How to Get to Rio (14 page)

Mia put a hand on my arm. ‘Yeah, we get it,’ she said. ‘You’re sorry.’

I managed half a smile. ‘So you’re not mad?’

Mia shrugged and smiled. ‘Well, I get why you didn’t want to go camping and –’

‘
Of course
we’re mad,’ Izzy interrupted. She glared at Persephone. ‘And we’re mad you decided to go on holidays with …’ she paused and, for a terrifying moment, I thought Izzy was going to mangle Persephone’s name and call her
stuck-up
right to her face, ‘… with Per-sephone. Instead of us.’

I breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Oh, I feel bad, now,’ Persephone said. ‘I didn’t know I was stealing Kitty away. Sorry, this must look really terrible.’

I could see both Izzy and Mia relax when they heard that. I was stunned, though. It wasn’t Persephone’s fault that my friends were annoyed with me, but she’d put herself right in the middle of it and apologised. She was definitely a better friend than me.

‘You’re not to blame,’ Mia told her and then gave me a smile. ‘Kitty, we did kind of freak you out with all those camping stories. We might have gone a bit too far.’

Izzy said nothing. She just glared at me. I knew she was still really mad.

‘So you’re camping at The Lost World?’ Persephone asked.

‘Yeah, just back over there behind those dunes,’ Izzy said stiffly.

‘So you have to dig your own toilets?’ Persephone asked with a frown. ‘I thought it was nice over there.’

‘Well, it is,’ Mia said, finding something on the rocks to look at. ‘Actually, it’s a really beautiful camping ground. There’s a pool and everything.’

Now I was totally confused. ‘What about the leeches and snakes and roughing it?’ I asked.

‘We made all that up,’ Izzy said.

I couldn’t believe it.
Izzy lied to me? And she wasn’t even embarrassed to admit it?

‘Why?’ I demanded.

‘We wanted you to have low expectations and then surprise you with a nice place. We were thinking of you,’ Mia said. ‘We didn’t mean to freak you out.’

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Mia and Izzy’s strategy. ‘Well, it kind of backfired, didn’t it?’ I said grumpily.

Mia gave me a hug. ‘We weren’t trying to be mean.’

‘I know,’ I said. But it kind of felt like they
had
been mean, torturing me with all those camping horror stories. And, yet, now it was me who looked bad because I’d told the lie about spraining my ankle.

At least Mia seemed to have moved on, but Izzy had a face like a cat’s bottom. She wasn’t the type to forgive and forget. And now Persephone was going to think I was a total loser for lying to my friends.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ Persephone said. ‘Why don’t we all get together for a sleepover at my place tonight?’

I stared at Persephone. What a cool idea! Doing something fun together would help everyone forget about my stupid lie. And it would give Izzy, Mia and Persephone a chance to get to know each other. I knew Mia would be up for it, but I couldn’t tell with Izzy.

‘Gee, I don’t know,’ Izzy said, slowly. ‘I was really looking forward to sleeping on an air mattress that goes down five times during the night.’

Mia chuckled. ‘And then there’s the boys,’ she added. ‘I really wanted to spend some quality time with my four little brothers. And I really do want to hang out with Izzy’s brothers some more, too. They’re so cute. Especially BB. I just loved the way he jumped on our tent right after we put it up. So adorable. I just wanted to strangle him.’

‘Well, if you can tear yourself away from all that,’ Persephone said with a grin, ‘come over at seven.’

I was feeling slightly stunned. Somehow Persephone had turned the situation around. She must’ve been some kind of social genius. As I watched her explaining to the girls how to get to her apartment, I knew that she was going to fit into our group without any trouble at all.

We were about to part ways with Izzy and Mia when I remembered that I hadn’t even told them the most exciting news of all.

‘Guess who we saw on the beach?’ I said.

‘Rio?’ That was Mia’s guess.

I shook my head. ‘Way more famous. An actual celebrity.’

‘Nemo?’ That was Izzy’s guess.

I sighed. ‘That’s not a celebrity. It’s a cartoon fish.’

In seconds Izzy and Mia had turned the whole thing into a guessing game that was already driving me mad. I took a big dramatic breath to heighten the anticipation. ‘Kes and Pit!’ I shouted.

Izzy and Mia looked at each other. ‘Who?’

‘Kes and Pit,’ I shrieked, ‘from The Lads! You really
have
been in the wilderness too long.’

‘Oh, I thought you were going to say someone really good,’ Mia said, looking disappointed.

‘They are good.’ I quickly corrected myself. ‘Well, they were, until we got to know them.’

‘They’re losers,’ Persephone said, pulling out her phone. She showed Izzy and Mia the photos from our encounter on the beach, including all the pictures of Kes’s underarm and the video of Pit’s nasal hair.

‘Gross!’ Izzy sneered.

Persephone laughed. ‘Yeah, double gross.’

I could still hear Mia and Izzy laughing about The Lads as they headed back across the rocks to The Lost World.

Persephone and I hurried back to Paradise Point. It was almost time to meet Rio and Jordan.

‘Izzy and Mia are cool,’ Persephone said as we scrambled back over rocks. ‘It’s so cute that they tried to give you a nice camping surprise.’

‘Hmm, suppose so,’ I said, not totally convinced.

I was relieved, though. That awkward situation with my sprained ankle lie had gone far better than I thought it would. Persephone had been a complete star.

‘So you think Izzy and Mia like me?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, I’d say they do,’ I said truthfully. My friends really did seem to like her.

I
sooo
couldn’t wait until seven that night. It was going to be awesome! So fun to have all of us hanging out together.

