Read the story.

Little Lorenzo Stories

Victor and Mateo could not stop laughing. They were watching the video they had just made. ‘That’s just . . .’ Mateo said, unable to finish his sentence.

‘It’s so ridiculous!’ said Victor

‘Okay, let’s show my brother,’ said Mateo, still giggling. ‘Lorenzo! Come and look at this video we made with your toys.’

Little Lorenzo was confused at first, but he broke into a huge grin when he saw his giraffe and his robot speaking to each other in the video. He giggled at the end. 

‘What do you think? Should we upload it?’ Mateo asked Victor. 

‘Definitely! Everyone’s got to see this.’ 

Victor and Mateo had already made a lot of videos together. They started when Mateo got his new phone a few months ago. Their first videos just showed the two of them being silly. But then Victor started planning them a little more, using props and coming up with storylines. 

‘It’s up!’ Mateo said after the upload was finished.

‘Okay, I gotta go. My dad is waiting. See you tomorrow! Bye, Lorenzo!’ said Victor.

The next morning, Victor received a text message. It was Mateo, telling him that the video had been viewed three hundred times already. 

In school, many of Victor’s friends told him they had watched it. By lunchtime, kids he didn’t even know were coming to the lunch table to talk about it.

Victor could see that Mateo was elated at all the attention. Victor was also glad that people liked it. But he could barely eat his lunch. He felt as if everyone was looking at him.

By the end of the week, the video had got thousands of views. 

Even adults started paying attention.

‘Mateo’s mum told us about your new video,’ said Victor’s dad. ‘That’s exciting! Do you want to go to filmmaking camp this summer?’ 

‘Oh. No, I don’t think so,’ said Victor. ‘We’re just having fun.’ 

The next week in school, Ms Ellis announced that the class’s next project would be a video. ‘I’m sure we’ll all have questions for our class expert, Victor,’ she said.

Victor sank into his chair. He wasn’t an expert. He and Mateo just made videos that made them laugh. 

On Saturday, Victor and Mateo were hanging out and talking about making another video. 

Victor picked up the giraffe toy from last time, and he tried to think of something for it to say. Nothing came to mind. Usually, this part was easy. He made the giraffe run across the table while he thought.

Mateo was coming up with stranger ideas than usual. He was saying something about making the giraffe turn into a horse, and something about a portal to another dimension. Victor didn’t get it.

Victor’s giraffe slowly lay down on its side, gave a little shudder and died. ‘Let’s watch TV or something?’ he said.

‘Okay. There’s a new series we should watch,’ said Mateo. They watched TV until Victor’s dad came to pick up Victor. 

After a few weeks, life was back to normal for Victor. No one mentioned the video. Everyone at school was talking about the new TV series, which Victor really liked.

One day, they were watching the new series at Mateo’s when Lorenzo came in and started asking about the show. They tried to explain it to him, but he was still confused. They turned it off, and Mateo started to describe the whole plot, from the beginning, in little-kid terms. Victor started acting it out while Mateo talked, using sound effects and random objects. Lorenzo was entertained, clapping and laughing at the action.

‘Hey! We should make videos for Lorenzo,’ Mateo suggested.

Victor hesitated, then burst into a grin. ‘What do you think, Lorenzo? We can call them “Little Lorenzo Stories”.’

‘Yes!’ said Lorenzo.