'My mom's calling me later, so the Neb said it was OK.'

Gina went over to her chest of drawers and took the phone out. 'Sounds like she's sent me a text.' But she opened the message and saw that it wasn't from her mother.

The message read simply: SCARLETT IS A SHORT STORY. NOT A GIRL. DOES THAT HELP? D.

'Oh no!' Gina said, sitting down on the bed, not taking her eyes off the phone screen. 'Oh no!'

Before she would answer anyone's concerned questions, she texted back the reply: I AM AN IDIOT. SO SORRY. G XX.

'Come on!' The shout came from outside their door. 'Time to go down and make sure everything's ready.'

Amy recognized the voice. 'That's Rosie. She said she was going as a frog! We've got to see her costume.'

Gina put the phone back into her drawer, then hurried out onto the landing, where Rosie was indeed dressed up as a frog, but a very cute green frog, complete with a tiara perched at an angle on her head.

'You know, I'm the frog princess: you kiss me and I turn out beautiful.'

'You're already beautiful!' Amy a.s.sured her.

'Look at you guys though whoa!' was her reply.

Downstairs, the three common rooms given over to the party looked amazing. Large cobwebby nets had been draped over the doors and ceilings. Low green lamps gave off a ghoulish glow. Carved pumpkins lit with candles had been scattered around the garden and steps. Mrs K had insisted, due to fire regulations, there should be none indoors.

Gina had come up with most of the inspired suggestions for the Halloween buffet. There was dark spaghetti, slimy pea soup, vampish beetroot soup, and jugs full of the specially mixed blood-red soft drink. Liquorice bugs had been dotted all over the food and plates.

But Gina still couldn't hide her disappointment at the sweet selection. Yes, there were white chocolate mice and skulls, pumpkin lollies and chocolate b.a.l.l.s wrapped in special pumpkin foil, but it just couldn't compete with a proper American Halloween candy spread. What she really wanted to see were jellied pumpkins, chocolate pumpkins, sweets shaped into witches, broomsticks, ghosts and little black cats, seasonally decorated Reese's Pieces made of delicious peanut b.u.t.ter covered in chocolate, and pumpkin pie! When she had suggested making pumpkin pie to Mrs K, she'd received a very blank look.

One of the eager girls who had been posted at a window now announced with a mixture of nerves and excitement, 'I think that's a minibus pulling up. I think the boys are here!'

The music was turned up loud, the disco lights began to whirl around the room and there were several long minutes of almost breathless antic.i.p.ation while costumes were tweaked, eyeliner smudged, lip gloss quickly reapplied. Then, with slightly forced laughter and over-loud 'h.e.l.los', the first group of boys entered the room.

It was hard to tell who was who there were so many guests here all of a sudden and their costumes were so weird and wonderful. There were wizards of course. Lots of blue and black bathrobes had been pressed into service. Then several ghoulish monks, Frankensteins, Draculas, and someone in one of those horrible black and white frozen Scream masks.

'Oh no!' Amy exclaimed. 'I hate those screaming skull things, they give me the creeps. Niffy and I watched that film one half-term and . . . it's just horrible!'

The skull began to approach them, and even though Amy knew it was just a mask, she could feel herself shrinking back.

'Hi!' the skull boomed, and they immediately recognized Angus's voice.

'h.e.l.lo!' They greeted him enthusiastically.

'I didn't know you were coming,' Amy began. 'You should have told us we'd have had something to look forward to.'

'Oh yeah! But I'm only here for the beer,' he joked.

'There isn't any,' Gina warned him; she was now being jostled by the crowd of new arrivals.

'Well, that's the good thing about baggy clothing.' He flapped his black arms about. 'It can hide a lot of bulging pockets.'

'You've brought booze!' Amy whispered excitedly a few mouthfuls of beer and she had a feeling her nerves at seeing Jason tonight wouldn't be quite so bad.

'Yeah, in subtle cans, so from a distance it will look just like c.o.ke.'

'Very clever,' Gina agreed.

As they scanned over the Draculas and a.s.sorted ghouls to see who else they recognized, Min said she had to go to the bathroom and made her way out of the room.

'She looks great,' Angus told the other girls.

'We know!' said Gina. 'We just have no idea who for.'

