by Carmen Reid
He certainly didn't look like a scary stalker. He looked sweet. He looked like just the kind of person Min would really like to hang out with.
'You should have told me!' Amy scolded Min. 'We thought you were out here with some stranger who tracked you down on the Internet!'
This made Min laugh. 'Well . . . it was a bit like that,' she joked.
'Oh, thanks,' Greg said.
'No! I'm joking,' Min told him. 'I think you can trust a boy who knows the value of pi to forty-two decimal places.' She couldn't stifle a giggle at this.
'Right, well, if you say so!' was Gina's baffled comment.
'I think you should know that Dermot and two sixth formers are out there somewhere chasing Mel's latest conquest – because they think he's your stalker,' Amy pointed out.
'Really?' Min was taken aback.
'I hope they're OK,' Gina added.
'I think Shrek can take care of himself,' Amy reassured her. She hugged her arms around herself, realizing how cold she was – and her feet : they were totally soaked through!
'You know,' she urged her friends, 'we're going to have to get back to the boarding house before Mrs K notices there's something going on. Dermot and co. might even be back by now.'
'Well, erm . . . nice to meet you,' Greg said to Amy and Gina.
'Yeah – we must do this again in daylight some time,' Amy teased.
But all Greg's attention had turned back to Min. 'Very nice to meet you, finally,' he told her, a broad smile breaking over his face. 'Would you like to come out with me next Saturday? We could—'
'Yes!' Min answered, before he could even finish.
He held out his hand for her to shake, but Min electrified her audience by leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek.
Amy so wanted to call out, Wooooooo-hoooooo, but she managed to restrain herself. This was Min. This was very fragile, tender territory. She couldn't step in and mess it all up.
'Goodnight,' Min said to Greg before he turned and walked off into the darkness.
Arm in arm, joking and teasing each other about the events of the last hour, the three girls made their way down onto the path back to the boarding house.
It was cold and windy now. The trees were making shadows dance across the playing field and it was impossible not to feel slightly spooked. Instinctively, the three hurried towards the cosy warmth of the party.
Past a clump of bushy shrubs they went, then into the house garden – where they saw a tall figure, shrouded in black, with the horrible scream mask covering its face, heading towards the house.
This was just too much for Amy: she couldn't stop herself from letting out a bloodcurdling scream, which stopped the figure in its tracks.
It turned and, to their horror, began to speed towards them.
'No! No! No!' Amy was gasping. 'Do something!'
She pushed Gina, who was still holding a hockey stick, forward.
'Leave us alone,' Gina ordered in a shaky voice, her stick held across her body unconvincingly.
The figure kept on coming towards them.
'Go away!' Everyone could hear the terror in Gina's voice.
'I'm calling the police!' Min blurted out. 'Leave us alone.'
Then, to their horror, the figure began to laugh. It actually threw back its head and roared with laughter.
Just as both Gina and Min, their bodies shaking with fear, decided that this was the scariest thing they had ever witnessed and they were never leaving the house on Halloween or any other night, ever again, Amy let out a furious cry.
'Niffy!' she shouted. 'You hideous old bag! . . . Niffy!' she bellowed again, and started to march towards the figure.
Niffy? Gina and Min were still clutching each other, unable to believe that Amy was right.
But sure enough, the figure now said, 'OK! Take it easy,' in an oh-so-familiar plummy voice, and began to back away with her hands up.
No use.
Amy, absolutely livid, grabbed her friend by the shoulders and shook her. 'How dare you scare us,' she shouted, 'after the night we've had!'
'All right!' Niffy pushed Amy's hands away from her shoulders and pulled off the horrible mask.
They saw now that she wasn't in fancy dress at all. She was just wearing dark jeans, a jumper and a mac, with a bulky messenger bag slung across her body.
'I found the mask in the garden and I couldn't resist . . .' Niffy began. 'I know how scared you—'
'Shut up!' Amy instructed her. 'We've got quite enough on without you bloody showing up and giving us the scare of our lives.' The hairs on the back of her neck were still standing up and she felt as if they would never go down again.
