Gianni attended Jacques Grammar School, and for the most part

most of his friends were the kids he went to school with and grew up

with. Gianni became friends with a new girl named Renee. It turned

out that by the time they graduated Jacques Grammar School, she

became the most popular girl in the class: class president, prettiest

girl in school, the absolute dream girl, a parent’s dream of a smart and

popular student, a schoolboy’s first crush, and so forth. Gianni was

shy because he was the youngest of three brothers, and so he had the

pressure of being the youngest and knowing the least or had the least

amount of experience, so he had his older brothers always looking

out after him even when Mom and Dad were not looking after him.

The attention he began to receive started for him during his eighthgrade

school year at Jacques School.

This was the year that he noticed some changes in himself and

the way people acted around him. He noticed his physical changes

that developed. As he was growing up, he was one of the shorter kids

in the class, year after year, that was until he sprung up and grew in

height and was no longer one of the shorter kids in class! He was

not the tallest, but he was no longer the shortest and was incredibly

happy for sure. One of the first things he did was he asked Renee if

she would do him a favor and line up with him back to back to confirm

his newfound height! She asked him why he asked her to line up

with him, and he told her that since the third grade she was always

taller than him and wanted to confirm that he was now taller than

her and must have gotten that growth spurt over the summer. And

now that he confirmed he was taller than Renee, he began to start

feeling confident about himself! Not only was Gianni cute, but now

he was also tall! Gianni was getting tall and confident, and lo and behold he got the best news he could get for his last year in grammar

school before he would be starting high school—he would get to sit

behind Renee during class, his new neighbor in class. He was practically

gloating from happiness because the other boys in class, well,

let’s just say what he got was the most coveted seat.

As Gianni was beginning to mature, his friends must have

started to notice or feel he was a competition for Renee, which was

kind of ironic since none of the boys were making their moves on

her!

For the most part, Gianni kept to himself. He would have

conversations and talk with everyone in school, and although quiet

he would call people out if their bullshit was just too much. And

although he was a quiet individual, he would not back down. In

one such instance, one day a group of the guys from class were having

lunch and talking. One of the guys, Ronnie, was going on and

talking very boastfully that he had gone out on dates with lots of girls

already, and he could have any choice of girls he wanted at Jacques

School because he was the best-looking guy in the eighth grade.

Some of the guys were getting a little annoyed by his talking,

including Gianni. Gianni said, “Ronnie, you need to get off your

high horse, dude!”

Ronnie said, “Oh yeah? Who is better looking than me? What,

you think you are better looking than me?”

So of course, some of the other guys were egging Ronnie on,

and Gianni was taken aback by Ronnie’s challenge, since it came

out of left field because Gianni was not even suggesting or bragging

that he was the better-looking guy in class. And he certainly was not

expecting this talk to come from his friends. Then all of a sudden,

some of the other guys began to suggest confirming who is the better

looking of the two by simply asking the hottest girl in class, Renee!

Oh boy, that was not what Gianni wanted to hear. All of a sudden

they were having this discussion, but the last thing he wanted

to hear was that Renee would say anything less of him, whether it

was his looks or him in general. After all, they had been friends since

the third grade. She was one of his Gianni’s oldest friends in school,

and this would be so very embarrassing to him. But it would also be devasting to him if he were to hear her say anything bad about him from her.

The guys wanted to get the answer once and for all, and so they

dared Ronnie and the rest of the group to go ask Renee. And they all

finally walked over to Renee, although Gianni wasn’t exactly thrilled

about the idea of going up to her and putting her on the spot by

asking for her opinion. But at this point, they were going to ask her

whether he wanted them to ask her or not.

And sure enough, Ronnie the big mouth began to speak, and

not surprisingly Renee wasn’t expecting all of the guys to come over

and ask her the burning question, “Renee, who is better looking,

Ronnie or Gianni?”

Renee was shocked by the question and almost fell out of her

chair, but she answered quickly and said that Gianni was cuter!

Ronny turned and then responded with “Oh she only said Gianni

because they sit so close to each other.” And everyone dispersed and

walked back to their desk. Of course, Gianni was so delighted with

her answer but had to control his emotions since he sat so close to

her, and he did not care why she said it, and he also looked at it as

two positives. First this would shut up Ronnie the big mouth, and

second also knowing that Renee thinks that Gianni is cute was just

the icing on the cake for him!

After school was over and everyone was heading out to their

lockers, Renee got up from her desk and turned to Gianni and asked,

“Why were you guys asking me who was better looking?”

