Gangs With Greek Names: Episode 8: Football, You Bet

(Gangs With Greek Names: The Diaries of Billy Esposito, Volume I)

By: Steve Potter

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Excerpt:

“Oh, hey, here comes your mom.” Anna pointed to a dark red Chrysler Cordoba as it drove past on the street beyond the fence.

“Already,” Jillian said.

“We've been here a while,” Anna said.

“Give me some gum,” Jillian said. She tossed her half-full beer cup into the wire mesh trash can.

She turned to me and we kissed. I wrapped my arms around her. She slipped me the tongue. We Frenched.

“Okay, give Jillian her tongue back now, Billy,” Anna said. “We need to go.”

Jillian and I stepped apart. Anna went, “ahhh.” Jillian stuck out her tongue. Anna placed a stick of gum on it like one of those wooden tongue depressors a doctor uses when he needs to look at your throat. Jillian pushed the gum into her mouth with a pointer finger and chewed. They strolled to the western corner of the school building, turned left, and disappeared behind it. I refilled my beer cup from the keg and stood with the other Alpha guys on the sideline watching the game.

Sammy looked lost on the field when the play started, but he wasn't that much of a sports guy, so maybe it wasn't due to his drinking. On the next play, he came out of nowhere and made a stupendous tackle that prevented a touch down. Awesome, yes, but no... because it was illegal. He clotheslined the kid, swung a forearm into his throat and sent his legs flying out in front of him. The guy landed hard on his back with a thud and dropped the ball. He grasped his throat and gasped.

A big Delt sophomore named Eddie rushed Sammy, drove a shoulder into his gut and tackled him, but Sammy rolled back onto the frozen ground and used Eddie's own momentum to flip him up and over. Sammy wound up on top punching down at Eddie who punched up at him. Another Delt grabbed Sammy to pull him off so Chuck jumped him and a Delt jumped Chuck so Greg jumped him and a Delt jumped Greg so Hop jumped him and so on until quite the hairy melee of Alpha and Delt sophomores and juniors was underway on the field. The seniors pulled them apart and broke it up and, in some cases, got into scuffles of their own.

“One-on-one,” Robot shouted. “One-on-one!”

“Ya wanna fight, ya fight like men,” Arms said. “One-on-one!”

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.