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ADELINA ROMANO'S FINGERS DRUMMED against the frayed spine of the book she was holding. She was no longer reading it; she had stopped about the fifth time that she had read the same sentence and still failed to retain any of it.
She did this every year: about a month before school was to start, Lina would read through all of her textbooks to try and get ahead before the year began.
The keyword being try.
Every time, she would make it through about a third of a page before she would realize that she had failed to retain any of what she had just read. Her hands would curl at the edge of the page in frustration as hot tears pricked at her eyes — that's how it had always been. She felt stupid.
When her mum was alive, Lina never felt stupid. Whenever she would grow frustrated at the jumble of words on the page, her mum would smooth her blonde hair down, tell her to take a deep breath, and read it to her. The words that her mother spoke in her smooth, rich voice stuck in Lina's brain. Those were among the only times she understood right away.
"You are so smart, tesoro mio," she would say, and Lina's eyes would light up at the nickname. "Just because you take a little bit longer to understand things doesn't mean otherwise."
But that was back when things were simple. Back when her mum was alive, back when her dad wasn't a psychopath, back when she was good at school, back when Lina felt as if she belonged.
Now, with her hand between the worn-down pages of her Potions book, a tear slipped out of Lina's eye, leaving a wet spot on the paper. Although she never made good marks, she desperately wished to go back to Hogwarts. At least then she would be with her friends. Oh, how she missed her friends.
Deciding to focus on things that made her happy, she pulled out a stack of paper from one of her white drawers, followed by a pen — a muggle invention she preferred to quills — and began to write to her best friend.
Tommy,
Before I begin, I want to apologize in advance for Cosmo — he's been cranky lately, so if he bit you whilst delivering this letter, I'm sorry!
Anyways, I can't believe that we still have a month left before we return to school. Unlike you, I'm counting down the days til we return. My dad is getting to be unbearable. I have so much to tell you (mostly about him) on the train ride that I just can't put into a letter.
