by Julie Fison
‘Okay, here’s the deal,’ I told them. ‘I will come to the waterfall, if you come to Paradise Point with me.’
‘But why Paradise Point?’ Mia said, looking confused.
‘To see Persephone.’
‘No way!’ Izzy said, looking fierce. ‘I’m not spending my holiday hanging out with Persesame.’
This was just the reaction I expected.
‘Please,’ I begged. ‘She knows where Rio’s staying. I need her help to find him.’
Izzy’s face brightened. ‘So this is all about Rio, then? Why didn’t you say so?’
I shrugged. It wasn’t actually all about Rio, but I knew they’d go along with my plan if I said it was. Mia and Izzy would never understand why I wanted to be friends with Persephone, but they had no issue with going to Paradise Point to find Rio.
‘Okay, then,’ Izzy said with a grin.
Mia nodded, too. ‘It’s a deal. We’ll help you find Rio and you can help us find the cute campers!’
It was too hard to group hug in the tent, so we made up an epic handshake to make the deal official. We’d been making up crazy handshakes together for years.
Slap-slap, tap-tap, bump-bump, elbow kiss–elbow kiss.
Izzy clicked her fingers. ‘It needs one of these!’
‘It needs two of those!’ Mia said, giggling.
While they worked out the rest of our handshake, I texted Persephone to tell her the news.
She replied a second later.
Beyond excited you’re coming to PP! Let’s meet for a milkshake. :)
I bounced around on my mattress to celebrate. I couldn’t wait for Izzy and Mia to see Persephone wasn’t stuck-up like the rest of her group – that she was like us, just a tiny bit cooler. Okay, a lot cooler.
I sent off a few more texts to sort the details of where and when to meet tomorrow afternoon. I figured three o’clock would work. That would give us time to get to the waterfall and back, get changed and make it to Paradise Point. Just as I finished texting Persephone, I noticed that my phone was almost out of charge.
‘Where can I charge my phone?’ I asked.
Izzy waved her hand towards the back of the tent. ‘Just over there.’
I crawled to the end of my mattress, feeling around. By then Izzy and Mia were giggling.
‘There’s no power point in here, is there?’ I groaned.
Mia shook her head, trying not to laugh.
‘I can’t charge my phone, can I?’ I said slowly. ‘Because we don’t have any power.’
‘My mum doesn’t even let me bring a phone,’ Mia said.
‘Oh great,’ I sighed, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. I looked at my phone again. It was dead.
At least I’d made plans with Persephone before my phone died. But how was I going to survive the rest of the week? It felt like my right arm had been severed. In fact, that might have been preferable.
‘But I can’t live without my phone,’ I whimpered, staring at my precious device. It wasn’t the coolest phone around, but I’d saved for a year to buy it and I loved it so much.
Izzy gently took my phone from my hand. She tossed it on top of my bag and smiled. ‘Now, back to more important things,’ she said. ‘So I think the guy in the red shorts is called Sam, or it might be Dan or –’
‘I think he looks like a Calvin,’ Mia said.
‘Calvin?’ Izzy said, making a face. ‘How does he look like a Calvin?’
We stayed up late getting our cool handshake right and talking through our waterfall plans for the next morning.
When Mia and Izzy launched back into their conversation about which camper was cuter, I pulled out my sketch pad and started doodling. At least that didn’t need charging.
Before long I’d drawn Rio, looking out to sea. It wasn’t my best effort, just a quick sketch. But Izzy and Mia thought it was really cool.
I tore the picture out of my sketch pad and tucked it under my pillow. As I drifted off to sleep, I was sure I could feel Rio’s big brown eyes watching me from the other end of the bay.
The next morning I woke to the smell of frying bacon. Izzy and Mia were still fast asleep, even though light was streaming into the tent and it was feeling a bit like a sauna. As I lay in bed listening to the sounds of the camp, I realised that we were probably the only ones not up. The boys were shouting about who was going to get the last piece of toast.
I stretched across to check the time, but, of course, my phone was dead. Dead to the world, a bit like my friends.
‘Do you girls want breakfast or not?’ Izzy’s mum called from outside the tent.
Izzy groaned.
