How to Get to Rio (16 page)

George didn’t wait to hear any more. He did a massive dive-bomb and his friends followed. Seconds later the terrace was awash with drowning frangipani flowers and dead candles. I was soaked and Persephone was furious.

‘You’re
so
grounded!’ she yelled at her brother. Somehow Persephone had dropped the movie-star role and picked up the dad role. But the guys didn’t notice. They were too busy yelling and wrestling each other in the pool.

It was too noisy to hear anything, which is why we didn’t notice Rio and Jordan arriving until they opened the pool gate.

Persephone sighed as she watched them come in, a trickle of mascara running down her face. ‘What timing,’ she muttered.

Our perfectly scripted romance was turning into a disaster movie.

Persephone was still looking dazed as Jordan and Rio strolled across the terrace towards us. I couldn’t blame her. Everything we’d worked on all afternoon had been for nothing. The pool was trashed. We were both standing instead of lounging, my hair was a mess and Persephone looked less than perfect.

The rest of the plan wasn’t working either. George hadn’t noticed me or my hotpants, and even though I was supposed to be ignoring Rio, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He looked even cuter than before in his purple T-shirt. As he came closer, I couldn’t help hoping that it wasn’t a girlfriend that had been getting in our way. Maybe Rio did just really hate cats.

‘Made it,’ Jordan said. He gave Persephone a kiss on the cheek. ‘Thanks for inviting us.’

Persephone’s face lit up. ‘Oh, just a little poolside gathering. We haven’t gone to any trouble.’

Rio smiled at Persephone and then turned to me. ‘Nice party.’

‘We’ve made fruit-punch cocktails!’ I said far too brightly. I handed everyone a drink, even though Persephone was supposed to be playing hostess. ‘Here’s to happy holidays!’
My god, what was I saying?

I was just taking a sip when a ball sailed towards us. Rio stretched out his arm and caught it with one hand, then hurled it back into the pool.
Just like on the bus
, I thought, forlornly.

‘Hey, Rio!’ yelled one of the guys in the pool. ‘Come in. You too, Jordan.’

Persephone frowned. ‘You know my brother and his friends?’

Rio nodded. ‘They’re in my brother’s year at school.’

Persephone groaned. ‘You should definitely have a game with them, then.’

Rio didn’t need any encouragement. He stripped off his top. He was tanned and muscly, but not super muscly. Yep, Rio was definitely good-looking. I felt my cheeks get hot as he dive-bombed in.

‘I was actually being sarcastic,’ Persephone muttered, as she watched Jordan bomb in after Rio.

‘That could have gone better,’ I said, as we sat together on our wet sun lounges. I gulped down my drink in one mouthful. There just didn’t seem much point sipping it elegantly while keeping my toes pointed, like I’d practised.

Persephone was watching the pool. ‘Don’t worry. We can get things back on track. We just need George to get out of the pool and sit next to you, Rio to move over there and Jordan …’ She glanced between the lounges. ‘Where were Izzy and Mia going to sit again?’

‘I’m not sure it really matters. Rio just isn’t into me,’ I said sadly. ‘He hardly even looks at me. He’s definitely got a serious girlfriend. Just forget about it. You go have fun with Jordan. I’ll be okay.’

‘No way!’ Persephone said. ‘We’ve still got a good chance to get things going when we sit down to watch the movie. You’ll see.’

I smiled at Persephone. She really was trying to help, but I knew Rio was a lost cause.

Tonight, I’ll just hang out with Izzy and Mia
, I decided. They had just arrived and were waving at us from the apartment balcony.

‘Come down!’ Persephone called.

The girls soon appeared and raced across the terrace to give us a hug. ‘This is so cool,’ Mia said, beaming.

I handed them each a punch.

‘Wow! Things are so sophisticated over here at Paradise Point!’ Izzy put on a posh voice and held her little finger out as she sipped her drink. ‘La dee da!’

