Chapter 3

"Ring"

Hilda turned to see him as he approached running through the sidewalk and hit him on the shoulder in a friendly but abrupt manner:

"Hi, Gio!"

He pursed his lips and fixed his jacket.

"Hi, Hilda. It's G…" he frowned, a bit mad that his name didn't click well in this new school.

"Ay, don't be ridiculous, everyone calls you Gio." she said and, taking some money from Betty's hands, pinched her little sister's cheeks. "Okay, so Gio is finally here. I'm leaving now."

Gio's brown eyes amused in the contemplation of the long golden earrings that spelled "Hilda" and hung from her earlobe to her neck, filled with one too many gold chains that fell naughtily over that yellow polyester shirt that flaunted the best part of her body.

"Mmm… mmm…" Gio thought, "now, that's what I call a babe blessed by God."

Just a few weeks ago he had tried to date her, she had just broken with her old love and he wondered "why not?" He loved older women. Dating Hilda Suarez was fun, they danced, they even kissed, they kind of clicked but all he received to remember that night was a black eye from her ex-boyfriend.

"Hey, Santos!" she said and Gio jumped just at the mention of his name.

Hilda ran to a guy that was eying Gio suspiciously from the other side of the street.

Gio came closer to Betty "Are they together again?"

"Yeah" she said stroking her cheeks, still aching from her older sister greetings, and watched as she joined her group of friends and walked up the stairs of the elevated subway, "I think she owes you for that".

"Ha!" he turned to face her closer, dangerously close, and raised an eyebrow. "By the way, B... you must be happy."

"What? why?"

"Gio. What kind of name is that? I told you that I'm G."

"G is stupid. And, it's not totally my fault. I was talking with Hilda that day I met you—"

"Ah-ha! talking about me?" he smiled. She ignored him.

"—and I forgot your name. All I said was that it started with something lame like... Gio."

"Hey!"

"Whatever... I just didn't know she was going to gossip about you with every single classmate that crossed her way" She hit his arm and showed her big and slightly disarranged teeth to him. "And stop complaining. Gio is fine. After all, I'm okay with you calling me B by now."

"Yeah, I guess you got tired of hitting me." he said rubbing his arm. "What happened with the 'I'm not going to let you call me by a single letter of the alphabet'?"

"I rather you call me B than 'The Eater'."

"It's cute!" he said slightly pulling her by the hair. "It's our thing! And not only mine, you know, even uncle Tino was damned surprised at your little performance that day."

"I swear I'm not going to show my face at your uncle's deli anymore."

Giovanni laughed. "Yeah, like that could be even possible."

"So, are you coming or not?" she said turning graciously to him, her short hair fluttered in the wind. Gio had been accompanying her to school ever since the old van broke, was sent to the garage and he had no choice but walk his way to and from school. The worse part was that his uncle's deli was a bit farther into Corona he had to walk all his way from school in Jackson Heights. Anyway, he really enjoyed that peculiar girl's company, he was more than glad to have someone to talk to in the mornings.

"Of course" he said and ran to join her side.

Their shoes made their typical sound against the wet pavement as they walked silently for a few blocks.

"Hi, Gio" waved a cute looking girl from senior class, riding a bicycle.

Gio turned his face down a bit saddened and made a sound with his lips.

"Hi, Gio" said a group of junior female students as they passed quickly by their side almost pulling Betty out of the sidewalk, as if she didn't exist "See you in Corona!"

Gio nodded as he saw one of the tall pretty girls whisper something to her nearest partner while eyeing Gio from the distance.

Betty frowned and commented a bit annoyed.

"G or Gio… you've become quite popular, eh?"

"Jealous much?" Gio said, faking a smirk to which Betty just rolled her eyes. Gio's voice lowered into a faint whisper. "You know? I don't even think they talk about me. All they care about are my uncles, specially the teachers."

After puberty, his voice had grown to a husky well-modulated tone that gave him a raw masculine allure to his young years. So Betty, like many of the girls from her class, shivered as she heard that voice quite close to her ear. She hated feeling that way about this guy who she barely knew and, in very rare occasions, posed as her fake boyfriend. For her, it was just Gio, the annoying new guy who she was condemned to walk with in the mornings.

Betty turned to face him and saw that his face had saddened. She was about to say that the teachers would care more for him if he didn't spend such a long time in the detention room... but right then, as they reached the school gates, she spotted a blue car park near the front entrance and a young boy descend from it.

"Oh Look! Henry is there. Hurry, hurry. Pretend!"

Gio sighed and offered Betty his arm. She grasped at him like a lifeboat. Her fingers wrapped those tight young muscles. Gio had definitely found time in between school and his exhausting job at his uncle Tino's Deli to tune up his body.

"I can't believe I agreed to this shit."

"You agreed because you wanted to date my sister." Betty stated.

