Out-and-regretting-it comprehensive attendee Jayden Phillips turns his cast-iron plans for life upside-down by falling in love with private-school violinist Darren Peace, a sardonic boy with the craziest hair Jayden's ever seen.<br><br>But all is not what it seems, and Jayden's bullying problem becomes meaningless when he is confronted with what the music does to Darren. How do you stop a dangerous depression rooted in the same thing that makes someone what they are? Dark moods, blank apathy, and the undertow of self-loathing all simmer beneath Darren's dry and beautiful veneer, and Jayden feels powerless to stop them.<br><br>Then a mugging gone wrong takes the music forcibly away, and Jayden is finally given the chance to change Darren's life -- and, quite literally, his mind.

Vivaldi in the Dark

“Just so you know,” Charley said on Monday afternoon, “I’m not stupid.”


Monday was more or less the only day that they left school together. Charley was everything Jayden was not at school: outgoing, confident, and involved. She wasn’t afraid to join all the clubs she wanted. But then, girls didn’t get bullied for joining the dance club.


“I never said you were?” Jayden hedged. “Want to come over?” he added. “Mum took the day off to sort out the garden.” Which meant she’d broken off at lunchtime to obsessively bake, like always. For being so young, Jayden suspected Mum was secretly a 1950's housewife.


“Yes!” Charley beamed, then promptly punched him in the arm. “Come on. You’ve been distracted all week, and you won’t stop going over that stupid storyboard of—oh don’t give me that look, I’m sure it’s great, but you have to admit that you’ve been obsessing.”


Chapter 11