The Carrie Diaries. Candace Bushnell

       CHAPTER ONE A Princess on Another Planet

      They say a lot can happen in a summer.

      Or not.

      It’s the first day of senior year, and as far as I can tell, I’m exactly the same as I was last year.

      And so is my best friend, Lali.

      “Don’t forget, Bradley, we have to get boyfriends this year,” she says, starting the engine of the red pickup truck she inherited from one of her older brothers.

      “Crap.” We were supposed to get boyfriends last year and we didn’t. I open the door and scoot in, sliding the letter into my biology book, where, I figure, it can do no more harm. “Can’t we give this whole boyfriend thing a rest? We already know all the boys in our school. And—”

      “Actually, we don’t,” Lali says as she slides the gear stick into reverse, glancing over her shoulder. Of all my friends, Lali is the best driver. Her father is a cop and insisted she learn to drive when she was twelve, in case of an emergency.

      “I hear there’s a new kid,” she says.

      “So?” The last new kid who came to our school turned out to be a stoner who never changed his overalls.

      “Jen P says he’s cute. Really cute.”

      “Uh-huh.”Jen P was the head of Leif Garrett’s fan club in sixth grade. “If he actually is cute, Donna LaDonna will get him.”

      “He has a weird name,” Lali says. “Sebastian something. Sebastian Little?”

      “Sebastian Kydd?” I gasp.

      “That’s it,” she says, pulling into the parking lot of the high school. She looks at me suspiciously. “Do you know him?”

      I hesitate, my fingers grasping the door handle.

      My heart pounds in my throat; if I open my mouth,