Secrets at St Jude's: New Girl (27 page)

Gina went over and put an arm round her. ‘Shhh,’

she soothed. ‘Your mum is so strong and so optimistic, I just know she’s going to be OK. You’ll be back; you’ll be back really soon, and even if you’re not, Amy and Min will be your friends for life. I totally believe that.’

‘What about you?’ Niffy put her hands to her eyes and rubbed briskly. ‘Are you going to miss us?’

‘Of course I’m going to miss you!’ Gina said, without the slightest doubt. But California was calling. She wanted to wake up to blue skies and a dazzling ocean view every morning; she wanted pure, hot, un-adulterated sunshine. She wanted to drink root beer by the pool. She wanted to hang out with Mom, Menzie and Mick. She wanted to see all her old friends

. . . But she didn’t like to think about how much she would miss the dorm girls.

‘You’ve got to promise me that you’ll stay in touch,’

she insisted, ‘and that you’ll definitely, definitely visit.’

309

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 310

SECRETS AT ST JUDE’S

‘In California?’ This thought seemed to cheer Niffy up a little. ‘Are we all allowed to come and visit you in California?’

‘Of course!’

Min, Amy, Niffy and Gina sat together in the Year Four row listening to the Banshee’s summary of the past year.

All four of them had pencils and little white scorecards on their knees. At the top of the cards they each had ten words: words which were a dead cert, like
achievement
,
pride
,
excellence
and
strive
; higher-scoring words such as
example
and
illustrious
; then everyone had two mad bonus words chosen at random

–
tartan
,
penguin
– that kind of thing. These were a hundred points apiece.

‘Have you heard about Llewellyn?’ Niffy whispered at Amy, just loud enough for Penny to turn round and glare at them.

‘No!’ Amy shook her head. ‘Please tell me Penny’s been dumped?’

‘Better than that!’ Niffy insisted. ‘He’s been arrested for shoplifting!’

‘Noooo!’ Amy looked at Penny and smiled.

‘Goes against the communist principles a bit, doesn’t 310

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 311

NEW GIRL

it?’ she couldn’t help asking her rival.

‘Property is theft!’ Penny hissed back.

‘No, I think you’ll find shoplifting is theft . . . Well, that’s how the police will see it anyway.’

‘Your father must be delighted,’ Niffy added.

Penny flushed and looked away.

‘When she thought she’d get her dad to meet her boyfriend, she didn’t think it would be in court, did she?’ Amy whispered as loudly as she could get away with.

A note was heading down the line of seated schoolgirls towards them. It had started with Willow, and as Min passed the small blue envelope to Gina, she saw with surprise the words
Gina the daffodil from
California
scribbled over the front of it.

Although Gina could feel the glare of their form teacher burning into her back, she held the envelope down in her lap and opened it as quietly as she could.

She felt her heart speeding up a little, her throat drying as she considered what this little envelope could be.

Could it be . . . ?

Could it really . . . ?

Did this mean . . . ?

She carefully unfolded the single sheet of blue paper.

311

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 312

SECRETS AT ST JUDE’S

Although the writing was scribbly, she could just make it out:
Gina, you’re not allowed to go back to
California without saying goodbye. Please! Yrs Dermot
.

Two big kisses had been added at the bottom, along with a mobile phone number.

‘Dermot?’ Amy guessed at once.

Gina’s blush confirmed this.

‘I knew it!’ she whispered. ‘He could never keep his eyes off you.’

‘But I always thought he was flirting with Niffy!’

Gina whispered back.

‘That was just because he was so in lurve with you he could hardly even say your name!’

‘And what about the girl?’ Gina asked.

‘What girl?’ Amy replied.

‘You know, the girl . . . the one he was . . . Oh!’ With a rush of embarrassment, she realized it must have been her!

‘You!’ Amy made the connection at the same moment.

‘Oh shut up!’ Gina said, but her face was flushed pink and her eyes were sparkling. ‘You are so embarrassing.’

Amy laughed, but Gina saw that she had taken hold of Niffy’s hand. Their fingers were linked together and 312

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 313

NEW GIRL

squeezing each other’s hard. They’d been friends since they were ten; they’d always had each other at St Jude’s.

