Paparazzi Read online

  “Ooh. That sounds like a good idea,” I said.

  Nikos looked at me like I was crazy. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “What? It’s not acceptable around here to take a little rest?”

  “Not unless you’re an old yia yia,” Nikos said. “Besides, mesimeriano ipnako is not until after lunch.”

  “Am I supposed to understand a thing you just said?”

  “A yia yia is a grandmother,” he told me in a mock-patient tone. “Mesimeriano ipnako is a siesta. Only old women would take a nap so early in the day.”

  I crossed my arms. “I didn’t say I was going to take a nap.”

  “What are you going to do when you lie down, then?” he asked. “Count ceiling tiles?”

  “Maybe if there were ceiling tiles in my room,” I said haughtily. “Which there are not.”

  “Oh. Huh.”

  “What? Do you have ceiling tiles in your room?”

  He hunched his shoulders. “Not tiles, exactly, but you know what I mean. There’s that kind of a pattern in the wood inlays that looks like tile.”

  “Oh, nice,” I said. “You have a wood-inlay ceiling?”

  “Yeah. Don’t you?”

  “Um, no.” I bumped his arm. “Don’t you know what the rooms look like in your own yacht?”

  “Oh, uh, yes,” he said. “Of course I do. I just forgot which cabin you were staying in.”

  “Well,” I said, holding back a yawn, “if it’s socially unacceptable to rest before lunch, what is there to do on …”

  My words trailed off as I noticed Mr. Kouropoulos strolling onto the deck. He spotted us and sauntered over to where Nikos and I stood. “Ah. Back from the ancient city, I see. Did you have a good time?”

  I realized he was talking to me and nodded, trying to reengage my power of speech. “Oh. Yes. It was … I really …”

  But then it didn’t matter, because the way his eyes strayed immediately, I knew he wasn’t even listening. “Nikos,” he said, “may I have a word?”

  I excused myself quickly and hurried away. Not to my cabin, though, because strangely enough, I wasn’t tired anymore.

  I wandered over to the railing near the back of the Pandora and pulled my phone out to film the yacht pushing away from the pier. The deck under my feet rumbled as the engines engaged and we put out to sea. Behind me, Mr. Kouropoulos raised his voice. I couldn’t help glancing back at them. I wasn’t trying to be nosy; it was more like a reflex. I couldn’t hear what Mr. Kouropoulos was saying, but whatever it was, Nikos didn’t look too happy about it.

  Nikos glanced up, and I looked away quickly. Suddenly, I felt like an intruder. I left the railing and found the steps leading to the upper decks. The smell of Theia Alexa’s cooking was stronger a floor up. I followed my nose to the kitchen, hoping I could find Zoe there.

  I found her rolling out thin sheets of dough on a marble-topped table, humming to whatever she was listening to on her iPod.

  “Hey, Zoe,” I called to her. She didn’t hear me. Duh. The music. I walked closer and leaned down, ear level, to try again. “Hi, Zoe. What are you making?”

  She jumped and the rolling pin slipped from her hands, rattling across the table before it clattered onto the floor.

  “Cassidy.” She pulled the earbuds from her ears. “You scare me.”

  “I’m sorry.” I picked up the rolling pin and handed it to her like a peace offering.

  She dropped it into a sink of sudsy water and grabbed another one from a wide, shallow drawer underneath the tabletop. “You film at Delos this morning, yes? You … have fun?”

  It was a simple question, but the way she asked it—almost wistful and maybe a little sad—made me hesitate a beat before answering. Besides Nikos and me, Zoe was the only other kid I’d seen on the yacht. What must it be like, I wondered, to be the one who has to work while the other two play? Well, okay, technically we were working, too, but only for four hours a day.

  “I don’t know about fun,” I said. “It took me about ten takes to get the segment right.”

  “And Nikos?” She concentrated on rolling the dough and only glanced up at me from beneath her dark lashes like she was embarrassed I might see her blush at his name.

  “It’s okay, Zoe. I think he’s really cute, too.”

  She stopped rolling the dough. “You do?” she asked weakly.