'What on earth are you doing here, Niffy?' Min asked finally.
In a voice that managed to get almost all the way to the end of the sentence without too much of a wobble, Niffy began, 'I'm here, buddies, because my mum got her first all-clear today. I just jumped on the train because I knew, even though it's bonkers, that I had to tell . . . erm' – here was the wobble – 'tell you all in person.'
Chapter Twenty-eight
The front door of the boarding house burst open and teenagers, teachers, Mrs Knebworth – even the DJ – all began to rush out.
Word had spread. Milly, Helen and some younger girls were out on the playing fields trying to rescue someone! It had started as a whisper, grown to a rumour and then become a fully fledged panic.
On the dance floor the music had come to an abrupt halt as the plug was pulled out. Couples entangled in various cushioned areas were left redfaced as bright overhead lights were snapped on. Questions couldn't be answered quickly enough.
'A stalker?' Mrs Knebworth was booming. 'Asimina Singupta has a stalker?' She couldn't have sounded more incredulous. 'People are out there fighting with him? Good gracious!'
However, the Neb was made of stern Edinburgh stuff. She hadn't flapped, she hadn't panicked. She'd calmly instructed the St Lennox teachers and several of the burliest Frankensteins, Draculas and mad monks to get out there and discover what was going on.
But now here was Min, making her way through the crowds of people towards the boarding house, apparently completely calm and unruffled.
'Where on earth have you girls been?' Mrs Knebworth boomed at the Irises as soon as she spotted them. 'And Luella Nairn-Bassett?' she added, her eyebrows shooting up almost into her hair. 'What in the name of goodness are you doing here?'
But before the question could be answered, there were loud shouts and a series of cheers from the far corner of the garden.
Dermot and the two sixth formers were coming towards the house. All three looked a little the worse for wear. The girls were muddy, with ruffled hair, but Dermot's Shrek costume was completely mangled. Half of his face mask had torn away and his eye was swollen and bleeding.
Gina ran across the garden towards them. 'Are you all OK?' she asked them, but she had eyes only for Dermot's battered face. 'Did he attack you?' she exclaimed.
'No, no,' Dermot assured her. 'I'm just a total pillock who took a tumble.'
'We chased him towards the embankment,' Helen explained, 'but he got away and then Dermot lost his footing.'
'You fell down the embankment?' Gina asked. She had once gone to the school's boundary fence and looked down there. It was a long steep drop.
'Thank goodness for the padding,' Dermot said, patting his costume, 'or things would have been a lot nastier for me down at the bottom.'
'You rolled all the way down?' Gina asked again.
'I know . . . total pillock,' Dermot added.
But nevertheless, Gina slipped her hand into his and squeezed it hard.
Amy was standing beside them now. 'Unfortunately you were chasing Mel's boyfriend, not Min's stalker.'
'You've got to stop calling him that,' Min chipped in. 'I'm never, ever going to live this down.'
'What!' Milly exclaimed. 'Mel's boyfriend! But we've even got his shoe!' She held up a muddied white trainer.
'Le
t me take a look at that!' Mrs Knebworth was out in the garden now.
She took hold of the trainer and brought it up to the light at the front door. After a close inspection of the sole, she announced to everyone who would listen – everyone who wasn't already talking, asking, answering, describing or speculating – 'I think we've found our prowler! Will everyone who knows anything about all this come into my sitting room right now?' she ordered. 'And everyone else' – she looked at the large group of teenagers spread out over her garden, trampling the flowers, scuffing the lawn, stamping over the newly dug beds – 'get straight back inside and party, for heaven's sake!'
In the midst of the noisy, thronging crowd making its way from the garden back into the boarding house, Gina turned to Dermot. They gazed at each other, their fingers linked together, and just like in the sculpture gardens, it no longer mattered who else was there. They were alone together.
