Fani

Fani thinks about movies all the time. She quotes lines, compares everything to scenes and imagines her life with a soundtrack. She goes to a convent school and hangs out with Gabi and Natália. Her best friend is Leo, who is always around.

Her heart belongs to someone else, or so she thinks: her teacher Marquinho, who is married. Fani pines for him in silence and swears no one notices.

Fani's mom wants her to take a test for a year-long exchange program in England. Fani isn't thrilled, but she takes it and gets in.

Her friends cheer. Leo doesn't. He turns sad, pulls away and starts hanging out with Vanessa's crowd, the girl who's always picking on Fani and Gabi. Fani can't figure out what's wrong with him and misses her friend more than she expected.

At a party, Fani has too much to drink, and Leo is the one who looks after her and slow-dances with her. Their friends start to suspect something. Fani denies it all.

Only when Leo seems interested in another girl does she get it: she's been in love with her best friend for much longer than she'd admit. With the trip coming up, Fani has to decide what to do about it.

Fani and Leo finally sort things out and own up to their feelings. Even so, she doesn't give up the exchange program. Torn between the life she knows and a new world, Fani chooses her dream and leaves for England.

Fani first appeared in Paula Pimenta's Fazendo Meu Filme 1: A Estreia de Fani (2008) and narrates all four books in the series, which follow the exchange year, her return to Brazil and the years after. In the book she lives in Minas Gerais.