Contents
About the Book
Title Page
Meet the St Jude’s Girls …
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
About the Author
Also by Carmen Reid
Praise
Copyright
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
St Jude’s – stuffy, dreary, and dull? So wrong! This term the dorm girls are in for some serious drama!
Gina can’t wait for her friends and her Mom to visit. But she’s about to find out that mixing two sets of best friends is trouble.
Niffy’s brother wants to date Amy, but if that happens Niffy’s never going to talk to her again! Min wonders if she will ever have the nerve to kiss her first boyfriend. Meanwhile, Amy will do anything to look fabulous for the school play, but she may be going too far.
Can the girls sort out their problems before something really dramatic happens?
Praise for the Secrets at St Jude’s series:
‘Raucous, hilarious and heart-warming . . . from one of the UK’s bestselling authors of women’s fiction. Packed full of friendship, fun, entertainment, love and hope’ Lovereading
www.rbooks.co.uk
Also available by Carmen Reid
Secrets at St Jude’s: New Girl
Secrets at St Jude’s: Jealous Girl
For adult readers:
The Personal Shopper
Did the Earth Move?
Three in a Bed
Up All Night
How Was it For You?
Late Night Shopping
www.carmenreid.co.uk
‘MOM!’ GINA PETERSON exclaimed, holding her arms wide for a hug.
She’d already galloped down the many stairs from her dorm in the St Jude’s boarding house, hurtled through the long corridor and had just burst out into the entrance hall.
It had been seven whole weeks since she’d last seen her mother, and that had been back at the family home in California. It was so strange and exciting to be meeting her here, in Scotland, in Edinburgh, in the red and gold wallpapered entrance hall – half a world away from sunshine-soaked LA.
‘Gina!’ Lorelei Winkelmann exclaimed, and held out her long, slim arms in welcome. Mother and daughter hugged tightly, then let go, took a little step back and looked carefully at each other.
‘You’ve grown – your hair looks different – and it’s only been a few weeks!’ Lorelei said in surprise, studying the still tanned teenager with her straight blonde hair and heart-shaped face.
‘You look great,’ Gina told her mom with a grin. ‘How come you look so great when you’ve been on a plane, like, for ever?’
This was true. Lorelei’s hair was pulled up into an elegant chignon; her coat, scarf and high-heeled boots all looked chic, unruffled, uncrumpled.
Somehow, Gina immediately felt too slouchy, too casual and too under-dressed – a feeling that her mother could transmit to everyone standing within a half-mile radius.
As Lorelei shrugged the compliment off, Gina’s next excited question was: ‘Where are Paula and Maddison? They did come, didn’t they?! They are here . . .?’ She started feeling almost panicky.
Paula and Maddison were two of her best friends from California. Back when she was at regular day school in the US, these had been the girls she’d seen almost every single day – not just at school, but during the holidays, at weekends, even at night on their regular sleepovers. Along with Ria, the fourth member of the gang, these had once been her best friends in the whole world.
Now Paula and Maddison had flown all the way from California to see Gina, her new school and her new friends. Ria hadn’t been able to come on this trip because her sister was in hospital.
‘They’re in the cab,’ Gina’s mother told her. ‘I didn’t know if it would be OK for us all to come in and look around the boarding house.’
‘Of course it’s OK. I’ll go get them!’ Gina exclaimed.
She pulled open the front door and ran down the stone steps into the driveway.
In another half-hour or so, this driveway would be full of cars as parents arrived to collect their daughters for the half-term holiday. But Lorelei was early, so right now, only a black cab was parked there, engine idling.
The two girls in the back seat were already waving frantically as Gina ran down the steps towards them.
‘I can’t believe it!’ she called out in excitement. ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’
The cab door swung open, and Maddison stepped out: a tall, tanned Californian teenager, complete with pink jewelled braces on her strong white teeth.
The two girls screamed in delight and ran to hug one another. Then, from the other side of the cab, Paula emerged. She was shorter, strong and wiry-looking, with walnut-brown skin and a wild mane of crinkly, all-natural, black-girl hair.
