by Carmen Reid
‘The Gecko . . .’ she threw in Min’s direction. ‘Have you had any word from him? He was so sweet.’
Min turned to Gina and gave her a shy smile. ‘Well . . . I checked on the computer downstairs as soon as I got back and—’
‘Ooooh!’ Gina couldn’t resist teasing. Min had only met Greg ‘the Gecko’ once after they’d chatted on-line, but everyone had the feeling it was the start of a little something.
‘He’s sent me an email suggesting we get together on Saturday,’ Min confided.
‘Don’t tell me,’ Amy chipped in. ‘You’re going off to do your homework together?’
‘Amy!’ Min shushed her. ‘He’s asked if I’d like to meet him at the Natural History Museum. And he’s called Greg – and can we not go on and on about how we met on the Internet?! I mean, I wasn’t on-line dating or anything. It was a physics club.’
Amy and Gina couldn’t help laughing at this.
‘Who joins a physics club?’ Amy had to ask.
‘Well, people like Min and the Gecko – sorry, Greg – who are obviously perfect for each other.’ Gina rolled her eyes.
‘So, Min, when are you meeting him?’ Amy asked.
At this there was a knock at the door, and before anyone could say anything, Mrs Knebworth strode in.
‘Meeting whom, Asimina?’ she boomed in her deep, window-rattling voice. ‘A boy?!’ She looked entirely disapproving.
‘Erm . . .’ Min cast her eyes down in embarrassment. The thought of having to discuss this with her friends was bad enough; having to discuss it with the Neb was terrifying.
‘A boy, Asimina Singupta?’ Mrs Knebworth sounded horrified. ‘I know that our Californian friend Gina has a boyfriend. I know the bunch of flowers that arrived for Amy before half term was from a certain young gentleman. But, Asimina, I never thought I would have to keep my eye on you!’
Min’s gaze was fixed on the floor – Amy couldn’t think when she’d seen her friend look so embarrassed.
‘Well, please tell me about this boy,’ the Neb insisted.
Min didn’t say anything. She just looked as if she wished the ground would swallow her up.
‘Do your parents know about him?’
Min shook her head slowly.
‘No, I didn’t think so. They would not approve of anything that might distract you from your studies, would they, Asimina?’
Min shook her head again.
‘Hang on a second’ – Amy decided to wade in on her friend’s behalf – ‘this is a physics geek we’re talking about here, Mrs Knebworth! They met through an on-line science club.’
‘On-line!’ the Neb practically shrieked. ‘You can’t go out with boys you meet on-line, Asimina!’
‘We’ve met him too.’ Amy rushed to defend her friend. ‘Min didn’t go to see him on her own.’
Now Amy was pitching headlong into tricky territory. Min had gone to meet the Gecko on her own at Halloween. It was only because Gina and Amy had gone in search of her that they’d happened to bump into them both.
‘They’re planning to meet in a museum!’ Amy said, exasperated. ‘Does that sound dangerous to you, Mrs Knebworth? A look round the fascinating botanical exhibits and maybe a mug of tea in the café afterwards?’
‘Amy!’ The housemistress gave her a glare. ‘There’s no need to be cheeky. Anyone would think I was born yesterday. I know boys,’ she said darkly. ‘If you are planning to go out with this boy, Asimina’ – another glare of disapproval – ‘then he will have to come to the boarding house to pick you up. He will have to meet with my approval before you go off anywhere with him.’ She looked at Min over the rim of her spectacles. ‘I don’t think your parents would expect anything less of me. Would they now?’
Min didn’t give much more than a mumble in reply.
‘Luella, welcome back,’ the Neb said next, as warmly as she could – which was just about luke-warm. ‘I’m so pleased to hear that your mother’s doing well.’ And with that she wished them goodnight and left the room.
‘Poor Min!’ Amy exclaimed. ‘What are you going to do?’
Chapter Seventeen
‘WELCOME BACK, GIRLS!’ trilled Mrs Pennington, the Upper Fifth B form teacher, as she came into the classroom and strode briskly over to her desk. ‘Did we all have a lovely half term?’
Amy and Niffy, both staring fixedly ahead, didn’t say a word.
