We decided to walk and not to take a bus or the tube since we were all so bored of buses and trams and tubes from back home.

"So what are you doing in Paris Lee? You said you were from Romania, right? Are you a tourist like us? Did you know the girls from before or you've just met?" asked Shane.

"Which question you want me to answer first?"

"Erm… sorry… Whatever you'd like to."

"I'm from Romania indeed. I've met Celine on Trocadero. She is a great rollerblader. We have a lot of things in common. She's great. Amy is fine too. I'm here with my choir on a tour."

"Oh, so you like music too?"

"I practically live because music exists."

"Oh, that's beautiful. Back home, when I was little my only passion were horses, I even won some contests back home, but then meself, Kian and Mark and Derek, Michael and Graham played these roles in a musical called Grease… I was Danny. Do you know the film I'm talking about? "

"Yes! It stars Olivia Newton John and John Travolta."

"Right! And that's how I realized music was the thing for me."

"Isn't it great?"

"Yeah, it sure is. I love to sing every song I hear on the radio…"

"Yeah, me too!"

"And my favourite right now is Extreme's More than words."

"Ooooh, that's so good. Sing something."

"No, I'm too shy to do that."

"But you said you wanted to be a big star. Com'on! Imagine you're on this huge stage and just close your eyes and sing, com'on, please!"

"Well, I'll try. OK? But promise you won't laugh."

"I promise. I'll sing along actually."

"OK!"

And he started singing. He had such a nice voice that I didn't even sing one note. He stopped and said:

"What are you doing? You promised to sing along with me?"

"I was going to but your voice it's too nice."

"Oh, thank you! You're so nice, but I know you didn't mean that."

"No, I did. I swear! Do Kian and Mark have voices like yours?"

"They do. Especially Mark. He has the ability of playing with his voice just the way he wants and it sounds so great."

"Really? I have to hear you all singing something."

"But you would have to sing something for us too. OK?"

"Sure. Celine's got a nice voice too you know. She sang a couple of songs to me and only hard stuff like Whitney Houston's songs or Celine Dion's."

"Wow! We really have to get together and sing something. Maybe we can get some good money. Hee, hee! And we'll spend more time in Paris. And maybe you'll get us to one of your concerts."

"If you like the kind of music that we sing."

"And what's that? Opera?"

"We have songs written by Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, Mozart and lots of others like that."

"Ooh, you puzzled me right there. But it must be nice. So we'll come."

"How long will you be in Paris?"

"We planned to spend three weeks. It depends on our financial resources, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah. OK. Maybe tomorrow evening you'll meet Celine and Amy and come to the show. They've been there before and they've liked it."

We noticed the others were pretty far from us so we yelled at them and told'em to wait for us. Shane told Kian and Mark their plans for the next day and they all said yes. We spent the rest of the day wandering through Paris. The guys were enjoying the city very much and they also enjoyed our company. So when we had to say good-bye at the end of the day we were all sad. They planned to meet Celine and Amy the next day to continue their sightseeing. I was not going to be able to meet them coz we had a rehearsal. I was looking forward to seeing them again. Shane was so fine. After they left I told Celine:

"Take good care of them tomorrow, but especially of Shane, just for me. OK?"

"Somebody's got the hots for Shane!" said Celine.

"Who?" asked Amy who wasn't paying attention thinking of how wonderful Mark was.

"Lee you silly! Who else? And you've got the hots for Mark!"

"Like you're not head-over-heels for Kian. I've noticed you having your eyes all over him!"

"No, my eyes were in the right place, it was only your imagination!"

"Come on Celine. Admit it. You liked him."

"Maybe just a little, tiny bit…"

"Or maybe more!"

"Well OK, he's sooooooooo gorgeous! Isn't he…?"

"They all are. Thank God we don't like only one of them."

"Yeah. And Kian told me he liked my sexy accent… But why did you call them to your show. You have so many pretty girls in you choir, what if…?"

"What? Are you afraid of a little bit of a competition? Come on! When it comes to rollerblading you have all the courage in the world, but when it comes to guys you're afraid? You at least look good and you're not the bear I am! It's fine by me if Shane likes somebody from my choir. I'll just kill her immediately" I said with a huge smile on my face.

"Actually I am afraid. I really liked Kian and I don't want to lose a great opportunity. I've never been lucky in love."

"Me neither. But if this is supposed to happen it will no matter what! And you're only 14. You have all your life before you."

"I hope so…"

"Come on girls. You need to warm up your voices!"

"Hold your horses man! We got plenty of time!"

I was always putting Tibi, our choir conductor, in embarrassing situations. But he would forgive me eventually. I liked not to let him feel as the boss and he hated that, but he respected me a lot and he knew I was always right and I wouldn't have done anything in the world against the best interest of the choir. We grouped on the stage and began to warm up our voices. The lights were on and I was able to see Celine and Amy followed by Shane, Kian and Mark. The lads were all dressed up and looking very serious. I smiled and I heard Tibi:

"If Livia would be kind enough to join us again on earth, we'd be more than happy!"

"What? Oh, sorry! I'm OK now!" I knew he was serious coz he used my real name.

"And we've just finished what we were doing."

"OK. Do we change now?"

"No. You can wait another 15 minutes, but at 10 minutes to 8 I want you dressed up and looking good."

"We'll see what we can do about that" I said and I got off the stage making my way to my new friends.

"Hey Lee! You didn't tell me you sounded this good!" said Shane giving me a hug.

"Thanx!" I said blushing. "How are you guys?"

"We're fine. You missed some great sights today. We went to see the Opera House, Place Vendome, La Madeleine, Place de la Concorde, the Louvre from outside" said Celine.