If Gina was honest, in her heart of hearts, she would say that Paula was her best friend in the whole world. She loved Maddison, Ria and the girls she’d grown so close to at St Jude’s – but Paula was special. Paula had been there for her ever since kindergarten, when they’d both spent sunny mornings in the yard, teaching each other how to make the swings fly.
‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ Gina whispered into her friend’s ear as they flung their arms around each other.
‘Of course I’m here!’ Paula told her. ‘I am dying to see this place and meet your new friends and your boyfriend . . . Woo-hoo!’ She gave a little shriek of excitement. ‘He so better be part of our Edinburrow sightseeing tour, or else, Gina-wina, I am getting straight back on that plane and going home!’
‘No way!’ Maddison interrupted. ‘At least give them time to change the in-flight movies. If I have to sit through another Anne Hathaway moment, I’m gonna die!’
‘Are we coming in?’ Paula asked. ‘Shall I pay the fare?’
‘Yeah, but Mom will pay you back,’ Gina insisted. ‘You’re definitely coming in – I have to show you round. Plus, I think my mom is desperate to see round her old boarding house – not that it’s changed much since she was here, believe me – and the girls in my dorm can’t wait to meet you.’
‘Your dorm?’ Paula repeated. ‘It is just so weird that you sleep in a dorm every night, Gina. I can’t imagine it. So remind me: you share with Amy, Min and . . . Niffy?’ she asked uncertainly.
Gina nodded. ‘Yeah, they’re all really, really nice. You’re going to love them. C’mon!’
‘Let me get my camera,’ Maddison said, unzipping her handbag. Within seconds, she had her slick, silvery gadget out and was snapping Paula and Gina on the front steps of the boarding house.
‘That’s enough!’ Gina insisted. ‘Let’s go in.’
As they opened the front door, they saw that Lorelei was still in the entrance hall, talking to the formidable-looking housemistress.
Mrs Knebworth, known to all the girls, behind her back, as ‘the Neb’, was the kind of proper, solid, more than slightly fierce woman of fifty-something who made girls nervous even when they hadn’t done anything wrong; even when they hadn’t even thought of doing anything wrong. It was the habit she had of fixing her steely blue eyes on you – as if she was trying to catch you out; trying, somehow, to read your guilty thoughts.
‘Take a look at this place!’ Lorelei exclaimed as the girls came in. ‘I can’t believe how well I remember it.’
‘Well, we’ve obviously redecorated over the years, Ms Winkelmann, but maybe always in similar shades. Feel free to take a look round. Gina, you’ll be tour guide for your Californian friends, won’t you?’ Mrs Knebworth said in her firm, no-nonsense Edinburgh voice.
Maddison risked a reply: ‘Yeah, Gina’ – she nudged her friend – ‘and after we see round here we want to see all round Edinboro. It looks so old and so way cool.’
‘Quite. But it’s Edinburrrrragh,’ the Neb couldn’t help correcting Maddison. She sounded as if she was clearing her throat.
Gina and Maddison exchanged a glance. Maddison’s said: Who is this strange lady?
Gina, with a twitch of her eyebrows, hoped she was conveying: Yes, I know, but I have to put up with her on a daily basis, so just let it go.
‘Gina’s really enjoying her second term at St Jude’s, I believe,’ the Neb said with a satisfied smile. ‘She’s settled in now and getting on very well at school.’
‘That’s great, Gina,’ Lorelei replied, putting her arm around Gina’s shoulders. ‘I can’t wait to meet your new friends.’
‘Cool!’ Paula chipped in. ‘Plus we are all desperate to meet your new guy, Gina.’
Oh.Good.Grief! Gina thought to herself. Did Paula have to mention him now? In front of the housemistress? This was about to cause a major headache.
‘Aha!’ Mrs Knebworth began, raising her eyebrows. ‘You don’t need to worry, Ms Winkelmann. I’ve met Oliver Hughes and he is a charming young man from St Lennox’s. I’m sure you remember the St Lennox boys from your time at St Jude’s . . .?’
