Read Online Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do in Europe by Jane Harrington - Free Book Online

the boat to stargaze. Which turned out to be very illuminating (hehe), because THERE, standing at the rail—aglow in starshine, like Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio—were Noori and AJ. And they were in the middle of a MAJOR KISS. (And I don’t mean “keep it simple, stupid.”)
    When I saw them, I thought: Noori must be a GREAT dancer. And then I felt an odd “pang.” I wondered if it might be a raging hormone trying to confuse me about whether or not it was a good idea to let the nice Texas boy go. But, NO, it turned out to be Tatyana poking me in the ribs.
    “Let’s leave them alone,” she mouthed, pulling me off to stargaze somewhere else.
    Okay. You’re all caught up on my adventures, and I’ve got to get ready to go. I have to figure out what top will go with my new skirt. (And, no, I WON’T pick a shirt with any numbers on it—I KNOW how to dress up, Delia. I think.)
    I need to take a shower, too, which is something I’m not looking forward to. Delia, you would NOT BELIEVE how small the shower stall is. I swear it’s no more than ten inches square. I’m TOTALLY afraid of getting stuck in it.
    (Oh, BE quiet.)

Wednesday morning
----
    Dear Delia,
    We are now in the French Riviera, my extremely jealous friend. And, believe it or not, I am wearing the bikini with NO shirt over it! Aren’t you IMPRESSED?
    Okay, I haven’t left my stateroom, but it’s still a BIG step for me, because I’m so self-conscious about all this that I feel exposed even with no humans around. Or my mother, for that matter, who is in the shower preparing for another day ashore. I asked her if we could PLEASE hang out on the boat longer this morning, but she’s not having it. I could hide out on the power-walking deck, but I’m too exhausted to slog my way up there.
    It’s not just Barcelona that has me worn out. It’s also the party last night, which, basically, went on until 1:30 in the morning. Everyone was pretty hyper from the chocolate, I guess. There was a scale model of the cruise ship in white chocolate, anchored in a sea of dark chocolate. I am personally responsible for eating three chocolate deck chairs and two chocolate life jackets. Lahn ate an entire smokestack, Tatyana and Noori did in the chocolate hot tub, and AJ snarfed down all of deck nine, I think.
    After that, Noori and AJ (who are still wearing their blue wristbands and STILL into PDAs, let me tell you) disappeared, and we only ran into them one other time during the party. It was at the beginning of Gilligan’s “Treasure of the Sea Hunt,” which was—as you can probably guess—incredibly dumb. He was ALL EXCITED about it, though, and had written little clues, but after about a minute of explaining the rules to everyone over the speakers in the lounge, one of the gamers yelled, “TOURNAMENT!” and EVERYONE shot over to the foosball tables again. Gilligan was left standing there, all pathetic-like, so we took one of his clues and went off on the little treasure hunt (like complete dorks).
    Tatyana read out the first clue: “Go to the place where the ceiling is space and look under the chair that is covered with hair.”
    We decided to go to deck ten—since that’s the top of the boat—which turned out to be right, since we are so smart (and the clue was so stupid). There, we walked around the deck until we found a fur blanket (I hope faux) over one of the lounge chairs. And that’s where we ran into Noori and AJ. They had crawled under it. (The blanket, not the chair.) Tatyana and I tiptoed away, while Lahn pulled a piece of paper out from under the leg of the chair. When we got about a half-deck away, Lahn opened it and seemed to be reading it, then said something to Tatyana in French.
    “Lahn thinks the next clue is at the Roman Ruins Pool, because this clue says, ‘Where the Romans fell, find a bell.’”
    “Lahn read that?” I asked. “I thought he didn’t know English.”
    He shrugged, then said something to Tatyana again.
    “He