Part 17 (1/2)

At that, Amy found her courage. Lifting up her hockey stick, she began to sprint towards the figures, letting out a very scary, throaty, Glaswegian-sounding 'Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!'

Gina, Dermot and the sixth formers followed her lead. The man let go of Min as soon as he saw the group heading towards him, sticks at the ready. He turned and began to run away.

'Aaaaaaaaargh! a.r.s.ehole!' Amy screamed, charging on, furious at the thought of this louse, this lowlife, getting away from them.

'You look after Min!' Dermot was now outrunning Gina and Amy. 'We'll get him.'

So he, Helen and Milly raced across the playing field after the fleeing man while Amy and Gina ran towards Min.

Only when they were twenty metres away did they realize that it wasn't her at all. There, dressed in a clingy black dress and a gothy black wig, holding a wine bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other, was a very annoyed-looking Mel.

'What the h.e.l.l was all that about?' she demanded.

'Mel, you stupid tart!' Amy stormed.

'Oh, I'm the stupid tart! You've just frightened the living daylights out of Jono. I don't know where the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l he's off to. Why are two jolly hockey sticks and a Shrek chasing after him? Hmm? What the h.e.l.l is going on?'

'Oh, shut up, you stupid cow.' Amy was so angry and so worried, she really didn't have a second to be polite to anyone, especially Miss Melanie Where-are-my- knickers!

'We've lost Min,' Gina explained, on the verge of tears. 'We think she's out here with some stalker she's met on the Internet.'

'What?' Mel sounded incredulous. 'Min? I saw her about ten minutes ago. She was on a bench, over there' she pointed towards the main school building 'beside the school, chatting to some boy . . . A stalker?' She sounded almost impressed. 'He looked pretty harmless to me but then you never can tell.'

Without another word Amy and Gina turned and began to run towards the main school building. As they rounded the corner where three benches overlooked the tennis courts, they immediately caught sight of the sleek dark head of their friend. She was deep in conversation with a boy!

Amy and Gina had almost reached the bench before Min and her friend turned towards them in surprise.

'Min!' Amy shrieked. 'We've been frantic!'

The boy stood up and looked at them nervously.

'It's OK, Greg, these are my friends,' Min a.s.sured him.

'Greg?' Gina asked. 'Are you the Gecko?'

Greg, who looked about fifteen or sixteen, just like them, had a friendly, freckly face surrounded by a thick mop of brown hair. He was dressed in jeans and a casual jacket over a T-s.h.i.+rt with a green lizard design on the front. Maybe this was how Min was supposed to recognize him or something.

He smiled at them shyly, before saying, 'h.e.l.lo . . . Amy and Gina?'

'Yeah,' they replied together.

He certainly didn't look like a scary stalker. He looked sweet. He looked like just the kind of person Min would really like to hang out with.

'You should have told me!' Amy scolded Min. 'We thought you were out here with some stranger who tracked you down on the Internet!'

This made Min laugh. 'Well . . . it was a bit like that,' she joked.

'Oh, thanks,' Greg said.

'No! I'm joking,' Min told him. 'I think you can trust a boy who knows the value of pi to forty-two decimal places.' She couldn't stifle a giggle at this.

'Right, well, if you say so!' was Gina's baffled comment.

'I think you should know that Dermot and two sixth formers are out there somewhere chasing Mel's latest conquest because they think he's your stalker,' Amy pointed out.

'Really?' Min was taken aback.

'I hope they're OK,' Gina added.

'I think Shrek can take care of himself,' Amy rea.s.sured her. She hugged her arms around herself, realizing how cold she was and her feet : they were totally soaked through!

'You know,' she urged her friends, 'we're going to have to get back to the boarding house before Mrs K notices there's something going on. Dermot and co. might even be back by now.'

'Well, erm . . . nice to meet you,' Greg said to Amy and Gina.

'Yeah we must do this again in daylight some time,' Amy teased.

But all Greg's attention had turned back to Min. 'Very nice to meet you, finally,' he told her, a broad smile breaking over his face. 'Would you like to come out with me next Sat.u.r.day? We could-'

'Yes!' Min answered, before he could even finish.

He held out his hand for her to shake, but Min electrified her audience by leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek.

Amy so wanted to call out, Wooooooo-hoooooo, but she managed to restrain herself. This was Min. This was very fragile, tender territory. She couldn't step in and mess it all up.

'Goodnight,' Min said to Greg before he turned and walked off into the darkness.

Arm in arm, joking and teasing each other about the events of the last hour, the three girls made their way down onto the path back to the boarding house.

It was cold and windy now. The trees were making shadows dance across the playing field and it was impossible not to feel slightly spooked. Instinctively, the three hurried towards the cosy warmth of the party.

Past a clump of bushy shrubs they went, then into the house garden where they saw a tall figure, shrouded in black, with the horrible scream mask covering its face, heading towards the house.

This was just too much for Amy: she couldn't stop herself from letting out a bloodcurdling scream, which stopped the figure in its tracks.

It turned and, to their horror, began to speed towards them.

'No! No! No!' Amy was gasping. 'Do something!'

She pushed Gina, who was still holding a hockey stick, forward.

'Leave us alone,' Gina ordered in a shaky voice, her stick held across her body unconvincingly.

The figure kept on coming towards them.

'Go away!' Everyone could hear the terror in Gina's voice.