‘Luella!’ Mrs Pennington said, catching sight of Niffy. ‘We’re all very pleased to see you back. Such good news . . . How about you, Gina? Did you go somewhere nice?’ she continued chattily.
‘Yeah . . . umm . . . my mom and some friends . . .’
Gina heard the little suppressed snigger which the word ‘mom’ seemed to have caused. Good grief, she was American. So what? You’d think people could get over it. But some of the girls in this class were so awful. If anything was just the slightest bit different from what they expected, they pounced on it. They were just downright cruel.
Gina shot a glance at Penny Boswell-Hackett – the snidest and cruellest of them all. Penny was the worst St Jude’s girl of the lot. Sometimes, the way Penny behaved, you’d think she owned the school. Penny thought of herself as a true Edinburgh blue-blood.
Her mother, her grandmother – even her great-grandmother – were St Jude’s girls. Maybe it wasn’t their fault that Penny was a revolting snob, but that’s just exactly what she was. Penny and Amy had decided they were mortal enemies years ago – which meant that Gina, Niffy, Min and anyone else friendly with Amy were always viewed with suspicion by Penny and her gang.
‘My mom,’ Gina repeated, with emphasis, ‘and two friends of mine came over from California and we went to Colonsay, in the Hebrides.’
‘How lovely,’ Mrs Pennington said with a smile, then turned to the whole class. ‘And have we all met the new girl yet?’
Gina looked around the room. It wasn’t so long ago that the term ‘new girl’ had referred to her, so she was startled to think it was now someone else’s turn.
She had been so caught up with the Niffy-and-Amy huff that, although she’d said hello to a few day pupils as she’d come into the classroom before the bell, she hadn’t noticed the new girl – who was sitting in the front row.
‘This is Peta Sorensen,’ Mrs Pennington told them. ‘She’s from Gothenburg in Sweden and she’s with us until Christmas. I hope you’ll all make her feel welcome. She’s here as part of an exchange programme and she’s staying with Penny Boswell-Hackett.’
Poor old Peta . . . Gina stared at the back of the new girl’s head. She had the longest, lightest blonde hair Gina had ever seen. It wasn’t golden blonde, like her own hair, or yellow blonde like Amy’s; this was the finest, whitest hair – not colourless, not dull, but silky and shiny looking, as if it had been spun from some magical silvery metal.
As Gina considered the hair, she wondered if Peta’s face could ever be as pretty. She also thought about the lines she’d written in her play, Seeing Scarlett: Scarlett’s hair was the fairest, blondest hair anyone could humanly have.
Before Gina had even seen Peta’s face, she was wondering if the Swedish girl might be interested in playing Scarlett. Mrs Parker, the English teacher, had told Gina before half term that the audition lists would be pinned up on the English department notice board today.
As the class got up and headed towards the hall, where they would join the rest of the school for assembly, Gina caught a glimpse of Peta’s face. Yes! With its golden tan and fine features, it was just as stunning and perfect as her hair.
‘I bet you’re thinking what I’m thinking,’ Amy said, catching up with her in the corridor.
‘What?’ Gina wondered.
‘You’re thinking: can that girl act? Aren’t you? Because if she can, she’s going to be Scarlett in your play, isn’t she?’
‘Umm . . . well . . . no.’ Gina decided on a little white lie. ‘I thought you wanted to be in my play. You have to try out for it, because I think you’
d be great.’
She said this because she knew that Amy was just dying to be in the play.
‘Duh!’ was Amy’s response to this. ‘I don’t want to be Scarlett, I want to play you!’
‘You mean Stella?’ Gina said, trying to ignore the tingle of a blush moving up from her neck.
There was just one problem with having written a play ‘very loosely’ based on something that had happened to her . . . Well, it hadn’t in fact happened, but at the time, she’d sort of thought it had. But anyway, the problem was, everyone seemed to be talking about Seeing Scarlett as if it was simply a slice out of Gina’s life with the names changed.
‘Yeah, Stella,’ Amy said with a wink.