  “Sure.” I pulled up a tall stool and sat next to her. “And I’d probably be crushing on him right now if it wasn’t for Logan.”

  That did it. She glanced up quickly, hopefully. Zoe’s face was like a book. With color illustrations. Anything she thought or felt was scrawled all over it for anyone to read. We’d have to do something about that.

  She didn’t ask, but I gave her an explanation anyway. “Logan travels with my mom and dad’s show,” I told her. “He’s my best friend. Or … he was anyway. It’s a long story. I think I probably like him more than he likes me, but I’m working on it.”

  “How will you … work on it?” Zoe asked.

  That was a good question. I’d brought it up, but now I didn’t know if I could define it for her. “Show him I’m interested, I guess. But not so it’s obvious.”

  She nodded, but I could see on her face that she was confused. I wished I had a better explanation to give her. I wished I had a better explanation to give myself. I mean, I hoped Logan knew I liked him as more than a friend. And I hoped he liked me back. It sounded like maybe he did, the way he asked about Nikos. But I wasn’t experienced with guys. Since we traveled so much, I hardly got to know any, so I didn’t know what I was doing. For all I knew, Logan thought of me as just a friend. A buddy. A pal. Or worse, a sister.

  I had no business trying to play matchmaker for Zoe when I didn’t even know how to match myself. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try. “How long have you liked Nikos?” I asked.

  Zoe’s expression now turned to panic.

  “Don’t worry,” I assured her. “I won’t tell him about that, either.”

  She relaxed a little and it looked like she was about to say something, but just then, Theia Alexa backed into the kitchen, carrying a huge, steaming pot. Zoe jumped up to hold open the door.

  “Oh!” Theia Alexa said when she saw me, “Miss Cassidy.” She set down the pot on the table. “Kalispera.”

  “Kalispera,” I repeated. “Wait. I thought it was kalimera.”

  “Kalimera mean good morning,” Zoe explained. “Kalispera is good afternoon.”

  Theia Alexa set the pot down on the table and lifted the lid. The savory smell of meat and onions filled the air.

  “Mmmm …” I sniffed the air. “What are you making?”

  “Kreatopita,” Theia Alexa said. “Meat pie.”

  “Smells awesome,” I said. “Can I help?”

  “We are almost done,” she said, “but you can help Zoe set the table.”

  Travel tip: The Greek are very social. In Greece, it is very unlikely that one dines alone.

  It was kind of depressing, setting the long table on the sky deck with only four plates. That table was meant to hold at least twelve people.

  “Or more,” Zoe said. “It has also extra leafs.”

  “Does he ever have a full dinner party here?” I asked.

  She looked at me blankly. “Who?”

  “Mr. Kouropoulos. It seems like he would have a lot of friends to invite onto the yacht for dinner. Have you seen any other famous people?”

  She thought for a moment. “Yes, but not here.”

  I started to ask her what she meant when Theia Alexa called out from the kitchen. “Zoe!”She pressed her lips together. “I must go,” she said, and left me alone with the dishes.

  Lunch was probably delicious. I don’t know; I was too keyed up to eat. Letting Nikos know that Zoe liked him was the best thing, I was sure. So why wasn’t I so confident about following my own advice when it came to Logan? He was my best friend. But that could have been the problem. He was my best friend, an
d I didn’t want to mess that up.

  “Are you feeling well?” Victoria asked. “You’ve hardly touched your plate.”

  “I’m fine.” I shook off the twinges of crew homesickness and stabbed my fork into a chunk of eggplant. “I was just thinking about something else.”

  “Well, be sure your thinking doesn’t preclude eating. Theia Alexa would be distressed if she thought you didn’t like her moussaka.”

  Sure enough, Zoe’s mom was hovering near the head of the table, watching us eat (or not eat, in my case) with a disapproving frown on her face.

  I took a bite to satisfy her. “It’s very good,” I said. Which was true. I took another bite. “I’ve had moussaka before, but this is … different. I can’t tell what it is. The sauce, maybe? There’s some kind of spice I don’t recognize.”

  “I know what it is,” Nikos said. He turned to Theia Alexa and said something in Greek I didn’t understand.