"I loved the glass pyramid!" yelled Shane. "Everything is so incredible!"

"Yes, it's a nice city. I'm sorry I wasn't there with you today, but after tonight's show I'll have two days off so I can catch up with you guys."

"We missed you there."

"Oh, com'on Shane! I bet you didn't even know I wasn't there."

"No, I swear I missed you." He leant to my ear and whispered: "I felt pretty alone out there. Kian was with Celine and Mark with Amy and I had no one with me."

"Poor you. All by yourself. You needed the lady-group called Lee. Get real! You hardly know me. What if I'm a maniac killer wanted by the Interpol in 23 countries?"

"You're not… Erm… are you…?"

"No, of course not. Even if I look like one. I have to go now and change. Enjoy the show."

"Good luck Lee!"

The show went fantastic, the best show of the tour. I tried to do my best knowing that Shane was paying attention to it, but I wasn't singing all by myself. Although, my mates did their best too and so everything was fine. We even had to do an encore.

When it finished I hurried to the dressing room to change. After I changed I got on the corridor and I found the guys and the girls congratulating Tibi for the beautiful show. When they saw me they started congratulating me as well. The lads were overwhelmed. Shane came to me and gave me another big hug for my size and smiled. Tibi left and all of them told me that they enjoyed the show, it was better than they thought it would be. After that they told me they decided for us all to go for a ride with a bateau-mouche on river Seine. That was a great idea so I said yes. Shane took my schoolbag and put it on his shoulders and then he took my hand into his.

"Let's go!"

I was puzzled by Shane's behaviour. He was too good to be true. Nobody had ever been so good to me before. It seemed like we knew each other all of our lives. He was very natural. He seemed to have overcome my looks. The feeling was great, I was feeling safe and happy. But I tried not to get my hopes too high since we were from two different countries and we were visiting a third one. Even if we were to get together I knew it wouldn't have lasted. But for the moment it was nice. And I had to play hard to get. I didn't want him to think I was desperate to have a boyfriend, even if I was…

"I loved a song you sang tonight."

"Only one?"

"No, I loved them all but this one touched my heart. It went something like this" and he sang a few notes of what I realized was Plasir d'amour.

"Oh, it's a French song called Plasir d'amour."

"Sing a little bit, please!"

"Plasir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment, chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie" I sang softly the first two lyrics of the beautiful song.

"Oh, that's beautiful… What does it say?"

"It says that love's pleasure lasts only for a moment and love's pain lasts all life…"

He didn't say anything thinking of the meaning of the words. We kept on walking towards Seine.

"Have you ever been on a bateau-mouche?" Shane's voice brought me back to reality.

"No, I haven't!"

"Me neither. I think it's gonna be great. And romantic…"

"There are a lot of people who think these boats are romantic. All the couples in love that come to Paris are usually taking a ride with a bateau-mouche. It's something they like. Probably they think that it will provide them with happiness for the rest of their lives."

"So, you don't think they're romantic?"

"I didn't want to say that. I don't know what I wanted to say actually. Let's have a good time."

We bought tickets and we got on the boat. It was lovely. There were so many lights and the spotlights were unveiling all the mysterious beauties of Paris. A woman selling roses came to Shane and said with a lousy English accent:

"Mister! Buy a rose for your lady!"

"Pick one Lee! Go ahead!"

I picked a yellow one, coz that's my favourite colour and Shane paid for it and thanked the woman. Then he turned and smiled at me.

"I was sure you would not pick a red one!"

"How did you know that?"

"Red stands for love. You don't seem ready for that kind of relationship, one that involves love."

"What?"

"What happened to you Lee that was so bad and made you stay away from everybody?"

"I'm not staying away from anybody! Nothing happened. You know me for a few days and you think you know the story of my life?" Was I so easy to be read, like an open book?

"No, I'm just trying to figure out what's your story. I try to be nice and you push me away, not directly, but through your acts."

"Hey guys, is everything OK with the two of you?" Kian asked.

Everybody was starring at us. I stood up from my chair and I started walking to the other side of the boat. I got to the edge and I felt Shane standing in my back.

"Yellow roses are my favourite…" I said turning around. "Are you always so straight?"

"Only when I'm interested in something… or someone."

"You're trying to tell me that you are interested in me?"

"I'm not trying anything, I'm telling you: yes, I like you a lot and I'm interested in you."

"That's funny."

"What?"

"The thing that you like me. Nobody did before."

"Really?"

"Yes. I was too much for everyone, I suppose. They couldn't understand that inside this big body they could have found a lot of love and that every little piece of this big body needs love. That's me: a love-a-lot bear."

"They've must have been stupid. And please, stop babbling about how big you are, will ya? You are a human being that deserves to be loved and love back. You're so wonderful! You're cute, you're smart, you have a great voice, you have so many other qualities."

"Wait to see my secret qualities."

"Ooh, sounds good, bear…"

And we started laughing. We suddenly stopped, we were close to each other, so close that I was able to feel his breath on my face. We were looking in each other's eyes. He took me into his arms and he pulled me towards him. Then he leant his face and laid a slow kiss on my half-opened lips. I felt a shiver down my spine. I was guessing he was kissing me for real and to my surprise I didn't want to avoid this kiss. I was actually waiting for it, I was hoping for it, I wanted it with my whole being. My first kiss… It seemed like forever. I was so nervous of not doing everything right. We stopped when we heard Celine:

"Ooh, how beautiful. They finally got to kissing. Well done guys! We've been expecting you to join our club."

Saying this she turned to Kian and gave him a long passionate kiss. Amy, the little child, felt she couldn't miss this opportunity and jumped on Mark. It seemed like she took him by surprise coz they almost fell overboard.