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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Jean-Pierre Valasco Steven Cabral

Jean-Pierre [John Peter] Valasco 2006
Occupation: Artist, Lecturer

Artist Jean-Pierre Valasco came to teach at Eden University and immediately ruffled feathers by being rude to life model Ned Parker and throwing his friends Elle Robinson and Connor O’Neill, out of the studio. When Ned then told him that he would have to leave early to visit a football game, Jean-Pierre sacked him. He then proceeded to dent the confidence of young artist Sky Mangel, telling her that he hated her work and proposed that he simply give her a pass to get her out of the class. Deciding to prove him wrong, Sky spent the whole night perfecting a drawing, only to spill coffee on it the next morning. However, when Jean-Pierre saw the coffee-stained work, he was impressed and withdrew his allegations that she was simply a talentless Barbie doll.

A few days later, Sky suddenly came down with food poisoning and Jean-Pierre agreed to drive her home from university, though quickly regretted it when she was sick in his car. Back at her home in Ramsay Street, she admitted that Jean-Pierre gave her the inspiration to draw, and he made his own admission – that he was a pretentious fake. He told her that his real name was John Peter, so Sky decided that, from then on, she would simply call him JP and they could each use the other for creative inspiration. Their bond grew when Sky had an argument with her boyfriend, Dylan Timmins, and immediately called JP, asking him to come over. However, as the pair got closer, they almost shared a kiss and JP returned later that day and admitted to Sky that he was trying to create works for an exhibition but felt that his creative spark had abandoned him. By the end of the evening, the pair had kissed and JP had made a quick getaway, leaving Sky confused over her feelings.

When she next saw JP, Sky had decided that their connection was creative – like the one she previously had with Lana Crawford – and wasn’t something to be afraid of. She agreed to go to JP’s exhibition, since she’d been the one who helped him to make his creative breakthrough, and the couple shared an interesting evening, hiding out in the gallery after it closed. They then ended up sharing another kiss and going back to JP’s apartment where they slept together. The next morning, JP was devastated to realised that Sky was still dating Dylan and she admitted her mistake and left. When Dylan realised what had happened, he went straight to JP, who was completely honest about the whole thing and said that he would never have slept with Sky if he’d known she wasn’t single. Several weeks later, Sky, having cut off contact with JP by leaving university, found out that she was pregnant and realised that either Dylan or JP could be the father. However, when she called JP to break the news, he told her that he was infertile and couldn’t possibly have fathered her child.

Biography by Steve

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