[The Paradise Diaries 01] • Dante’s Girl

I have spent every summer since I was ten years old with my father in London.

Every summer, since I was ten years old, has been uneventful and boring.

Until this year.

And this year, after a freak volcanic eruption strands me far from home, I

have learned these things:

1\. I can make do with one outfit for three days before I buy new clothes.

2\. If I hear the phrase, “You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” even one more

time, I might become a homicidal maniac.

3\. I am horribly and embarrassingly allergic to jellyfish.

4\. I am in love with Dante Giliberti, who just happens to be the beautiful,

sophisticated son of the Prime Minister of a Mediterranean paradise.

5\. See number four above. Because it brings with it a whole slew of problems

and I’ve learned something from every one of them.

Let’s start with the fact that Dante’s world is five light-years away from

mine. He goes to black-tie functions and knows the Prime Minister of England

on a first name basis. I was born and raised on a farm in Kansas and wear cut-

off jeans paired with cowboy boots. See the difference?

But hearts don’t care about differences. Hearts want what they want. And mine

just wants to be Dante’s girl.

My heart just might be crazy.