunny room in hope, she heard a nasty mocking voice call out, ‘Oh look! Someone’s let the boarders out! Are you sure you’ve got time for a coffee, girls? You don’t want to miss the bus and be late back.’

Penny revolting-Boswell-totally-revolting-Hackett.

Complete with Piggy and Weasel and two boys, one of which had to be Penny’s
state school
boyfriend, Llewellyn.

Amy had a split second to decide which would be worse: turning and leaving, so allowing Penny to laugh and feel she had the upper hand; or staying here and having to endure the snide glances and even snider remarks from the other side of the room.

‘Table for three,’ Amy told the waitress defiantly. ‘As far away from the window as you can, please.’

‘He’s not here, you know,’ Penny sang out as they walked past her table.

Amy turned her head and glared.

‘Been spending some of Daddy’s cash?’ came the 94

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sneer. ‘Dressing up later, are you? Or won’t you be allowed out again?’

‘Come on, Amy.’ Niffy ushered her along, giving Penny just the merest snooty nod of acknowledgement.

‘A little overdressed for the cinema, aren’t we?’ the Neb commented as Amy, Niffy, Min and Gina came into her sitting room to sign out for the evening, wearing a colourful mix of denims, bright skirts and tops, strappy shoes, make-up, latest hairstyles and room-filling perfumes. Gina was in her new jeans, Amy her new top, and both of them had worked hard to dress up, make up and generally style the more fashion-challenged Niffy and Min.

‘It’s a natural reaction to wearing sludge-green all week,’ was Amy’s defence.

‘So what are you going to see? And where? And will you be back by ten thirty and not one moment later?

In a taxi?’ the Neb wanted to know.

Mrs Knebworth was in her armchair, still neatly clad in a tweed skirt and satin blouse. She made no dressing-down concessions to the weekend. Some of the boarders staying in tonight were nestled on sofas and floor cushions all around her because they were 95

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actually going to watch a film with
her
. Just the thought made Amy and Niffy’s toes curl.

Min was primed to answer. She’d done the Internet research: she knew the times, the cinema, the in-depth on-line reviews of the film they
weren’t
going to see tonight. They had something much more interesting planned instead, but going out on café crawls was banned, as the Neb suspected, quite rightly, that this might lead to the two evils it was her job to guard the girls against:
boys
and
drinking
.

‘
The Girlfriend Project
, up at Tollcross,’ Min informed her. ‘And yes, we’ll get a taxi there and a taxi back.’

When their cab pulled up at the boarding house, the girls climbed in, then passed the fifteen-minute journey twitching and twittering.

‘Is my hair OK?’ Amy wanted to know, running her hands over it for the hundredth time.

‘Fine,’ Niffy told her, but although Niffy had been her best friend since their first day at St Jude’s, Amy looked to Gina for expert reassurance.

Gina fished a wide-toothed comb out of her bag and smoothed over the back of Amy’s long locks.

Min held her feet up to examine the red mid-heels 96

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she’d borrowed from Amy for the night. ‘They’re lovely but we can’t walk too far, OK?’

Niffy, who’d finished her outfit off with long, flat brown boots, just snorted at this.

The excitement in the air was infectious. Gina could feel a little tingle of nerves starting up in the pit of her stomach. She wondered how different Edinburgh boys would be from the ones she hung out with back home. She was bursting with curiosity.

Where were they going to find them? What would the cool places be like here? Gina had faith in Amy.

Amy had showed her a picture of Jason. It was kind of blurry, downloaded from the St Lennox website, but he was undoubtedly good-looking, and so were lots of the other boys in the team photo. They looked clean-cut and preppy-ish.

The black cab dropped them not outside the cinema in Tollcross but in George Street, right in the centre of town, where the bars, cafés and restaurants were gearing up for the busy night ahead. Ideal territory to start hunting for the gangs of boys the girls knew would be out and about tonight.

As Gina was beginning to understand, far from having no boys in their lives at all, the St Jude’s girls knew boys from every other single-sex private school 97

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in town. Inter-school dances, dancing lessons, theatrical performances and debating competitions were ways in which the schools socialized formally; hanging out at weekends was how the girls met the boys informally.

‘OK.’ Amy took charge of the group. ‘I have a list of places to try, but some of them are over-eighteen only.’

Something, she had to acknowledge, that was going to be a problem. She and Gina might just about get away with it, but Min and Niffy, with their girlish faces

– not a hope.

‘Oh, I’m not doing that!’ Min insisted, crossing her arms. ‘We could get expelled!’

‘Rubbish!’ Amy exclaimed. ‘Who’s going to tell?

Well, you’ll have to wait outside then . . . Maybe Nif can keep you company,’ she added hopefully.

‘Me?’ Niffy sounded hurt.

‘So you’ve not actually arranged to meet anyone?’

Min asked in surprise.

‘Well, not exactly, but I sort of know where some people might be,’ Amy replied defensively.

‘I hope this isn’t going to be a total waste of time . . .’