"Just... look at him. I don't see what you see or what anyone would ever see in him" he whispered to her ear. "I personally find him quite boring".

"You wouldn't understand" Betty said as she quickly tried to put her headband in place even thought the boy in question had already entered the premises.

Betty Suarez had loved Henry Grubstick ever since she met him at the internal Math Competition and he was the only student that managed to beat her effortlessly.

Henry had barely spoken a couple of words to her after that day and Betty knew he already had a girlfriend, but nothing could be reason enough to prevent that young girl's heart from worshiping the soil he walked ever since her freshman year.

Gio found particularly amusing the way Betty's countenance changed every time she spotted that guy. As per usual, he was about to say a funny remark or two on her expense but the words never left his throat.

"Hi, Gio" a divine walking vision in short waving skirt and long straight hair winked right at him.

Betty got pulled back as Gio suddenly stopped without a warning. He stepped to the side and untangled himself from their mutual embrace. Slightly surprised by Gio's unexpected behavior, Betty followed his eyes until she found out the person that had caught his attention: Kimberly Keagan.

Kimberly was also a sophomore, a pretty girl, probably the most popular girl in her class and Betty Suarez worst nightmare.

Betty saw Gio turn into an idiot right in front of her eyes. Kimberly smiled one final time to Gio and returned to her friends.

"Look at you!" Betty pointed at Gio's face.

Gio snapped out of his trance. "What?"

"You are doing the same thing, the same thing you complain about me and Henry."

"I don't know what you are talking about…" he retorted very seriously and checked his wrist watch. "We better hurry."

"Didn't I ever tell you about her?" Betty yelled in despair.

"How you expect me to remember everything you say. You may not realize it but you do talk a lot..."

"Shut up. I mean what she did to me earlier this year at P.E. The worse humiliation ever!" she lowered her voice. "I pretend to be sick for almost every class. I don't think I could bear it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I remember now." He snapped his fingers "So that's why they call you The Human Shield!"

"Stop laughing at me. It was quite traumatic."

"Well, that was pathetic. If I were you I would have already plot something to get even." Gio grabbed Betty by the wrist and pushed her forward to advance more quickly.

"Giovanni!" Someone shouted from behind. Gio hurried his steps, pretending he hadn't heard but the caller caught up with them in spite of his efforts. Miss Rita was standing tall in front of him. "Giovanni Rossi, there you are. Have you heard from your uncle?"

Gio put on a serious face before answering her. Betty could barely contain her laugh.

"Nope" he replied nonchalantly.

She eyed him suspiciously. "It's really uncommon for someone to disappear like that."

"Like I told you yesterday, Miss Rita… and the day before yesterday... that's just the way he's always been."

"There's something fishy about all this" Miss Rita said. Betty noticed her nostrils were turning red. Her nose always turned into a funny shade of red when she was mad.

Gio's cellphone started ringing in his pocket. He read the name in the screen and gave a quick glance to Miss Rita, unsure of what to do until he finally decided to answer it. "Hello? La benditione, tio."

Rita, in a perfect display of unladylike behavior, pulled him back. "Give me that!"

"Fabiano! Where have you been? I've been waiting for days…" Miss Rita yelled and then her face turned pale. "Oh, Tino. I'm sorry. I thought… yeah, well… Yes, everything is okay… Your nephew is doing very well. I… I'll give the phone to him now."

Gio took the phone trying to swallow a laugh.

Rita said between the teeth.

"You better tell Fabiano to call me back or… or else!" she snapped and left striding into the building.

"Hello? Uncle Tino. No that is not Miss Daisy, that's the brunette. This is the blonde… No, that either, that's the history teacher... Yeah, that's the one! …the deli? I'll be right there once class is over… No, I'm not going to ask Miss Jane to go with me. She's still not over what uncle Fabiano did to her last weekend …Fine! Do as you please!" he said and hung up. He barely had patience for such tidbits.

"Humm… are you sure your uncle is fine?" Betty said as she saw the teacher enter school again.

"They always do this to me" he said and followed Betty to the class room trying to avoid being seen by Miss Jane who was just entering her class.

"Isn't he a bit too old for those type of games?" she asked.

"Old? My uncles are only 25!"

"Well, 25 years is like… a lot!. I want to be married before I get that old and have many kids." Betty said before she took her place. Their conversations were limited to their morning walks, they usually didn't talk to each other at classes or in breaks. And Betty expected the van to be fixed as soon as possible, who knew what people could start gossiping about them...

"You do?" Gio said more to himself than to anyone else. "That's cool."

He wasn't going to tell her. He also had the same dream.

Will be continued... preferably with some kind of plot... :p

Note:

Corona and Jackson Heights are neighborhoods of Queens Borough.

La benditione, tio = (it.) "Bless me, uncle" common way to greet the elders with respect among the catholic people.