Gianni told her he had no idea how the topic even came up but

that Ronnie was talking a lot of trash about how he was the best-looking

guy in class. “And so I called him out on that told him he needed

to get off his ego trip, and then he responded by saying, “Oh, who is

better looking than me, you think you are?’ And all of a sudden, before

I knew it, Ronnie and the rest of those other guys felt they needed to

confirm who was the best-looking guy in class, and apparently it was

either Ronnie or yours truly. And there was only one person in class

who could be the final decision, and that person was you, Renee.”

He could always associate the song “Cool It Now” by New

Edition with Renee. His class was having a class pizza party, and that song was playing in the background. She walked over to Gianni

when this song was playing, and they were speaking to each other,

and he would always think about Renee whenever he heard that song

playing. She would be attending a Catholic high school in the burbs

as Gianni would be attending a public school in Chicago, Belmont

High School. And so he didn’t know when he would ever see Renee

or many other of his friends, since a few of them would be moving

to the suburbs during the summer to avoid going to Belmont High.

The school he would be attending had a reputation about being

rough and tough, and a lot of his closest friends had a fear of going

there, but there would be a friend or two of his that would be going to

school with him. Although it was a large school, he probably would

not see them much, so another adjustment was coming for Gianni.

Gianni never asked Renee out for several reasons, but the main reason

was that he was very shy at that point in his life, and asking a girl

out was not an easy thing to do. And also, there was the fact that he

had not entered into the dating scene—that was another reason.

Another reason was that, although he knew Renee thought he

was cute, he was not confident she liked him to go out on a date.

Graduation came, and everybody wished each other well and said

goodbye to one another. Gianni knew there would be at least two

of his classmates he would see in the fall when high school started,

but he began to get sad for he thought this would be the last time he

would ever see Renee.

During the summer break between graduating Jacques School

and starting his high school freshman year, he was enjoying his freedom

from not having homework, watching baseball, playing sports

himself, and just trying to adjust to his maturity and mentally preparing

for what would be a tough transition to high school. His mother

and his sisters insisted that he go with them to the mall to do some

shopping for his school clothes, and he was none too pleased with

this idea. But he knew he really didn’t have a choice but to go. There

he was out at the mall with his mother and two sisters, and he really

had no interest in hanging out with them. He would rather be home

watching a Cubs game rather than be there in public with them,

but he was promised that they were going to do some shopping for clothes for the fall semester, and it would be a very quick trip to the

mall. So he begrudgingly agreed to tag along.

This might have taught him a big lesson that there is no such

thing as a quick trip to the mall! It turned out to be a disaster for

him. First of all, the focus was squarely on Mom and his sisters, so

he was getting agitated that he was even there with them. And as the

girls continued to try out all kinds of outfits going in and out of store

after store, it seemed this trip to the mall was never going to end. And

then they decided to check out one last store, and so he decided not

to enter with them and told them he would wait for them in the mall

by the middle where there was seating available to sit.

Sitting there, he began to scan the mall to check out who was

there, if there were any of his friends at the same time as he was. He

didn’t see any, so he was escaping the embarrassment of being with

his sisters and mother at the mall. Suddenly, he noticed a couple girls

in his age group walking toward his direction, and he began to get

this gut feeling that something was about to happen.

As he was sitting there, he was checking out his wristwatch,

which was digital. The options he had were the twenty-four-hour

military-style time or the regular twelve-hour time because he was

getting nervous about the two girls he saw walking. As he started to

look up, waiting on his family to come out of the store, he noticed

the two girls walking toward where he was sitting. He suddenly began

to realize that his disaster of a day was about to reach another level

when he started thinking, Oh my god, these girls are going to stop and

sit right by the empty spaces next to me.

He began to get even more nervous and scared and started

staring down at his watch, changing it back and forth between the

twenty-four hours to twelve hours and so forth. Sure enough, the

girls did sit down next to him, and now he really didn’t know what

to do. His sisters and mother were just a few feet away, and he felt

like if he made a move they would walk up to him right as he was in

the middle of his move and embarrass the hell out of him. As he sat

and stared down at his watch and thought about what his next move

would be, the girl sitting closest to him started up a conversation

with Gianni and said to him, “Do you have the time?”

Wow, Gianni was in shock that the girl made the first move. He

then proceeded to tell her the time and got up and left and walked

over to the store and began to tell his mom and sisters that they

needed to go home now! He felt he missed out an opportunity, and

yes, he sure did. He probably could have simply said to her after

giving the time, “I need to go, but can I have your phone number?”

But he was too scared and shy to ask for it. When he got home, he

began to analyze the situation and thought back and then thought

to himself, She asked me if I have the time. My goodness, this girl was

practically throwing herself at me. No doubt I would have gotten my

first-ever phone number from a girl.

Gianni associated this encounter with the song “I Ran (So Far

Away)” by A Flock of Seagulls. He definitely ran away from the girls

that had just sat down to speak with him and struck up a conversation.