How to Get to Rio by Julie Fison Read Free Book Online

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