by Carmen Reid
‘Could you just stop it?’ she asked firmly when she’d been spun round roughly and then pulled back into line again. ‘You’re going to rip my dress.’
‘Here’s hoping,’ he replied.
When the music finished, she abruptly turned away and went in search of a glass of regulation school punch and some moral support from friends.
‘Having fun?’ Niffy asked, heading back to the dance floor, a boy on each arm. Maybe she was bringing a spare. ‘Dashing White Sergeant,’ she explained. ‘It’s a three-way!’
Niffy was a hilariously oblivious boy magnet, it suddenly occurred to Gina. Every male within radius drooled, especially at the legs under the mini-dress, but she treated them all with casual affection, like big brothers . . . or, more likely, big dogs. Niffy had recently confessed to Gina that it had been months since she’d even thought of having a crush on anyone.
‘Aha, you’ll do.’ A boy walked quickly up to Gina, holding out his hand in greeting. ‘Jason Hernandez,’ he announced. ‘Can’t remember if we’ve met or not, but would you like the next dance?’
Amy’s Jason! Gina felt scared. Even one little dance with this guy was going to mean trouble with Amy. But, boy, was he handsome. It was the way he fixed his gaze on you, as if you were suddenly the only person in the room that mattered.
‘Oh . . . I don’t know any of these dances,’ she told him. ‘I’m kind of an embarrassing partner. I’m sure there are lots of other girls who’d be much better.’ And she scanned about, somehow hoping to conjure Amy up before them.
But Jason, dark brown eyes firmly on hers, assured her, ‘This is a waltz: everyone knows to waltz.’
‘No! Not me. I’m from the States, remember? We invented disco.’
‘Look, it’s easy. How about I waltz and you just hold on tight, OK?’
He slipped his hand into hers; it wasn’t exactly easy to refuse.
‘So what’s your name?’ he asked.
‘Gina Peterson,’ she told him, way, way too conscious of her hand, which was now firmly in his grip.
‘I remember you.’ His face brightened. ‘We met at the Filmhouse – you were looking for your friend’s contact lens. Come on then, let’s boogie.’
He didn’t let go of her hand, just tucked her arm under his and led her out onto the dance floor.
She’d never waltzed before. In California, dancing with boys had meant doing her practised disco moves alongside the weird flapping and jiggling boys seemed to think would pass for steps. Even if Californian boys did waltz, she doubted it would be like this. Jason held her right hand up with his, then put his other hand easily across her bare back, and they whirled about the room with as much grace as a novice waltzer could muster. All the time, he didn’t take his eyes from hers and continued to chat with the assurance of a sixteen-year-old Matt Damon.
Gina found she couldn’t take her gaze from him either, which was probably just as well – otherwise she’d have seen the blizzard of snowy feathers spinning deliberately towards them from the other side of the dance floor.
Amy was steering her partner closer and closer towards Gina and Jason so she could keep her steely blue eyes trained on them at all times.
As soon as the music stopped, she managed to position herself right beside them, so that saying as confidently as possible, ‘Hi, Jason! How are you?’ was absolutely natural and unavoidable.
‘Amy, hi! What an amazing dress!’ he told her straight away. ‘Harvey Nichols! I saw it in the window, but it looks much better on you.’
Wow! What an opening line! Amy wanted to burst with excitement. And he was wearing the black dinner suit with white silk scarf and fringing that she had imagined in her daydreams.
‘Gina, you know Pete, don’t you?’ Amy introduced her waltzing partner. ‘God, I’m so thirsty now. Would you be a doll and get us some drinks?’
Gina understood what she was to do perfectly: ‘C’mon, Pete’ – she smiled at the guy she remembered from the bookshop café – ‘I’ll need a spare pair of hands.’
She resisted the temptation to wink at Amy, who was now left all alone with Mr Dreamboat.
When Gina and Pete returned with the glasses of ruby punch, Amy and Jason had already gone. There they were on the dance floor together, Jason with his magnetic gaze now fixed firmly on Amy; Amy gazing back in a living daydream of happiness.