  Theia Alexa smiled and nodded. She answered him in Greek as well.

  Nikos leaned back in his chair, obviously proud of himself.

  “What?” I asked, completely lost. “What are you talking about?”

  “I knew I would get it,” he said.

  “Get what?”

  “My mother,” Zoe explained in her soft voice, “say she maybe should not admit it, because this recipe, it is a family secret, but … Nikos guessed correct.”

  His name from Zoe’s lips sounded like a caress. And she blushed prettily when she said it, as if speaking his name out loud was some kind of special thrill. I stole a quick glance at Nikos to see if he could detect that as well as the mystery ingredients, but he was too busy congratulating himself on his tasting skills to notice. Guys are so clueless.

  “So what is it?” I asked. “What’s the ingredient?”

  This time Nikos spoke up. “We can’t tell you,” he said. “It’s a secret. …”

  Zoe’s smile grew wider, if that’s even possible, and her cheeks took on a deeper shade of pink. You could almost see the thought dancing, skipping, turning somersaults in her head; she and Nikos shared a secret!

  But then Nikos added, “… between Theia Alexa and me.”

  Zoe’s smile faded, but Nikos kept grinning like an idiot.

  See? I told you—clueless.

  After lunch, Victoria reminded me yet again that we were scheduled to resume lessons at four. Seriously, it’s not like I was going to forget it in the twenty minutes since she reminded me last. I sighed dramatically and informed her that yes, I remembered that we were going to keep going since we hadn’t put in a full three hours on Delos.

  “We still have half an hour before we need to start,” I said. “I’m going to walk around a little bit before then.” It killed me to think of being cooped up inside when the sun was shining so cheerfully outside, and the water was so blue. Stupid agreement.

  Victoria regarded me for a moment and then agreed. “Fine. I’ll see you at four.”

  I watched her disappear into the elevator and slumped back in my chair.

  “What is it my American cousin says?” Nikos grinned. “Oh, yes. Sucks to be you.”

  “What about you?” I asked him. “Don’t you have to study?”

  “I’m on holiday,” he said. “No school.”

  “What about you, Zoe?” I asked.

  She had been gathering dishes, and she looked up, startled. “What?”

  “Are you on holiday? From school, I mean.”

  “Oh. Yes.” She slid a quick—and longing—look at Nikos. “Holiday.”

  “Must be nice,” I said with a sigh. I wished I could take a break from lessons, too, but—as Victoria constantly reminded me—I needed to study every day if I was going to keep up with my schoolwork. Because if I didn’t keep up with my schoolwork, I wouldn’t pass the proficiency exams, and if I didn’t pass the exams, my mom and dad would think they were right when they decided I needed a more “structured environment” and that I should go back to regular school.

  I pushed back from the table. “Well, if I have to go be stuck inside for a couple of hours, I want to walk around and get some sun first. You guys want to come?”

  Zoe’s face registered surprise, and then panic, and then something that looked like regret before she finally murmured, “I must do my jobs.” She actually appeared to shrink as she folded over the plates she was gathering.

  I was about to suggest that Nikos and I could help her finish, but Nikos was already on his feet, pushing his chair back in to the table.

  “I’ll come with you,” he said.

  Zoe turned away with her armload of dishes. I didn’t know how to get her to come with us without being obvious. I’d have to find out more about her work schedule if there was going to be any hope of arranging for her and Nikos to spend time together.

  I followed Nikos down the steps to the promenade deck—which was the one deck that wrapped all the way around the yacht without being broken up by stairs or something.

  Nikos and I promenaded around the deck, lost in our own thoughts for a minute, and then Nikos said, “Tomorrow, since we don’t have filming until evening, Magus promised to take us out on the boat.”

  I gave him a sideways look. “Um, we are on a boat.”

  “No. I mean on the speedboat. You know, like we took to Delos today. Have you ever been wakeboarding?”

  I had to admit I hadn’t.

  “I’ll show you how,” Nikos offered. “If you don’t have to study …”

  “I’m only required to do schoolwork three hours a day,” I said quickly. “I’m sure I can find the time to come out on the boat with you guys.”

