How to Get to Rio by Julie Fison

impossibly gorgeous. But he totally knew it.
    ‘So you’re going to take the word of your dumb brother over mine?’
    Persephone grinned. ‘All right, let’s go. Should we head straight to the beach or check out the shops first?’
    ‘Well, I could do with a new bikini,’ I said.
    She clapped her hands. ‘Great! Shopping it is!’
    Persephone led the way.
    ‘It’s a little pricey,’ she said as we walked down the beachfront, ‘but totally worth it. This shop has what everyone else at school will be wearing next season.’
    I followed her inside a tiny busy shop, full of colour, music and a lot of very pretty girls who looked just like Persephone.
    ‘It’s not normally this packed,’ she said.
    And then we saw why. The sign above the cash register read: 50% off beachwear .
    ‘Cool!’ I said, and headed straight for the racks. I decided to work methodically, from one end of the shop to the other. A few minutes later, I had found a couple of bikinis I liked, but was struggling to find them in my size.
    ‘What do you think of these?’ asked Persephone. She had an armful of bikinis and flashed them at me, one by one.
    ‘Wow! I love them all! They’re gorgeous,’ I said. ‘They’ll look great on you.’
    ‘Not for me, silly,’ Persephone said, shaking her head. ‘I chose them for you.’
    I checked the sizes. They were all my size. I had no idea how Persephone could guess my size and taste so perfectly. ‘You should be my personal stylist,’ I told her on the way to the changing room.
    The queue for the changing room was halfway out of the shop. ‘There’s no way I’m waiting in that queue,’ I said. ‘Let’s come back when it’s quieter.’
    ‘But there’ll be nothing left,’ Persephone said.
    I looked around at the way girls were grabbing things off the racks. Persephone was right. I had to act now. I groaned and joined the mega queue.
    ‘You’d look cute in any of these,’ Persephone said, pulling a purple bikini top from the pile in my arms and holding it up against me. ‘You know, I have a pretty good eye for sizes. These will fit.’
    ‘Okay,’ I said. Anything to get out of that queue. ‘But which ones should I get? I love them all.’
    ‘Get two, then,’ Persephone said with a cheeky grin. ‘They’re half price.’
    ‘I forgot about that,’ I said. ‘Thank you, personal stylist!’ I looked through the bikinis again, but still couldn’t make a choice.
    ‘I’ll get them all,’ I announced and headed straight to the register. I quickly added up the prices in my head. I knew my holiday allowance wouldn’t quite cover the whole lot, but if I dipped into the ‘emergencies only’ money, which Mum had tucked into my purse, I could afford everything.
    ‘Five bikinis?’ Persephone said, raising her eyebrows. ‘My mum would totally freak if I came home with that many from one shopping trip.’
    I shrugged. ‘Mum gave me some spending money, so I might as well spend it. And everything’s on sale, so I’m basically saving money.’
    ‘I guess, if you have enough money for all of them,’ Persephone said with a shrug.
    ‘I’ll have to dip into my “emergencies only” stash,’ I explained. ‘But carrying around money for emergencies is basically just asking for some kind of accident. Right?’
    I was surprised how serious Persephone looked. ‘But what if you have an actual emergency?’
    In that moment, I couldn’t think of any emergency that was worse than being at Paradise Point without a choice of bikinis. Surely Mum would understand that!
    But I did feel a little guilty when I came out of the shop with a bagful of new bikinis. I’d blown my holiday allowance and put a large hole in my emergencies-only fund. But at least now I was ready for Paradise Point!

‘So what do you think of Paradise Point?’ Persephone asked as we spread our towels on the white sand.
    ‘I love it. Who wouldn’t?’
    ‘Tori,’ Persephone replied. ‘She thinks it’s boring.’
    I