'No, Gary stayed at home . . . I don't know if all is well there,' Amy answered cautiously, 'but I'm keeping right out of it.'

It was only a few months since Amy's dad had come out . . . not just to her, but also to himself. There was no denying that her dad's boyfriend was an addition to her family that Amy was taking some time to adjust to. Before Gary, there had been just the two of them and, to be completely honest, Amy had preferred it that way.

As she turned her head to smile at Gina, the light bounced against her sparkling necklace and Gina exclaimed, 'Show me! Show me all your new jewels.'

With a little scream of excitement, Amy answered: 'Yes! One grand's worth of tax-free bling! I thought you were never going to ask!'

As Gina and Min crowded round her bed for a closer look, she took the dainty diamonds from her ears, undid her many gold and diamond bracelets and handed them over for inspection. Then, proudly, she unhooked her necklace.

It was a substantial gold pendant in the shape of a palm tree, worked in green and gold and studded with diamonds of different sizes, all winking and twinkling even in the light of the sixty-watt bulb hanging under a drab pink shade above their heads.

The St Jude's boarding house was so boring and unglamorous compared to the lives all three of these girls enjoyed back home: Amy lived in a huge white penthouse with jacuzzis, marble floors and a stunning view of the Glasgow city skyline; Min's family home was bright and showy compared to this shabby Victorian building which, although it had been repainted over the summer holidays, still looked worn and old-fashioned.

'Real diamonds?' Gina asked, running her fingers over the sparkling jewellery, although she didn't for a moment doubt it.

'Oh yeah, you'd better believe it, baby,' Amy confirmed, mimicking her friend's Californian tw.a.n.g.

'Will the Neb let you wear these around the boarding house? Will she even let you have them at school?' Min wondered.

'She will not be told,' Amy said. 'How's she to know they're all real?'

Just then the door burst open and a younger girl rushed into the room. Amy, Gina and Min looked at her in surprise.

'Amy!' the girl gushed. 'I just found out you'd been moved to the Iris dorm. I'm just down the corridor in Snowdrop, so we're neighbours!'

'Hi, Rosie . . . er . . . great!' Amy replied, but she didn't sound quite as enthusiastic about this. 'D'you know Rosie?' she asked, looking round at Gina and Min. 'She's in the year below us. Her dad was doing some work with my dad, so we were out in Dubai together and we . . . er . . . hung out.'

'It was so cool!' Rosie confirmed, and began to describe all the things she and Amy had done together. When she finally decided it was time to get back to her unpacking and left the room, Amy turned to Gina and Min.

'My new best friend,' she sighed.

'Well, isn't that a good thing?' Min asked her.

'She's nice,' Amy admitted, 'but I can't be as much of a friend to her here as I was when we were on holiday I've got my own friends, and anyway, she's in the year below . . . You know, it's just not cool.'

'We could all do with a new friend or two now that Niffy is no longer here,' Min added, sounding irritatingly like a teacher.

Just the mention of Niffy's name was enough to bring a cloud of gloom over the dorm.

Niffy had been the other member of the dorm gang last year. No, she'd been more than the other member. She'd been a founding member, a lynch pin. This little dorm of just three beds seemed half-empty without Niffy's long, gangly frame and large personality. She and Amy had always shared dorms since they'd started at St Jude's as boarders when they were eleven. Min had joined them two years later, then Gina last term.

But now, for the foreseeable future, Niffy was living at home and attending a local school because her mother was ill.

'Did everyone hear from Niff in the holidays?' Amy asked.

'Yeah,' both Min and Gina answered. There had been emails, texts and even the odd phone call.

'She sounds OK,' Amy ventured, 'doesn't she? Anyway, she'll be in Edinburgh later this month for the Scottish hockey team trials.'

This news brought a groan from Min. 'Oh no! I'm supposed to be doing that as well. I'm never going to find time to do all this! I'll have to fluff it . . .'

