New Girl by Carmen Reid

Author:Carmen Reid [Carmen Reid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCP
Published: 2008-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

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.

‘Are you drunk?!’ Selina wanted to know.

‘Oh . . . just a glug or two,’ Niffy replied.

‘Keep well back from Mrs K,’ Suzie warned. ‘She’s been leaning all over us trying to do a breathalyzer test.’

‘And where did you get to,’ Lucy asked Amy, ‘with that very handsome boy?’

‘Nothing happened,’ Amy insisted. ‘He just wanted to see the tennis courts.’

Everyone who heard this collapsed into giggles.

‘Didn’t I see him with—?’ Janey, who happened to be sitting next to Min, was cut off by a sharp dig in the ribs.

‘Who?’ Amy insisted.

‘And what about Angus?’ Niffy asked, hoping the prank of the night would make everyone forget about where Jason had been and what he might or might not have been up to. ‘I can’t believe I missed that!’ she went on. ‘So what exactly happened?’

It was Selina who filled Niffy in with the details, while everyone else listened in.

‘This big posh guy . . . Charlie something?’ Selina hesitated.

‘Fotheringham,’ Niffy prompted her. ‘I know him.’

‘Right, well . . . Charlie was being teased by Angus about something – I don’t know what it was, I didn’t hear that bit—’

‘Wasn’t it something to do with Min?’ Janey broke in.

‘No!’ Min insisted. She didn’t want anyone else to know about her horrible, embarrassing minutes with Charlie.

‘Will you just let Selina get on with this?’ Niffy insisted.

Min turned her attention to her toast and began to spread Marmite thickly on top of the melting butter.

‘Gross!’ Gina whispered: her one mouthful of the stuff had convinced her that everyone who ate it must be mad.

‘OK, Angus was teasing Charlie, Charlie started teasing Angus – something about he wasn’t a real Scotsman – the usual!’ Selina rolled her eyes, making her audience laugh – apart from Gina, who looked puzzled.

‘You’re only a real Scotsman if you don’t wear anything under your kilt,’ Lucy explained for her benefit, ‘apparently.’

‘Really?’ Gina looked horrified now. ‘No wonder so many guys came in tuxedos.’

‘So then?’ Niffy reminded Selina.

‘Yeah, so then Angus clears his throat and announces to the entire hall: “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a real Scotsman . . . ” and he lifts his kilt right up and twirls around!’

‘And . . .?’ Niffy asked.

‘He’s wearing a leopard-print g-string!’

Everyone listening to this story exploded into laughter.

‘Oh my Lord!’ was Niffy’s reaction. ‘He must have done it for a bet! He told me he had something planned for later.

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