Persephone sent about ten texts to Jordan on our way to meeting him and Rio. It seemed like she was updating him every few steps with our expected arrival time. If I didn’t know her better, I would have thought she was texting because she was nervous. But when she started worrying about what she was wearing, I realised she really was freaking out.

‘Should I go back and change into my striped bikini?’ she asked. ‘I’m not really sure about this one. It makes my butt look big.’

‘You look great, Persephone,’ I said. ‘You’re just being paranoid.’

She frowned. ‘I don’t know. I think I’ll just go back and change.’

If it had been anyone else going on about their bikini and their butt, I would have been well and truly fed up by now. But coming from Persephone, it was actually a bit of a relief. It made her seem normal. It was like she was even more nervous than me about meeting the guys, if that was possible. Maybe we were just different like that. I was keeping all my worrying inside my head, but hers was pouring out of her mouth.

‘Yep,’ she said, firmly. ‘We’re going back. I have to change.’

I grabbed her arm. ‘If we go back to the apartment, you’ll be there for another hour,’ I told her. ‘And we’re already late to meet the guys.’

Persephone hesitated.

‘Come on,’ I said, slipping my arm in hers. ‘That’s the ice-cream place where we’re meeting them, isn’t it?’ I pointed just up ahead.

Persephone nodded and managed a half smile.

‘All right. So let’s go,’ I told her, grinning.

As we hurried towards the ice-cream shop, I realised we were passing the apartment block we’d seen The Lads heading back to earlier. I slowed down to take a look. Sure enough, there was Pit on the balcony, relaxing. I had to admit that he’d look hot if you didn’t know he was a total idiot.

That’s when I noticed a group of girls gathered on the beach around the apartment block. It certainly looked like The Lads’ quiet holiday was already over.

Persephone and I watched as Kes joined Pit on the balcony. We saw he was carrying an armful of colourful balls. He leant over the balcony.

A moment later I worked out that Kes wasn’t holding balls. They were water bombs! Pit and Kes pelted the crowd, sending squealing girls running in every direction.

‘Nice guys,’ Persephone said, sarcastically.

I couldn’t help staring. Kes and Pit were both so annoying, but it was Pit who was really bugging me. He was the one I’d swooned over. It was embarrassing to think of that now! I felt totally ridiculous for being so star-struck by such a stupid guy.

I was still staring at Pit when he glanced over and saw me. Then, of all the things, he blew me a kiss!

Gross
, I thought. I blew his stupid kiss right back to him in a big, sarcastic way.
What an arrogant loser!

‘Kitty! What are you doing?’ Persephone asked, looking shocked.

‘I’m being sarcastic,’ I said.

‘That’s funny, because, from where I’m standing, it looks like you blew him a kiss.’

‘Didn’t you see how exaggerated it was?’ I tried to explain. ‘That was mocking.’

‘Possibly a bit subtle for Pit,’ Persephone replied, ‘but whatevs. We need to find the guys.’

It wasn’t hard. They were just behind us, wandering up from the beach. Jordan had a big smile on his face, but Rio looked really awkward.

‘So, who’s up for an ice-cream?’ Persephone said, clapping her hands.

By the time we got our ice-creams, everyone seemed pretty relaxed, even Rio. I was surprised at how comfortable I felt with him, even though I’d been secretly terrified all day. I figured my encounter with those stupid Lads had actually given me a confidence boost.

Jordan and Persephone were so cool with each other that you’d never know how nervous she’d been. She even asked him to try her tiramisu ice-cream, and she tasted his butterscotch. It was totally cute. I thought I’d try the same thing with Rio, but he suddenly started to look sick.

‘Thanks, but I don’t really like chocolate. Or mint.’

I thought everyone liked chocolate and mint. I began to wonder if it was me he didn’t like.

As we headed to the point, Persephone and Jordan strolled ahead of us. They were nudging shoulders and sharing their ice-creams. Rio and I walked stiffly behind them. He’d gone all awkward again. I tried to get him talking about his plans for the holiday, but he just gave one-word answers to all my questions. It was the same with school and his family. I did find out his father was a graphic artist, though. That gave us something to talk about because I really liked art, too.

‘Yeah, that picture you did in class was really cool,’ Rio said. ‘That dragon, I …’ He clammed up again. ‘Let’s catch up with the others.’

Rio walked off so quickly, I was left wondering what he’d done that he didn’t want me to know about, or what I’d done to annoy him. I just couldn’t work out why he was acting so strangely.

It wasn’t until we got onto the subject of sport that he forgot whatever was bothering him and really came alive. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of talking about sport before.

Soccer was clearly his passion. He told me he’d be happy to play it all day, every day. Apparently, when he wasn’t playing it, he was watching it. He was a massive supporter of Real Madrid, a Spanish team. Then I remembered the sticker on his folder. I kicked myself for not thinking about it earlier. Rio went on about a few other teams in the European competition and then stopped and looked embarrassed.

‘Am I boring you?’ he asked. ‘I’m half Argentinean. Soccer’s in my blood.
What I can do?
’ he said in a really thick accent and then laughed at himself. It was very cute. ‘So, what kind of stuff do you like?’

I shrugged. I really wanted to tell him I liked sport, but I didn’t. I mean, I thought sport was all right, but I wasn’t
into
it like Izzy or Mia.

‘My friends really love water polo,’ I told him. ‘Maybe I’ll get into that one day.’

‘But what about drawing?’ Rio asked, with a smile. ‘I figured that was your thing.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ I said, distractedly. ‘That, too.’

I could feel the hair on my neck standing on end as Rio smiled at me. His eyes creased up, just the way I remembered them.

Imagine if he knew I liked drawing HIM
, I thought.
He’d probably run for cover!