Gina couldn’t help watching them. They made a very attractive couple, Amy so pale and blonde and stunningly dressed, Jason so dark and dapper. It was a fast, complicated dance, with marching, side kicks, spinning and bursts of the sort of bouncy waltz Gina thought might be a polka, but neither of them seemed to miss a step. The music was speeding up and they were both laughing and dancing faster and faster – until, with a loud final chord, the music stopped and Gina saw Amy slide her arm though Jason’s. His face bent towards hers and they exchanged smiles and words, then she tossed her pretty head like a show pony, and led him coolly right out of the hall – though not without shooting an unmistakable victory grin at Gina.
When Pete offered himself as a dancing partner, Gina turned him down politely and said she had to head to the ‘restrooms’. When he looked confused at this, she explained, ‘I mean . . . loos? Bogs? The ladies?’
‘Got you,’ he replied with a wink.
Well, OK, yes, she wasn’t exactly desperate to go, she was just curious to know if Amy was finally going to snag her man. Keeping close to the walls and doorways for cover, Gina followed in the direction of Mr Dreamboat and Miss Featherpuff. She crept past the door of a darkened classroom but, through the window, a movement inside caught her attention.
‘What’s the matter?’ Charlie was asking Min. ‘I’m just trying to talk to you. Nothing wrong with that, is there?’
Min had come to Charlie’s attention when she’d spun merrily in front of him on the dance floor. Now, he’d thought to himself, there is a girl who knows how to have fun and who looks sensational in a red dress. He’d steered her to the juice table, flirted with her and enjoyed her shy giggles in response. Yes, he’d thought, since the Californian girl was being so frosty, this one in the red dress would do instead.
‘What about a little tour?’ he’d asked, voice conspiratorially low.
‘Of what?’ Min had wondered.
‘Your school, of course! Every male wants to know what really goes on behind the doors of St Jude’s . . . C’mon,’ he’d wheedled when Min didn’t look at all certain, ‘we’ll just stroll round some of the places on the ground floor – none of those old girls are going to care.’ He’d directed her gaze to the table where the five members of the St Jude’s staff in charge of tonight’s event were deep in conversation with a handsome teacher from St Lennox’s.
Charlie had taken her hand as they’d strolled together, and the frisson of holding hands with a boy as she walked along the school corridors had made Min almost breathless.
‘How about this classroom?’ Charlie had asked, leaning against the handle and pushing the door open.
Min had started to say, ‘No! We can’t go in there—’ when she’d found herself being pulled in and the door firmly shut behind her. Immediately she was pinned against Charlie’s beefy chest by Charlie’s beefy arms.
‘What are you doing?’ she’d demanded to know.
‘What’s the matter? I’m just trying to talk to you – nothing wrong with that, is there?’ Charlie had replied.
Min could smell his breath: it was beer – or maybe whisky-laced – he’d had something a lot stronger than the St Jude’s punch, that was for sure. ‘This isn’t talking, this is mauling!’ she’d insisted, feeling the pressure on her chest as Charlie squeezed her more tightly.
‘Just a kiss!’ he’d insisted. ‘Try it – you might like it.’ And he’d pushed his face with its boozy breath down towards hers.
‘No!’ she cried, and turned her face sideways so that he made contact with her ear. But this didn’t deter him: he began to lick first her ear and then her neck
.
‘No, get off!’ Min called out again, pulling away from the sloppy tongue working its way towards her shoulder. She kicked him sharply in the shin, but he just giggled.
What happened next surprised Min almost as much as it did Charlie. The classroom door flew open, walloping Charlie so hard on the back of the head that he let go of Min and yelped in pain.
Gina appeared, grabbed Min by the hand and pulled her out of the room with the words: ‘In the States we have laws against that kind of thing, you creep! Leave now. Right now, or we’ll have you thrown out.’
Amy’s bare arm and shoulders were goose-pimpling – and not just because of the cool breeze ruffling the pale June evening outside. Jason’s arm was wound round hers and they were strolling through the school grounds, not exactly saying much, but then Amy wasn’t sure if she would be heard above the sound of her heart thumping.