There was no Scarlett, Gina realized with a fizzy rush of happiness. There was just Dermot, and he was so, so into her! And that, she realized as she felt his warm mouth pressed against hers, was something very special. Something very well worth having.
When the kiss finally ended, Dermot leaned in against her ear and whispered, 'Eat your heart out, Scarlett!'
Gina couldn't think of anything to say, so she just settled for kissing his salty and slightly muddy neck instead.
'I quite like you,' Dermot breathed against the side of her head.
'I really quite like you too,' she told him back.
'Gina Peterson!'
Gina was vaguely aware that the Neb was calling her name.
'My sitting room!' the housemistress instructed.
'And Olly Hughes better bring himself along as well.'
There was a lecture, of course. All about leaving the boarding house without permission and making friends on the Internet, and did they have any idea what danger they'd placed themselves in tonight? But, funnily enough, it didn't seem to last long.
Mrs Knebworth seemed most distracted by the battered and bleeding Shrek in the corner of her sitting room. She kept catching sight of him and losing the thread of her tirade. Finally she just threw up her arms and said, 'Well, we've all lived to tell the tale. Now, you, mister, need some TCP on that cut. Milly, bring me the first-aid box. Gina and Min, make yourselves useful and get a round of tea in here for everyone.'
When the cut had been cleaned, Gina and Dermot sat side by side on the sofa holding hands. Niffy and Amy were squeezed together on the armchair opposite, chatting and joking, delighted to be together again.
Suddenly Amy realized that there was something her friend should know: she sat up and informed Niffy, 'Angus is here! He's here, at the party. You have to go and find him. He'll want to know about your mum . . .'
'What!'
Niffy sprang up; then, as she got to her feet, she remembered something and dipped a hand into the back pocket of her jeans. 'Oh, Aim, I've got something for you,' she announced. 'You left it at Blacklough and I kept meaning to tell you . . . or send it on or something, but you know what I'm like!'
She held out her hand, and Amy screamed when she saw her precious palm tree-shaped, diamond-studded necklace glinting there.
'Niffy! You total tit!' she shrieked, pretending to smack her friend on the head. 'I've been searching everywhere for my necklace! Everywhere! The whole boarding house was on alert. And you . . . you've been carrying my diamonds about in your scruffy old denims! Unbelievable!'
Shrek looked at Gina. He was beginning to think that really, anything could happen next. Swivelling round in his great foamy costume, which he still hadn't been able to take off because he was only wearing boxers underneath, he got hold of his brown bag. Opening the flap, he looked inside – but there was no hiding his utter disappointment. 'The pie . . .' he began.
'Ohmigod, the pumpkin pie!' Gina turned to look inside the bag now.
Dermot and the Shrek costume had squidged that lovingly home-made pie into a sticky, soggy mess.
Surveying the disaster inside the bag, Dermot decided he would just close the flap on it and deal with it another day.
'He brought you a pumpkin pie?' Min asked as she handed round the mugs of tea.
'He made me a pumpkin pie.' Gina beamed.
'Now that is sweet, that is really sweet . . .' Min told him.
Mrs Knebworth leaned over to Gina and patted her arm. 'That's a very nice boy you have there, that Olly Hughes.'
'Yes!' Gina smiled at Dermot. 'Very nice!'
'You'll have to introduce him to your mother when she comes.'
'Yes!' Gina added mischievously. 'I will.'
'Your mum?' Dermot asked, and there was no hiding the nerves in his voice. 'So when's she coming to Scotland?'
'My mum plus my three oldest best friends, Ria, Paula and Maddison . . .' Gina began.
She looked over at the little gold carriage clock on Mrs K's mantelpiece. 'They'll be here . . . oh . . . in about thirteen hours. But don't worry! My mum is going to love you, Olly!'
MEET THE AUTHOR . . .