I shot a glance over to Persephone, and was glad to see she laughed it off.

‘Would you like to try our canapés? We made them specially. Chips
à la mer
.’ Persephone grinned as she passed around a bowl of sea salt chips.

‘Don’t mind if I do!’ Izzy said in her posh voice.

Just as Izzy reached for the chips, one of the guys jumped in the pool, spraying us with water. Izzy looked down at her hand, which was now in a bowl of cold-chip soup. She glared at the pool. The guys had set up some shoes as goals at each end of the pool and were having a game of water polo.

‘This means war,’ Izzy said, flicking the sticky, wet chips from her fingers.

She stripped down to her bikini and waited for us to do the same.

Mia followed quickly. ‘Coming in?’ she asked me.

‘We actually need your help here,’ I said.

Mia looked around. ‘You want me to get some more chips from upstairs?’

‘No,’ I whispered. The girls edged closer, so we were in a four-way huddle. ‘We need some help to get Rio to fall madly in love with me. We’ve got a plan and we need you to be part of it. You just need to do a bit of acting.’

Izzy snorted. ‘Sounds fun. Not! But, don’t worry, I’ll be in the pool if you need me.’

I watched her race off and jump into the pool.

‘I think she’s still mad that you lied about spraining your ankle,’ Mia explained. ‘But I’ll help. I can be an actor in the pool.’

My heart sank as I watched Mia jump into the pool, too. What a pair of fish they were. If they saw a pool, they had to be in it.

I turned to Persephone. She stood staring glumly at her cocktail. Somehow a frangipani had managed to find its way into her drink. It floated around with a soggy, mini umbrella.

‘What happened to our script?’ she moaned softly.

I took the cocktail gently from her hand and flicked the flower and umbrella pieces out of her drink. ‘What are we doing wrong?’ I asked.

She shrugged. ‘Everything.’

I sat back on my sun lounge to assess the situation. Everyone in the pool was getting on just fine. At least that was a good start. Rio laughed as he tossed the ball past Izzy to one of George’s friends, Levi. He was a big athletic-looking guy, definitely Izzy’s type. Interesting. Mia was jumping on top of one of the other guys. Not scripted, but a nice touch.

Then my eyes went back to Rio and, even though I tried, I couldn’t look away.

I knew I was still hopelessly smitten. And I didn’t
want
to get over him. I really wanted to be laughing with him, sharing a joke, talking about important things, talking about stupid, nothing things.

Persephone’s plan was my only hope of that ever happening. And if Rio was still in a good mood when he got out of the pool, maybe we had a shot at making it work.

Beside me, Persephone sighed. ‘Let’s just bin the script and join everyone in the pool. It looks like more fun than we’re having.’

But I just wasn’t sure that I wanted to give up yet. ‘Maybe we should give the plan a bit longer. We haven’t really given it a chance to work yet.’

Persephone shrugged. ‘Up to you, but we’re missing out on a game of water polo.’

I stared at Rio, trying to work out what was the best course of action. Should I trust the plan to win over Rio, or should I just abandon the script and have some fun in the pool?

‘Well, this is a surprise,’ I said, lifting my right foot off the ground to add credibility to my sprained-ankle story. ‘I thought you two were camping in the middle of nowhere.’

‘We are,’ Izzy said, studying my ankle. ‘Over at The Lost World. There’s a campsite there.’

‘I’ve heard it’s really beautiful,’ Persephone said.

‘Yeah, if you like digging your own toilets and don’t mind leeches and snakes,’ I said with a laugh.

Persephone glanced sideways at me, giving me a
what on earth’s going on
look. I had my hand resting on her shoulder to give the impression that she was supporting me. I hoped she’d work out what was happening before she blew my cover.

‘It’s not that bad, is it?’ Persephone asked Izzy. ‘I heard that The Lost World is really nice and has a pool. I didn’t know you had to dig your own toilets.’