Page 1 of Valentino

PROLOGUE

Valentino, aged 12.

Long fingers unzip the pencil case, I watch on as she pulls out a pencil and a pink sharpener. It’s the kind that has a little plastic barrel that catches the sharpenings.

Smooth and calm, with a perfect turning style, and even though I’ve sharpened a million pencils in my life, the way she does it is…fascinating.

I lean my face onto my hand, entranced by the beautiful creature sitting two desks over.

Serafina Alfords, the object of my obsession.

I stare at her all day, and dream about her all night, and even though she doesn’t know I exist, one day I’m going to talk to her on my own. Say something, something that makes her like me back.

Her eyes drift over and I smile. Unfazed, she goes back to her pencil sharpening.

For ten minutes I stare, she says something to her best friend sitting beside her, Violet. The second prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.

Violet whispers something in reply to Serafina and they look my way and giggle, my stomach swirls.

What did she say?

“Eyes on the board,” Mrs. Busa calls. “Valentino, are you listening?”

I drag my eyes back to the front and pretend to concentrate, but from my peripheral vision I can see Serafina is still sharpening her pencils.

I should get to school early tomorrow and sharpen her pencils for her. If only I could talk to her, but I never get the chance. My friends all hate girls, and I have no idea why because they’re all I can think about.

Knock, knock sounds at the door and Mr. Greco is standing there with a boy.

“Good afternoon, class,” he calls.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Greco,” everyone sings.

“We are very lucky; we have a new person joining our school, he’s going to be in your class. Everyone say hello to Carlo Bernetti.”

“Hello, Carlo,” everyone says on autopilot.

He looks around without so much as a smile and I smirk at his attitude.

“Welcome, Carlo.” Mrs. Busa smiles. “You may take a seat next to Valentino.” She pats the table next to mine. “Valentino, I want you to look after Carlo, you will be his buddy.”

I nod, unimpressed.

Ugh, I don’t want to get stuck with the new kid.

Carlo slumps into the seat beside me and I force a smile. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he grumbles.

Mrs. Busa begins talking again and Carlo looks around at everyone as if summing them up, he leans over and whispers, “What’s her name?”

I frown. “Who?”

“The one with the ponytail.” He gestures to her with his chin.

“Oh.” I nod. “Her name is Violet.”

He watches her, and after about ten minutes he leans in again and whispers, “Can we hang out with them at lunch?”