CARMEN
Full name: Carmen Maria Reid
Home: A creaky Victorian house in Glasgow, Scotland
Likes: Writing (luckily), chocolate in any shape or form especially if caramel is involved, Jack Russell dogs, cute blue-eyed guys in glasses, children (especially hers), buying handbags, holidays by the sea, Earl Grey tea in an insulated mug, very very long walks, very, very long jeans, shepherd's pie, hot bubble baths (for inspiration), duvet coats, playing tennis
Dislikes: Large animals, drinking milk (bleurrrrrgh), high heels (she's already 6ft 1), going to the gym (but she goes anyway), filling in forms or paperwork of any kind, flying
Would like to be: The author of lots more books (Secret ambition was to be a ballet dancer or Olympic gold medal winning runner)
Fascinating fact: Carmen spent four years boarding at a girls' school very like St J's
Secrets at St Jude's
New Girl
By Carmen Reid
Ohmigod! Gina's mum has finally flipped and is sending her to Scotland to some crusty old boarding school called St Jude's - just because Gina spent all her money on clothes and got a few bad grades! It's so unfair!
Now the Californian mall-rat has to swap her sophisticated life of pool parties and well- groomed boys for . . . hockey in the rain, school dinners and stuffy housemistresses. And what's with her three kooky dorm-buddies ... could they ever be her friends? And just how does a St Jude's girl get out to meet the gorgeous guys invited to the school's summer ball?
978 0 552 557061
www.rbooks.co.uk
JUMPING TO CONFUSIONS
by LIZ RETTIG
I'm Cat - and I'm the fat, plain one in my family. When I say fat, I don't mean 'have-to-be-prised-out-of-a-hula-hoop' fat, but when your mum and sister are practically size zero, it's hard not to feel like elephant girl in comparison.
My twin sister Tessa is blonde, gorgeous and gets any boy she wants. Right now she's got her eye on Josh, a really fi t American guy who's just moved to Glasgow. But he doesn't seem interested in her. It's weird. I've never known any boy who didn't fancy Tessa. Well, not any straight ones anyway . . .
Of course! It all makes sense . . . Funny that he doesn't want to tell anyone his secret, not even me, his new best friend . . .
Could Cat be jumping to conclusions about Josh?
A wonderfully funny tale of romantic confusion from the author of My Desperate Love Diary
ISBN: 978 0 552 557573
EXTREME KISSING
BY LUISA PLAJA
Two best friends. One extreme adventure.
Too many secrets . . .
Bethany is the sensible one with a long-term boyfriend, Carlota is the rebellious one with the wild past. All is fine in their world – except Carlota hates her step-dad and longs for her ex. And Bethany is worried that her boyfriend is about to dump her - and she's 'late' . . .
Carlota has a plan to
put their troubles behind them on a crazy day out in London. She uses her favourite magazine to guide them on a life-changing adventure – setting real challenges from the glossy pages that lead to exclusive shopping, exciting snogging and . . . explosive secrets. The magazine will take them everywhere they need to go - but will it make them reveal the truths they are keeping from each other?
ISBN: 978 0 552 55681 1
SELINA PENALUNA
by JAN PAGE
Selina Penaluna is a merrymaid - or so she believes . . .
Dropped as a baby into a deep pool on the Cornish shore, she emerges a different child - a mermaid changeling - and is forever drawn to the sea. Abandoned by her mother, neglected and abused by her father, she desperately wants to escape her lonely life.
Ellen and Jack are twins, evacuated from East London to Cornwall at the start of the war. The family that takes them in are well-off and a little stuffy. Ellen relishes this opportunity to better herself, but Jack finds his new life stifling and seeks freedom in the arms of Selina, the mysterious fisherman's daughter whose wild beauty turns every man's head.
Selina's siren song has Jack captivated - but leaves his sister cold with jealousy. Can the young lovers find solace and build a new life together? And how will Ellen deal with being left behind?
A spellbinding, beautiful novel full of passion and tragedy that will enchant older readers.
ISBN: 978 0 552 55864 8
