I followed Ariadne in silence to the dining hall, feeling the same dread I’d felt on the first day of school. We’d ditched our shoes at the end of the pier and walked barefoot across the island. The dining hall was no more than a thatched roof with a few poles to hold it up and nothing but sand for the floor. It was like an extension of the beach.

“Welcome, Miss Sinclair and Miss Armstrong.” It was Luke. I almost didn’t recognize him. His dark, wavy hair was combed back and he’d changed into a peach polo shirt and pressed khakis. “Miss Clifford is already waiting for you.”

We weaved through the dining room. I was the youngest person here by about fifty years. Ariadne waved at the couples as we passed. “Good evening, Lord and Lady Symington… How are you feeling, Sir Charles?” She knew everyone. My grandma was the perfect mash-up of the Queen and a rock star.

These senior citizens were nothing like grandparents in Indiana. You could tell these folks had money. Diamonds were dripping from the women, and the men’s wrists gleamed with watches from fancy jewellery stores. I recognized a few of the watch brands and knew that they sold for around $25,000. The most expensive watch in my collection cost $150 and that was only because it was a watch, stopwatch, pedometer and heart monitor in one.

Luke led us to a table set for two at the edge of the dining hall. The setting sun illuminated a pink path almost right to our table. The dishes and glasses were trimmed with gold. I was pretty sure it wasn’t the kind that faded in the dishwasher. The dinner plate was outnumbered by eight pieces of silverware and three glasses.

“You?” I said when my focus finally zoomed in on the springy haired girl already seated at the table. “What is she doing here?”

“I’m looking after Miss Clifford for a little while,” Ariadne explained.

“You said we were having dinner with an old family friend,” I muttered. She wasn’t old, not family, and definitely never ever going to be my friend.

“Is this your new assistant?” said the girl who had nearly attacked me with a laptop earlier. The tone of her voice let me know that she didn’t believe my cover story for one minute.

“Charlotte, this is my dear friend Mackenzie,” Ariadne said, pulling out the chair for me.

“She’s a kid!” I exclaimed before I could turn on the filter in my brain that blocked stupid things before I blurted them. Yeah, it malfunctioned a lot.

“Am not!” Mackenzie said.

“Are too!”

“I’m fourteen – fifteen next month.”

Ariadne looked from me to the girl, confused by our crazy ping-pong match. “Mackenzie is a computer genius.” Ariadne laid her hand on the girl’s shoulder in a way that made me think they hugged on a daily basis. Maybe it was the green I was wearing but jealousy thumped me in the chest. “In exchange for her guardianship, she’s helping me design my Triple L app.”

I whizzed through the words I could think of that started with L – lonely, loss, loser, labradoodle? “What?”

“It’s a dating app for pensioners. I named it Love Late in Life. Mackenzie calls it Triple L.” Ariadne said it as if the girl had discovered the cure for cancer. It was a stupid nickname. Big deal.

Love Late in Life. I pictured old folks kissing. EWWWWW! I was equal parts grossed out and impressed. Downloading apps on my phone was my idea of high tech. This mean girl knew how to make the things.

“I’m going to leave you two girls so you can become better acquainted,” Ariadne said, and gave me a little nudge towards the empty seat.

“What?!” The girl and I exclaimed at the same time a bit too loudly. Everyone glared at us.

Ariadne leaned in and whispered, “I need you to be on your best behaviour. It might be nice for you to have a friend your age on the island.”

I plopped down on the chair. Why did adults think that if you were the same age and gender you could be friends? The girl and I stared up at Ariadne. We were probably thinking the same thing: No chance I’m ever going to be friends with her.

“I invited Artie to a private dinner as a thank you for everything he’s done.” And with that she floated away without so much as a backward glance. Artie was waiting for her with this silly grin on his face. He looped his arm around her, and they headed to the beach. My grandma didn’t need any Triple L app.

I’d been dumped again. I felt like the ugly contestant at a beauty pageant – and not just because the girl across the table was wearing the most gorgeous shimmery red dress with diamond earrings and necklace. She’d painted her finger and toenails to perfectly match her dress. Even her lip gloss sparkled a complementary colour. She didn’t look like a computer nerd; she looked like a supermodel.

