Taking This Too Far., Alexandra Wolf [best young adult book series txt] 📗

father would be proud of you.” Juliana smiled and made her way upstairs. She was going to have a talk with her little brother. She knocked on his door.

“Nate?”

“Come in.” Nate shouted.

Juliana entered. Nate’s room was pretty clean. He had pictures of his favorite bands on his wall. He had a full bed next to the window, a desk on the far right and his drum set on the left where he was sitting.

“Hey you.” said Juliana.

Nate simply nodded. He was a very good looking kid. He had dark black hair, hazel eyes and tall for his age. He continued to play his drums. Juliana walked over to him.

“Nate, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean why is mom getting phone calls from your geometry teacher?” Nate rolled his eyes. Juliana wasn’t one to pry but she loved her little brother if something was going on then she would do anything to help.

“Nate, if there’s something going on you can tell me, I’ll try-”

“No. I’m fine. Look I’ll try harder, okay? Can you close the door on your way out?” he said. He continued to play his drums. Juliana nodded and left.

Juliana walked into her room. She threw herself on her bed and closed her eyes.
Please daddy help Nathan, she prayed and fell asleep.

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It was Juliana’s phone that woke her. She fumbled in her bed to look for it. It was somewhere in between her sheets. Once in her hand, she checked it. It was a just a text message from Sophie. She straightened out and sat up in her bed. She looked at the time on her alarm. It read five o’clock.

She opened the text. “Jake is getting on my nerves; he keeps texting me. I hate this project.” Juliana laughed and texted her back saying to be nice. Juliana put her phone down and fell on top of her sheets. She felt exhausted for some odd reason.

She grabbed the remote control and turned on her TV. The news was talking about celebrities again.

“At least their life is more entertaining than mine.” she said to no one in particular. Little did she know her life was just going to get more interesting.


Chapter 5


Vincent reluctantly got up in the morning. He would have stayed in bed if it wasn’t for his little sister, Isabella jumping on top of him as he slept.

“Get ready, Vinny.” she yelled and ran out of the room.

Vincent groaned and did just that. He showered and dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt. He put a hoodie over it and finished the outfit with his white vans.

He made his way downstairs. Isabella was sitting down and eating on their kitchen table. He went to the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of orange juice.

“How do you like it here, kid?” Vincent asked his sister as he took a seat across from her.

She smiled up at him, making her dimples visible. “I love it. Everything here is beautiful. It’s so sunny.” His little sister made him smile. She was a pretty girl. Her eyes were a milk chocolate and her dark brown hair was pulled back in a pony tail. She was dressed in jeans, a plain white tee and sweater. “Do you like it?”

“It’s different.” he said simply.

“Vin, you have to give it a chance. Rome wasn’t built in one day.” she told him.

He gave her a look. “When did you get so smart?”

She grinned. “I’ve always been smart.” Just then their mother came into the kitchen. She was dressed in pants and a nice blouse. She grabbed her cell, car keys and coat.

“Come on Bella, lets go. I have to drop you off and come back to meet with the interior decorator. Vinny, have a good day at school. Please drive safely, that car your father gave you is not safe.” Vincent reassured his mother that he would drive safely. Bella gave him a hug good bye, after that he was left alone. He put his cup in the sink and grabbed his books and jumped in his car.


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Vincent took the seat he had yesterday. It was loud in the classroom. Everyone was talking amongst themselves. They were either talking about what they were going to do this weekend or who broke up with who.

He paid no attention to it. Gossip was not his thing. Besides he didn’t know anyone here, and it wouldn’t have mattered to him anyways.

A guy came up to him. “Hey, I’m Jake Cruz. Sorry I didn’t have a chance to introduce myself yesterday.” He held out his hand.

Vincent shook it. “No problem. I’m Vincent Moretti.”

“Moretti? That’s a new one. Are you Italian?” asked Jake.

“Yeah, I am.” he told him.

“Cool.” he said. They talked until the bell rang and Mr. Andrews asked the class to settle down and take a seat.

“Alright guys. I swamped with getting grades out for first semester. I want you and your partners to at least write down some of the ideas you guys have for your paper. You guys are in A.P English so I don’t want to see a lot of misspelling or misuse of grammar. Got it? Okay, go for it.” Mr. Andrews took a seat at his desk.

Vincent looked over to see his partner. She was sitting at her desk, not moving. He didn’t want to feel dumb going over there so he did the next best thing: he texted her.

“Hi partner. So want to work on our project?” He sent the message.

