New Girl

by Carmen Reid

  ‘Shhh, I can hear music,’ Niffy said.

  ‘Maybe it’s coming all the way from Charlie’s house,’ Amy sighed. ‘Maybe Jason finally found a CD to put on.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ Niffy’s sarcasm was obvious. ‘No, I think there’s a concert on at Murrayfield. Listen . . .’

  ‘A house party! A concert! It’s all happening out there! And where are we? We’re stuck up a fire escape! It’s so unfair,’ Amy wailed. ‘We’re prisoners. In our teenage prime!’

  It was after midnight and much darker outside when Niffy stirred in her sleep. She’d dreamed of a tapping sound: Tap tap tappity-tap.

  There it was again.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  Niffy sat up in bed. It was coming from the window leading to the fire escape. She tried to consider a possible explanation. Branch tapping against the glass? No, too high up. Window rattling in its frame? Don’t think so.

  The tapping began again, and this time it was accompanied by several giggles.

  ‘Amy!’ Niffy hissed and reached over to give her friend a shake. ‘Amy! There’s someone at the window!’

  It only took a moment for Amy to go from deeply asleep to wide awake. ‘At the window?’ she repeated in a whisper.

  They strained their ears, and several seconds later the tapping started up again. Along with a strange clinking noise.

  ‘That sounds like chains!’ Amy whispered in horror. ‘We’re about to be tortured! We have to phone the police. Now!’

  ‘Shhh!’ Niffy insisted. ‘It sounds like bottles. I heard a giggle as well. Do serial killers giggle?’

  ‘Yes!’ Amy’s eyes were wide with fright.

  ‘Amy!’ a lowered voice called out from the other side of the window. ‘Are you there?’

  Amy leaped out of bed and grabbed Niffy’s arm in fear. ‘Help! Someone out there’s come to get me!’ she shrieked, waking up Gina and Min in the process.

  Niffy began to giggle. ‘Silly old tart,’ she said and got out of bed. Striding towards the window, she put her hand on the blind to open it.

  ‘Noooooo!’ Amy warned.

  But Niffy had revealed two dark figures hunched on the fire escape, clinking, giggling and tapping.

  Amy was still crouched down behind her bed, but Niffy calmly took hold of the brass handles and flung the window wide open. As soon as she saw who was out there, she began to laugh.

  ‘Oh, it’s you! How romantic! Would you like to come in?’

  ‘How kind,’ came the reply.

  As soon as Amy heard those words, she frantically ran her hands through her hair, deeply regretting her choice of ratty old pyjamas for bed tonight.

  ‘Jason?’ she asked the figure as it stepped down from the window ledge and into the darkened room. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

  A second boy was clambering down behind Jason, carrying the bulging plastic bag responsible for the clinking sounds.

  ‘Angus and I thought we’d just drop by,’ Jason informed the room casually, ‘since you couldn’t make the party. A little bird told us you live at the top of the fire escape.’

  Gina switched on a bedside light to take a better look at the intruders and convince herself that no, she wasn’t dreaming. Min sat up but shyly pulled the covers right up to her chin.

  There was something of an awkward pause as everyone adjusted to the shock of the situation. The girls were caught somewhere between pleasant surprise at the visit and fear that they would get caught and instantly expelled. Well, make that: Niffy was delighted by this new adventure, Amy was stunned that Jason had just walked in through her window, and Min and Gina were terrified.

  ‘How about a beer?’ Angus asked cheerfully. ‘We brought along a few bottles and even a bottle opener.’ He took this out of his coat pocket with a flourish, then sat down on the corner of Min’s bed and began to rummage around in his bag.

  ‘Good idea.’ Jason chose to sit on Amy’s bed and immediately put an arm around her. ‘Hello there,’ he purred. ‘Pleased to see me?’

  With a jolt of astonished happiness, Amy leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. He smelled beery and she wondered if he was already a bit drunk.

  ‘Right . . . well, I think we’ll leave the love birds to it in the corner while we crack on over here,’ Angus decided as he popped the tops off four bottles and handed them out.

  Although Min and Gina shook their heads, Angus wouldn’t hear of it. ‘We’ve come all this way!’ he insisted. ‘The least you can do is have a drink with me!’