Then Amy saw the most dapper Dracula of all coming in and knew immediately who she was looking at.

Jason was in his dinner jacket with a white shirt and white bow tie. He'd not bothered with fake fangs or even much white face powder; he'd just attached a silky cloak to his shoulders and swept his hair back from his face in the hope that this would be enough.

'There he is,' Gina prompted. 'Do you want us to hide you?'

'No, no,' Amy insisted. 'I've eaten plenty of garlic.'

'Oh, very good,' Angus laughed. 'That should keep the vampires away!'

With quiet determination, Amy walked steadily across the dance floor, where several witches and a ghoul or two were bravely kicking off the dancing.

As soon as Jason spotted her, he held his arms out wide and gave a leery 'h.e.l.lo, baby,' as his opening line.

Which was a mistake.

If Amy had been angry before, she was furious now. How dare he 'h.e.l.lo, baby' her!

She walked straight past him and into the corridor, hoping he would follow. It was quieter out there and she wanted to make sure he heard her every word. He seemed to get the message and was soon out in the corridor beside her.

They weren't alone there. Small groups of girls and boys were mingling under the netting and the dangling spiders, but Amy came up close to Jason so that she could hiss in his ear.

'Did you send me those flowers?' she began furiously.

'Yeah!' Jason was smiling. 'I knew you'd love them. They cost a fortune. What are you so annoyed about?'

'You were supposed to meet me this afternoon,' Amy went on.

'I know. I'm sorry, I got called into the team at short notice-'

She interrupted him with a sharp: 'Excuse me! Don't you own a mobile? Couldn't you have called me? Or sent a grovelling text? Were your fingers broken this afternoon?'

'I'm sorry, Amy!' he repeated. 'I couldn't find my phone and I couldn't get onto the payphone. I'm sorry.' And here he gave her such a charming smile and stretched out his hand to stroke her hair in such a tender manner that she might almost have relented and leaned up to kiss that shapely, ever so slightly arrogant pout if an image of the gazelle hadn't sprung up so clearly in her mind.

'We could have met in the morning. What were you doing earlier today that was so important?' she asked.

'Oh . . .' Dracula ran a hand over his slicked-back hair. 'There was someone I had to see.'

Oh yes, there certainly was, and Amy was going to find out all about it. 'Someone who?' she persisted.

'Just someone.' Jason shrugged his shoulders. 'It's not important to do with school.'

'That is just b.o.l.l.o.c.ks and you know it,' Amy said, pointing a finger fiercely at his chest.

Jason had the sense to stay silent for a moment; he was trying to work out what was coming next.

'I saw you this morning. I saw you in Harvey Nichols with the tall blonde girl. You were holding her hand and squeezing her b.u.m!' Amy added with as much outrage as she could muster. 'Out shopping, were you? Or taking her for a little treat up on the fourth floor? Buying her an ice cream, were you?'

Amy did not like the way her voice suddenly seemed to be cracking up over these words. She wished she was wearing a witch's hat so she could pull the brim down over her face and not let Jason see how upset she was.

What had happened to the person she had snuggled up to in her dad's nightclub all those weeks ago? Where was he?

Just face it, Amy her dad's voice was ringing in her ears maybe he's just not that into you.

'Oh here we go,' Jason began, but his voice sounded different. He didn't sound apologetic or kind or remotely lovely any more. He sounded just as angry as she was. 'You know, just because we've kissed and I've stayed the night at your flat doesn't mean you get to follow me around! I don't want a girlfriend and I definitely don't want a stalker,' he added. 'What's wrong with you and me hanging out and having fun when we can?'

'Fine!' Amy replied. 'That's fine! You just hang out and have your fun with that . . . that . . . spindly mop-body,' was the best she could come up with under pressure. 'Don't bother me! I'm not interested! And why don't you just collect your flowers on the way out? I don't b.l.o.o.d.y want them. Give them to mop-girl.'

With that she headed as quickly as she could towards the flight of stairs that led up to the bathrooms. Up there, behind a locked cubicle door . . . Well, pretty much everyone who came into the bathroom would be able to hear her cry.

Chapter Twenty-six.

'Have you heard from Niffy recently?' Gina was shouting into Angus's ear, so as to be heard above the music.

