How to Get to Rio

‘Cam-ping.’ I said the word like I’d just discovered new vocab.
‘
What, like, in an actual tent?’

Izzy rolled her eyes. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘So, what do you say?’

‘It’ll be totally fun,’ Mia gushed.

I wasn’t so sure about that. ‘But wasn’t the last time you went camping the worst week of your lives?’ I asked them. ‘Didn’t you say it rained the whole time? And didn’t one of your brothers throw up all over your sleeping bags?’

‘Come on, Kitty,’ Izzy said, yanking her maths book out of her locker. ‘What else will you be doing?’

Nothing. That was the problem. It was the last week of school and come next week Mum and Dad would be working, so I’d be stuck at home all holidays. That would be fine if I had someone to hang out with. But all my friends were going away, which left me alone with my little sister and her gang of dweebs.

I shrugged. ‘Okay, I’ll come.’ I knew Mum and Dad would let me go. Izzy and Mia grinned and leaned in for a group hug. ‘That’s provided I survive first period. I haven’t done my geography assignment for Blackmore.’

‘I promise, we’ll have
so
much fun,’ Mia squealed.

‘Good luck with your assignment,’ said Izzy.

I watched them rush off to their homeroom class, their ponytails, wet from water-polo training that morning, dripping down their backs. Izzy and Mia looked like twins from behind. In fact, they looked pretty similar from the front as well. Their homeroom teacher called them both
Mizzy
because he couldn’t tell them apart.

I turned back to my locker, frowning. I loved Izzy and Mia to bits. I’d known them since prep, and they were definitely my best friends. So of course I wanted to spend the holidays with them. But camping?

The only tent I’d ever slept in was the fairy princess one that Mum bought when I was three. And that tent was pitched in my room, not in the actual bush.

Mia’s and Izzy’s families were outdoors addicts and had been camping together heaps of times. But sleeping on the ground was not my idea of fun. Not to mention the spiders, snakes and whatever else that would be trying to get into my sleeping bag with me. Add to that communal toilets and long hikes in the bush. Nope. ‘Fun’ was not the word that came to mind. But what choice did I have if I wanted to spend the holidays with my best friends?

I grabbed my geography books out of my locker and spun round, almost crashing straight into Persephone. I got a great big whiff of her perfume and a close-up view of her pearl earring.

I was pretty certain Persephone’s holiday plans wouldn’t include pitching a tent and fighting for a share of baked beans. It’d be a five-star break for her, no doubt.

‘Hey,’ I said, smiling.

‘Hi, Kitty.’ Persephone rattled her combination lock and banged open her locker. ‘Hold on a sec. I’ll walk with you.’

I waited, feeling slightly confused. Persephone and I weren’t exactly friends. We were in the same homeroom class, and sometimes sat together in geography and art, but we never hung out. Then I remembered how recently she’d saved me a seat a couple of times. But still, that wasn’t like hanging out. And she’d never walked with me to class before. She always walked with her own friends – the cool group.

I looked around for them. ‘You’re not waiting for –?’

‘Nah,’ Persephone said quickly.

As we headed to class, I was feeling a bit stunned to be walking with one of the coolest girls in our year.

Hello, it’s me, Kitty
, I felt like saying.
I’m not actually in your group. Your friends are the ones who go on amazing holidays, live in big houses and have proper boyfriends. My house is pretty small, I hardly go anywhere and I’ll probably never ever have a boyfriend.

I didn’t say any of that stuff, of course. Instead, I glanced back to check that Izzy and Mia weren’t watching me. They didn’t think much of the cool group.

I walked along beside Persephone, hoping some of her coolness would rub off on me. She was talking about the geography assignment that was due today that I still hadn’t finished. I probably should have been paying attention, but my mind was wandering.
If I were just a fraction as cool as Persephone, I might have a chance with Rio.

Rio: gorgeous, adorable Rio Sanchez. Totally hot and completely out of my reach. I’d been dreaming about him for months, ever since I first saw him on the bus.

It had been a sticky afternoon and I was standing no more than a metre away from him at the back of the bus. I knew immediately from his uniform that he went to our brother school. I glanced sideways and saw his name on the side of his bag. By the time my eyes had reached his cute tanned face and scruffy dark hair, I was in a trance. Luckily he was too busy laughing with his friends to notice me drooling. Before I knew what was happening I had a vision of our future: walking hand in hand, laughing at each other’s jokes, our first kiss.

Then reality had kicked back in. The bus took a sharp corner and, because I was staring at Rio instead of hanging on, I lurched across the aisle. I panicked and grabbed the only thing available – Rio’s shirt. He looked down at me with sheer terror in his eyes. He must have thought I was a crazy person. It was so embarrassing. I mumbled an apology and fled the bus at the next stop, which happened to be about a hundred kilometres from my house.