“The snorkelling is amazing here,” I said, in a pathetic attempt at conversation. I wasn’t going to let this smart, gorgeous girl think she was better than me. In brains and modelling, she may have had me beat, but I had to be better than her at something. I hoped it was conversation. “Have you been out past the reef?”

“I haven’t been snorkelling.” She picked up the black leather menu.

“Oh, you’ve got to go!” I knew something she didn’t know. “It’s like this awesome different world underwater, and it’s right out your back door.”

“I haven’t had time.” She hid behind her menu.

“How about Jet-Skiing? Sailing? Swimming with dolphins?” I listed everything I wanted to do.

“Not yet,” she muttered.

“What do you like to do?” I said, trying to hide the frustration from my voice.

She peered at me over the top of her menu. “I’m building Ariadne’s app.”

“You’ve got to do something for fun.”

“Computer games.”

I played games sometimes. Maybe we did have something in common. “Which ones?”

“I’m designing one.”

Of course you are. I’d had less painful bike crashes. “That’s interesting.”

“My game will combine action with logic riddles.” She lowered her menu and started talking in geek speak about programming and gamer experience and loads of stuff that might as well have been a foreign language. I nodded as if I understood.

Mackenzie flipped the cloth napkin that was fan-folded in front of her and placed it on her lap. I did the same, sending one of my two knives flying. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with that much silverware anyway. My face turned fifty shades of red. Maybe Ariadne could send me to finishing school. They had those in the UK for the royals and posh people, right?

Luke rushed over and picked up my knife. “No worries. I’ll get you a clean one.” He walked over to a cabinet not far from where we were sitting and retrieved a fresh knife for me.

“Thanks, Luke,” I said.

He leaned in closer. “It’s nice to see some young people for a change,” he said with a smile, took our orders and retreated to the kitchen.

The menu had tons of fish options. I thought of those beautiful fish in the lagoon and decided maybe I was a vegetarian. I ordered vegetable curry because the menu said it was hot and spicy. When it came to food, if I didn’t break out in a sweat, it wasn’t hot enough. Dad and I emptied a big bottle of Tabasco a month. Mackenzie ordered baked fish. Blah! Boiled potatoes. Bleugh! And broccoli. Yuck!

When I couldn’t stand the silence any longer, I blurted, “What are you really doing here with my grandma?” I cringed. I’d blown my cover story in less than an hour. Ariadne wasn’t going to be happy with me. “I mean Ariadne. Miss Sinclair.” I corrected my mistake, which only drew more attention to it.

“I knew she was your grandmother,” Mackenzie said. “I can see the family resemblance.”

“She doesn’t like to be called grandma.”

“She doesn’t seem like a grandma,” Mackenzie said. “My grandma doesn’t know how to use her iPhone and yours is building apps.”

Jealousy zapped me again. She was friends with my grandma. It sort of killed our conversation. Our dinners arrived, and we ate in silence. Sweat dotted my scalp as my tongue burned from the curry. The hot and spicy here was way more hot and spicy that in Indiana.

The sun had set, and the ocean and sky darkened into a black screen. A few red dots blinked in the distance. I pictured sea monsters with glowing eyes. “What are those red dots?” I asked before I remembered I wasn’t speaking to her.

“Those are lights from passing ships,” Mackenzie said as if she was an expert on everything.

I didn’t think the dots looked like they were moving, but I’d have to take her word for it. I didn’t love the idea of ships passing out there watching us. I shook off my paranoia. That was my stupid imagination, playing tricks again.

“It was nice to meet you, Charlotte,” she said as soon as she’d finished her last bite of fish.

“Chase,” I corrected her.

“What?”

“I prefer to be called Chase,” I said.

“Oh,” she said as if she could not be less interested. “I’ve got a lot of work to do.” She scooted her chair back and walked away.

“Whatever,” I muttered and scrapped my chair back from the table. I hadn’t finished my curry, but I wasn’t about to sit here by myself like some loser while everyone around me chatted, laughed and ate their dinners. I headed for the beach as if that was exactly what I wanted to do.

I didn’t need Ariadne, and I certainly didn’t need Mackenzie. All I had to do was survive a month of this. I was stuck on a posh desert island, not trapped in a boring old classroom, or tossed in a deep, dark, snake-infested cave. But at this moment, a month felt like a very long time.