Gangs With Greek Names: Episode 3: We Nearly Brawl

The Diaries of Billy Esposito, Volume I

De: Steve Potter

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Excerpt:

I stopped by my locker to put away books from my morning classes and grab the books for my afternoon classes. I set my books on the floor and began to open my combination lock. Someone rammed the back of my neck, right below the skull with the heel of his palm and slammed my head against the locker door. Luckily, I was looking down at the lock so it was the top of my forehead that hit the locker. If I'd been looking straight ahead, I'd have gotten a bloody, maybe even broken, nose. Be thankful for small miracles as my Nonna Esposito often says. I spun around. Aldo grabbed me under the armpits and picked me right up off the floor. He slammed me into the lockers twice, swung me so my legs flung out to the left and threw me down. I landed hard on my hip and elbow. Vin and Johnny stood behind Aldo on either side grinning like bloodthirsty morons. Vin swung back his leg and kicked. For the second time that day, I watched my school books scatter across the floor among the passing feet. Johnny stomped on my chest with the heel of his black boot.

They strode away down the hall three across so all the other kids had to scurry around them to get out of the way. I stood up. Kids stared at me. One nerdy kid in a turquoise blue T-shirt actually cowered like a woman in an old black-and-white monster movie. I'd never seen anyone cower in real life before. I was trembling a little myself because of the suddenness of it, but you know what? I felt cool, too. Maybe that's stupid, but I felt pretty goddamn cool about being a kid who got jumped by some hoods. Weird. The day before, I'd been like a ghost in these halls. No one knew me. Overnight I'd turned into someone people knew, someone people liked and respected, someone other people hated and disrespected. I knew who was on my side, who was against me. I had an identity.

Synopsis:

Billy Esposito, the son of two college professor poets, has been living a quiet, nerdy life in an upstate New York college town. In the summer of '79, his life is turned upside down when, due to family circumstances, he and his mother move to the south shore of Long Island a few miles east of Queens. When the school year starts in September, Billy is thrust into a new world and must learn to navigate his way in huge, overcrowded Seaview High School. By rushing to the aid of a classmate who is being attacked, he falls into the strange, often violent subculture of high school fraternities or, as many of the teachers, administrators, cops, and other local adults call them, "gangs with Greek names." HIs situation improves when he discovers that Jillian, the gorgeous, smart, rock 'n' roll obsessed girl he is crazy about likes him too... but some things aren't meant to last.