'You're going to try and get into the Scottish hockey team?' Amy asked her. 'On top of your eleven GCSEs?'

'I know . . . can't be done, can it?'

'No!' Amy insisted.

'We're still going to visit Niffy on the first long weekend, aren't we?' Gina asked. She was totally intrigued by the prospect of visiting Niffy at her home the one she'd heard so much about. Blacklough Hall, the ancestral pile, was apparently incredibly grand but falling down around its owners' ears. Gina also wanted to meet Niffy's beloved horse, Ginger, and all her dogs. Maybe they would see her big brother, Finn, as well. Yes, a trip to Blacklough was definitely going to be worth making.

'Yeah, of course we'll see her as much as we can. Poor old Nif,' Amy said, sounding slightly choked.

'She'll be back soon,' Gina soothed. 'I just know she will.'

Twirling her long blonde hair around her finger, Amy knew what would cheer everyone up: 'So . . . have I told you that I met Jason in the holidays?'

This reference to one of the most handsome but infuriatingly off-hand pupils at the boys' school, St Lennox, brought mock screams from both Min and Gina.

'Jason!' Gina asked with wide eyes. 'Did you guys go on a date?'

Amy would only smile and nod, refusing all encouragement, threats or bribes to spill any of the details: the date had been so magical and so brilliant that telling anyone anything about it would just spoil it.

Gorgeous, dark-haired, impossible-to-pin-down Jason had actually travelled to Glasgow, her home town. They'd spent the afternoon in the city centre, visiting all the chicest shops and spending two whole hours just talking as they sipped drinks in the loveliest cafe. Then, holding hands all the way, they had gone back to the huge flat Amy shared with her dad, where Jason had been suitably impressed.

He'd admired the stunning view, the striking modern art and the designer furniture. He'd met her dad and totally taken in his stride how young he was and the fact that Gary was introduced as his boyfriend.

The moment he asked with gentle curiosity where Amy's mum was (to which the reply was: 'She had me at seventeen and gave me up to my teenage dad and his parents; I haven't seen her since'), he'd understood not to ask more. Maybe this was because he had a complicated family story himself, involving parents and step-parents across three different continents.

After dark, her dad had taken them in his chauffeur-driven Jaguar to his newest nightclub; they'd been ushered straight through to the VIP section, where they'd danced and schmoozed till two in the morning.

Jason had left on the train the next morning, after a late brunch out on the terrace. Both of them had drunk one half-strength c.o.c.ktail too many to want to brave the rooftop jacuzzi.

Her dad hadn't exactly warmed to Jason, but as Amy pointed out, he needed to give him a chance and get to know him better.

That aside, the whole date had been wonderful so it was an inexplicable, terrible shame that Amy hadn't heard a single word from Jason since.

Uploaded by Coral

Chapter Six.

Gina, Min and Amy took their seats in the large wood-panelled a.s.sembly hall, where the names of former head girls and team captains were displayed in gold letters; they each carried a pencil and a little piece of paper.

At all the headmistress's big speeches new term, end of term, leavers' day they had always played Banshee Buzzword Bingo. It was Niffy's game, and today they were going to play it in her honour.

'If we didn't play it,' Amy had all but hissed, handing out the squares of paper, 'she'd be horrified.'

Unfortunately Amy had been spotted in the cla.s.sroom minutes before as she was tearing up the paper squares.

'Missing your friend, are you? Playing her little game?' It was Penny Boswell-Hackett, the day girl who just had to have a go at Amy whenever she could. 'Poor little Amy who are you going to snuggle up with at night now that your best dormie has left?'

'Shut up,'Amy had snarled back in fury. 'Just because you don't know what a best friend is just because you probably have to pay those two to hang around with you . . .' She'd pointed at 'Piggy' and 'Weasel', the two girls who always tagged along with Penny.

'b.i.t.c.h,' Penny had hissed back. 'Well, at least we've all got a chance of getting into the Scottish hockey team now that your overgrown clod of a friend is out of the way.'

