Part 16 (1/2)

'Dermot?' Gina asked in astonishment.

'What am I doing here? I know . . .' Dermot began. 'And, more importantly, what am I doing here dressed like a big green idiot?' he joked.

'Dermot!' Gina repeated, still completely taken aback, but totally delighted to see him, even if he was dressed like a big green idiot.

'How did you get in?' she asked next. 'You can't have slipped past security looking like that!'

'That was the easy bit,' Dermot explained. 'I just followed some guys in and got ticked off a list. I think my name is now Olly Hughes, so make sure you call me that.'

'Why are you here, Olly?' was Gina's next question. The surprised delight at seeing him was wearing off rapidly and now all she could feel was embarra.s.sed confusion.

'I came to say sorry . . .' Dermot lifted up his Shrek mask just a little further so that Gina could see his face. 'I'm a total prat,' he added. 'I think the American translation of that is a jerk.'

'No . . .' Gina put her hand on his arm. 'No, really, it's fine. It's me. I, erm . . . is Scarlett really a story?' she had to ask.

'Yes!' Dermot replied, sounding almost exasperated. 'How do you know about Scarlett, anyway?'

'Erm . . . looking through your computer files and seeing it in your diary.' Gina's eyes were fixed on the large green Shrek hand; she didn't want to look into his rubbery face.

'That's quite impressive,' Shrek said finally. 'I feel as if I've been fully vetted. Do you want to phone my English teacher and ask him about the story I'm writing for my course? He knows what it's called.'

'Er, no, I think that'll be OK.'

'Well, we are quite a pair, aren't we?' Shrek asked. 'The jealous lady and the super-sensitive tramp.'

Gina didn't know what to say; she just slipped her hand into Shrek's and felt a happy and relieved smile flit across her face.

'Would you accept a peace offering?' Dermot said loudly against her ear, because the song currently belting from the sound system was making it hard to be heard.

'Yes!' Gina told him, wondering what was coming next.

He reached for the brown messenger bag that hung from his shoulder and opened up the flap. 'Look what I've made for you . . .' He held the bag open for Gina to see.

There was only a dim light in the room and they were both still being jostled by the crowd, but Gina could see something large and round carefully wrapped up with silver foil. But it was the smell from the bag that told her straight away what was in there.

'Pumpkin pie!' she exclaimed. 'You've made me a pumpkin pie? Dermot!'

'Olly,' he corrected her.

'How did you . . .? Where did you . . .? What made you . . .?' she began.

He was smiling broadly, very, very pleased with the success of his peace offering.

Gina stretched up, peeled back part of his mask and kissed him on the cheek. 'You're great!' she told him, right into his ear. 'You are totally great. I'm sorry.'

Dermot put a large green hand on her waist. 'I think we should boogie,' he said.

'No! Not until I get a piece of pie!' she insisted. 'Where in the h.e.l.l did you get the outfit anyway?' she wondered.

'Ah . . . well, we did this promotion at the cafe once. Look, just be grateful I didn't come as the donkey,' Dermot added.

Gina put her arm around him well, she tried to but the foam rubber padding was so thick she couldn't reach all the way.

'Let's go find a knife and a plate and then we'll boogie,' she promised.

They began to push their way towards the door when Gina spotted Amy striding into the room with a look of fury written right across her face.

Chapter Twenty-seven.

'What's wrong?' Gina asked Amy, just as soon as she and Dermot had made it through the pack of ghoulishly disguised bodies.

'Jason's left. He went into the Neb's study and had the nerve to take his flowers with him! I can't believe it! My dad was so right . . .'

Amy's face looked a little strange. It was pale and blotchy, as if she had been crying but had then used face powder to try and cover it up.

'I'm so sorry.' Gina took her hand from round Dermot's waist so that she could at least give Amy a sympathetic pat.

'You're with the jolly green giant,' Amy exclaimed, noticing for the first time that Gina was actually with the person swathed in green foam rubber. 'Who's in there?'

'Dermot,' Gina told her. 'But just for tonight he's going by the name of Olly Hughes.'

'Or Shrek, to his really close friends,' Amy couldn't help adding.

'h.e.l.lo,' Dermot said. With his horrible green mask back in place, he gave a small theatrical bow in Amy's direction. 'You're a funky cat,' he added. 'But where's Min?' he asked them. 'I've not seen her costume yet.'

'Min!' Gina remembered all of a sudden. Min!

Hadn't Charlie said she'd gone out into the garden? Gina, distracted by Dermot, hadn't thought to ask anyone else if they'd seen her.

'What's the problem? She'll be around here somewhere,' Amy said.

'No!' Gina began to feel strangely agitated. 'She's been really weird all evening. As if she's hiding something from us; as if she's got some sort of special secret from us . . . and Charlie said she'd gone out into the garden, which is totally weird. Why would she go into the garden? Amy, I just know we should look for her now.'

'This is Min we're talking about!' Amy broke in. 'Super-sensible, swotty Min. I'm going to look around this room,' she added calmly. 'You're going to look upstairs in the bathroom and our dorm, and Dermot's going to look in the corridor and the other party rooms. If we still can't find her, then we'll think about worrying. OK?'

It was a really sensible suggestion, so Gina quickly ran out of the room and up the stairs to carry out her part of the search.

Five minutes later the three of them met up again at the bottom of the stairs to admit that they'd drawn a blank.

'I can't believe this!' Gina said, now seriously worried. 'Something's not right.'

'Calm down,' Amy insisted.

'But did you ask people? Has anyone seen her?'

'No one I've spoken to has seen her since the party began,' Amy had to admit.