"Leona, don't panic! I'm here!" David shouted as he threw himself into the water. He had practiced swimming since childhood and was quite at home in the water. If he hadn't been so confident in his abilities, he never would have asked Colin to help him stage such a trick. He grabbed Leona's hand and swam to shore. She had drunk some of the water, and she bent down as if she was going to vomit.
"Are you okey?" David asked
Besides being soaking wet, Leona was no worse for wear. She nodded to him. "I'm fine. Thanks, David. It's not you. I might just—"
"You don't have to explain. Don't worry. You're going to be fine," David said and smiled.
Looking at Leona's wet face and clothes made him imagine bathing with her in a hotel bathtub. He bit his lip and pushed those thoughts away.
He sent her to the girls' dormitory. When she was done changing her clothes, she followed him back to the lake.
"We didn't have to go back here," David said, sounding worried. Leona smiled back at him. "It's okay. Let's just not take any more baths. The food might be cold by now. Let's eat it quickly."
When they opened the lunch box, the paella was indeed getting cold.
Thinking that David had just risked his life to save her, Leona saw him as a true hero with a great sense of responsibility. She put took a bite of the paella, and suddenly felt a tingling all over her body. A vague image of a figure appeared in her mind.
She was falling into the water, and a man came running. He saved her from the water and yelled at her, but she could not see his face.
"It's David. He saved me just now!", Leona thought. Tears ran from her eyes and dripped into the lunch box.
"Leona, what's the matter?" David asked in a carefree tone.
"David, you're the richest guy in town," Leona answered, staring at him with tears in her eyes. "Why would you risk your life to save me?"
"I naturally want to protect you, that's all. There's no sense dwelling on it." David spoke bluntly. He knew that if he showed his true mind too much, he would make a fool of himself. Having seen how Leona acted around him, he knew that he had already made a good impression. In a few days, he would be able to claim her.
"Oh, thanks. You're very kind," Leona said and smiled at him. "David is worthy of being the head of a rich family", she thought." He's different from the others. I'm lucky my sister is marrying him."
They finished the paella. Leona thought it was especially delicious, better than anything she had ever eaten.
She led David back to the school gate, where he grabbed a rental bike and got ready to leave.
"David, thanks for inviting me out today. Turns out I like paella very much," Leona said and smiled.
David answered triumphantly, "Well, I could come to your school often to have paella with you. Do you want me to?" Leona blushed, and he thought perhaps he had been too forward. He was slightly lost inside his head and didn't know how to express himself. He laughed. "I'm just kidding. I'll come whether we're eating or not, as long as you don't dislike hanging out with me!"
Leona raised her eyes and saw that his face was unrestrained and totally relaxed in the sun. She had the urge to say something. "I don't dislike you." She hadn't planned to say that, and she quickly lowered her head. She felt shy and timid and did not know what to do.
"Goodbye! I'm gone." When she heard David's voice trailing off, Leona looked up. He had already hopped onto his bicycle and was going down the street. Without knowing it, Leona smiled at him.
David rode his bike for just a little while before he heard the signal "Leona has turned back" in his earphones. After that, he stopped and threw the bike away on the sidewalk.
Moments later, a Mercedes-Benz RV drove up beside him and stopped. The door opened and he got in. Darryl was sitting in the car, smiling.
"Since when does David Drake ride a bicycle and get called a nobody!" David mumbled. "It makes you angry just thinking about it." There was a young lady in the RV, who immediately started helping him out of the cheap clothes and into something more fashionable.
While David was getting undressed, Colin came running over to the RV. "David, I'm sorry. Those three girls went overboard."
"They're lucky I'm doing this for Leona. If anyone dared to talk to me like that for real, I would ruin them," David answered angrily.
The young lady was done helping David change his clothes, and he sat back in his seat. Darryl had a huge grin on his face. "David, we saw Leona's expression. She has started to fall for you."
David smiled triumphantly. "Well, you all said that Leona is hard to catch. I also thought that at first. But after this morning, I think it's going to be pretty easy."
Darryl was smiling, but inside he was irritated with David. "If you didn't have that diary, you'd be like me. She would have turned you down before the meal was finished", he thought in his mind.
"Given the effect you had today, you'll have her in a couple of weeks," Darryl said.
"It's true," David answered. "But I've been thinking about that diary. I can't figure out what kind of person this 'Alex' is, and how he could do all these wonderful things."
"Just be patient," Darryl said. "After all, you want to reel the beauty in."