‘Where are you taking me then?’ Jason wanted to know.
‘Oh . . . erm . . . well, nowhere in particular,’ Amy told him.
‘Not some special quiet corner then?’ he asked, looking at her with a smile she thought was just slightly sly.
‘Well . . . I . . . erm . . .’ she stumbled, no idea what to say next. Usually she was so cool and together with boys. Jason just had this strange effect on her.
‘Aren’t you thinking about kissing?’ Jason asked. ‘Because if you are, we could stop and do it right here.’
Here was fine, she told herself over the now manic drumming in her chest. There was a sliver of pale moon in the sky; there were cherry trees in the background shhhhhshhhhing in the wind. So now he was going to catch her up in his arms and give her the amazing kiss she’d been waiting for.
He turned, drew in close . . . She closed her eyes and tipped her face, and then his lips were pushed down against hers. Their front teeth clashed together and, in surprise at this, she pulled back slightly. That’s when she heard the catcalls and the applause.
‘Waaaaaaay-haaaaaay!’
‘Racy Jasey scores again!’
‘Fast work, man. Fast work!’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ Jason insisted, pulling her in for a second kiss.
But Amy turned and saw that on one of the benches, not even ten metres away from them, three St Lennox boys were parked, sharing a cigarette and a can of beer.
‘C’mon,’ Amy insisted, wanting to get him away from these spectators so they could have a second, hopefully more successful attempt at the kiss.
‘Oh . . . I’ll just say a quick hello,’ Jason replied, disentangling his arm from hers and heading, to her astonishment, towards the boys on the bench.
‘Introduce us to your new girlfriend!’ one of them insisted.
But Amy had already turned on her heel and began to run back towards the school.
Min was also walking round the building. She’d thanked Gina but then shrugged her off and headed outside. To cool down, she’d told herself, but really she wanted to shed the few tears that she knew were about to escape in private. She felt so silly, so furious with herself. Such a foolish situation to get into. And of course she’d over-reacted. Why hadn’t she just told Charlie playfully to get lost? Or why hadn’t she just kissed him? Would that have been so bad? She felt so naïve! Gina had known just how to handle Charlie. Why hadn’t she been able to do that?
It was because she knew absolutely nothing about boys that she always seemed to get the idiot bloke . . . and ended up feeling like an idiot herself.
‘Min? What are you doing out here?’ Amy spotted her just as she was wiping the tears from her cheeks. ‘Hey, what’s the matter?’
Once Min had explained as briefly as she could, Amy’s consolation was a frank: ‘Well, I feel like a total numpty too. And I wanted him to kiss me.’
As they walked round the corner of the building together, they heard distant but definite whoops coming from a far corner of the playing fields.
Peering out over the playing fields, they could make out four figures, all carrying bottles and glowing cigarette ends, who appeared to be holding races on the running track.
Two of the figures looked as if they were wearing kilts; one was in a dinner suit – they could see the shirt glowing white. One was definitely a girl in a very short mini-dress and a pair of clumpy boots.
‘Niffy?’ Min wondered.
‘No doubt,’ Amy agreed.
So they set off down the path at the edge of the field to rescue her . . . from herself.
As they got closer, Niffy and the other racers lined up. First they took deep swigs from their bottles, then, with a whoop from Niffy, they set off across the field. For fifty metres or so, one of the boys was out in front, but as they reached their agreed finishing line, Niffy surged forward, dipping towards the imaginary tape like a pro. As she crossed, she whooped once again and flung her arms up into the air.
Unfortunately the mini-dress didn’t follow and Niffy’s bare boobs were suddenly right out there on display, as if they’d popped up to say hello.
Despite two of the boys collapsing to the grass, helpless with laughter, Niffy didn’t register. It was her brother, Finn, the third boy, who drew her attention to the situation with the words: ‘Tit alert, Lu! Tit alert!’
When Niffy looked down to see that the mini-dress bodice had plummeted, she didn’t cross her arms or scream; she assessed the situation with astonishing calmness, then got hold of the dress and matter-of-factly pulled it back up again.