'Wrong again!' Amy had been delighted to correct her. 'Niffy's travelling up especially for the trials. It turns out you don't have to be a snooty St Jude's girl to compete for the national team.'

'What's that round your neck?' Penny had flicked a casual finger at Amy's beautiful, prized necklace, which glinted from the open neck of her school blouse. 'Something tacky you picked up at the Barras?'

As the Barras was a well-known Glasgow street market, Amy was understandably furious. But her pithy reply had to be put on hold because just then their new form teacher walked in, called for silence, took the register, then marched her Upper Fifth B cla.s.s down the corridor to a.s.sembly.

Walking along, Gina realized she'd forgotten how dark the school was. Even though the windows were big, they were set way up off the ground so you could only look out at the sky, which was a dull grey. In the corridors the floors were also dark grey, the walls greenish and panelled up to waist height in dark wood. Compared with life in California, it was like being underground.

After the school hymn, the Banshee took to the stage. She'd clearly had an invigorating holiday. Her stride, unhampered by her pleated skirt, seemed even more purposeful than usual. It was obvious that she must have been a lacrosse, hockey and tennis champion in her day. She would definitely have been team captain and head girl, her reports praising her 'leadership qualities'.

Gina glanced down at her list of words. Each time the Banshee said one of them during her speech, Gina would get ten points. 'Relish, challenge, address, smart, and the bonus ball for a hundred points: Santa.'

She looked at the tall woman behind the podium, who swept back her short brown bob, gave a curt smile, took a breath and then launched into her sermon. There really wasn't a s...o...b..ll's chance in h.e.l.l that she was going to say 'Santa', was there?

After welcoming everyone back, telling her holiday anecdotes and announcing various staff changes, she added: 'Also, you'll be delighted to hear that there will be three Christmas b.a.l.l.s at the end of this term: for Years Five and Six, Three and Four, Two and One. I'm afraid our younger girls will still have to make do with a visit from Santa. I hope that isn't too insulting.'

Amidst the polite t.i.ttering this brought, Gina was grinning: 100 bonus points! She put a big tick across her score sheet, while Min gave her a despairing glance and scrunched up her square of paper.

'I give up,' she whispered, earning herself a glare from Amy. Was she somehow insulting Niffy by doing this? she thought crossly. Niffy wasn't dead! Amy was going to have to lighten up about it!

Neither the t.i.ttering nor the paper scrunching was loud enough to drown out Penny's comment from behind them.

'Obviously the little cross around my neck is a family heirloom. It's Georgian. It's been in the Boswell-Hackett family for over a hundred and forty years. There are portraits of great-aunts of mine wearing it. Some people just haven't got any family history. Well, certainly not any that you could be proud of.'

This was clearly aimed at Amy. Min and Gina could almost see her hackles rising. Gina put her arm on Amy's to restrain her and Min whispered a firm: 'Don't!'

But Amy, riled by the suggestion that she shouldn't be proud of her family, turned and hissed at Penny: 'Put your silly little bit of Georgian tat away! I'm wearing a grand's worth of Brand. New. Bling. Don't even pretend you're not jealous. Yeah, there are a total one point five carats in my new jewellery box because I'm worth it!'

As the cla.s.s filed out after the first a.s.sembly of term, Min couldn't help saying to Amy: 'Well, that's great. Let's just start the year off on a really good footing with Penny and her cronies. I don't suppose there's any hope that the great rivalry between you two is going to settle down or blow over?'

'Big. Fat. Chance,' Amy a.s.sured her.

Chapter Seven.

'OK, I know this is not exactly fun, but there's no need to get vicious,' Gina said; Amy had just sprayed her with a shower of earth.

'I can't believe this!' Amy all but shrieked back. 'And it's not even a punishment! It's supposed to be some sort of hobby for us all. Gardening? We're fifteen! Not sixty-b.l.o.o.d.y-five!'