‘You know the play isn’t about what really happened,’ Gina said, sounding a little annoyed. ‘You know Dermot wasn’t seeing anyone else: I was just jealous and I made the whole thing up.’
‘Yeah, I know that,’ Amy said, but she didn’t sound entirely convincing.
‘How’s your little play coming along then, Gina?’ a voice asked in a familiar mocking tone. ‘Are all your romantic secrets going to be laid bare on the St Jude’s stage?’
Penny was suddenly beside them, listening in, ready with her spiteful little comments.
‘At least she wrote it all by herself and didn’t copy anyone else’s work,’ Amy answered for Gina, giving Penny a superior look. Aha! Considering this was exactly what Penny had done, she knew she’d got just the right dig in there.
‘And Amy’s got her little friend back from the country. How nice.’ Penny was now referring to Niffy. ‘How lovely. Cosy little chats in the dorm together again.’
Well, Penny was totally wrong there, but Amy certainly didn’t want her to know that she and Niffy had fallen out. She would seize on it and never let it go. If she got involved, whatever chance Niffy and Amy had of being friends again would be ruined.
‘Yes, very cosy, thanks,’ Amy snapped straight back. ‘At least I’ve got real friends and don’t have to suck up to every visitor who ever sets foot in this place.’
Penny stood still, her mouth open in a little ‘Oooh’ of surprise.
Then Niffy totally and absolutely ruined everything by sauntering along in her casual, slouchy way and saying: ‘Don’t know what you’re talking about, Amy. You know we’re not friends any more.’
Which made the ‘Ooooooh’ of Penny’s mouth grow even bigger.
‘How could she? How could she have done that in front of Penny? I can’t believe it!’ Amy was still fuming about Niffy’s comments three hours later during the lunch break.
Although Gina wanted to stay well out of this horrible argument, Amy was clearly trying to claim her as a new best friend, she thought. Amy had immediately taken the seat next to Gina’s in all the morning classes, which left Niffy heading for the other side of the room. Throughout the lessons, Amy kept checking who Niffy was sitting beside and talking to. It was obvious to Gina that Amy was jealous, whereas Niffy didn’t seem to care in the slightest. In fact she was trying to make it look as if she was having a great time hanging out with day girls Caitlin and Eve.
As they walked down the corridor past the English department now, Amy grabbed Gina’s arm and gasped, ‘Oh my goodness! There’s the board. Do you think it has the auditions list up already?’
They both stopped and turned to look up at the big English department notice board. Their eyes scanned quickly over trip information, reading lists, until . . .
‘There!’ Amy’s hand shot forward, finger pointing.
Gina’s eyes followed.
SEEING SCARLETT
A PLAY BY GINA PETERSON, TO BE PERFORMED
ON 10 DECEMBER
TWO SPEAKING PARTS AVAILABLE
ALL INTERESTED, PLEASE SIGN BELOW:
Two names had already been added underneath.
Gina and Amy moved closer to try and make out who it was.
‘I don’t believe it!’ Amy said as soon as she realized whose signatures she was looking at.
Peta Sorensen was the name at the top of the list, followed by Penny Boswell-Hackett.
Chapter Eighteen
‘OK, AMY.’ MRS Parker smiled encouragingly. ‘Have a read through, and then, in your own time, deliver the speech.’
Amy looked down at the sheet of paper in her hand and saw that it was shaking. This was it: her big moment to persuade Mrs Parker and Miss Grieg, the other member of the English department, that they should definitely give the lead part in Gina’s play to her, and not to any of the other girls waiting for their moment to shine.
But now that it came down to it, Amy felt a rush of nerves she’d not expected. Her hands were trembling; even her knees felt a little shaky and her throat seemed to have gone all scratchy and dry.
She stared at the words and tried to make some sense of them; tried not to let them jump and scramble in front of her eyes.
‘Take your time,’ Mrs Parker said kindly. ‘Make sure you do yourself justice.’
The breath in Amy’s chest seemed to go in and out a little too quickly for comfort.
Mentally, she rehearsed the lines that Gina had written. Gina had already let her read the whole play through. It was all about Stella who, convinced her boyfriend was cheating on her, began to do really silly, desperate things to try and find out the truth. In the play, the boy was cheating with a mysterious and beautiful girl called Scarlett. But Stella managed to pull a fantastic trick on them to get her revenge.