‘Whoops!’ was all she said.
‘Niffy!’ Min caught up with her first. ‘What are you doing out here?’
‘Min!’ Niffy looked very happy to see her. ‘Could you pin me back in again? Something seems to have come undone.’
‘Yeah, of course,’ Min said and began work on Niffy’s bodice.
Amy, still upset about Jason, found herself ticking the boys off for bringing in wine and cigarettes.
‘If someone finds us out here with this stuff, we could all get expelled!’ she hissed. ‘We need to get back into the building! And what about the bottles?’ she asked when one of the boys started walking back across the playing field with a wine bottle dangling from one hand, a fag still lit in the other. ‘You can’t take them with you! Where are you going to put them?’
One of the kilted guys just laughed, drained his bottle and flung it at the hedge bordering the playing field.
‘Don’t do that! You tosser!’ Amy said, surprised at how sharp it sounded – well, she had already been feeling rattled, but the heel of her white and silver suede shoe had just sunk deep into the earth, and now she was furious.
‘OK, miss!’ came the cheeky reply.
‘Sorry.’ Finn walked towards her and began apologizing for them all. ‘Sorry to get you all the way out here – you should have left us to it.’
‘I didn’t know who Niffy was with,’ Amy explained. ‘We all look out for each other.’
‘That’s very kind,’ Finn told her.
With Niffy still in Min’s safe hands, Amy and Finn began to walk slowly towards the school building.
When Min had finished pinning the bodice, Niffy took a few more long swigs from the bottle of white wine in her hand, then drew on the remaining stub of cigarette.
‘What are you doing?’ Min scolded. ‘Put the bottle down and put that out. Now!’ She pointed to the cigarette in horror. ‘If anyone catches you, you’ll get expelled straight away, no questions asked.’
‘Ha!’ Niffy simply put the cigarette between her lips and took another long drag.
‘Oh, that’s what you want, is it?’ Min asked sarcastically.
‘Maybe,’ Niffy said, almost harshly.
Then, to Min’s surprise, Niffy squatted down, tucking her dress in behind her boots, and burst into tears.
‘Don’t you cry as well.’ Min crouched down beside her. ‘That will make three of us – three bawling at the summer ball. Maybe they’ve put something in the punch. What’s the matter?’
When Niffy ju
st pressed the heels of her hands hard against her eyeballs, Min said soothingly, ‘Maybe it’s the wine. Maybe you’ve had too much. None of us exactly ate a proper supper.’
‘Min’ – Niffy took her hands away from her face – ‘sometimes I think I should be living at home. You know, like normal people do. Sometimes I think it would be better for my mum and dad if I was at home. I’d stop them arguing so much.’
Min thought about her crowded, noisy family home where there was always something to do or someone to look after. In truth, she quite liked the peace and quiet of the boarding house, especially the study room, when no one else was about.
‘My mother told me I would be at this school for just a few years, but I’ll have my family for the whole of my life,’ Min said, rubbing Niffy’s shoulders. ‘Why don’t you think of it like that? And you know, if your parents have got problems, they need to sort them out themselves. There’s probably nothing you can do for them.’
Then they heard a distant giggle and looked across the field to the illuminated path between the school building and the tennis courts, where a girl in a flowing green dress was walking hand in hand with a tall boy.
‘Isn’t that Penny?’ Niffy asked in surprise.
‘Oh no!’ Min was horrified: there was no mistaking Penny’s ravishing escort. ‘She’s with Jason!’
Chapter Eleven
WHEN THE BALL finally came to an end on the stroke of midnight, with boys crowding onto buses, day girls being picked up by weary parents and boarders changing into flat shoes for the chilly walk back, there was no chance of everyone going straight to bed.
Most of the Year Four girls took mugs of tea and plates of toast to their sitting room, where they’d kicked off their shoes, loosened their pinching zips and exchanged all the gossip about the evening they’d just had.
Niffy, still giggly from the wine, flopped onto the sofa. She’d given up caring about her loose bodice and sagging gusset some time ago.