‘I’ll take that as a no,’ said her mum.
A few moments later, I heard our tent door being unzipped. BB crawled in and flopped down onto Izzy’s mattress.
‘Buzz off, rodent,’ Izzy mumbled.
‘Get up, ya lazy old lizard! We’re going fishing,’ BB said, bouncing on her mattress. ‘Dad’s got the boat ready.’
‘Too early,’ Izzy grumbled, trying to swat her brother without lifting her head.
‘No, it’s not,’ BB said. ‘It’s ten.’
Izzy sat bolt upright. ‘What? Ten o’clock! But we were supposed to leave at seven.’ She flicked her brother with a towel, sending him scurrying out of the tent.
‘Guess we’d better get ready, then,’ I said, and gently shook Mia, who was still asleep.
‘In a minute,’ Mia mumbled and went back to sleep.
It was midday by the time we set off. Our late start meant it was unlikely that we’d beat the cute campers to the waterfall. But Izzy was determined to go anyway. She set a fast pace to the edge of the camping ground where the track to the Valley of the Beeches began.
Izzy was confident that she remembered the way and led us along a dirt track that went deep into the forest. It was a bit muddy and slippery because it had rained overnight, but it was a beautiful walk. Until we entered leech territory.
No-one had to tell me we were now in the Valley of the Leeches. I could feel goosebumps springing up on my arms at the thought of those tiny little blood suckers. Every branch that I brushed past made me jump. Drops of water falling from the trees almost gave me heart failure. When a bird flittered past, I grabbed Mia’s arm in panic.
‘Chill out,’ Izzy said. ‘You’re not going to get attacked by a leech with all those clothes on.’
Even though it was a hot day, I was wearing a long-sleeved top and had my socks pulled up as high as they could go. I looked like a complete dork, but at least I was protected.
‘Maybe we could sing to keep your mind off leeches,’ Mia suggested. She gave a rousing rendition of our school song. It was so terrible that by the time she reached the chorus I’d forgotten all about leeches, but Izzy had heard enough.
‘Quiet. I’m trying to think,’ she said, frowning. ‘What are we going to do when we get to the waterfall?’
‘But I didn’t even get to the best bit,’ Mia said, looking hurt.
We marched on in silence.
‘Well,’ Izzy said finally, ‘I say we just act normally. Have a swim and wait for the boys to talk to us.’
‘That’ll never work,’ Mia said. ‘How about I pretend I’m drowning and wait for one of them to rescue me?’
Izzy stopped in her tracks. ‘Don’t you dare.’
Mia laughed. ‘As if I’d really do that.’
‘Let’s just be brave,’ I said. ‘Give them a wave, sit down and have a chat. How hard can that be?’
Mia raised her eyebrows. ‘So, how’s that strategy working with Rio?’
‘Not too well so far,’ I had to admit.
It had been months now, and I still hadn’t managed to say more than a few words to him. And I was certain that since the Snow White knickers incident a few days ago my progress with Rio had reached a standstill. So maybe I wasn’t really the best person to be giving advice about being brave.
We’d been walking for ages, and I had eyestrain
from watching for leeches, when we heard the faint sound of rushing water and a lot of shouting and hooting.
‘It’s them!’ Izzy whispered suddenly.
‘How can you tell?’ I whispered. It might have been anyone making that noise.
‘I can definitely hear Dan!’ Izzy said, cupping a hand to her ear.
‘I thought his name was Sam,’ I said.
Mia sighed. ‘I hope it’s Calvin.’
We listened for a few more minutes, trying to work out how many people were at the waterfall. We could definitely hear several guys, but there were other voices, too. There were girls’ voices.
As we listened, I looked down and saw a black mark on Izzy’s ankle, just above her sock. At first I thought it was just mud, but then I realised – it was a leech! I took in a sharp breath and put my hand over my mouth.
‘Izzy,’ I whispered loudly. ‘Izzy!’
Izzy glanced down at her ankle and screamed. Not a little girly squeal. A full-throated bellow. Her voice echoed around the valley like she was being murdered.
‘Get that thing off me!’ she screamed, flailing her arms around wildly.
Mia grabbed Izzy’s hands. ‘It’s just a leech. Calm down.’