Min huffed. ‘I wish we were just going to the cinema.’

‘It’s a hunt, Min – thrill of the chase. Where’s your sense of adventure?’ Niffy asked. ‘Anyway, that film’s supposed to be terrible.’

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‘Everyfilm dot co dot uk gave it three stars.’

First on Amy’s hit list were two cafés, one in a late-night bookshop. ‘We’ll just go in and look around. If there’s no sign of anyone interesting, we’ll head off,’

she told the others. ‘No point buying a coffee in every place. We’ll be wired.’

‘And skint,’ Niffy pointed out.

At the first café there was no one they knew and nothing happening, so they left just as quickly as they’d gone in. At the second, they were greeted enthusiastically by four boys crowded onto a small table close to the door.

‘Amy, Niffy and Min!’ one of them called out.

‘You’ve been sent by our fairy godmother to make the evening more interesting! Come over here and talk to us. It’s been ages! How were the holidays?’

‘These are guys from Jason’s year!’ Amy whispered to Gina as they went over. ‘They might have info!

Might know where he is.’

Gina studied the group of boys. With their sleek hair, good teeth and big smiles, they looked just like the guys in the team photo. A very handsome gang.

‘Hello, you must be new. I’m Angus.’ The boy who’d called them over held out his hand to Gina, who took 99

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a moment or two to work out that he wanted her to shake it.

‘Hi there, Angus,’ Gina said, taking his hand with a smile. ‘This is very formal. We don’t really do this where I come from.’

‘You’re a Yank!’ Angus responded and stuck his hand in the air. ‘C’mon then, we’ll do a high-five. This is Pete, Milo and Jenks, by the way.’ He gestured to his friends. ‘They’ll probably want to slap your hand too.’

‘I like it!’ Niffy grinned and pulled up a sleeve.

‘Much better than kissing on the cheeks.’

‘Hey,’ Milo intervened. ‘Don’t knock kissing on the cheeks – it’s as close to snogging as Pete is ever going to get.’

‘Hey!’ Pete couldn’t stop himself from blushing.

‘Why is the scary girl rolling up her sleeve?’ Milo asked, pretending to sound frightened.

‘I think she’s going to go round the table and punch everyone hello,’ Min told him.

More chairs were brought over, until the eight of them encircled the tiny table.

‘We’d offer to buy you coffees, but we’ve all had grande lattes and paninis, so now we’re broke.’ Angus gave an apologetic smile.

‘Mortgaged!’ Pete added.

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‘Oh, we weren’t going to stay long,’ Amy replied.

When Angus pulled a long face at this, she added quickly to spare his feelings, ‘We’ve got a film to go to.’

‘We could come!’ he suggested brightly.

‘Rom com,’ Amy said quickly, to put him off.

‘And you’re supposed to be broke,’ Niffy reminded him.

‘Oh yeah – that’s a point,’ he said.

After some more chat, Amy, trying to sound as casual as possible, asked them, ‘So . . . who else is about tonight?’

‘Aha . . . And I suppose that means: where is the gorgeous Jason Hernandez?’ Angus understood straight away.

‘No!’ Amy insisted, but all four boys and Niffy began to laugh.

‘What you need to know,’ Milo chipped in helpfully,

‘is that Jason said he might go and catch something at the Filmhouse or he might just hang out at the Arts Café.’

‘Tricky.’ Jenks leaned forward to join in the discussion.‘Those places are at opposite ends of town . . .

so which one are you going to pick? Or would you like me to get out my mobile’ – he removed the phone from his pocket with a flourish – ‘and ask Jason directly?’

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‘No, no,’ Amy insisted, imagining Jenks dialling Jason, then saying something as gruesomely embarrassing as:
I’ve got Amy here – she wants to know
where you are tonight . . . Why? Because she’s in love
with you. Everyone knows that.

‘Well . . . we should be going,’ Amy said, taking a deliberate look at her wristwatch. ‘Our film starts at eight fifteen.’

‘Aha, and that’ll be at the Filmhouse, I suppose,’

Jenks teased.

‘No,’ Amy fired back.

‘You can’t go just yet,’ Angus pleaded. ‘I’ve not said one word to Nif.’ He turned towards her and said jokingly, ‘Hello, old girl. How’s your brother?

And the dogs? And the horse? Tell me everything.’

Then, when Amy repeated that they really should be going, Angus turned to Gina. ‘And what about your new American girl?’ he complained. ‘I’ve not even had a chance to meet her. Where in the US are you from?’

‘California,’ Gina replied, leaning forward in her chair to get a little closer to him: he was definitely cute-ish.

‘Nice . . .’ Angus replied, then struggled for what to say next. ‘The Beach Boys!’ he blurted out.

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‘The Beach Boys! Well . . . yeah . . . that was a while ago, I guess.’

‘We really should go.’ Amy stood up and gave Gina a nudge.

As the four girls started towards the café door, after high-fiving everyone goodbye, Angus couldn’t resist singing, unbelievably tunelessly: ‘
I wish they all could
be California girls
.’