Gina couldn’t help wondering how Amy was going to survive Penny without Niffy by her side.

‘I think we can all agree’ – up on stage, the Banshee was drawing to a close – ‘that this has been a wonderful year. We are bursting with pride at our achievements.’

Min added two ticks to her card.

‘Nothing stands in the way of our girls. They drive through every obstacle set before them like snowploughs cutting through the drifts.’

‘Result!’ Niffy circled a bonus word –
snowplough
–

and punched the air. ‘One hundred points! One hundred points!’

‘And now I’d like to invite all the leavers to come and wait backstage so we can let them appear in turn and congratulate them on their achievements at the school.’

During the loud applause, Jenny, Niffy and Gina shuffled out of the Year Four row.

‘I have to go to the loo,’ Gina whispered to Niffy. ‘I’ll catch up with you backstage.’

‘Luella Nairn-Bassett,’ the Banshee began as Niffy stood and smiled at the edge of the stage.

313

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 314

SECRETS AT ST JUDE’S

‘Oh no, she’s put on her boots!’ Amy hissed. ‘Why has she taken off her pumps and put on her boots?’

‘They look good,’ Min countered. ‘They’re very Niffy.’

‘I lend her my red Emporio Armani and she wears it with riding boots!’

‘Luella is a boarder who joined us when she was ten years old.’ The Banshee was smiling kindly: clearly all thoughts of finding Niffy in the herbaceous border and her shoe in the records room were far from her mind. ‘She’s been captain of every one of her year’s lacrosse, hockey and tennis teams, so we’re going to miss her sporting prowess terribly. Luella is going to be schooled closer to home for the foreseeable future due to family illness.’

She nodded and Niffy took her cue to walk across the stage while the audience clapped.

Only Min saw the silent tears dripping from the end of Amy’s nose onto her long-forgotten scorecard.

‘And now Gina Peterson,’ the Banshee began.

‘Gina?’

314

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 315

NEW GIRL

Chapter Twenty-Six

Gina was the last girl left in Daffodil dorm. School had closed at twelve noon, and after a sandwich lunch at the boarding house, everyone else had taken taxis to the airport or train station or been picked up by their parents.

Amy’s dad – ‘Head-to-toe Versace, Dad: you are so embarrassing!’ ‘Hey, I’m a Glasgow boy and proud of it!’ – had arrived with his partner, Gary Livingstone.

‘
Business
partner?’ Niffy had asked Amy quietly, wanting to clarify.

‘No.’ Amy had played it extremely coolly. ‘The other kind. Can’t you tell? They’re wearing the same shoes.

They must have been shopping together, which is kind of sweet.’

‘Very,’ Niffy had agreed, taking it completely in her stride, but then she’d had to ask, ‘Why do we know nothing about this? You’ve obviously known since . . .’

315

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 316

SECRETS AT ST JUDE’S

‘Dubai,’ Amy had told her.

‘Were you worried about what we’d think?’ Niffy had asked in surprise.

‘No,’ Amy had replied. ‘I was too busy worrying what
I
thought about it.’ She’d taken a deep breath, then smiled. ‘And I’ve decided it’s OK.’

‘Of course it’s OK! It’s totally fine. Cool. Look, your dad is introducing Gary to my mum,’ Niffy had observed.

Both girls had watched as Mrs N-B, whose social training had begun in toddlerhood, shook Gary’s hand, then declared, ‘Oh really! Lucky you! He’s been on the shelf for far too long.’

‘Yeah, and now we know why,’ Amy had told Niffy.

‘Turns out my dad is gay.’

‘Did you have any idea before?’ Niffy had wondered.

‘You know, I think I did. I think he’s the one who was really surprised by it!’

Then it had been time for Amy, Min and Gina to say goodbye to Niffy. Lots of upbeat, encouraging ‘see you later’ kind of words were exchanged, but when it came to the hugs, it had been impossible to ignore the choked-up throats and welling tears.

‘When do I get to visit you in California?’

316

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 317

NEW GIRL

Niffy had asked after hugging Gina hard.

‘Whenever you like!’ Gina had assured her.

When Min had put her arms round Niffy, she’d said, ‘You know what I told you about school being for a few years and family being for ever . . .’

