Part 10 (1/2)

Chapter Eighteen.

On Monday evening, just as Min was reaching over to switch off her bedside light and plunge Iris dorm into darkness, she voiced the question that everyone else had been thinking about all evening: 'Do you think Niffy got on OK at school today?'

'Dunno,' Gina and Amy replied together.

'No one else has heard from her then?'

'No,' they answered together again.

'Well . . . we'll just have to wait and see,' Min said, and then, with a click, it was dark.

Gina closed her eyes, but after a few minutes she opened them again and listened to the sounds around her.

Amy was rustling about in her bed, pulling the duvet tightly around her and snuggling down into her favourite sleeping position. Min was quiet as a mouse, as usual, but outside in the brightly lit corridor Gina could hear the older girls, who didn't have to be in bed yet, coming and going, making the stiff hinges of the fire doors creak.

Like most of the other boarders, Gina had got used to the sounds of the boarding house and could usually fall asleep quickly, tuning them out. But tonight her mind seemed to be restlessly turning from one subject to the next and she had the feeling that it wasn't going to be so easy to sleep.

She thought about her little brother. In a few days' time it would be Menzie's birthday, and although she'd bought him a present, wrapped and parcelled it up and sent it to the States in plenty of time, she wasn't going to be there. This was the first birthday of her brother's that she had ever missed. That made her think of the day he'd come home from the hospital, in her stepdad's arms so that her mother could swoop down, scoop Gina up and soothe her p.r.i.c.kling jealousy with the words: 'Congratulations, Gina! You're a sister. You're a beautiful big sister and your baby brother is going to love you.'

It didn't matter that her mum and her three Californian school friends would be coming over to Scotland to see her soon; Gina could suddenly feel tears forming behind her eyes, but she quickly squeezed them away, not wanting anyone to hear her cry. And that was when Dermot came into her mind, without her even asking him to . . . or so it seemed.

They hadn't even fallen out over Scarlett, whoever she was. They'd fallen out over Charlie the idiot Fotheringham and his stupid, stupid, nasty little remarks. Well, fine. Dermot was probably with Scarlett now, and it was just as well that Gina had untangled herself from him as quickly as possible. Two fat tears fell silently from the corners of her eyes, slid down the sides of her face and landed on the scratchy white cotton of the boarding-house pillowcase.

When she finally fell asleep, Gina tossed and turned, troubled by vivid dreams of a techno-coloured California, then found herself wide awake in the silent darkness.

The winking red numbers of her alarm clock showed that it was 1.56 a.m. Despite the dark, Gina could just make out Min quietly getting up and heading out of the room, pulling the door shut noiselessly behind her. Five minutes later and Min still hadn't come back in. After fifteen minutes Gina was beginning to worry. Was Min sleepwalking? She put on her dressing gown and slippers and decided to go and investigate.

First of all Gina checked the bathroom, but there was no one in there. Then it occurred to her that there was only one place in the boarding house where Min was truly comfortable and at home; one place where she liked to spend the majority of her waking hours: the study. If Min was sleepwalking, then she would definitely sleepwalk all the way down there.

As quietly as she could, Gina hurried down the stairs and along the silent corridors. As she approached the large double doors, she saw a sliver of light underneath them, but still, she made her way in quietly.

A single small lamp had been switched on over one of the computer desks; the only sound was the quiet tippity-tap of fast typing. Gina could see her friend's dark head bent over one of the computer keyboards. But Min was so busy typing, she hadn't even heard her come into the room.

So Gina began to walk towards her desk. She didn't mean to give Min a fright, but Min was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't notice Gina until she was hovering right behind her.

'Hi,' Gina said quietly.

'Aaargh!' Min gave a small shriek in response.

'So is this the secret of your amazing new biology grades?'

'Oh no!' was Min's response. 'You saw!' She scrambled with her mouse to close down the file she had been working on.

Gina had only meant that she'd caught Min studying in the middle of the night, but now that Min was acting all guilty and as if she'd seen something secret, out of burning curiosity she had to play along.

'So how long's this been going on?' she asked without the slightest idea what she was talking about.

'A few weeks . . .' Min confessed, blus.h.i.+ng furiously. 'Well, about five weeks. We've not met yet, but his emails are lovely and they've really helped me so much.'

Gina was so surprised by this revelation she could hardly form her next question. His emails are lovely . . . What was Min talking about?

'Who is he?' she asked, astonished.

'He's this nice guy I think he's a student. He knows loads and loads about biology and, more importantly, he's into NLP and he's giving me info on techniques to overcome my squeamishness.'

'What's NLP?' Gina was crouching down beside her friend now, amazed to see her looking so alert and excited at two in the morning.

'Neuro-linguistic programming,' came the answer.

'OK, never mind that. Tell me about the guy?' Gina asked.

'Well, he calls himself Gecko and I call myself Raven we've not even done real names yet.'

'Min, this is scaring me,' Gina confessed. 'Internet chat rooms, cyber dates . . . I take it you know how many weirdos are out there?'

'Don't be silly! We're just email-pals, the way people used to have pen-pals. But he seems so nice. I'd really like to meet him in person.'

'Min' Gina sounded very serious 'if you arrange to meet this guy, you have to do it in a very public place and at least one of us has to come with you. It's the Internet, Min!' she warned her. 'There are a lot of strange people online.'

'Gina!' Min laughed. 'He's a science geek. We got chatting through an online science club.'

'Min, promise me . . .' Gina warned.

'I'll promise you if you'll promise me not to tell Amy anything about this,' Min countered.

'Why not? She'll be happy for you.'

'No! She'll tease me she'll go on about my geeky Gecko boyfriend, and it's not like that!' Min insisted. 'We're just science buddies, chatting about exam problems and my anxieties about dissected frogs.'

'Well, OK,' Gina agreed, only because she knew Min was totally right. If Amy knew anything about this, she'd be like a dog with a bone.

'Why do you have to email him in the middle of the night though?' she wondered.

'It's the only time I can be sure of getting online at the same time as him,' Min answered.

'But what about sleep?'

'Oh . . . we only do this two or three times a week.'

'Two or three times a week?' Gina was astonished. 'Min, you must be exhausted!'

Min looked up at her with a confidential smile. 'I find that the back row of Miss Ballantyne's history cla.s.s is the ideal place for a catch-up snooze.'

'Come on,' Gina instructed. 'Call the science club meeting to an end and let's get to bed.'

It didn't escape her notice that Min's email ended with a lot of 'x's. This was all a very interesting development and Gina had no idea how she was going to keep it a secret.