With "Wish You Were Here," author Renée Carlino provides the blueprint for a romantic drama that could easily be misconstrued as treacly or saccharine. Her novel features a star-crossed love affair, a devastating terminal illness and a young woman caught at a crossroads in her life.

Vanessa Carlton — who scored Julia Stiles’ directorial debut movie, ‘Wish You Were Here’ — shares exclusively with PEOPLE that she had met Stiles three decades ago in a biology class when they were both teens in high school.