  As soon as Niffy’s first bottle was almost empty, she gave a great burp of appreciation: Min looked shocked while Angus laughed heartily.

  ‘Can we be heard up here?’ he wanted to know. ‘Should we be partying quietly?’

  ‘We should keep it down, just to be on the safe side,’ Niffy told him. ‘We don’t want everyone else on this floor joining in.’

  ‘Yes we do!’ Angus replied. ‘We’ve got plenty of bottles!’

  ‘How is Charlie’s party going?’ Gina asked.

  ‘It is utterly fantastic! The place is packed; he’s got a DJ in, tons of booze. Tons! Mind you, he’s had to hide the key to the basement because his old man’s got bottles of really good stuff stashed away down there.’

  ‘So why did you come all the way out here to see us,’ Niffy wondered, ‘if there’s such a great party going on in town? Especially you, Mr Party Animal, Mr G-Pants.’ She gave a throaty giggle. ‘Have you been thwinging your thong?’

  Angus gave her a cheeky smile. ‘That’s my party piece. Did you hear about it? We came because we were missing you, of course,’ he added.

  ‘Hmmm.’ Niffy sounded unconvinced. ‘The real reason?’ she pressed.

  ‘That is the real reason: we love St Jude’s boarders – they’re the best,’ Angus insisted. ‘Sexiest schoolgirls in Edinburgh.’

  ‘So absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with something like . . . let’s see . . . a bet?’ Niffy asked, moving closer to Angus and nudging him in the ribs as encouragement.

  ‘I quite like that,’ he told her, meaning the nudging.

  ‘Confess!’ she instructed.

  ‘Well . . .’ Angus looked a little uncomfortable and began to rummage through his shaggy hair.

  ‘Aha. What’s the deal? No, don’t tell me – you have to photograph us in our pyjamas with your mobile phone maybe? Take the picture back to the party as a trophy? And what do you get?’ Niffy urged.

  ‘Well . . . it’s a bit more complicated than that,’ Angus admitted.

  ‘Go on,’ Gina insisted.

  Angus glanced over his shoulder at Jason, to make sure he wasn’t being overheard, but Jason was a little too preoccupied with snogging Amy to be paying much attention to the rest of them.

  ‘Well,’ he began in a whisper, ‘if we can persuade two of you to come back to the party with us, everyone in the room has to give us ten pounds.’

  Niffy cackled. ‘I like it,’ she said. ‘And you’d split the money with us?’

  Angus had the decency to blush.

  ‘You weren’t going to tell us!’ Niffy was outraged and smacked Angus on the arm. ‘You scumbags!’

  She glanced over at her friend, whose jaw was just about wrapped round Jason’s.

  ‘So that’s why Jasey’s busy working on Amy, is it?’

  Angus nodded and took another swig of beer.

  ‘Do you know what I would really like?’ Jason’s warm beer breath was tickling Amy’s neck, making the hairs at the nape and all the way down her arm stand on end.

  ‘What?’ she whispered back.

  He put his lips right up against her ear so she could just make out the words: ‘I’d like you to show me your teddies.’

  Her teddies?

  It was kind of sweet. But did he really think she still cuddled up with a toy at night? Well, there was one small, special little bear she still kept, but not in her bed. Jimjim was in her top drawer, safely tucked in under her smalls. And even Jason wasn’t going t
o get a look at him.

  She turned and whispered in Jason’s ear, ‘But I haven’t got any.’

  He pulled back from her and, no longer whispering, asked in surprise, ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I haven’t got any teddies,’ she said.

  ‘Not teddies!’ Jason spluttered. ‘Titties! I want to see your titties.’

  ‘Oh!’

  And then she heard it.

  There was absolutely no mistaking the slow screech of the fire door being pulled open on its rusty old hinge.

  ‘Twenty-second warning!’ she shrieked at the room. ‘The Neb!’

  ‘The Neb!’ Gina repeated in horror.

  Immediately, Min cut the bedside light and they fled round the room in darkness, kicking the bag of bottles under a bed, pulling Angus and Jason towards the window.

  ‘Nine . . . eight . . .’ Amy was counting in a terrified whisper. ‘There isn’t time!’