She’d felt Niffy nod against her shoulder.

‘I got it the wrong way round.’ Min had tried very hard not to cry. ‘We only get to live at home for a few years, but school friends are for ever. OK?’

‘Hey, you take care . . .’ Niffy had said into Amy’s hair as she held her tight. ‘Keep away from that stupid Hernandez geek.’

‘I will – I have a plan for him. Just as soon as Mel’s supplied a diagram of his willy, I’m going to photocopy it and fly-post it on the lampposts outside St Lennox.’

‘That’s my girl,’ Niffy had told her, finally letting go.

‘You’ll be back?’ Amy had said, and then she’d repeated it, trying not to make it sound like a question:

‘You’ll be back.’

‘Yeah.’ Niffy had wiped at her eyes, then smiled at each of them in turn. ‘You’ll save a space on the fire escape for me, won’t you?’

At those words, everyone had struggled to keep their cheerful smiles in place.

317

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 318

SECRETS AT ST JUDE’S

*

*

*

As the Nairn-Bassett car had pulled out of the driveway, with Niffy waving madly until she was out of sight, a small white Interflora van had parked up. The driver had got out, then taken an extravagantly large bunch of fat pink roses out of the back.

As he’d begun to walk towards the front door of the boarding house, Amy hadn’t been able to resist asking,

‘So who’s the lucky girl then?’

When the man had glanced down at the card and read: ‘
Amy McCorquodale
,’ she’d nearly fallen over with surprise.

‘That’s me!’ she’d told him and he’d handed her his clipboard to sign, passed her the enormous bouquet, then headed off in his van before she’d even fumbled open the envelope to read the card.

Min and Gina were looking over her shoulder in astonishment as she’d read out, ‘
I’ve messed everything
up. Is there any chance we could start over again? Jason
.’

‘Oh my God!’ Amy had not been able to stop herself from laughing at this. ‘What is he like?!’

‘He’s smitten,’ Min had told her.

‘A confused, smitten kitten,’ Gina had confirmed.

‘What am I going to do now?’

‘I can’t wait to find out!’

318

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 319

NEW GIRL

*

*

*

Now, only Gina was left: her flight home wasn’t till later. She stood by the dorm window and looked out over the school playing fields and the running track where Min had broken the school record.

Then she heard the screech of the fire-door hinge and automatically counted the twenty seconds it took before Mrs Knebworth arrived at the door.

‘Hello, Gina. Not too lonely up here, I hope?’ the Neb asked.

‘No, no, I’m fine,’ she replied.

‘So . . . we all survived the summer term, despite all the usual scrapes and disagreements.’

Gina nodded slowly.

‘Good. I think you really enjoyed it in the end, didn’t you?’

‘Oh yeah.’ Gina smiled. ‘Much more than I thought I would.’

‘Good. We’ll all miss Luella though, won’t we?’

‘Yes . . . but I think she’ll be back soon.’

‘Yes. That’s the right thing to hope for.’ And Mrs Knebworth gave a smile that made her face look almost kindly. Gina wished that Amy was here to see it.

‘Do you want me to order you a taxi?’ the Neb asked next.

319

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 320

SECRETS AT ST JUDE’S

‘No, I’m fine. Mom said she’d sort me out with a car

– whatever that means. I think it’s because I moaned so much about the taxi driver who brought me here from the airport. Anyway, she said she wants me to travel back in style. I think I’m going business class.’

‘Oh, nice! It’s a long journey – do you want me to pack you up some food? I won’t put in too much salt or garlic!’

This made them both laugh.

‘You’re a dreadful bunch, really,’ Mrs Knebworth added.

‘What are you doing for the holidays?’ Gina asked her.

‘Going home!’ She smiled brightly. ‘I have a little house in Gullane and my daughter’s back from university, so she’s joining me for some of the time. I like the peace and quiet out there.’

Home? Gina had never thought of Mrs Knebworth as having anywhere else to live but the boarding house.

She’d certainly not known about a daughter. All she knew about her was that she was a widow – though she’d never really thought about what that meant.

Suddenly she felt a wave of sympathy for the housemistress, with a daughter she was putting 320

Secrets of St Judes 16/4/08 4:47 pm Page 321