Since then I’d kept a very safe distance from Rio, but I’d made it my mission to get to know him – without actually talking to him.

Every day when the bus reached his stop, I’d hold my breath, willing him to appear through the front doors. On the days he did, I watched him. He hung out with the sporty guys. They weren’t crazy like some of the other boys on the bus, who acted like a bunch of orangutans. Rio and his friends were always laughing. His brown eyes creased up when he smiled, and he looked so unbelievably cute.

Sometimes, I’d move close enough to hear their conversation. Most of it was about football teams I hadn’t ever heard of, and players who meant nothing to me. I didn’t mind, though. I just liked hearing Rio’s voice. He had a bit of an accent. I couldn’t place it, but it was totally adorable!

Then one time I saw another side to Rio. He’d got on by himself and sat down right in front of me. He had his headphones on and his head was leaning against the window. Out of nowhere a rogue ball came whizzing down the bus towards me. Before I even had a chance to get my hands up to protect myself, Rio snatched it from the air. He tossed it back to its owner and then turned to me.

‘You all right?’ he’d asked.

I was too tongue-tied to say anything, so I just nodded vigorously.

Rio smiled and got back to his music as if nothing had happened. But when I got off the bus three stops later I was buzzing.
Rio Sanchez had smiled at me!

I raced home. Then I sat down with my sketch pad and drew Rio’s face. I tried to capture his expresssion. It had been strong, yet caring. And his smile – it was hot enough to melt a glacier. So gorgeous!

I was pretty happy with my sketches. If only talking to Rio were as easy as drawing him.

Pushing my daydreams aside, I remembered where I was – in the corridor walking to class with Persephone. I looked across at her, wondering whether it was makeup or some special face cream that made her skin glow like that. That’s when I realised that she was asking me something.

‘Kitty?’ Persephone said, raising an eyebrow. ‘Have you done it?’

I had no idea what she was talking about, but tried not to let on that I hadn’t been listening. ‘Ah …’

‘Have you done your geo assignment?’

I groaned. ‘No. I’m going to ask for an extension.’ I’d obviously spent way too much time daydreaming about Rio and not enough time on my homework.

Persephone smiled. ‘I’ve found loads of websites that helped. I can send you the links, if you like.’

‘That would be amazing!’ I was genuinely grateful. ‘I can’t wait till the holidays. I’m so sick of school!’

‘Me too. It’s going to be fun. We’re going to Paradise Point,’ said Persephone. ‘Does your family go there?’

I shook my head. ‘Not much.’

Just once, actually. Paradise Point was too cool for my family. It was celebrity central. Everyone who was anyone had a place there. Perfect beach, perfect shops and perfect people. Not my family’s style at all.

‘We’ve got an apartment right on the beach,’ Persephone told me.

Of course you do
, I thought.

‘You should come and stay with us sometime.’

I stopped and looked around. Was Persephone still talking to me? Maybe one of her friends had turned up. No. She was looking right at me.

‘Stay with you? At Paradise Point?’

Persephone looked like she was sorry she’d asked. ‘I mean, it’s okay if you don’t want to.’

‘No, no. I mean, yes!’ I said. ‘I’d love to.’

‘Well, I don’t know when, but we should definitely organise it!’ Persephone cheered. ‘It’s so fun there. Long hot days at the beach, ice-creams to die for,
loads
of hot guys, and then hanging out late at night. We’ll have to organise it sometime.’

‘Totes.’ Now that sounded like my idea of fun.

‘Just one condition.’

I should have guessed there’d be one. Hanging out with the coolest girl at school in her beach apartment did seem a bit too good to be true.

Persephone looked serious. ‘You can’t ever,
ever
,’ she paused, ‘use my nickname.’

‘Oh, easy,’ I said, feeling relieved it wasn’t some kind of coolness test I had to pass. ‘I don’t even know your nickname.’

For a second Persephone looked shy. ‘My family calls me Percy Pony. My brother started it when he was three, and it stuck.’

I smiled. ‘It’s cute.’

‘Use it and you’re dead,’ she replied, half laughing.

I crossed my heart solemnly. ‘Promise I’ll never use it.’ I hesitated. ‘You know what my family nickname is?’

Persephone leant closer, smiling.

‘Kitty-cat.’

She giggled. ‘That’s
really
cute.’

I screwed up my face. ‘Maybe when I was six. But now it’s just embarrassing, especially when I’ve got friends over and Mum uses it.’ I shuddered just thinking about it. Then I had another thought.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have just blurted that out to the coolest girl at school
.

But Persephone just shook her head. ‘Parents are so annoying. I hope mine grow up one day!’

We both laughed. Persephone slipped her arm through mine and we walked into class together.

I was bubbling with excitement. Had I suddenly made a very cool new friend?