Two minutes later, he got his reply. “You texted me for that? I went over to your desk yesterday…”

He understood what she meant. She wanted him to go to her. He put his phone in his pocket and walked over to her. Her friend Sophie and Jake were talking, well more Jake than Sophie.

Juliana wanted to laugh. When Vincent had texted her, she had forgotten that she had his number under Romeo. She almost replied, “Who is this?” She took the smile off her face when he approached her.

He grabbed a chair and sat across from her. Vincent simply got down to business. He basically was telling her what they should write about and what they should elaborate on. Juliana would occasionally interrupt; she also gave him some ideas.

“I already typed up some stuff yesterday.” he lied. “Do you want me to send it to you and you can finish it off?”

Juliana agreed. He was actually letting her do something. If she didn’t like what he wrote, she was going to make a few changes herself. She smiled at the thought.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

“Oh nothing.” she lied. “Here’s my email.” She gave him a piece of paper with writing on it. He took it and put it in his notebook.

“Okay kids.” Mr. Andrews said. “Please do your best on these papers. It’s your last major paper before you guys graduate.” The bell rang and everyone scattered to get out. Vincent took his time leaving. Jake caught up with him at his locker.

“Hey man.” said Jake.

“Hey.” he said. He opened his locker and left his notebooks in there.

“So want to hang during lunch, you know so you could get to know some of the guys?”

Vincent took a minute to answer. Jake seemed like a good guy.

“Sure. Do you play sports?” Vincent asked.

“Yeah. Soccer. That’s why I’m so dark.” Jake laughed.

“Cool. I played soccer.” he told Jake.

“Yeah? How about you show me some of your moves after school?”

“You’re on.”


Chapter 6

It was three weeks into January. Last week Juliana and Vincent had presented their project; they had clashed once and awhile but it in the end they presented an A+ project. Mr. Andrews congratulated both on doing an excellent job. Juliana was surprised on how smart Vincent was, he actually knew his history and spoke very articulate. Juliana was proud in the end.

It was a very hot sunny day. Juliana in denim shorts, white v-neck, and sandals made her way to her car when her cell phone rang. It was Sophie.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asked when she had answered it.

“I’m still at school. I had to speak to Mrs. Sanders on my college application to NYU. Wait for me.”

Juliana sat in her car, with the AC on high, listening to ACDC while she waited for Sophie. She was in her own zone, when all of a sudden someone knocked on her window. She jumped.

“You scared me.” she told Jake as her window rolled down. Jake laughed. He was in his soccer practice clothes: a muscle shirt, shorts, and cleats.

“My bad.” he said. “What are you still doing here?”

“Waiting for Sophie as always, what about you? I thought you didn’t have practice today, oh you stink too by the way.” Juliana joked.

Jake smiled. “Yup, we did but-” Jake was cut off when someone called out his name. It was Vincent, he was walking towards Juliana’s car. Juliana’s mouth fell open but immediately closed it. Vincent was shirtless with only his shorts and cleats on. He had a Nikes gym bag on his right shoulder and carrying a soccer ball.

“You forgot your ball, dude.” Vincent kicked the ball to Jake, who picked it up with this “soccer move.” Juliana was impressed. “Hey Julie.”

“Hi.” she said. She was glad that her voice was working.

“So Danny is having some party tomorrow, he asked me to invite you and Sophie.” said Jake leaning against her car. She almost said yes but she decided to play it cool. “I’ll see.”

Just then Sophie was walking out of the school, talking on her phone.From what it seemed it looked like Sophie was arguing with the person on the other line. “Fine, I don’t care!” she shouted into her phone and closed it. She walked to Juliana’s passengers side and got in.

“Are you okay?” Juliana asked her.

“Great.”

“Sophie, you know what will make you feel better?” asked Vincent, leaning inside Juliana‘s car. Sophie’s face immediately changed from a frown to a wide grin.

“What’s that?” she asked. Sophie and Vincent got to know each other even more when Juliana and him had worked on their project at the library. Sophie would bring Jake over as well so they could all help each other. Juliana had told Sophie that they were too busy with their project but Vincent had insisted that he didn’t mind helping at all, him and Jake had clicked since Vincent had joined the soccer team at school.

“Danny is having a little something tomorrow. You should go.” he winked at her. Juliana rolled her eyes. Sophie smiled and agreed.

“Sophie, I-” Juliana was cut off.

“Jules, we were invited so we’re going.” Sophie begged with her eyes. Juliana threw her hands up in agreement.

“Fine, we’ll be there.” Juliana said.

“Great.” he said. “Okay, well I guess we’ll see you ladies tomorrow.” Vincent and Jake made