‘Well, yes,’ Lorelei began, a look of confusion on her face, ‘but I thought . . .’
Gina’s boyfriend was indeed charming, but he wasn’t called Oliver Hughes, nor did he attend the posh and private St Lennox’s. He was called Dermot O’Hagan, he went to Burnside Academy, a comprehensive, and he worked in his dad’s café at the weekends – which is how Gina had got to know him.
But due to very complicated events at the Halloween party the previous night . . . Well, in a nutshell, the Neb had met Dermot but she thought he was a St Lennox boy called Oliver Hughes.
Gina had no idea how to unravel this situation. She couldn’t just say: I know his name’s Oliver Hughes, but actually he prefers to be called Dermot O’Hagan – it’s sort of like a nickname. And yes, I know he said he went to St Lennox’s, but that was just a bit of a joke really.
No. She didn’t think that would work.
‘I thought there was some boy you were seeing called Dermot, Gina? And he works in a café?’ Lorelei asked.
Gina couldn’t think of anything helpful to say. She just felt a blush of meltdown proportions rushing up her face.
‘Mrs Knebworth’ – Lorelei threw an accusing look at the housemistress – ‘just what is Gina getting up to over here?’
‘A café?’ the Neb spluttered.
‘Can I try and explain?’ Gina asked nervously.
Maddison held up her camera and took a picture of Mrs Knebworth’s face. She couldn’t help it – she’d never seen anyone turn purple like that before.
‘OH MY GOODNESS! Look at this place!’ Gina’s mother kept repeating over and over again as she was led through the boarding house. ‘Look at the dining room! It’s just the way I remember it!’ she exclaimed as she walked into the large room with its Victorian bay window and dark marble fireplace.
The long wooden tables and benches were bare – no meals were going to be served here for five days. All eighty boarders were either heading home or to friends’ houses for the half-term holiday.
The Upper Fifth sitting room and the open-plan study where all the girls had a desk were both judged to be ‘almost exactly the same’ by Lorelei. But what really startled her was the quaint laundry and drying rooms.
‘Look at those!’ she cried, pointing at the ancient porcelain double sinks, all worn and cracked by the washing efforts of thousands and thousands of girls.
It had never occurred to Gina before, as she’d swirled her bras around the sinks, or hung up her wet washing in the boiler rooms fitted with ancient wooden shelves and pulleys, that this was all exactly as it had been twenty-six years ago when her own mom was at school here.
‘Ooooh . . .’ Maddison rolled her eyes, took a quick snap, and asked in horror, ‘Do you have to wash everything by hand, Gina? In these old sinks?’
‘No, there are washing machines too,’ Gina told her.
‘My goodness, Gina, how do you cope?’ Lorelei wondered. ‘At home Dominique does everything for you.’
‘And you!’ Gina retorted. ‘It isn’t such a big deal,’ she added. ‘My friends showed me what to do.’
Apparently girls who were used to maids and didn’t know how to deal with their laundry were not so unusual at St Jude’s.
I am the queen of washing wool, Gina remembered Niffy telling her. Bring your jumpers to me and I will show you what to do with them. Bet you’ve never wrapped anything in a towel and walloped it against the floor before!
But then Niffy could turn anything into a game or a prank or fun of one kind or another. It was her talent. Because her mother wasn’t well, Niffy had missed the first half of term, but she was upstairs right now; she’d come to take Amy home with her for half term because Amy’s dad was on business abroad.
‘C’mon – you must have enough photos of sinks by now, Maddison,’ Gina teased. ‘Let’s go upstairs.’
She watched as Lorelei, Maddison and Paula walked ahead of her along the corridor leading to the staircase. They seemed so bright in their Californian clothes. Maddison’s jeans were lemon yellow, Paula’s vivid green. Both girls wore vibrant cotton jumpers. Cotton! As if cotton was going to be enough to keep out the damp chill of November in Edinburgh!