But Izzy didn’t calm down. She just kept screaming. ‘Off, OFF! Get it off!’
I couldn’t believe it. Tall, strong Izzy, captain of the water-polo team, was hysterical. She really was scared of leeches.
I just wanted to turn and run – to get out of that leech-infested rainforest and never come back. But I knew I had to help. Somehow I choked back my fear and bobbed down beside Izzy’s ankle. I took a deep breath and then flicked the leech from her leg. Izzy let out one final scream as the leech went flying into the undergrowth.
‘You all right?’ came a voice from down the track.
I turned to see three guys running towards us, their hair wet and drops of water running down their bare chests. It was like a trio of young forest gods had come to rescue us.
‘I’m fine,’ Izzy squeaked. ‘A leech.’ She pointed to her ankle.
The guy in red board shorts (known as Dan, Sam and Calvin) bent down to inspect her leg. ‘Can’t see anything.’
‘I flicked it off,’ I said as the two other guys gathered around Izzy.
‘Lucky. You must have caught it early, before it really got its fangs in,’ the blond one said. ‘They don’t call this Valley of the Leeches for nothing.’
‘You’re not wrong there,’ I said, laughing.
I glanced at Izzy. She seemed to have been struck mute. She stared at the guy in red board shorts with her mouth open. Mia was no better. A smile was fixed on her face, and her eyes were frozen on the blond guy.
‘We’re just going to the waterfall,’ I said, trying to fill the awkward silence.
‘Maybe not a good idea if you’ve got a thing about leeches,’ the blond guy said. ‘It’s totally infested.’
‘Oh,’ I said.
‘You’re not missing much, though. It’s more of a wet dribble than a waterfall.’
‘Oh, that sucks,’ I replied.
And then more bad news came sauntering towards us – three stunning girls in bikinis. It was like they were using the rainforest track for a catwalk. I could almost hear Mia’s and Izzy’s hearts being crushed.
‘You girls all right?’ one of the model girls asked.
‘All good now, thanks,’ I said. But I wasn’t speaking for everyone.
‘Oh. My. God,’ Izzy muttered when the group was out of earshot. ‘I am in love.’
We lagged behind the cute-camper gang on the way back to the camping ground. The leech and the waterfall were all but forgotten.
‘Maybe those girls are just their sisters,’ Mia said hopefully.
‘They could be cousins,’ Izzy suggested.
Mia nodded. ‘Pretty likely, really.’
I kept quiet. It was clear to me the girls and the cute campers were together, and that they were all about sixteen. Mia and Izzy had no chance with those guys, but I didn’t want to burst their bubble. Besides, I had troubles of my own.
We’d been gone a long time and we still had to get back to camp, get changed and get to Paradise Point before three. I didn’t want to keep Persephone waiting and with my phone dead there was no way to let her know we were running late. I tried to get Mia and Izzy to walk faster, but it was still taking forever to get back.
It didn’t help that the ground was slippery, and that Mia was so distracted looking up ahead at the blond guy she kept tripping over every stone on the track. At one stage she fell over and took me with her. When we finally straggled into the camping ground I saw a clock outside the kiosk. It was already after three.
‘Which way to Paradise Point?’ I asked Izzy. We didn’t have time to change. We just had to go.
Izzy pointed in the direction of the beach.
‘But the guys are going for a swim,’ Mia said, looking longingly at the pool. She was almost drooling.
‘Sorry, no time for cute campers. We’ll have to run to Paradise Point,’ I said, taking off towards the beach. I turned round and saw my friends, where I had left them, gazing at the pool.
‘You promised,’ I shouted at them.
Mia and Izzy spent a few more moments watching the guys, or the pool – I wasn’t sure which – and then came shuffling after me. We raced down onto the beach, towards the headland that separated The Lost World from Paradise Point. But then we hit the rocks.
We had to leap from one boulder to another, avoiding the sharp barnacles and finding our way around crevices. It was really slow going.
Izzy started to complain that her ankle was hurting from the leech bite. ‘Can’t we go back? We’ll see Persephone another time.’
It wasn’t like Izzy to run out of energy. She must have been angling to get back to see the campers.
