Rizzoli – The Early Years

Chapter 1

"Rizzoli, for that wise crack drop and give me 20 pushups and don't let me hear you talk like that again." The academy instructor told her after she told her friend Marino to "shut the fuck up."

Lorenzo Marino and Jane Rizzoli were horsing around before class began and Marino made a comment to Rizzoli, "You're just being a 'girly girl' Rizzoli."

"No way, I'm not a 'girly girl' Marino. I don't even like wearing dresses and makeup." Rizzoli said in her raspy voice. She was a tomboy through and through and has always been that way. She wasn't going to let her new friend get away with calling her a 'girly girl.' She had only known him for a little over a month. They hit it off right away when they met the first day of the academy.

Jane Rizzoli was an 22-year-old high school graduate and United States Air Force (USAF) veteran. She entered the academy right after she completed her four-year active-duty tour with the USAF. The few friends she had had gone off to college or joined the military after high school. Jane wanted to be a homicide detective. She had wanted to be a police officer for as long as she could remember. Several Halloweens had seen her dressed as a police officer when she was five or six years old.

She was hoping that the academy was an in-residence academy but it wasn't. The Boston Police Academy was a 20-week non-resident program. She would have to go home each night. She would have to study hard and graduate towards the top of her class because she was working in a man's job and being a woman, she would have to work harder to prove herself.

That was the driving force that was propelling her to succeed in her academy training. She wanted that shot of obtaining her goal of becoming a homicide detective. She had mapped out all the steps she would need to take to achieve this goal. The first step was graduating from the academy. Well, the first step after getting accepted into the academy that is. She knew not every applicant was accepted into the 20-week academy course. She figured she had a pretty good shot at getting into the academy.

She had applied and been accepted into BCU and wanted to go but when she thought of the cost involved and how her parents didn't have the money to send her to college, she declined the offer and joined the USAF. She told herself she could take night classes at the community college once she became a police officer.

Her father was a plumber and was always working extra hours just to put food on the table. Her going to college would break them financially. So, she decided not to go. She put her acceptance letter in her desk drawer and didn't think any more about it. She never told her parents that she had been accepted at BCU. Not all of her friends could afford to go to college either so it was no big deal.

Some of her friends went into the military and figured they would be able to go to college using their GI Bill benefits. She would make do and she would achieve her goals. Determination was on her side. She didn't want to go into the military but she couldn't join the police department until she was 21. She knew she could probably go into law enforcement in the military but there were no guarantees. The needs of the military always came first. She took her chances and with great scores on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test that she had taken as a Junior in high school, she qualified for quite a few jobs. She was fortunate that they needed Security Forces personnel so she was able to go into law enforcement.

She knew how much four years of college would cost and she just couldn't do that to her parents. The financial aid she was offered didn't cover very much and she didn't want to take out huge student loans. She didn't need a degree to become a police officer. Although she had no desired to go into the military and a direct route to the academy was not possible going into the Air Force was her best option for her to achieve her goal.

If she was a boy should would have stood a great chance of getting a baseball scholarship but girls weren't allowed on the baseball team and no college was offering her a softball scholarship because she played baseball.

Another goal of hers was to have her associate degree in Criminal Justice. The degree would be handy if she decided to move further up the ranks later in her career. So, the degree could wait for now. Now she just needed to concentrate on her first step and that was graduating from the academy.

The Air Force had a Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) and they offered associate degrees designed around your job so she could obtain her CCAF degree in Criminal Justice while she was serving in the Air Force. Plus, she would be earning money to offset the cost of the police academy. The four years of experience would be beneficial also. She would be 22 when she finished her four years of active duty so that worked out perfect. She would have to do an additional four years in a reserve component and she was okay with that.

Jane was the oldest of three children born to Francisco and Angela Rizzoli. They were a proud Italian family who lived in Revere, outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Jane had two younger brothers, Frankie Jr. and Tommy. They attended a catholic church and went to church regularly. The children went to a catholic school. Sure, they caused their share of mischief but no more than any other children in the school. They had to wear a school uniform and Jane hated when she had to wear dresses.

