Secrets at St Jude's: New Girl by Carmen Reid

. no matter. He would look over, see 93
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    her, smile and say, ‘Amy’ – yes, he’d remember her name – ‘hello there! You’re looking great. Come over and join me.’
    Instead, as Amy emerged from the toilet, all fragrant and fluffy, rounded the corner into the café and scanned the sunny room in hope, she heard a nasty mocking voice call out, ‘Oh look! Someone’s let the boarders out! Are you sure you’ve got time for a coffee, girls? You don’t want to miss the bus and be late back.’
    Penny revolting-Boswell-totally-revolting-Hackett.
    Complete with Piggy and Weasel and two boys, one of which had to be Penny’s state school boyfriend, Llewellyn.
    Amy had a split second to decide which would be worse: turning and leaving, so allowing Penny to laugh and feel she had the upper hand; or staying here and having to endure the snide glances and even snider remarks from the other side of the room.
    ‘Table for three,’ Amy told the waitress defiantly. ‘As far away from the window as you can, please.’
    ‘He’s not here, you know,’ Penny sang out as they walked past her table.
    Amy turned her head and glared.
    ‘Been spending some of Daddy’s cash?’ came the 94
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    sneer. ‘Dressing up later, are you? Or won’t you be allowed out again?’
    ‘Come on, Amy.’ Niffy ushered her along, giving Penny just the merest snooty nod of acknowledgement.
    ‘A little overdressed for the cinema, aren’t we?’ the Neb commented as Amy, Niffy, Min and Gina came into her sitting room to sign out for the evening, wearing a colourful mix of denims, bright skirts and tops, strappy shoes, make-up, latest hairstyles and room-filling perfumes. Gina was in her new jeans, Amy her new top, and both of them had worked hard to dress up, make up and generally style the more fashion-challenged Niffy and Min.
    ‘It’s a natural reaction to wearing sludge-green all week,’ was Amy’s defence.
    ‘So what are you going to see? And where? And will you be back by ten thirty and not one moment later?
    In a taxi?’ the Neb wanted to know.
    Mrs Knebworth was in her armchair, still neatly clad in a tweed skirt and satin blouse. She made no dressing-down concessions to the weekend. Some of the boarders staying in tonight were nestled on sofas and floor cushions all around her because they were 95
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    actually going to watch a film with her . Just the thought made Amy and Niffy’s toes curl.
    Min was primed to answer. She’d done the Internet research: she knew the times, the cinema, the in-depth on-line reviews of the film they weren’t going to see tonight. They had something much more interesting planned instead, but going out on café crawls was banned, as the Neb suspected, quite rightly, that this might lead to the two evils it was her job to guard the girls against: boys and drinking .
    ‘ The Girlfriend Project , up at Tollcross,’ Min informed her. ‘And yes, we’ll get a taxi there and a taxi back.’
    When their cab pulled up at the boarding house, the girls climbed in, then passed the fifteen-minute journey twitching and twittering.
    ‘Is my hair OK?’ Amy wanted to know, running her hands over it for the hundredth time.
    ‘Fine,’ Niffy told her, but although Niffy had been her best friend since their first day at St Jude’s, Amy looked to Gina for expert reassurance.
    Gina fished a wide-toothed comb out of her bag and smoothed over the back of Amy’s long locks.
    Min held her feet up to examine the red mid-heels 96
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    she’d borrowed from Amy for the night. ‘They’re lovely but we can’t walk too far, OK?’
    Niffy, who’d finished her outfit off with long, flat brown boots, just snorted at this.
    The excitement in the air was infectious. Gina could feel a little