  Angus, sensibly, dived under Min’s bed. Jason, to Gina’s astonishment, dived straight into hers.

  ‘Covers up!’ he ordered.

  There was no time to argue.

  She lay down with the duvet pulled up over them both, her heart drumming in her chest, because how would she ever be able to explain away being caught with a boy actually in her bed! Her cheeks were already burning with the shame and humiliation of it. The horrible rumours would follow her all the way home to California.

  Clearly Jason wasn’t worried, because as they lay in the darkness listening to the heavy footsteps in the corridor, waiting out the final seconds before Mrs Knebworth pulled open the dorm door to find them, his fingers found the gap between her pyjama bottoms and vest top. Then his warm hand began to ease across her stomach, his fingers boldly moving upwards. Gina wanted to elbow him or kick him hard but she was too terrified to move a muscle.

  His forefinger was, with the most delicate of touches, stroking her nipple, which immediately, disobediently, sprang to a point. Eyes scrunched up in the darkness, Gina had to register the other reason why she didn’t move, didn’t even breathe: because this felt as magical as imaginary fireworks going off against her skin.

  But this was Jason! Right thing, wrong person . . . very right . . . very. Very wrong.

  The door opened and there was no mistaking the voice which broke into the room. Gina didn’t even dare to breathe, let alone try to move Jason’s hand away.

  ‘What is going on?’ the Neb demanded in her most severe tone. ‘Just what is going on?’ she repeated.

  No one said anything, although Gina thought she could hear Min moan quietly with fright.

  ‘I have looked everywhere,’ Mrs Knebworth barked into the silence. ‘I have looked in every single place I can think of and every single one of my four pairs of glasses is missing. All four! It just can’t be a coincidence! I no longer care if it’s the middle of the night. I know this must have something to do with the fact that three people in this room have been gated for the weekend! Amy!’ she shouted. ‘Do something! Get me my glasses! I don’t care if you’re asleep or not.’

  There was still silence. No one wanted to make the slightest move in case the Neb reached for the light switch and everything was discovered.

  The silence went on, with Mrs Knebworth just standing there right in the doorway in a floor-length quilted dressing gown. Her hair was up on end and, silhouetted against the light from the corridor, she looked like some huge crazed opera diva.

  ‘Mrs Knebworth,’ came Min’s trembling voice finally, ‘I can get your glasses for you. D’you want to just give me a few minutes, and I’ll be right down with them.’

  There was a long pause during which Angus hugged the burning burp tight within his windpipe, Jason silently took a gentle squeeze of Gina’s breast and Amy prayed that she would not have to explain a word of this to her dad, who would never forgive her for getting kicked out of school over boys.

  ‘Very well then,’ Mrs Knebworth said finally. ‘I’ll wait for you downstairs, Asimina. But quick as you can. And I will deal with the rest of you in the morning.’

  The door shut, but it wasn’t until they heard her footsteps in the corridor and the screech of the fire door closing that anyone dared to make a move.

  Min opened one of her drawers in the dark and extracted the spectacles Amy had hidden there. Angus rolled out from under the bed and, to Amy’s horror, Jason reappeared from beneath Gina’s covers.

  Gina heard Amy’s gasp and immediately looked round at her and offered her a shrug of the shoulders. This wasn’t exactly her fault!

  ‘Go!’ Niffy instructed in a whisper, hauling open the window. ‘Go very quickly, while she’s still waiting for Min at the bottom of the stairs.’

  ‘What about the bet?’ Angus, one leg over the windowsill, wanted to know. ‘We could make five hundred quid – maybe more.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‘I THINK WE may have made a mistake coming here,’ Niffy admitted to Gina as they both sat under a table, hidden behind folds of tablecloth.

  ‘What?’ Gina moved in closer so that she could hear her friend above the pounding music threatening to shake the precious ornaments from the shelves in this ornate Georgian dining room.

  ‘This was a mistake!’ Niffy shouted back.

  ‘Oh! Now you tell me! What have I been saying for like the last hour and a half!’ Gina replied heatedly. ‘This was your idea.’