'Yeah.' Angus smiled broadly at the mention of Niffy's name. 'Today was a really big day: her mum was seeing the consultant to get a fresh round of test results. I'm surprised she's not phoned,' he added. 'I tried to get hold of her before I came.'

'Oh!' Gina was surprised she didn't know about this development. Maybe Amy did, but hadn't mentioned it because she'd been so distracted by Jason.

'Do you think it's going to be bad news?' she asked.

'No idea.' Angus shook his head. 'Could be bad, could be good, could be no change.'

His friend Charlie Fotheringham was swaggering towards them in a cobbled-together Frankenstein costume. How appropriate, Gina couldn't help thinking: she'd always found him a bit of a monster.

'Hey there, Yankee,' he began, looking at Gina.

'h.e.l.lo,' she answered coldly.

'Now apparently, Angus' Charlie leaned over towards him 'you are the man with the beers.'

'Indeed,' Angus confirmed, and ducked a hand under his loose black outfit into one of the deep pockets of his combat trousers underneath. Then he handed Charlie a small tin of supermarket own brand, carefully chosen because of the silver and red packaging which made it look, from a distance and in dim disco lighting, just like a c.o.ke can.

'So' Charlie turned to Gina again and gave her a big smile 'where was your glamorous Asian babe friend headed?'

'Min?' Gina asked.

'Yes, the lovely Min. All she would tell me as she snuck out of the side door was to mind my own business.'

'The side door?' Gina didn't know what he meant. 'Which side door?'

'Well, I don't know it looked as if it might lead into the back garden,' Charlie told her, 'but you're the one who lives here, aren't you?'

Lives here! Ha! She felt almost insulted by the suggestion. If only Charlie could see her real home, then maybe he'd stop being so rude and obnoxious to her. Actually, that made him even worse the fact that his opinion of her would change once he knew about her wealthy background.

No sooner had she thought this than she suddenly felt a pang of shame. Hadn't her opinion of Dermot changed once she'd seen his home? That made her no better than Charlie, didn't it?

'So, are we going to dance then, Yankee?' Charlie asked, putting an unwelcome hand around her waist.

Gina quickly moved away from his touch. 'I'd love to,' she lied, 'but first you've got to tell me what you think of my slime soup.'

With a charming smile, she handed him the cup she'd been waiting to offer Jason.

'What the h.e.l.l is that?' Charlie asked, peering at the insect floating on top of the green goo.

'Liquorice bugs,' Gina a.s.sured him. 'Aren't they cute?'

'Excellent!' Angus enthused, leaning in for a look. 'Snarf that down, Charlie, unless you want to give it to me.'

'Oi, back off,' Charlie told him, then fished the beetle out with his finger. Fortunately the hot soup seemed to have finished Amy's live beetle off; otherwise his wriggling legs might have given the game away.

A moment later and the beetle was in Charlie's mouth. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment or two before saying, 'Just tastes of soup.'

'Excuse me a minute . . .' Gina had to turn away to hide her face; then, before she exploded with laughter, she rushed off to tell Amy.

The room was hot and very crowded now and she had to nudge and jostle past people to get to the door.

Scarlett was a short story! This was almost all she could think about. Did she believe it? Had she gone and messed up everything with Dermot because she'd jumped to some stupid, jealous conclusion for no reason other than the fact that she was just completely untrusting and insecure!

Why hadn't she just invited Dermot to this party? Then he'd be here and they'd have got talking and the whole Scarlett thing would probably have come out in conversation and she could have been laughing in relief with him. Hadn't she realized yet that he was the one and only great guy she'd met in Scotland and he was totally, totally into her, but she kept brushing him off and letting him down at every opportunity?

Gina pressed a finger to the corner of her eyes to try to stem the tears that were forming there, and as she did so, she b.u.mped straight into the soft foamy padding of some total idiot who had come to the party dressed up as a monstrous green Shrek.

'Sorry,' Shrek mumbled through his thick rubber mask. 'I can't see where I'm going.'

'No, my fault,' Gina a.s.sured him. 'I'm trying to get to the door.'

'Gina?' Shrek asked, to her surprise.

'Yes?' she answered, wondering who was in there.

With a large green hand, Shrek clumsily raised his face mask a little.