'Shut up, both of you, or it will just go on for longer.' Min had her head down and was hoeing steadily through the little patch of flower garden that had been a.s.signed to the three of them.

The Neb 'clearly menopausal', according to Amy had decided that great improvements had to be made to the rather sad lawn, shrubs and patches of flower beds that surrounded the boarding house. The school's groundsman was clearly not up to the job, so she had decided to introduce the girls to 'the delights of gardening', as she'd put it in her dining-room announcement.

'Just an hour or two once a fortnight, that's all I'm asking of you hardly more time than you currently spend doing the weekend washing up,' she insisted.

But there were unmistakable groans. The weekend washing up was bad enough, with its mercilessly strict rota which always seemed to throw up your turn unexpectedly and at the worst possible moment.

Tonight it was the turn of a small group of Upper Fifths to be handed hoes, rakes, spades and orders to tidy up the flower beds.

'It's not just the gardening, is it?' Gina asked Amy her friend had been in a barely disguised bad mood for days now.

'No, it's not!' Amy agreed angrily. Actually, hoeing wasn't so bad: it was a chance to take out some serious aggro on the earth.

'Jason . . .?' Gina ventured. 'Still no news?'

'No!' Amy snapped. 'No news.'

It baffled her. They'd had such a good time! He'd told her it had been his best date ever and still nothing! Had he lost her numbers? Should she text or email him with some reminders? No. In her heart of hearts she knew he had her details, because last term he'd done exactly the same thing: been out of touch for weeks, then suddenly reappeared to scoop her up and take her breath away.

And as for her dad's advice on the phone last night! She just wanted to forget all about it, but she couldn't get the lovingly meant words out of her head: Amy, love, maybe he's just not that into you. Maybe you have to find someone better.

Maybe he's just not that into you! Aaaaaargh!

'Unlike lovey-dovey, caring-sharing Dermot of course,' Amy couldn't help sneering. 'I saw you got another postcard from him today!'

'Yeah,' Gina confirmed, but she felt embarra.s.sed. During the first fortnight of school, Dermot had emailed, Dermot had texted, and Dermot had now sent her two postcards.

The messages had begun cheerily enough: HOW ARE YOU? HOW'S SCHOOL? MISS ME YET? DOING ANYTHING AT THE WEEKEND? WANT TO SEE ME AGAIN? But because her answers had been so vague, he was now sounding a little sad and desperate. The postcard had read: Gina? What did I do? At least give me a call. I'm sure we can sort this out. I'd love to see you this weekend.

It didn't matter how nice and how keen he sounded, Gina only felt unsure. Did she want to get to know him really well? Who the h.e.l.l was Scarlett? Should she ask him? And her newest anxiety: would Dermot one day treat her the way Jason was treating Amy? Gina never ever wanted to feel as miserable over a boy as Amy did.

She had tried before now to tell her friend how confused she felt about Dermot, although she'd kept her horrible anxiety about the Scarlett file to herself. But Amy hadn't been very sympathetic. He'd rung, hadn't he? Amy had pointed out. He'd emailed? He was desperate to see her again? What was her problem?

Tonight Gina was finally going to email Dermot: she was going to tell him that she just wanted to be friends. Yes. That was definitely what she was going to do.

'h.e.l.lo, worker bees! Enjoying ourselves, are we?' The voice floated across the garden towards them.

'Just what we need!' Amy groaned.

They turned to watch Mel striding showily into the boarding-house gardens. Although it was mid-week, she wasn't wearing school uniform and looked as if she had been out somewhere interesting. Well, it was Mel's aim to make her life sound as interesting and colourful as she possibly could.

Unusually for a St Jude's girl, she had punk hair, currently dyed the most vibrant shade of red she could get away with, eyes lavishly kohled in both black and iridescent green. The tightest black jeans, slouchy boots and a bright fuchsia jacket completed the look.

'Hi there, Amy! Gina!' she called out. Min was acknowledged with a nod because she was far too square to register on the Mel radar. 'We've not had a post-holiday catch-up.'