Gina could almost see the boarding house through their eyes: she remembered how dark and gloomy and crustily old-fashioned it had seemed to her when she first arrived. She’d come for the summer term, all tanned and dazzled with Californian sunshine. It had taken time to adjust to the grey dampness of a Scottish May. She’d come at first because her mother, fed up with Gina’s low grades and bad attitude, had made her. She’d come back this term because she’d wanted to. For Gina, St Jude’s was so different, so adventurous and new – plus she really loved her new friends and hoped her old friends were going to love them too.
‘Look at the stair rail!’ Maddison exclaimed, with her hand on the ornate wooden banister. ‘It’s sooooo old.’ Snap. She took another picture.
‘Is it always so dark up here?’ Paula wanted to know as they took the staircase up and up to the second-floor bedrooms; the little ones tucked up in the attic of the cavernous Victorian house.
‘Yeah, compared to back home, everything seems much darker and greyer,’ Gina had to admit. ‘But you get used to it. When the weather’s bad, dark rooms feel cosy, I guess.’
‘Cosy?’ Maddison asked – she didn’t think she’d heard the word before.
‘Warm,’ Gina explained. ‘Nesty.’
‘So who do you share a room with?’ Lorelei asked, needing a reminder.
‘OK,’ Gina said, a little exasperated. ‘Once again . . . try and take it in this time, Mom.’
‘Sorry,’ Lorelei said, ‘but I’m busy. I have to remember a lot of stuff.’
But that just made it worse; that made it sound like: I have to remember so many other things, I can’t be expected to remember the names of your closest friends in Scotland.
‘There’s Amy,’ Gina began. ‘She’s really friendly and pretty, and she’s from Glasgow in Scotland. She lives there with her dad – when she’s not here, obviously.’
‘So no mom at home?’ Lorelei asked.
‘No,’ Gina said, and left it there. It was too soon to go into the story of how Amy’s parents were teenagers when she arrived, and how her dad and her grandparents brought her up . . . Then there was the interesting fact that Amy’s dad now had a boyfriend.
‘Then there’s Min,’ Gina went on. ‘She’s Asian, she has this big family – four little brothers and sisters – and they all live in this huge house, close to the beach in Durban.’
‘Where’s that?’ Maddison asked.
‘South Africa.’
‘An Asian girl from South Africa? That’s complicated,’ Paula added.
Gina smiled. ‘Get used to it! There are people from all over the world here. Take me: I’m from California, but my mum’s half Scottish and half German; I have a stepdad and a half-brother – that’s complicated too!’
‘Suppose,’ Paula had to admit.
‘Min’s really, really nice,’ Gina continued, ‘and she’s sooo clever. Her parents are both doctors and they want her to be a doctor too.’
Again, it seemed too soon to tell them that Min always fainted at the sight of blood and was planning on going into medical research instead.
‘Then there’s Niffy,’ Maddison chipped in as they took the final, narrow flight of stairs. ‘I always remember her name.’
Gina told them the joke: ‘She’s called Niffy because her real name’s Luella and she thinks it stinks. She’s great. She’s not been here this term – she stayed at home because her mom isn’t well. Amy’s going to visit with her for half-term, and then I think Niffy’s coming back to school because her mom’s getting better.’
By now, Gina’s hand was on the doorknob of her dorm. She looked at the faces of the three people who’d travelled all this way to see her, her new school and her new friends. It was kind of exciting to get these two groups of people together.
Pushing open the door, she announced: ‘Ta-dah.’
‘Hi!’
‘Come on in . . .’
‘Welcome to the Iris dorm,’ the voices inside the room chorused.
The Californians squeezed themselves through into the cramped room.
Three beds, three chests of drawers and a wardrobe had been shoe-horned into the room, leaving hardly any floor space for anything else. If Niffy was coming back after half-term, a bunk bed would have to be installed.
Maddison’s camera flashed several times, making the dorm girls blink with surprise.