  “It’s a date then.”

  Date? He was probably joking—he was hardly serious about anything else—but I didn’t want to even go there. Especially since the plan was to set him up with Zoe. I was trying to think of a way to inject her into the conversation when Nikos grabbed my arm and yanked me closer to him.

  I pulled back. “Uh, hey, Nikos, I’m not—”

  “Look,” he said, pointing. “There they are again. The paparazzi.”

  Three white boats glided through the water behind us, looking more like toy boats from the distance. If they were paparazzi, I couldn’t imagine they’d be able to get any good shots from that far away. Even with a really good telephoto lens, what could they hope to—

  “Wait.” I shook my head. “Those look like fishing boats. See the lines?”

  He shaded his eyes and squinted at them. “Oh.” His shoulders drooped a little. Was it possible he was disappointed?

  “Don’t worry,” I teased. “I’m sure they’ll be back.”

  He looked at me strangely for a second and then shrugged. “Too bad you have your lessons,” he said. “You’ll miss your photo ops when they do.”

  “Ha. I think I’ll live.”

  By then, we’d made almost a complete lap around the deck. As we came around the corner, I could see Zoe up ahead near the bow of the yacht, leaning against the railing, staring out over the water. She didn’t turn toward us as we got closer, but I knew she was aware of us there, the way her posture stiffened and she stood unnaturally still.

  Nikos, as usual, was oblivious. He kept chattering as if she wasn’t even there. “Here,” he said, pulling out his phone. “We should take our own pictures. I could post them on my Facebook page. Make all the other girls jealous.”

  Zoe kept staring at the waves like she didn’t hear him, but I noticed the way she flinched when he said that.

  “I’ve got a better idea.” I broke away from Nikos and ran up beside Zoe. “Take our picture for your page.”

  Finally, Zoe turned from the water to look at me with wide, panicked eyes.

  Grampa told me once how when wild animals are startled, their instinct is either to freeze where they are or to take off as fast as they can. I could almost see the same debate race through Zoe’s head. I slipped my arm through hers to hang on to her in case she decided to try to escape and t
urned her so that we were both facing Nikos.

  “Yes! Two girls! Even better for my image.” He practically skipped over to where we stood, and pressed his cheek up against mine, holding the phone out at arm’s length to take the picture.

  “Wait,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be in the middle?”

  “Good idea,” he agreed.

  Next to me, Zoe started to pull back so I tightened my grip on her arm until Nikos wedged himself between Zoe and me. When I was sure she wouldn’t run away, I let go.

  Nikos held the phone in front of us again. “Smile!”

  Little by little, Zoe let herself relax until I’m pretty sure she was having fun posing with Nikos for his pictures. And when he paused to show us the shots on his screen, I know she was smiling for real. Laughing, even. If I was the jealous type, I probably would have been green with envy by then, because Zoe’s smile was downright beautiful.

  Nikos must have noticed that, too, because when he looked up from his phone and saw her laughing next to him, something changed. For an instant, the cocky, macho-guy mask fell away. He looked surprised and suddenly unsure.

  And then her eyes met his and the same look of hesitation mirrored on her face. Both of them quickly looked away, but the attraction had been unmistakable.

  It made me happy and sad at the same time. I suddenly really missed Logan. Had he ever looked at me like that? Would he ever look at me like that? Not unless I got my mom and dad to take me back with the show. Otherwise, I’d probably never be near him again.

  I stepped back. “I have to go,” I said. “My lessons.”

  Zoe and Nikos jumped apart, both rushing to answer.

  “I should go practice,” he started.

  “I should help my mother,” she said.

  They exchanged another look—shyly this time, and then rushed off in different directions. I watched them go, and then trudged off to do my lessons.

  Poor Victoria. I don’t remember a

  thing she tried to teach me that afternoon. All I could think about was the look. For one small moment, Nikos had let go of his Don Juan act. That one moment was enough for me to catch a glimpse of who he really was—just a guy who wanted to be liked. If only he knew how crazy Zoe was about him. He didn’t have to worry about that.