Any looked carefully at the words in front of her:
What do you mean you’re not going to be around on Saturday? Where are you going to be? Is there something going on that I don’t know about? If there is, I think you better tell me. I think it would be better for all of us if you just told me what was going on. You can’t just expect me to hang around waiting for you to decide when it’s convenient to fit me into your timetable. Adrian, is there someone else? Are you seeing someone else on Saturday? Because if you are, I think you should just tell me.
As Amy read through the speech, she thought about Jason.
She had been just as obsessed with oh-so-heart-breakingly handsome Jason as Stella was with Adrian. She had devoted so much time and energy to chasing that prat! Yes, he’d been utterly gorgeous and charming, whenever it had suited him – but he’d not thought there was anything the slightest bit wrong in having another girl on the side. In fact he seemed to feel that Amy was the one with the problem!
Oh! Amy felt a flush of shame and anger at the thought of his stupid little speech to her. Why had she wasted weeks of her life trying to get him to call or email or have coffee with her? If only she’d faced up to it and asked him these questions much, much earlier.
But then she understood how hard it would have been; how embarrassing and awkward. She’d have had to blurt them out, just like poor Stella.
Without giving it another thought, Amy launched straight into performing Stella’s speech out loud.
She blurted, she blushed and she stumbled, just like she knew Stella would have. It must be so hard to confront the boy you’re totally mad about with that question: has he really found someone else? Does he really not like you as much as you like him? Ouch. The pain of hearing this – of dreading to hear it, but of needing to hear it.
Somehow Amy was still thinking of all these things as she read out the speech, and she managed to blot Mrs Parker and everything else in the classroom right out of her mind.
When she’d finished, she looked up, and was slightly surprised to see where she was. There was a smile on Mrs Parker’s face and Amy felt a rush of excitement. She’d done well! She knew she’d done well. This was acting, and it was fantastic!
She couldn’t help smiling. ‘How was that?’ she asked. ‘It’s only my first go,’ she added quickly. ‘There are some things I’d want to do differently – next time.’
‘Yes, that’s fine . . .’ Mrs Parker told her. ‘There are some other girls I need to see. But thank you very much, Amy.
’
With that she was ushered out of the door.
Amy looked at the ten eager faces turned in her direction hoping they were going to be called in next. Her eyes fell on Peta, with her hair pulled back in a flaxen plait. Amy gave her a friendly smile, but for some reason Peta didn’t smile back. She just smoothed over her hair with graceful hands.
Clearly Penny had already got to her. Well, if she wanted to be friends with Penny instead of her, that was her loss. Just so long as Penny didn’t get the part in the play . . . that just couldn’t happen. Amy could cope if she was beaten to the part by Peta, but Penny? No. No way.
‘When are you going to find out?’ Min asked when they met up later in the changing hut before the afternoon’s hockey lesson.
‘I don’t know – in a few days, I think,’ Amy replied, letting her green St Jude’s skirt fall to the floor and pulling on her hockey ‘skort’, the strange miniskirt/shorts kind of thing required for games lessons. She had to breathe in to do up the button. She thought of Niffy’s nasty remark – but it was true, she did need to play more hockey.
‘Oh, Amy!’ Gina chipped in, guessing what they were talking about. ‘It would be so cool if you got the part in my play. I don’t want anyone else to have it!’
Amy smiled, but her attention was suddenly on Niffy.
Over on the far side of the hut, Niffy was sitting on a bench by herself, lacing up her hockey boots.
Niffy was really good at hockey – so good that she had a place in the Scottish under-seventeen team, along with Penny B-H. Min and Amy had tried out for the squad, but they hadn’t managed to get a place.
Usually, during hockey lessons at school, Niffy, Amy and Min played together, side by side. They were always on the same team. Niffy and Amy played up forward; Min, who was very fast, was on the wing.
Gina, who was new to hockey and not really any good yet, tried to stay out of the way in defence. When the attackers were good enough, like Amy, Niffy and Min, there was never much work for defenders.