David sighed heavily. "It's all for Leona. As long as I can get her, it's all worth it."
**
For the past few days, Alex had wanted to find Myriam and get the diary back, but he didn't know where she was. He had gone to Leona's place twice, but she ignored him. He felt very sad and ended up standing outside her flat for some time watching for her. But he was pleased to see that Colin rarely came to see her.
He managed to calm down a little and put more energy into his studies, and his daily life improved substantially.
The Olympic Games in Washington, D.C., were coming up soon. In recent days, sports teams from all over the world had arrived in the city one after another. News about the Olympics was broadcast constantly on television, and all kinds of restrictions had been imposed. On the day of the opening ceremony, the controls were particularly strict. Not only was the number of spectators limited, but all of D.C.'s traffic police were deployed to keep order in the street.
On the afternoon of the opening day, Alex was reading in the library when someone patted him on the shoulder. When he turned around, he saw Phillipa standing over him. He was instantly affected by her smile, and he smiled back at her.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the opening ceremony today? How do you still have time for me?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm going there now. Do you have time to go with me?" she said.
"Well, you go there to work. I'd be alone. It's boring. I think I'd better not go." Alex thought of the last time he had gone to the Olympic Sports Center. When they had dinner, he had found that Phillipa seemed to have feelings for him. Since then, he had deliberately kept his distance.
"I think this is a big moment in my life," Phillipa said, and her eyes grew sadder. "I really want to have someone close to accompany me, but Mom and Dad are in my hometown. If you don't accompany me, I'll feel really lonely."
Noticing this, Alex nodded. "Okay, I'll go with you. It'll be nice to see the opening ceremony."
Phillipa suddenly cheered up. "I'm a volunteer, so I don't have tickets. When I go to the stadium, I can only stand by the door. If you want to see the live performance, we'll have to watch it on the screens outside together. Do you still want to come?"
Alex didn't know what to say. All he could do was laugh and nod.
"I look so smart, why am I so stupid?", he thought. "I can't even talk to a girl. I can't help being single. I deserve it!"
Phillipa suddenly seemed to realize something, and she blushed faintly. "Okay, let's go now. There's a lot to do when we get there."
She led him out of the library. They found a taxi outside the school and went straight to the Olympic Sports Center.
In the taxi, they chatted a little more. They talked about the New Year's party, when Alex had donated over 1.5 million euros to the school. What Phillipa didn't know was that he had lied to her when he said that the real donor was the middle-aged beauty at the Ruby Hotel. He claimed that she had pitied him and given him a lot of money, but he had felt uneasy and given it all to the school. Phillipa had believed his story.
"Think about it, though," she said as they walked to the stadium. "If you gave me 1.5 million euros, I'd give some of it to my parents first, then buy some houses, and then I'd rent them out. I can't imagine how comfortable I'd be then."
They walked quickly to the square in front of the stadium. The opening ceremony would begin in just a few hours, and there were many people in the square holding national flags. Some were taking group photos, and some had already walked to the entrance of the stadium.
On the western side of the square, there was a food truck with many people around it. Alex was pleased to see that it was Nelly Lane's truck. "Nelly is there," he said. "Let's go and have a look."
They squeezed into the crowd and saw Nelly making pancakes inside the food truck. As she turned the pancakes in the pan, she was shouting out to the crowd. "Delicious pancakes! Proper American pancakes!"
There was also a thin boy who had taken Alex's old job in the food truck distributing drinks and snacks.
"Nelly!" he exclaimed.
Hearing his voice, Nelly's whole body trembled. She looked up from her stove and saw him. "Little loser! It's you!"
"What are you doing here?" Alex asked happily.
Nelly smiled from ear to ear. "Today's the opening of the Olympics, and there are so many people here. I had to come. I'm making a ton of money!"
Phillipa looked downcast and leaned over to Alex. "You talk, I'll go to work. Come to the E-2 entrance and look for me. If you don't have time to come, you don't have to." She smiled faintly and walked away.
"Oh, your old classmate is angry because you don't want to spend time with her!" Nelly said as she handed a pancake to a customer.
"Don't be silly. We're just classmates." Alex looked embarrassed as he said it. He went into the truck and talked to Nelly while he helped her sell things.
The people standing around the food truck had come from all over the world, and most of them spoke English a little awkwardly.
At one point, a man with a white cap and a bushy beard came up to the food truck and spoke to Alex in a language he didn't understand.