She was very protective of her younger brothers and didn't let anybody get away with teasing or picking on them. Frankie had a slight stutter and some of the other students made fun of him and laughed at him. He was shy and didn't stick up for himself. When Jane heard the others making fun of him, she stood up for him and got into a fight with one boy who was much bigger than she was. She punched him in the face and broke his nose.

She was suspended from school for three days and had to apologize to the boy. Jane didn't think it was fair that she had to apologize when the boy that was making fun of Frankie didn't get punished at all. Jane didn't like being told what to do.

"Ma, it's not fair, he said some mean things to Frankie and he is not getting punished at all. He pushed me and that is why I punched him. How come he doesn't get punished? Why am I the only one that is getting suspended?" Angela tried to explain it to her, "Sweetie, life isn't always fair and sometimes things just happened that way. You will take your punishment and not let this happen again. Do you understand me young lady?"

"Ya ma, I understand. I don't like it though. I know you are trying to help me out and keep me from getting into further trouble." Jane responded and went up to her bedroom to finish her homework. She would come back down when it was time for dinner. She thought about slamming her door but caught it before it hit the door frame, she thought better of it as she didn't want to get in trouble with her ma for slamming the door. Her ma already thinks she has a temper, just like her pop.

Jane was only eight years old and didn't like it one bit. Her brother was only five and didn't deserve to be picked on. She told herself that she would just have to keep a closer eye on him. The doctor said his stuttering would go away with time. Jane was hoping that time would come soon. She hated seeing her brother getting picked on for stuttering. He was a good kid and didn't deserve it.

When she went back to school three days later, the boys that had been picking on Frankie backed away from her when she walked by. She had noticed that the bruising on the boy whose nose she broke was still very pronounced. She just smiled at them and kept walking. She wouldn't let this happen again. If they picked on Frankie she would wait until they were off of school grounds before she did anything about it. She hoped that Frankie would learn to stand up for himself. She couldn't always be there to look out for him. She would do the best she could though to protect her younger brother. She didn't like getting in trouble though. Her best friends Arianna and Angelo said they would help protect him also.

After her suspension Jane noticed that even the girls backed away from her. They were afraid of her. Jane didn't like that either, she wanted to have friends. She thought maybe it would just take them a few days for them to see that she was still the same person she was before she broke that boy's nose. Her friend Gina told her, "Janie they are afraid you are going to hit them. You have a temper." Even Gina stopped hanging around with her as much as she used to.

As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months Jane just accepted that she wouldn't have as many friends as she had before the incident. She was fine with that. The people that mattered most to her were her family and she would do whatever she needed to do to keep them safe. She stopped worrying about whether she had friends or not and concentrated on sports. She started playing more softball and basketball. She was great at sports and everybody wanted her on their team.

In middle school she played on the school's teams and was quite often the best player on the team. She excelled at sports. All sports, any sport she played she excelled. She was really athletic and loved to play.

As Frankie grew up, he got tougher and started sticking up for himself. Tommy always stuck up for himself so Jane didn't get into too many more fights on behalf of her younger brothers. Jane was happy that Tommy was tougher. He didn't pick fights but when picked on he stood his ground. She was proud of him. Frankie was two and half years younger than her and Tommy was five years younger.

Jane was the only girl and her mother tried so hard when she was younger to get her to wear dresses and play with dolls but Jane wanted nothing to do with that. She wanted to wear jeans and play with cars and dirt and climb trees. Her mother went so far as to even get her a pink canopy bed for her bedroom. Jane hated it but she had to sleep in it as it was the only bed in her room.

Jane's cousins that were girls didn't have a bed like hers they had either a single twin bed or a bunk bed if there were multiple girls in the family. Jane just chocked it up to her mother wanting Jane to have some 'girly' things in her room.

Angela supported Jane in her sporting events. Frankie and Tommy both like baseball. When Jane was in high school, she tried out and made the Varsity baseball team as a Freshman. She was that good. She was better than a lot of the boys on the team. She was a great offensive and defense player. The coach had heard from one of his friends about her when she was in middle school. He actually went to a few of her games and saw for himself how good she was. He was excited to have her on his team.