‘Whoa!’ Amy said, and held her hand up in front of her face. She hated having her photo taken – well, unless she’d spent hours arranging her hair and make-up beforehand.
Hurried, last-minute packing was in progress: Amy’s suitcase was wide open on her bed as she tried to decide which of her many wonderful outfits should come with her to Niffy’s threadbare ancestral home, Blacklough Hall.
Lorelei, Maddison and Ria shook hands with everyone and said friendly hellos.
‘What lovely clothes!’ Paula exclaimed as she cast a practised eye over the expensive jeans, cute tops and label-laden little skirts Amy had spread out over her bed.
‘Thanks!’ Amy replied. ‘Gina says there are some great shops in California. I must come and visit some time.’
‘Definitely!’ Gina said, thrilled at the idea.
Lorelei was shaking Niffy’s hand. She wouldn’t be shaking it quite so hard, or smiling in quite such a friendly way, thought Gina, if she knew that this was the girl who’d helped Gina break into the school records office last term to find out all about her mother’s time at St Jude’s.
‘Hi, Ms Winkelmann, it’s so nice to finally meet you,’ Amy gushed. ‘I’m sorry about the mess in here. It’s just, I’m going to Niffy’s place – the coldest house in the known universe – so I have to take a lot of clothes.’
‘Not that that’s going to keep you very warm,’ Niffy pointed out, picking up a vibrant pink mini-dress and holding it against her tall, long-limbed frame.
‘It’s a layer,’ Amy insisted. ‘Aren’t you supposed to wear lots of layers in sub-zero temperatures?’
‘It’s not that bad at Blacklough!’ Niffy protested.
Amy looked up, caught Gina’s eye and gave a little laugh. ‘Yes it is! It is pure, dead frrrrreezing!’ she insisted, rolling her rs for effect. ‘Back me up here – Gina? Min?’
‘It is quite cold, yes, I would have to agree, but maybe because we’re not used to it. We’re not outdoorsy types like you, Niffy,’ Min said diplomatically, brushing through her waist-length hair and preparing to tie it in a plait for her auntie’s approval.
‘I have loads and loads of jumpers at home, plus jackets and coats, so you don’t need to worry,’ Niffy said, earning herself a roll of Amy’s eyes.
Amy was a strictly designer-label girl. She was only fifteen but she already had account cards for all the smartest shops in both Edinburgh and her home town, Glasgow. Her jeans, her tops, her jackets, her dresses, her shoes, her handbags – in fact just about every single item she owned, apart from her school uniform – had an impressive, expensive label attached. The idea of allowing one of Niffy’s great hairy, smelly, horsy jumpers or vile, damp wax jackets to even come in contact with her was just . . . Ugh! Enough to make her shudder.
‘What are your plans for half term?’ Min asked, politely turning to the visitors.
‘Well, we’re going to stay in Edinburgh for a couple of days,’ Lorelei replied. ‘Do some sightseeing and some shopping. Then we’re going to make a trip to one of the little islands off the West Coast.’
‘Very nice,’ Amy said. ‘So, you must be Maddison?’ she asked, looking at Paula.
‘No!’ Paula seemed slightly taken aback. ‘I’m Paula, this is Maddison. People don’t usually confuse us – it’s not like we look the same. I mean, she’s blonde and I’m black!’
‘Sorry,’ Amy said. ‘And you were both at school with Gina back in the States?’
‘Yeah, Gina and I have known each other since kindergarten. Hasn’t she told you all about us?’ Paula asked, sounding hurt. ‘Because there’s nothing about Gina that we can’t tell you. We just heard all about your Halloween party and Dermot sneaking in under the name of Oliver Hughes – your housemistress wasn’t too pleased to find out about that.’
‘I think Halloween’s a bigger deal in the States though,’ Maddison chipped in. ‘We were so sorry to miss our school’s party this year. Everyone dresses up—’
‘Everyone dressed up for our party,’ Amy pointed out.
