Page 4 of Rome for the Holidays
He felt his stomach drop a little when she had written that she had her dog make her feel safe. He hoped that no one was bothering her; it scared him to think that.
He didn’t know why he was feeling the way he was.
He would try to understand it later, but for now, he would let it go.
He pulled out a piece of paper, looking around to see that most of the class were still reading their letters.
Ciao from Italy.
It was fun hearing back from you. I really liked it. I will write back to you if you write back to me. I like knowing that we can be friends. That I could have a friend that lives on a different continent than I do. It would be cool. To answer a few of your questions, I do like school. Learning is important and my papa always tells me that I need to learn a lot so that one day, I can take over for him in the family business. So, I am going do just that. I take three different language classes and am learning self-defense. That class is my favorite so far. I have learned how to speak English, Spanish, Romanian and a little bit of Russian. As well as Italian. It is good for me. I like reading, but I am usually too busy and do not read as much as I want to. If I am not studying, I play football with my brother. We play as much as possible. It would be really neat to have you visit Italy one day. I could come to the States. I have always heard it is a neat country. I am sorry you are not very coordinated. It takes my sister a long time to play football too. She gets too excited. Slow down and focus on one thing at a time. Run, then kick. Then do both together. It will help. I hope it does, anyway. I am glad I got you as the person who wrote back to me. It is cool. Hope to hear from you soon.
Vincenzo
He tucked the paper away in his bag to send it off later and looked over at Giovanni.
Giovanni was crumbling up the paper he had been given, “What?”
Vincenzo shrugged, “Just wondering what you are doing?”
Gio rolled his eyes, “The boy who wrote me back just wanted to make poop jokes and booger jokes. Those are so last year.”
Vincenzo hid his smile and laugh with a cough, “Oh. My person was a girl. She seems nice. Likes to read. But cannot play football.”
Gio gasped, making the teacher look over at them and narrow her eyes.
Vincenzo kicked Gio under the desk, hissing under his breath, “Shut it Gio. We are gonna get in trouble.”
Gio looked ashamed, “Sorry. I just have not heard of someone not being able to play football before.”
Vincenzo shook his head at his best friend. “You are lucky that she only glared at us. I do not want to get in trouble.”
Gio nodded, “I know. So, tell me what else the girl said.”
He told Gio everything else, and by the time he was done, Gio was leaning back in his chair. “You are lucky. You might get a real friend out of this.”
Vincenzo shrugged, “Maybe.”
He had no idea then that Gio was right, to a degree. But Harper was going to be so much more than just a friend. She was going to be his everything.
Two weeks later
Vincenzo had come home from school to find another letter waiting for him from Harper.
He rushed to his room to open it, barely shutting the door before ripping the envelope open and pulling out the letter.
It said,
Dear Vincenzo,
Hi from America. I think it’s really cool that we are friends and knowing I have a friend that lives in a cool country is pretty neat. I don’t have many friends because I’m too shy. I don’t know what to say to people and get overwhelmed if I try, so I usually don’t. I eat lunch in the library alone, and the librarian is really nice to me. She sometimes brings me treats and lets me stay for as long as I want. I tried your advice to slow down when I played soccer last, but it didn’t work, and someone just took the ball from me. I didn’t really mind it. I am happy to just watch. It’s a really cool sport. I told my dog all about you, he seemed to think you are nice. But Saul likes most people; except for the men my mom has over. He doesn’t like them and often growls when they try to come near me. He almost bit one the other day. I don’t like those guys either. So, Saul is great to help protect me. I hope to hear from you again. It was really awesome that you actually wrote back to me, and that I can say I have a friend now. Maybe next time I could send a picture of myself, and you could send one of you, so that I know what my friend looks like? You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I will still send one of me. Hope to hear from you soon.
Your friend, Harper
Vincenzo was grinning so hard that his cheeks hurt. He liked the quirky way that she wrote, as if telling him everything made it easier for her to write.
He didn’t mind. He wanted to hear it all. Needed to know everything he could know about her.
He crossed to his desk, sitting down in the chair, and pulling out a piece of paper to write her back.