  And that was true. Niffy had said she wanted to sneak out to Charlie’s party for the money. Gina partly believed her, because Niffy never seemed to have any money, but she also suspected their risky night out had something to do with the fact that lately there was a little sparkle in Niffy’s eyes whenever Angus was around.

  Amy had flatly refused to come. The three of them had argued in angry whispers.

  ‘You think I’d go with her,’ Amy had stormed, pointing at Gina, ‘after what she’s done!’

  ‘What have I done?’ Gina had demanded, horrified.

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Amy had snapped back. ‘Jason was in your bed! Didn’t you notice?’

  This had totally riled Gina. ‘You think I wanted him there? He jumped in beside me! And you know what? The creep felt me up! That’s what he’s really like, for your information! A creep! Isn’t it about time you figured that out?’

  But Gina was embarrassed to find herself blushing because, creep or not, her skin still crackled and tingled at the thought of him.

  ‘It wasn’t Gina’s fault!’ Niffy had waded into the argument.

  This only made Amy even more furious. ‘Don’t you say anything! Don’t make it worse! How dare you be on her side!’ Then she’d flung herself dramatically onto her bed, pulled her duvet over her head and begun to sob.

  Partly to get away from the dorm and Amy’s sobbing, and partly because she was so grateful for Niffy’s support, Gina had recklessly decided to join her on the night-time escape from the boarding house.

  They’d both pulled on jeans, boots and tops, then snuck as quietly as possible down the fire escape.

  It was close to one o’clock in the morning, and they’d jogged for twenty minutes through sleepy streets until they reached the imposing row of townhouses. It wasn’t hard to pick out number 15 – blazing with light and noise – where Charlie was ‘at home’ for friends.

  The girls hadn’t even had to ring the bell; they’d just walked in through the open double door, past the soaring spiral staircase, and wandered through the three enormous ground-floor rooms of Charlie’s family home.

  Gina had never been in a house like this. Well, not a genuine one – some mock Californian versions maybe – but this place! Even with teenagers lounging on sofas, leaning against walls and sprawled across the floor, the house was breathtaking. Cornicing decorated the high ceilings like icing, brooding oil paintings of stags and ancestors loomed down from the dark walls, and everywhere Gina looked there was ornate antique stuff: Chinese vases, carved mahogany chairs, faded chintz upholstery, leather-bound books, and wid
e floorboards which bore the scuffs of generations of feet.

  Charlie must have been out of his mind to think he could get away with holding a party here. Look at the rug over there! It was some ancient Persian work of art. How was he going to get cigarette burns and wine stains out of that?

  They’d only seen Charlie for a moment. He’d rushed past them, not even noticing them, shouting out to no one in particular, ‘I did say no smoking in the drawing room. Come on now, there’s a garden at the back, for heaven’s sake!’

  But then they’d spotted Penny and friends and decided that a spell under the dining-room table would be more sensible than running the risk of bumping into them.

  ‘I don’t trust her,’ Niffy explained once they were safely under the genuine Jacobean oak table. ‘She could photograph us with her phone and somehow make sure it got back to the Neb.’

  After several minutes had passed, they began to realize how much fun it was to be the invisible guests at a party.

  ‘There’s Llewellyn admiring the Fotheringham family portraits,’ Niffy noticed.

  They watched as Penny’s boyfriend finished his tour of the art in the room, then headed over to the buffet table to heap a generous serving onto his plate. He picked up a fork, but paused and brought it up to his face to take a closer look. After he’d scrutinized it closely, he slipped it into his trouser pocket, then picked up several other pieces of cutlery and slipped those in too.

  ‘He’s stealing the silverware?’ Gina whispered to Niffy.

  ‘Hey! You! What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Charlie bounded up to him.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Llewellyn fired back in a voice no less posh, despite his comprehensive school education.

  ‘I saw you put our cutlery in your pocket. You’re stealing it, aren’t you? Even some grubby Burnside Academy boy like you can spot crested silver cutlery, can’t you?’

  Charlie, possibly exhausted by the stress of fag burns on the Aubusson, red wine on the staircase sisal and the four teenage girls who had trampolined straight through the heirloom four-poster upstairs, pushed Llewellyn hard on the shoulder so that he wobbled and nearly overbalanced.