‘Yeah, but we have these amazing carved pumpkins all the way up the road to the school—’
‘We had pumpkin lanterns on the boarding-house steps—’ Niffy countered.
‘And we have all this Halloween candy – mountains of it – and people make pumpkin pie and it’s a really big deal.’ Maddison was determined to make her point.
‘Bet you didn’t have liquorice treats shaped like real beetles,’ Niffy added.
‘Oh, they were invented in the States years ago,’ came the breezy reply.
‘I thought three of your friends were coming over?’ Niffy said to Gina.
‘Ria couldn’t come,’ Paula answered. ‘Her sister is sick. An ED – it’s serious, so Ria doesn’t want to leave her family right now. Didn’t Gina tell you?’
Although Niffy, Amy and Min would have liked to ask what an ED was, the pleased look on Paula’s face, the happy ‘I-know-something-you-don’t-know’ expression put them off.
It also inspired Amy to enquire, ‘Have you heard about the play Gina’s written? It’s going to be performed at school later this term.’
‘No,’ Lorelei replied. ‘Gina, how fantastic! You should have told us—’
‘I thought I had – I know I meant to,’ Gina added quickly. She didn’t want anyone to feel left out or hurt.
‘We’ve known all about the play for weeks,’ Amy said. Then, sneakily, she added, ‘It’s called Seeing Scarlett, and it’s based on something that happened to Gina.’
‘Really?’ Lorelei wasn’t the only one who looked surprised to have heard nothing about this.
But Paula quickly countered, ‘Of course, we know that Gina’s a really good writer. We’ve known her for sooooo long – we learned to read and write together. We’ve been at swim camp together every summer since we were—’
‘Ten,’ Maddison was quick to point out.
‘That’s nice,’ Amy said coolly. ‘But I feel I’ve got to know Gina really well too, and because we’re together all day and every weekend—’
‘We have a great time together,’ Niffy chipped in. ‘I suppose that’s why you decided to stay on, Gina. You were only supposed to come to St Jude’s for a term, weren’t you?’
There was an awkward silence before Lorelei replied, ‘I was very pleased with how well Gina was getting on at school here – but, yes, Gina’s the one who wanted to come back.’
‘There are so many things I miss about California though, especially you guys,’ Gina quickly told Maddison and Paula. ‘It’s so amazing you’ve come over!’
She hoped this would ease the growing sense of tension in the room. Why were her friends all trying to prove they knew her the best?
‘Gina, are you going to let your mum and your friends meet Dermot?’ Amy underlined that she was Gina’s really good friend, who knew all about Dermot.
‘Oh, I hope so.’ Paula turned to Gina with a smile. ‘We’ve heard so much about Dermot – haven’t we, Maddison?’
‘Well . . . we’ll see,’ Lorelei answered. She caught Gina’s eye and gave her a slightly disapproving look.
‘Dermot’s lovely,’ Niffy told them.
‘We have to meet him,’ Maddison pleaded. ‘C’mon, Ms Winkelmann. We’ve got to get to know Gina’s guy!’
‘I’m not sure if we’re going to have time for that. I have a pretty big schedule planned,’ Lorelei replied. ‘Are you all packed up to come to the hotel with us, Gina?’
‘That would be such a shame,’ Amy couldn’t resist adding. ‘You won’t get to know him as well as we do.’
‘We have to!’ Maddison insisted.
Gina felt as if she was being pushed and pulled from one side of the room to the other: the Californians on one side, the Iris dorm girls on the other. She was in a tug of war between them.
Stop it! she wanted to shout out. She liked all these girls. No, she loved them. They had to stop this point-scoring about who knew her best.
‘Ms W,’ Paula began firmly, ‘if you don’t let us meet Dermot, we’re not setting foot on the boat that’s going to take us out to your cute little island.’
ONCE GINA WAS in the taxi, she found she was able to focus much better on her mother and the two friends who’d all made such a long journey to see her.
