Business And Hopelessness

"Your hair is full of snow," He chuckled as he looked at her, reaching out to push a strand of hair behind her ear.

Some snow successfully fell off her, but he didn't withdraw his hand. He cupped her cheek, wiping away a few snowflakes from it. She was frozen, staring at him like a deer caught in headlights, her heart pounding in her chest. Then, raising his other hand, he cupped her cheeks fully. His eyes began to trace every inch of her face; her eyes, her cheeks, her nose, before his gaze dropped to her lips. Her heart skipped a beat as she tried to keep herself together.

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Seventeen-year-old Valentina Barron doesn't have the most ideal home life. Her family has financial problems, her mother is hospitalized, they had to move to a small apartment from their decent-sized family home... You get the point. She thinks life is unfair and horrible.

Due to certain conditions, Valentina gets a scholarship at the most prestigious school in her hometown, but it doesn't make things easier, maybe even the opposite. She has to keep her grades high to satisfy her parents while attempting to scrape some money for breakfast since all of it goes to pay rent and hospital bills.

Then one day, she has enough and tries to steal from the school's wealthiest girl, Odette Wraith, to make life simpler. It obviously doesn't go according to her plans, and she ends up tangled in some shady answer sheet-selling business at the school, where she meets the bane of her existence, who shows her that life isn't all about sadness;

Luca Lennox.