‘But we’re nearly there,’ I said, trying to distract her. ‘Just think about the milkshake at the end of the bay.’
‘I don’t even like milkshakes that much,’ she grumbled.
‘I bet they have great cookies,’ I said.
‘Don’t like cookies either.’
Now Izzy was just being difficult, so I tried another tactic. ‘Thanks for coming to Paradise Point with me. I know you don’t like Persephone much, but it means a lot to me.’
‘We’re not going so you can see Persephone,’ Mia reminded me. ‘We’re going to find Rio.’
‘Yeah, of course,’ I said, taking a deep breath. ‘But, um, just one more thing …’ I knew the only way to tell them was to say it. ‘I told Persephone we were staying in a luxury villa … so it would be good if you didn’t mention we’re camping.’
Izzy stopped. ‘What?’
‘I’m not asking you to lie,’ I said quickly. ‘Just don’t say anything about where we’re staying.’
Mia frowned. ‘Are you embarrassed to be camping with us, Kitty?’
I shook my head. ‘No. I think Persephone might have just misunderstood something and thinks we’re staying in a five-star rural retreat.’
Izzy caught up with me. ‘Sorry, I’m not going to lie to impress some stuck-up girl.’
‘She’s not stuck-up and I’m not asking you to lie – I’m just asking you to avoid the subject.’ Now I was getting annoyed. ‘And I don’t know why you’re so huffy. You both lied to me about camping.’
Mia jumped across a crevice. ‘Yeah, that was kind of mean,’ she admitted. ‘We took it too far, didn’t we?’
‘You did,’ I said, indignantly.
‘Hey,’ Izzy protested. ‘That was different. We were thinking of you when we said all that stuff about digging your own toilet. You were just thinking of yourself when you lied about camping. That’s selfish.’
I glared at Izzy. ‘If I’m so selfish how come I just walked through a leech-infested rainforest for you?’ I said. ‘And saved you from a leech attack?’
‘Saved me? That was just –’
Izzy was stopped mid-sent
ence by a flying blob of jelly. It smacked her right between the eyes. She was looking around wildly, just as something whacked me in the back of the head. Then three more jelly missiles landed on the rocks beside us. I looked at the boulders above us and spied where they were coming from. Izzy’s and Mia’s brothers were pelting us with jellyfish. They dived behind the rocks, laughing like crazy.
‘Get down here, you rodents!’ Izzy shouted.
The boys responded with another volley of jellyfish.
‘You’re dead! Dead! All of you!’ Izzy screamed.
We weren’t waiting around to find out how many jellyfish the Rodent Tribe had stockpiled. We quickly scrambled off in the direction of Paradise Point, with Izzy hurling nonstop abuse at her brothers as jellyfish rained down on us. We didn’t slow down until we reached the beach on the other side of the headland.
Paradise Point was like another country. For a start, there were no boys throwing jellyfish at our heads. Then there was the beach – no slippery rocks, just white sand and lots of people. It was jammed with beautiful girls lounging on their towels and guys in board shorts throwing balls. Kids shrieked as they caught small waves on their boogie boards. The smell of coffee drifted on the breeze, and in among the beachfront shops and restaurants I could see our destination: Shake Shifter.
‘I just hope she’s still there. It must be nearly four by now,’ I said, pushing my daggy socks down to my ankles and trying to rearrange my top. ‘And, remember, we’re staying in a luxury resort.’
‘How could I forget that five-star treatment we’ve been enjoying,’ Izzy grumbled.
As we got closer to the Shake Shifter, I was relieved to see Persephone sitting outside, talking to Jordan. Even from a distance, I could see that she didn’t look as polished and perfect as usual. Her hair had a messy beach look, which made her look even prettier – if that was possible. I watched her and Jordan for a moment, until someone else caught my eye. I started backing away.
‘It’s Rio,’ I said, feeling breathless.
‘Cool,’ Mia said. ‘That’s who you wanted to see.’
‘Yes, but not now. Not like this!’ I looked down at my top and suddenly realised why it wasn’t sitting right: there was a tear down the side. My shorts were muddy and I was in filthy running shoes and grubby socks. It was bad enough meeting Persephone in this state, there was no way I could talk to Rio.