As the grey stone terraces of Georgian Edinburgh whizzed by, she was no longer worrying about whether Niffy’s mum was going to be OK, or if Amy was going to be warm enough at Blacklough Hall, or if Min was going to survive an entire half term at her auntie’s in Leicester – the most boring family I’ve ever met, trust me.
No, now she found herself slipping back into Californian Gina. Her accent seemed to grow stronger and more twangy with every word, and suddenly she wanted to know all about what was going on back home.
How was her brother, Menzie? How was Mick, her stepdad? What was all the latest news from her old school?
‘You will never guess who Ria is seeing now . . .’ Maddison was telling her, and Gina found herself dying to know.
‘Lewis Bayer! Do you remember him?’ Maddison revealed.
‘Of course! Of course I remember him. No way!’ Gina replied. ‘And what’s her sister got? What’s an ED?’ she asked.
‘An eating disorder,’ Paula told her. ‘Megan’s really underweight and really sick. They won’t let her out of the hospital until she weighs more.’
‘Oh my goodness! How awful.’ Gina resolved to call Ria just as soon as she could.
Lorelei wasn’t saying anything, but she was listening, which struck Gina as unusual. Normally her mom could always find something else to be doing. She hated to sit still, to ‘waste time’. Sitting down just to talk wasn’t something she did often.
But here she was with her head turned towards them, listening. Her brand-new BlackBerry phone – so she could keep in touch with everything going on back at the office – was in her handbag, not in her hands.
Ah . . . but of course! Gina realized. It was still the small hours of the morning in California, so even Lorelei probably didn’t have any mail in her inbox just yet.
‘I suppose you’d better give Dermot a call then,’ Lorelei said all of a sudden, making Gina start.
‘Wha . . .?’ she began.
‘Yeah.’ Lorelei smiled encouragingly. ‘Not just because of Paula’s threats. If he’s important to you, then I’d like to meet him.’
Paula and Maddison began to whoop and whistle their encouragement.
‘Well, I guess . . . I mean . . . I can try . . . ’ Gina offered shyly. ‘Not here,’ she added quickly. ‘Not in front of you guys!’
‘Here’s our hotel,’ Lorelei said, glancing out of the window just as the taxi swooped into the entrance driveway.
Before she’d even stepped out of the cab, Gina could see that it was a gorgeous hotel – but then she had expected nothing less. Her mother and stepfather worked very hard running their own software company. As a result of their efforts they were unmistakably rich. Home in California was a wonderful modern mansion with huge plate-glass windows, marble floors, a full-sized pool and staff. Obviously Lorelei wasn’t going to slum it when she went on holiday. In fact, she liked to live even more luxuriously whenever they went away. So Gina knew this big, imposing building was going to be a full-on five-star residence with all the trimmings.
Through the glittering entrance hall they went, and into a shiny lift where a doorman in top hat and tails pressed the button for them.
On the first floor, at the end of a plushly carpeted corridor, they found their rooms.
‘Wow!’ Gina gasped, as she opened the door. It wasn’t just the chandeliers or the three generous beds draped with velvet and satin; it was the stunning view out over the rooftops of Edinburgh.
She loved the shiny slate roofs, the crooked chimney pots and higgledy-piggledy rows of houses stretching all the way out to the imposing set of hills which framed the city in the distance. She loved the fact that people had been standing in rooms like this looking out at this view for hundreds of years. Sure, there had been a few changes here and there, but this town was so old, it humbled you.
‘The girls’ dorm,’ Lorelei explained. ‘Is that going to be OK?’
‘Yeah!’ all three friends agreed.
‘I’ll be next door,’ she told them. ‘There might be some work I’ll need to catch up with late at night. I have a new personal assistant and I don’t know if she’s shaping up as well as I’d hoped.’
‘Thanks, Mom,’ Gina said. She’d thought maybe she’d be sharing with her mother, but she was pleased Lorelei had understood that this arrangement was going to work much better. She, Paula and Maddison had so much late-night catching up of their own to do.
‘So what are we going to do today?’ Gina wondered out loud as she set her bag down on the thick blue carpet.